Friday Links, May 15, 2020
Links to all sorts of interesting and amusing things: a fine new book of short stories by Wiseblood's Editor-in-Chief, Joshua Hren; a poem about a tot who greets each new thing in her world with unalloyed excitement; a reflection by a parent slowed down by the pandemic and surprisingly glad of it; and more.
Three Links from Katy Carl, DT Editor-in-Chief
In the Wine Press, by Joshua Hren, Editor-in-Chief of Wiseblood Books
KC: Top of the to-read list.
“In high-intensity, densely allusive and urgently anguished prose, Hren bears witness to suffering implicitly pulsing with the mystery of God’s presence. Though he leads readers past horrors difficult to contemplate, there is yet hope in his Dantean sense of commedia: wandering far from home and safety, this journey through deep darkness is one that leads towards the light.”—Natalie Morrill, DT Fiction Editor
My Eighteen-Month-Old Daughter Talks to the Rain as the Amazon Burns by Dante Di Stefano
KC: Another big feature for a poet we've published and admired!
Being a Parent Has Made My Pandemic Life Simpler, If You Can Believe It: Hear Me Out by Tom McTague
KC: Unexpectedly lovely.
“The crisis has prompted many to ask big existential questions about their life's purpose. The irony for me is that it has taken losing choice to clarify what I want to choose. . . . Part of me will miss this sad, strange interlude when it’s gone—not the death and destruction, but the quiet reflection and new routines. For many of us, it might serve to reveal what we really care about. I will try not to be quick to forget it."—Tom McTague.
Three Links from Roseanne T. Sullivan, DT Blogger and Contributor
Bestselling Author Turns to Our Blessed Mother, a review of Anthony DeStefano’s Our Lady's Wardrobe by Patti Armstrong
RTS: Initially, I didn't like the idea of focusing on Our Lady's wardrobe, but the book is actually a beautifully illustrated, rhyming introduction to many of Our Lady’s apparitions. (See Friday Links, May 8 for a link to an essay that is persuasive about the need to give children books that enrich them with realistic images of God’s creation.)
Publishing Bingo Board by Meg Eden
RTS: Meg Eden’s work has been published in several magazines but, as she writes in this article, “Rejection never fully goes away from the submitting process.”
7 Benefits of Being a Senior-Citizen Writer by Carolyn Geduld
RTS: At 74 years of age, I can relate to some but not all of this piece.
Latest Poems in the Quarantine Notebook
The "Quarantine Notebook" guest series of poems by James Matthew Wilson is being updated frequently. For convenience, here are links to all the posts so far, including a new link to the latest poem in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, and Part 12.
