A Long Overdue Update

It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve posted anything to my website, which means that several pages are due for an overhaul. Those of you following me on Facebook know that I have had some poems published in a few literary journals new to me, and I’ve been active in the group Poets Against Racism USA as a co-founder and poet. I continue to enjoy an interest in my last two books, “Inspired By Their Voices,” and “Cursed,” and for that I am grateful.

I have much more planned, and now that I’ve retired from my other career, have the time to bring those plans to fruition. I’ll be meeting shortly with the editor of Mammoth Books, the publisher of “Inspired,” to discuss which (if any) of my finished manuscripts might be a good fit for our partnership. One manuscript we’ll be discussing is a collection of poetry I’ve tentatively titled “Goddesses I have Known.” The collection is meant to celebrate all aspects of the Feminine experience. The other manuscript that is ready for publication is nonfiction, and tells the story of Gilbert Ball, a prominent African American politician in 1880s Philadelphia. Whether through Mammoth, or another publisher, I fully expect these two books to be available this year.

In the meantime, I’ve been busy editing a collection of poetry written by someone else– a young woman of color writing in the 1830s, also in Philadelphia. Her work has never been pulled together into one volume, and I am excited to be the first to do that. I’ve also written what I believe might be the most comprehensive biography of her life, to be included in the book. I’m committed to bringing her poetry to a wider audience.

Then, I’ll be back at work on my next nonfiction work, exploring the life of Nina Van Zandt, who fell in love with one of the Chicago Anarchists. That book, tentatively titled “The Anarchist’s Bride,” is most likely over a year away, as I want to be sure I do justice to her extraordinary story.

As these books come to fruition, I’ll be back to writing blogs highlighting aspects of their content, which I hope you will find edifying and thought-provoking. I thank you for your interest in these stories and appreciate your support. And, I’ll be updating my website pages with more awards, recent instances of my poetry, and where it has been published.

As they say, more to come!