How We Learned To Shut Our Own Mouths

Literature & Fiction

Mickelson, Kathleen Cassen

Poetry

Gyroscope Press

Burning into Womanhood"I want to tell her/ it takes a woman / a lifetime to know / if she is real / or only appears so / in a mirror." Those are the words of the speaker in this debut collection from Nancy Murphy. At times melancholy, at times fierce, and always lyrical, these poems explore the various roles that women shift into and out of in their lives. From marriage to divorce, from having a mother to being a mother, to sending a daughter off to college, these poems explore the way women center the world, and what can happen when we lose that center and are forced to grapple with the realization that maybe "there is no mother now." This book is for women and poetry lovers at every stage of their lives. A deeply personal and enjoyable read, this collection is one to revisit over and over again.-Tresha Faye Haefner, Author of Take This Longing. Founder of The Poetry SalonMoving, accomplished, pulled cleanly through the lens of its title, The Space Carved by the Sharpness of Your Absence hums with the dense flesh of memory, its beating heart. This chapbook, Nancy Murphy's first, betrays the grace and mastery of a later full-length work; for all its distillation, it encompasses the sweep, the scope and self-examination of a bildungsroman femme-a dance of revelation and restraint, finely balancing the shade, the light of ache, regret, and joy. Even the ekphrastic feels inhabited. These poems feel cinematic, as if moments of life are "stretching in our hands / like the wonder of boardwalk taffy / that never breaks."-Sarah Maclay, author of Nightfall Marginalia

The Space Carved by the Sharpness of Your Absence

Murphy, Nancy

Good bones. That’s what house renovators say old homes need to make them worth saving. This phrase applies to the Bearlodge Writers as well. We still follow the mission and guidelines set forth by our charter members. That framework has formed the basis of a long-lasting organization.\nThe Bearlodge Writers have been meeting bi-monthly in Sundance, Wyoming, since 1979. The Hills have drawn us from different directions. We are ranchers and homemakers, artists and teachers, musicians and business people—but most of all, we are wordsmiths.\nWe encourage and support one another in our writing endeavors, help each other improve our work, share information, and provide workshops and writing retreats. We produce poetry, essays, novels, short stories, articles, and columns. Our published works ripple outward—regionally, nationally, and internationally.\nOur table has changed little in essentials since its founding. We still bring chocolate along with our red pens. We critique gently but honestly. We try to give each other what we need, be it grammar help, publishing tips, or simply nonjudgmental ears to listen.\nAt times, our table has become a virtual one, as we incorporate words like “Zoom” into our vocabulary. In this shifting geography, we aren’t always physically “at the table,” but our spirits remain there. The essence of who we are endures.\nPraise for Spirit of the Bear Lodge:\nChocolate and red pens! Bearlodge writers wield both with good cheer and skill as they support each other in their writing. Meeting monthly for more than forty years, members of Bearlodge Writers have been widely published, spreading their work to readers everywhere. In these pages, you will find writing “from Tiananmen to Vilnius,” from Maine to the Medicine Bow, deep as roots can burrow and high as mountains and eagles can soar. Their voices echo and sing, piercing the fog of our daily lives, bringing new hymns of entertainment, reflection, grief, healing, and contentment. Gaydell Collier, one of the group’s founders, to whom this collection is dedicated, would be proud. Add Spirit of the Bear Lodge to your library; read it with gratitude, joy, and hope. 
—Linda M. Hasselstrom, Walking: the Changes, a collection of poems published with photographs by James Parker, Lame Johnny Press\nDedicated to Gaydell Collier, a founding member of Bearlodge Writers, Spirit of the Bear: A Bearlodge Writers Anthology is a collaboratively-edited anthology that is both gracefully and thoughtfully organized—filled with carefully selected and well-crafted pieces. In richly detailed imagery and finely-wrought language, the works in this anthology reveal a strong connection to questions of place and community. A testament to writing community and writing in community, this book brings to beautiful fruition the presence, talent, collaboration, and craft of Bearlodge Writers. This anthology is a celebration of individual voices working cooperatively to further their writerly talents in unison, and it is a powerful and engaging collection. 
—Lee Ann Roripaugh, Author of tsunami vs. the fukushima 50

Spirit of the Bear Lodge: An Anthology of Bearlodge Writers

Writers, Bearlodge

United States

That Infinite Roar

Kuntz, Laurie

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