Mailbox Labor Day Monday: Transcendental Concord

My friend Kirsten Rian wrote the concluding essay in a new, hauntingly beautiful book of art photography documenting the Transcendentalists of Concord, Massachusetts. She surprised me the other day with a copy of this lovely new book.



Transcendental Concord, photography by Lisa McCarty, texts by Kirsten Rian and Rebecca Norris Webb, published by Radius Books.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Transcendental Concord documents the spirit of Transcendentalism, the literary and philosophical movement that arose in the mid-19th century. While the circle of Transcendentalists in New England was wide, at its center was a core group that lived in Concord, Massachusetts. Bronson Alcott and daughter Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau lived within a few miles of each other for nearly 20 years, regularly meeting in each other’s homes and on the paths of Walden Woods to discuss their writings and beliefs. In the course of a year and in every season North-Carolina based photographer Lisa McCarty photographed the sites where these Transcendentalists lived and wrote in Concord. McCarty’s parallel reverence for the natural world is evident in her photographs which point to large and small variations in environment, season and light. McCarty uses long exposures and camera movement in order to capture these variations. Transcendental Concord pays homage to Transcendentalism not only in capturing a shared landscape, but in McCarty’s technique: her keen observation of natural phenomena and openness to experimentation and chance.

What books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Book Review: Life Expectancy by Kirsten Rian

Kirsten Rian’s new book of poetry, Life Expectancy, explores family history, motherhood, and life taken in unexpected directions.

The poems take many forms, some couplets, some dense “prose poems,” some looser and free-flowing. She uses the line breaks and white spaces as content, to provide emotional breathing room or add meaning to the stories being told.

Both Kirsten and her son have lived with difficult medical issues, and her children’s father died young and suddenly. Her poems address these events, but the overall theme that emerges as she maneuvers through these physical and emotional complexities is the idea of mothering through trauma. Her instinctive understanding of how to be a fierce mother for her children when they needed her comes through in this powerful collection.


NOTES

Life Expectancy: Poetry is published by Redbat Books. Learn more about Kirsten Rian and her work as a writer, artist, singer, photography curator, professor, editor, and general Renaissance woman at her website, kirstenrian.com.

Author Interview: Kirsten Rian

Kirsten Rian is a writer, artist, singer, photography curator, professor, editor, and general Renaissance woman. Her new book of poetry, Life Expectancy, explores family history, motherhood, and life taken in unexpected directions.

Kirsten recently talked with Rose City Reader about her new book, writing, poetry, and motherhood. 

You’ve done so many creative things in your life – painting, singing, writing, curating, editing, among others – what led you to write this book of poetry, Life Expectancy, at this point in your life?

To be honest, it sort of wrote itself over the span of many years. Writing has always been a form of processing for me, and a way to get perspective on a situation. When the thoughts or wonderings or facts get out of one's own head and onto paper, just enough distance is created to allow for a bit of perspective, a slightly different angle of light. Maneuvering through the physical and emotional complexities of all the medical and death issues pushed on the limits of what my brain and body could manage. Having the ability to write was an intensely necessary tool, and I'm ever-grateful I had it to fall back on and to be there alongside.

Some of the poems in your book read more like essays, all are intensely personal, dealing as you do with the death of your children’s father, medical scares, grief, motherhood, and so much more. Did you have any qualms about sharing so much?

I have never cared what people think, so that never entered my mind. I live by the creed, the truth is the truth. And some of my truth the past 20 years has been hard and scary and uncomfortable. And it's made some people around me uncomfortable. I don't care. I'm living it. I didn't ask for it, it all just happened. It's the truth, and it's life, and sooner or later we will all experience hard, scary, uncomfortable truth. I do love the prose poem format because some of what the kids and I experienced felt like this unrelenting wall, this dense block of experience we couldn't get around. So the form of the prose poem fit well for some of the content. For others, it needed couplets or some other format. The gift of poetry is that the line breaks and white space are content, as well. So we writers use all that, as well, to convey story and emotion.

Did you think of turning your own experiences into fiction and writing the book as a novel?

No. Honestly, this book was a very, very long process and I'm ready to focus on other content. I think as artists our own lives factor in to everything we make on some level, whether intentional or not. So, there's that. But for whatever reason, these particular stories needed to be told in poem form. The thing I love most about fiction is creating characters with their own experiences and impulses and hopes and dreams. I like to get lost in a character and it's time to do that for awhile.

What did you learn from writing Life Expectancy – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

I was crazy shocked to learn the book was about mothering through trauma. I thought it was about my son's and my medical issues and Dave dying, which obviously it was on some level, but it wasn't until it was completed that I realized this.

How did you think of the book’s title and what meaning do you want to convey with it?

What struck me the most moving through the events of the past 20 years was that life does not go the way one expects. Literally nothing about my adult life I could have planned. And the hard events...there's no way to prepare for how to maneuver through life and death situations with your child, your husband, yourself. The fact that we looked at death so closely at ages that defied the national 'life expectancy' also came into the meaning.

What is your process for writing a poem? Do you write at a particular time or place? Do you rewrite?

None, nope, and rarely. It's the single mom method. I write when there's time. And I do edit my pieces but large rewrites really never. If it isn't working, then it isn't working. I'm an intuitive writer and I work quickly and in spurts, so it's either there or it's not.

Who are a few of your favorite poets? Can you recommend any who deal with major life issues with the kind of heart and empathy you put into your own work?

Tess Gallagher has always been one of my favorites. Her book Moon Crossing Bridge, written after her husband Raymond Carver died, has me in tears every single time I read it. In many ways, that book was a wonderful teacher for me in how to write about grief honestly and directly and still beautifully and in a well-crafted way. Wislawa Szymborska, Jack Gilbert, Michael Ondaatje, and Dean Young I go back to over and over. TS Eliot's Four Quartets I keep in the car. When I was teaching my kids to drive, once they learned how and just needed more practice logging in hours, I'd read it aloud to calm myself down. Teaching them to drive was quite honestly one of the most stressful things I've ever done. Somebody needs to do a better job preparing parents for what this will be like!

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

I love short fiction and really well written novels. I just finished Bette Husted's new book, All Coyote's Children, and am about to launch into Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing. I love basketball so a good NBA biography makes me happy. And comedy. David Sedaris.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

Write about your own life. Much of my earlier work was more witnessing, which is fine and valuable, but not if one hasn't told their own stories yet.

You dedicate the book to your mother and grandmother, “who mothered through their own trauma the best they could.” What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as a mother?

I lingered on this question for awhile. You know, I don't know if I've ever been given mothering advice. I've given myself lots of advice, though! And I instinctively, and it felt like primally, knew how to be a fierce mother when it was needed, especially when it was standing up for my kids.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

I had a few readings when the book first came out, and I just was on Judith Arcana's fabulous KBOO radio show, Poetry and Everything. I'll gear up again to promote in the fall!

What is your next project?

I'll return to Iceland for another residency and produce both an installation and work on writing. I'm in the middle of a fiction project and I really want to write a poetry collection on joy.

THANK YOU, KIRSTEN!

LIFE EXPECTANCY IS AVAILABLE ONLINE OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER TO ORDER IT!

Book Beginning: Life Expectancy: Poetry by Kirsten Rian

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I'm up there talking about war, the kind with Kalashnikovs and scuds.

-- from "Embedment," the first poem in Life Expectancy: Poetry by Kirsten Rian. Rian's poetry looks at how life goes as it does -- usually in unexpected directions.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Kitchen Remodel, Week Three: Black & White and a Poetic Fritatta

The kitchen looks like it did last week, but with wall insulation and little metal boxes where light switches and outlets will go.

Meanwhile, we made ourselves crazy trying to choose black counter tops and white subway tiles. This is a white tile:

They all look alike. Until you hold them up to the Italian tile backsplash I've had stashed away in a kitchen-remodel hope chest for all these years.  Then I see that there are at least 37 shades of "white" tile -- none of which match the Italian backsplash.

Black counter tops are equally frustrating.  There are only so many slabs of soapstone in warehouses in Portland at a given point in time. I've looked at them all.  The good ones are on hold for other people.  The available ones have what looks like a map of the Columbia River watershed across the middle. Many aren't black, they are green.  Too little veining, too much veining, weird blotches.  None match the picture in my brain.

As with kitchen remodels, as with life.  You learn not to sacrifice the good in quest for the perfect.  No one but me will see that the tiles are off slightly and we'll hide the weird blotch in the soapstone under the toaster. Call it good.

In the midst of these petty frustrations, my dear friend Kirsten Rian was a saving angel.  She appeared on our porch with a care basket overflowing with goodness -- a pre-made salad, fresh bread, wine, homemade butternut squash soup, and an over-sized, over-stuffed frittata with roasted peppers, kale, smoked salmon, and goat cheese on a layer of thin-sliced potatoes.

Blessings on her head! Kirsten is an incredible poet, artist, musician, professor, and curator, and on top of it all she can mix up the best frittata I've ever eaten. I love this woman!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

How Cool is This? Deck of Chords

My wonderful friend and Renaissance woman Kirsten Rian has once again amazed me with her versatile talents.

Kirsten and photographer Lauren Henkin just produced Deck of Chords, a full deck of offset-printed playing cards. Each card front features an image of Lauren's from an unpublished portfolio titled The Lines Between Us, and on the back, a poem by Kirsten. There are 52 cards in total plus a signed cover card.

The set is completed, the prototype printed, and the final product is expected in a few weeks. Until then, Kirsten and Lauren are offering a pre-sale price of $14, which includes shipping to anywhere in the US.  Order on Lauren's website.

After November 1st, the price will go up to $24. Please email Lauren for shipping costs outside the US.

All photos © Kirsten Rian and Lauren Henkin.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Because You Might Not Remember

You, for instance,
coming upon these words
not exactly by accident
or design.

-- from "Coincidence," the first poem in Because You Might Not Remember by Don Colburn.

I don't consider myself much of a poetry reader, but I do try now and again to fix that.  My friend Kirsten Rian, a talented poet in her own right as well as a teacher (and artist, and singer, and all-around Renaissance woman), helps by emailing a poem every Monday.

Now I have taken the plunge into this beautiful little book -- a "chapbook" although I don't know where the term comes from -- of poems by Don Colburn.  Last evening, over martinis, Hubby and I dabbled with reading a few out loud to each other (always good to spice things up now and again).

Our favorite was this one because it reminded us of neighborhood conversations we've had over the years:

EACH YEAR

Each year we gossip about the trees,
how the dull oaks browned before they burned
or maples and sycamores let go too soon,
their rioting a shade less vulgar this time,
the stolid dogwood late to catch fire.
When the curled wan papery beech leaves cling,
maybe deep into winter, we wonder what has ended
all that flourishing, what might last.
We remember drought, rain, frost,
the strickening wind --
whether it came or didn't come.

Literary Blog Hop: Pure Poetry!

The Blue Bookcase has started a "Literary Blog Hop" for blogs "that primarily feature reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion."

Each week, in addition to hopping around and visiting some terrific book blogs, participants answer a bookish question.  This week's question comes from Gary at Parrish Lantern:

What is your favorite poem and why?

Lucia answers this question very well for the Blue Bookcase team, managing to tie in Alexander Pope, Roald Dahl, and metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, before settling on one of Shakespeare's sonnets.

Ah, well . . .

I can't really rise to that level, poetry troglodyte that I am. I did fancy John Dunne in my college days, but it didn't stick.  If my charming and omni-talented friend Kirsten Rian didn't email me a poem every Monday, I wouldn't recognize one if it jumped up and kissed me on the face.

I did read an epic poem this year. I read Seamus Heany's translation of Beowulf, but that was only because it was disguised as a story.  And even then, I would not have read it if it hadn't won a prize.

However, like Lucia, I'll pick a Shakespeare sonnet as my "favorite" because it is the only poem I ever managed to memorize.  It comes in handy at weddings. In fact, if you knew me in the late '80s or early '90s, check your wedding video, because after a few glasses of champagne, I was often likely to recite it for the bride and groom:

Shakespeare's 116th Sonnet

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Announcement and Miscellany

ANNOUNCEMENT

The August issue of the Internet Review of Books is up now, with a dozen non-fiction reviews, a half-dozen fiction reviews, two poetry reviews (including one of a collection of Dorthy Parker's poetry that is particularly interesting), and the always-entertaining Brief Review section.

BOOK RELATED MISCELLANY

I got several things in the mail this that caught my bookish fancy.

ONE

The first is a catalog from Open Letter, an publishing house I had never heard of before. Based at the University of Rochester in New York, the press specializes in "literary translations" and has a small but impressive selection of books in print.

The book that caught my eye is The Ambassador by Bragi Olafsson, translated from Icelandic. It is a novel about a poet invited to an international poetry festival in Lithuania as official representative of Iceland, only to be accused of plagiarism on the eve of his trip.  It looks great.



The catalog is a treasure trove of novels, stories, poetry and non-fiction  from Argentina, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Catalonia, and elsewhere. This is a terrific resource and would be particularly useful when finding books for an international reading challenge.  I see from browsing the on-line catalog that you save 20% by ordering direct.

TWO

The second thing I got in the mail iss the latest calendar for workshops and events at the San Francisco Center for the Book.  It made me wish that I still lived in San Francisco! I attended several events there, including a poetry reading/letterpress exhibit with Kirsten Rian and a Mail Art workshop where we made collage postcards and submitted them for this "digital exhibit."

For anyone living in the Bay Area or visiting, I highly recommend taking part in the goings on at SFCB.

THREE

Finally, a friend of mine sent me a book swap chain letter.  The idea, as with all chain letters, is to send whatever it is to the name at the top of the list and to pass the letter on to six friends, with the idea that when your name goes to the top, you will receive multiple whatevers. 

In this case, the whatever is a paperback book and the list only has one name on it.  That is, there is one person's name on the back of the letter -- I am supposed to send her a book.  The friend who sent it to me included six of her own return address sticky labels. I stick one on the back of each of the six letters I send out. So the pyramid for this pyramid scheme is pretty squat!

I have always been a sucker for chain letters. Ever since I was a kid, I have sent pennies, recipes, stamps, socks -- anything. Well, maybe not socks.  But I am enchanted with the idea, even though I don't know that I ever got anything.  The chain always broke before my name got to the top of the list.

So, Annette in Wisconsin -- keep a loot out for your book. It's on the way!

I am curious to know what other people think of chain letters. What about book chain letters? Tempting at all? Has anyone ever successfully participated in a chain letter?

Mailbox Monday

Only two books came into my house last week, which is probably a good thing because, at the rate I had been going, I would have to live to 214 or so to read them all. Here is my very short Mailbox Monday list:

   

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse (an impulse purchase), and 

Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a "world poetry anthology" edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes. I am excited about this one because my friend Kirsten Rian gave it to me. She is one of the women poets whose work is included in the anthology, along with the likes of Margaret Atwood, Erica Jong, and other women poets who are probably famous but I wouldn't know because I am horrible about reading poetry. In fact, if it weren't for Kirsten sending a poem (only occasionally her own) to her email list every Monday, I would have to confess that I never read poetry. Now that will change. I will work my way through this anthology, including the three poems of Kirsten's that are included, and then feel very smug indeed. Here is the description from the publisher:

A bold, richly panoramic anthology of poetry from all over the world, exploring the inner lives of women in a post-feminist era. 516 pages of poetic delight by voices both celebrated and newly uncovered. Poetry to Seduce the Senses: Not A Muse was launched on the opening night of the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, on International Women's Day, 8 March 2009.

Writers' Dojo

A message from my dear friend Kirsten Rian, who is an artist, poet, musician, and all-around wonderful person:

Hi poetry lovers. Wanted to let you know about a new project I’m really excited about. Writers' Dojo is an online literary journal of which I was asked to be the poetry editor. Published by some astoundingly creative and soulful folks, I feel very, very lucky to be part of it all. has been a lot of focus and work on the part of our team and we are now up and running. Still in beta mode and still with a few kinks to work out, the publication was launched at Wordstock. Here’s my latest blog. You can also see the fiction, non fiction, and poetry sections of the site.

Some amazing writers and voices in the nw literary community have been mobilized around this project. Feels good to have it up and available to the world! Happy thanksgiving to you all.

K