12 Winters Blog

I wanted to do a quick post as I haven’t written for a while, mainly about two upcoming events. Tomorrow, June 25, I’ll be in Peoria Heights, Illinois, for the Authors Row book fair as part of the city’s Duryea Days.  We’ll be set up in the 4700 Block of Prospect.  The book fair is organized by I Know You Like a Book bookshop.

I’m looking forward to the book fair, but I’m really looking forward to next week’s Poets and Painters event, Thursday, June 30, at the H. D.  Smith Gallery in the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield, Illinois. It is a joint venture between Springfield Poets and Writers, of which I’m a proud member, and the Prairie Art Alliance. Artists have their work exhibited in the H. D. Smith Gallery, and members of Poets and Writers have selected a work for which to write an original poem. I’m working with artist Felicia Olin’s painting Tiny, Little, and have written a poem titled “Anima.” The artists and poets come together for the event, and the poems are read aloud — it’s the first time the artist hears the poem that his/her work has inspired. Other poets participating include Anita Stienstra (president of Poets and Writers, and organizer of the event), Joanna Beth Tweedy, Ethan Lewis, Pat Martin, Jean Staff, Job Conger, Vicki Bamman, Kat Corrigan, and Siobhan Johnson. The poems will eventually be posted on the Poets and Writers webpage.

I’ve been in novel-writing-mode for years, and haven’t written much of anything else, form wise, so it was fun to write a poem. Speaking of novel writing, in the past couple of weeks I completed the manuscript of An Untimely Frost and am just starting to share it with people. It’s a bit strange, after years of living with it essentially by oneself, to suddenly start shoving it out the door to meet new people and hopefully make friends. It’d be easy to hang on to a manuscript indefinitely, thinking it’s still not ready for perusal by strangers, but eventually you have to let it go.

I’m still making my way through Tolstoy’s War and Peace (on about page 650), and am enjoying it. My nightstand read has been Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, and I’ve also been enjoying it very much.

Two last mentions while I’m at it: My poet friends Lisa Higgs and Tracy Zeman are organizing a series of poetry workshops at the Vachel Lindsay Home (in Springfield, Illinois) in July, with the opening session being July 5. They should be informative and fun, and I definitely plan to attend.

Also, in recent weeks I’ve gotten to attend performances by my favorite local band, Thornhill. The band has several dates in July and August, so check out their dates page.

tedmorrissey.com

Men of Winter