Child of My Child nominated for About.com Readers' Choice Award
Child of My Child has been selected as one of five finalists for "Best Grandparenting Book" in the 2012 Readers' Choice Awards conducted by the New York Times-owned web network About.com.
The winner will be chosen by public voting, beginning Wednesday, February 22, 2012, and continuing for one month.
Please help bring this important recognition to Child of My Child by casting your own votes (you can vote once a day throughout the contest period) and by sharing this news with other readers.
To vote, go to About.com's Grandparents site.
The winner will be chosen by public voting, beginning Wednesday, February 22, 2012, and continuing for one month.
Please help bring this important recognition to Child of My Child by casting your own votes (you can vote once a day throughout the contest period) and by sharing this news with other readers.
To vote, go to About.com's Grandparents site.
Remembering Hugh Fox (1932 - 2011)
Hugh Fox was one of the most talented, prolific, and influential writers in the small press world for decades, and certainly one of the most ubiquitous. He was also kind, intelligent and always a pleasure to work with. We were proud to include two of his poems in CHILD OF MY CHILD: POEMS AND STORIES FOR GRANDPARENTS, and we are saddened to hear of his death on September 4. Read more about Hugh here.
Child of My Child was included on Hudson Valley Magazine's Summer Reading List
'Best New Books to Read: Summertime Reading List from 11 Hudson Valley Authors'
"With the structure of the modern family undergoing nearly constant upheaval, today’s grandparents face challenges that their own grandparents never encountered. Child of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents features contributions from 60 writers that express their thoughts, fears, hopes, and experiences of what it means to be a grandparent in this day and age. The compilation touches upon tough issues that many grandparents are all too familiar with: being thrust back into the role of caregiver; dealing with adult children who are struggling with legal and financial problems; and discovering you are a grandparent years after a child is born."
--Hudson Valley Magazine
--Hudson Valley Magazine
Sandi Gelles-Cole publishes fictional memoir of Marilyn Monroe
Sandi Gelles-Cole
CHILD OF MY CHILD co-editor and publisher Sandi Gelles-Cole is the author of THE MEMOIR OF MARILYN MONROE, which had its formal release on June 1, 2011 -- the 85th anniversary of the cultural icon's birth.
In the book, Gelles-Cole imagines the life Monroe might have led had she survived the 1962 overdose that, in fact, cost her her life. You can learn more -- and read excerpts -- on the new novel's web site.
CHILD OF MY CHILD: POEMS & STORIES FOR GRANDPARENTS is now available in a hardcover edition. Order now for grandparent gifts.
Poems by Child of My Child contributors featured on About.com marking National Poetry Month
The popular web network About.com selected works by seven Child of My Child contributors for its celebration of National Poetry Month this past April. The poems of Helen Bar-Lev, Karen Neuberg, Meredith Escudier, Lewis Gardner, Janet M. Lewis, Mollie Schmidt, and Donna Wahlert were posted online throughout the month on About.com's grandparenting site.
Word Fest 2011
Co-editor Kenneth Salzmann read from CHILD OF MY CHILD, as well as his own work, at Albany Word Fest an annual poetry celebration held in Albany, New York, during National Poetry Month.
Josie, shown here at 21 months, was the inspiration for Child of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents.
Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman takes a look at the genesis of Child of My Child
Co-editors Sandi Gelles-Cole and Kenneth Salzmann recently sat down with reporter Paula Mitchell to discuss the story behind the book. You can read the article and view a brief video of the interview here.
Child of My Child enjoying success on Amazon Bestseller lists
Throughout the holiday season, Child of My Child made frequent appearances on Amazon.com's bestseller lists in the "poetry anthologies" category, where it was often landing in the company of such works as "Best American Poetry," Garrison Keillor's various anthologies and books by other notables. Childof My Child has been ranked as low as #25 among all anthologies Amazon sells. It also has shown up on the site's list of "Most Gifted Poetry Anthologies."
SF Poetry Examiner looks at Child of My Child
Read what Jannie Dresser had to say about the anthology in her popular column documenting poetry events in the San Francisco Bay Area.
News from contributors . . .
Mary Makofske, who has two poems in the anthology, is the recipient of the Ashland Poetry Prize (judged by David Wojahn). Her prizewinning book, Traction, will be published in 2011.
Linda Lancione, whose poem, "Hallowe'en," appears in Child of My Child, is the winner of the Dorothy Churchill Cappon Prize for the Essay from New Letters.
Look for new essays by contributor Meredith Escudier ("Grandson" and "Baby Picture") at these sites: "Cat Concern" can be found at Imitation Fruit Literary Journal and "Soupe du Jour" at the Writers Workshop Review.
No fewer than three contributors to Child of My Child were honored recently at an awards ceremony in Jerusalem, where they were recognized in the Lindberg Peace Foundation's 2010 Poetry for Peace competition. Johnmichael Simon received awards both as a runner-up in the contest and an Honorable Mention. Pearse Murray and Helen Bar-Lev each received Honorable Mentions. Simon is represented in Child of My Child by his poem, "Age is Heavy on the Ground;" Murray's contribution to the anthology is the poem, "Wordfalls;" Bar-Lev's poem is "The Newborn Grandchild."
Child of My Child co-editor and publisher Sandi Gelles-Cole, a longtime book editor and book doctor (www.LiteraryEnterprises.com), was among the judges last month for the 15th Annual Books for a Better Life awards presented each year by the MS Association. The winners will be announced in March, during an awards ceremony at which Dr. Nancy Snyderman, author and chief medical editor at NBC, and Jamie Raab, executive vice president of Hatchette Book Group and publisher at Grand Central Publishing, will be inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame.
Marsha Mathews’ poem, “Pastor Visits Parishioner” was selected as a finalist in the Fall 2010 Rash Awards, sponsored by the Broad River Review and Gardener-Webb University, with poet and editor Keith Flynn of the Ashville Review judging. She is represented in Child of My Child with the poem, "Blue Flowers on Grandmother's White China Cup."
Nancy Gustafson ("Sunset") has sent word that another poem of hers will be included in a forthcoming anthology exploring topics related to memory -- look for her "Memory of an Orange" in the Monadnock Writers Group, to come out next fall.
Natalie Safir ("Ready or Not") sends word that her new book Love Like Snow will be available early in the new year. Look for it soon on the web site of her publisher, the California-based Daniel & Daniel/Fithian Press.
Linda Lancione, whose poem, "Hallowe'en," appears in Child of My Child, is the winner of the Dorothy Churchill Cappon Prize for the Essay from New Letters.
Look for new essays by contributor Meredith Escudier ("Grandson" and "Baby Picture") at these sites: "Cat Concern" can be found at Imitation Fruit Literary Journal and "Soupe du Jour" at the Writers Workshop Review.
No fewer than three contributors to Child of My Child were honored recently at an awards ceremony in Jerusalem, where they were recognized in the Lindberg Peace Foundation's 2010 Poetry for Peace competition. Johnmichael Simon received awards both as a runner-up in the contest and an Honorable Mention. Pearse Murray and Helen Bar-Lev each received Honorable Mentions. Simon is represented in Child of My Child by his poem, "Age is Heavy on the Ground;" Murray's contribution to the anthology is the poem, "Wordfalls;" Bar-Lev's poem is "The Newborn Grandchild."
Child of My Child co-editor and publisher Sandi Gelles-Cole, a longtime book editor and book doctor (www.LiteraryEnterprises.com), was among the judges last month for the 15th Annual Books for a Better Life awards presented each year by the MS Association. The winners will be announced in March, during an awards ceremony at which Dr. Nancy Snyderman, author and chief medical editor at NBC, and Jamie Raab, executive vice president of Hatchette Book Group and publisher at Grand Central Publishing, will be inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame.
Marsha Mathews’ poem, “Pastor Visits Parishioner” was selected as a finalist in the Fall 2010 Rash Awards, sponsored by the Broad River Review and Gardener-Webb University, with poet and editor Keith Flynn of the Ashville Review judging. She is represented in Child of My Child with the poem, "Blue Flowers on Grandmother's White China Cup."
Nancy Gustafson ("Sunset") has sent word that another poem of hers will be included in a forthcoming anthology exploring topics related to memory -- look for her "Memory of an Orange" in the Monadnock Writers Group, to come out next fall.
Natalie Safir ("Ready or Not") sends word that her new book Love Like Snow will be available early in the new year. Look for it soon on the web site of her publisher, the California-based Daniel & Daniel/Fithian Press.
More news from contributors . . .
Johnmichael Simon recently received a Most Highly Commended Award in the Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for his poem “May You Live in Interesting Times." Additionally, both he and Helen Bar-Lev have work in the 2010 Voices Israel Anthology.
Rochelle Mass ("My Daughter Has Brought Me Her Baby to Love") received the third place award in the 2010 Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Contest, which drew entries from eight countries.
Barbara Crooker ("Lemons") has work appearing or forthcoming in numerous publications, including Tar River River, Louisiana Literature, Verse Wisconsin, Ruminate, Gratefulness, The Cresset, Thanal (India)(also translated into Malayalam), Sea Stories, Poets for Living Waters, Bumbershoot, Voices of Hope and Healing, The Change Interviews, Wordgathering, Your Daily Poem, Off the Coast, State of Emergency: Chicago Poets Respond to the Gulf Spill, Gargoyle, Ballona Wetlands, Poet Lore, US One Worksheets, Calyx, Alba, Judd’s Hill Winery Poetry Page, Panhala, The Valparaiso Poetry Review, Windhover, Quill & Parchment, Canary, Hospital Drive, The Writer, Watershed, Rock & Sling, South Carolina Review, Champaign Taste, Kaleidoscope, Earth’s Daughters and in the anthologies: Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press), River Poems (Lilly Press), Come What May: Writings About Chance (Motes Books), Handprint Identity Guest Artist Catalog (Elizabethtown College)(3 poems), Gravity Pulls You In, (Woodbine House), Love Over Sixty: 100 Women Poets, (Mayapple), Carve: Snowboarding & Skiing Poems, A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry, Facing the Change: Global Climate Change Poems, Child of my Child (Gelles-Cole Literary Enterprises), Penned from the Heart (Son-Rise Publications), Poetry from Paradise Valley (Valparaiso Review, 10th anniversary anthology)(Pecan Grove Press, Perspectives: Poems on Autism (Local Gems Poetry Press),Mamas and Papas (City Works Press), Poetry Calendar 2011 (Alhambra Publishing) (Belgium), Cooking Up South, (Capital BookFest), Reeds and Rushes: Pitch, Buzz, and Hum (Pudding House), Science Poetry.
Co-editor Kenneth Salzmann ("A Brief Note to Josephine, from Diana") has a poem in the recently-published anthology Reeds and Rushes: Pitch, Buzz and Hum from Pudding House.
Contributor Natalie Safir ("Ready or Not") will read from her book, Love Like Snow, at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY at 7:30 p.m. on Friday Feb. 11. Copies of the book will be available for sale.
Lewis Gardner ("Hank Smith: Walking with Marcy") who has a play -- "Pete and Joe at the Dew Drop Inn" -- included in the recently-published The Best American Short Plays 2008-2009.
"Out of Kilter," a prose poem by CHILD OF MY CHILD contributor Nancy Gustafson ("Sunset") now appears in Issue 5, Round 2 of the prose-poem journal - www.prose-poems.com. She writes us: "I wrote it about two years after my dad died. Strange how grief lingers and then slips like a thief into the common everyday events of our lives."
Contributor Barbara Adams ("Babyskin: Notes on a Grandchild") and her new memoir are featured in an eloquent new blog post by poet Will Nixon.
Rochelle Mass ("My Daughter Has Brought Me Her Baby to Love") received the third place award in the 2010 Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Contest, which drew entries from eight countries.
Barbara Crooker ("Lemons") has work appearing or forthcoming in numerous publications, including Tar River River, Louisiana Literature, Verse Wisconsin, Ruminate, Gratefulness, The Cresset, Thanal (India)(also translated into Malayalam), Sea Stories, Poets for Living Waters, Bumbershoot, Voices of Hope and Healing, The Change Interviews, Wordgathering, Your Daily Poem, Off the Coast, State of Emergency: Chicago Poets Respond to the Gulf Spill, Gargoyle, Ballona Wetlands, Poet Lore, US One Worksheets, Calyx, Alba, Judd’s Hill Winery Poetry Page, Panhala, The Valparaiso Poetry Review, Windhover, Quill & Parchment, Canary, Hospital Drive, The Writer, Watershed, Rock & Sling, South Carolina Review, Champaign Taste, Kaleidoscope, Earth’s Daughters and in the anthologies: Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams (University of Iowa Press), River Poems (Lilly Press), Come What May: Writings About Chance (Motes Books), Handprint Identity Guest Artist Catalog (Elizabethtown College)(3 poems), Gravity Pulls You In, (Woodbine House), Love Over Sixty: 100 Women Poets, (Mayapple), Carve: Snowboarding & Skiing Poems, A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry, Facing the Change: Global Climate Change Poems, Child of my Child (Gelles-Cole Literary Enterprises), Penned from the Heart (Son-Rise Publications), Poetry from Paradise Valley (Valparaiso Review, 10th anniversary anthology)(Pecan Grove Press, Perspectives: Poems on Autism (Local Gems Poetry Press),Mamas and Papas (City Works Press), Poetry Calendar 2011 (Alhambra Publishing) (Belgium), Cooking Up South, (Capital BookFest), Reeds and Rushes: Pitch, Buzz, and Hum (Pudding House), Science Poetry.
Co-editor Kenneth Salzmann ("A Brief Note to Josephine, from Diana") has a poem in the recently-published anthology Reeds and Rushes: Pitch, Buzz and Hum from Pudding House.
Contributor Natalie Safir ("Ready or Not") will read from her book, Love Like Snow, at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY at 7:30 p.m. on Friday Feb. 11. Copies of the book will be available for sale.
Lewis Gardner ("Hank Smith: Walking with Marcy") who has a play -- "Pete and Joe at the Dew Drop Inn" -- included in the recently-published The Best American Short Plays 2008-2009.
"Out of Kilter," a prose poem by CHILD OF MY CHILD contributor Nancy Gustafson ("Sunset") now appears in Issue 5, Round 2 of the prose-poem journal - www.prose-poems.com. She writes us: "I wrote it about two years after my dad died. Strange how grief lingers and then slips like a thief into the common everyday events of our lives."
Contributor Barbara Adams ("Babyskin: Notes on a Grandchild") and her new memoir are featured in an eloquent new blog post by poet Will Nixon.
Child of My Child shared with nation's 'First Grandmother'
To mark both the publication of Child of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents and the celebration of Grandparents' Day 2010 on September 12, Sandi Gelles-Cole sent a copy of the newly-published anthology to Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama's mother.
At left is the official response from the White House, signed by Mrs. Robinson's daughter . . .
  | Child of My Child contributors get hometown attentionPoets Clinton B. Campbell and Charlene Langfur were subjects of feature articles in their local papers for their contributions to the anthology. You can read about Campbell here, and Langfur here. Long Island poet Barbara Hoffman was featured in her local paper, The Beacon.
 Kenneth Salzmann appeared on "Cabaradio," a variety program on Catskill Community Radio.
 The perfect gift for anyone who knows a grandparent, has a grandparent, or is a grandparent Poems and Stories for Grandparents $ 12.95 |
Contributors Elaine Starkman and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky featured in Contra Costa Times article
Local poets' work selected for new anthology honoring grandparents
By Janice De Jesus
Correspondent
PLEASANT HILL -- Naomi Ruth Lowinsky remembers the time she visited her grandson at his new home.
The boy, who was just 4 at the time, gave his grandmother a tour of the house he and his family had just moved into. Lowinsky said she and her grandson enjoyed a pleasant conversation, and she couldn't help but admire how poetic his words sounded.
The inquisitive child asked about such topics as death -- the death of Lowinsky's father and a pet dog's -- as he showed her trees in the family garden, she said.
"Little kids are very philosophical," said Lowinsky, a Pleasant Hill resident and psychotherapist who practices in Berkeley. "Obie never met his great-grandfather but he was trying to understand death."
The visit with her grandson, now 10, inspired Lowinsky to write "In the Garden," one of her two poems recently chosen for the publication of "Child of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents," a collection to be released Sept. 12, which is Grandparents Day.
"It was one of those poignant moments when I was with my grandson and I felt a poem stirring," she said. "Those were his quotes. At that age, he was very poetic."
Other East Bay writers featured in the collection include Elaine Starkman, of Walnut Creek; John Oliver Simon and Linda Lancione Moyer, both of Berkeley; and Meredith Escudier, of Oakland.
Coincidentally, Starkman had a somewhat similar experience to Lowinsky's that prompted her to write her
poem "Apricots for Isaac."
"I was on a walk with my grandson; I noticed how observant he was, thrilled by the sight of apricots growing on the trees," said Starkman, a poet who teaches writing through Mt. Diablo Adult Education. "Observing his joy brought me to different periods of my life "... growing up in Chicago, I didn't see fruits that bloomed; even after we first moved to California, I was so overwhelmed with four kids and wanting to continue school and write that I couldn't think of the miracles I saw around us. It took a child to point one of them out to me. I'm pleased my poem will appear in a collection of poems by grandparents on grandkids.
"I had no grandmothers, and only now when friends talk about them, I'm sorry I missed that experience," said Starkman. "I am named for my dad's mother, and often feel close to her though she died nine months before I was born."
Lowinsky has been an accomplished poet for years; her work has been published in several literary journals, magazines and books. She also received the 2009 Obama Millennium Poetry Award for "Madelyn Dunham, Passing On," a poem paying tribute to the grandmother of President Barack Obama.
The poet said she has memories of, while a teenager, visiting her grandmother, who wanted Lowinsky to be a painter. One of her poems, "Oma," in her newest collection, pays tribute to Hoffman, whose self-portrait and other paintings serve as inspiration to Lowinsky's current batch of poems.
"My grandmother taught me that art could help you hold yourself through tragedy," said Lowinsky, who has 10 grandchildren. "She taught me that you could be a mother and still be an artist."
Lowinsky said she is inspired by her paternal grandmother, who died before she was born and whom she considers to be her writing muse.
"I never knew her in life but I feel like I had a relationship with her," she said. "A lot of my writing has been all about making a connection with my ancestors."
The poet's book "The Motherline" explores the relationships of grandmothers, mothers and daughters.
As she continues to honor her grandparents, Lowinsky said she's constantly finding inspiration from her grandchildren. Another poem, "Emanuel," dedicated to another grandson, explores the parallels between the time Lowinsky protested the Vietnam War as she pushed her young daughter's stroller and the time when her daughter was in labor as a demonstration protesting the Iraq war was taking place in early 2003.
Kenneth Salzmann, an editor for "Child of My Child," said Lowinsky and Starkman both have exceptional command of craft and compelling images to share. Beyond that, however, they both have tapped into very particular experiences to get at something universal, Salzmann said.
"We don't have to walk an orchard with Elaine Starkman and her grandson to 'remember lost worlds' and maybe rethink what we thought we knew of wisdom," Salzmann said. "These two poets bring us into places only they inhabit, but that we all share. When it's executed with both skill and insight, poetry can strike those universal chords."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(You can learn more about Naomi Ruth Lowinsky at her blog.)
By Janice De Jesus
Correspondent
PLEASANT HILL -- Naomi Ruth Lowinsky remembers the time she visited her grandson at his new home.
The boy, who was just 4 at the time, gave his grandmother a tour of the house he and his family had just moved into. Lowinsky said she and her grandson enjoyed a pleasant conversation, and she couldn't help but admire how poetic his words sounded.
The inquisitive child asked about such topics as death -- the death of Lowinsky's father and a pet dog's -- as he showed her trees in the family garden, she said.
"Little kids are very philosophical," said Lowinsky, a Pleasant Hill resident and psychotherapist who practices in Berkeley. "Obie never met his great-grandfather but he was trying to understand death."
The visit with her grandson, now 10, inspired Lowinsky to write "In the Garden," one of her two poems recently chosen for the publication of "Child of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents," a collection to be released Sept. 12, which is Grandparents Day.
"It was one of those poignant moments when I was with my grandson and I felt a poem stirring," she said. "Those were his quotes. At that age, he was very poetic."
Other East Bay writers featured in the collection include Elaine Starkman, of Walnut Creek; John Oliver Simon and Linda Lancione Moyer, both of Berkeley; and Meredith Escudier, of Oakland.
Coincidentally, Starkman had a somewhat similar experience to Lowinsky's that prompted her to write her
poem "Apricots for Isaac."
"I was on a walk with my grandson; I noticed how observant he was, thrilled by the sight of apricots growing on the trees," said Starkman, a poet who teaches writing through Mt. Diablo Adult Education. "Observing his joy brought me to different periods of my life "... growing up in Chicago, I didn't see fruits that bloomed; even after we first moved to California, I was so overwhelmed with four kids and wanting to continue school and write that I couldn't think of the miracles I saw around us. It took a child to point one of them out to me. I'm pleased my poem will appear in a collection of poems by grandparents on grandkids.
"I had no grandmothers, and only now when friends talk about them, I'm sorry I missed that experience," said Starkman. "I am named for my dad's mother, and often feel close to her though she died nine months before I was born."
Lowinsky has been an accomplished poet for years; her work has been published in several literary journals, magazines and books. She also received the 2009 Obama Millennium Poetry Award for "Madelyn Dunham, Passing On," a poem paying tribute to the grandmother of President Barack Obama.
The poet said she has memories of, while a teenager, visiting her grandmother, who wanted Lowinsky to be a painter. One of her poems, "Oma," in her newest collection, pays tribute to Hoffman, whose self-portrait and other paintings serve as inspiration to Lowinsky's current batch of poems.
"My grandmother taught me that art could help you hold yourself through tragedy," said Lowinsky, who has 10 grandchildren. "She taught me that you could be a mother and still be an artist."
Lowinsky said she is inspired by her paternal grandmother, who died before she was born and whom she considers to be her writing muse.
"I never knew her in life but I feel like I had a relationship with her," she said. "A lot of my writing has been all about making a connection with my ancestors."
The poet's book "The Motherline" explores the relationships of grandmothers, mothers and daughters.
As she continues to honor her grandparents, Lowinsky said she's constantly finding inspiration from her grandchildren. Another poem, "Emanuel," dedicated to another grandson, explores the parallels between the time Lowinsky protested the Vietnam War as she pushed her young daughter's stroller and the time when her daughter was in labor as a demonstration protesting the Iraq war was taking place in early 2003.
Kenneth Salzmann, an editor for "Child of My Child," said Lowinsky and Starkman both have exceptional command of craft and compelling images to share. Beyond that, however, they both have tapped into very particular experiences to get at something universal, Salzmann said.
"We don't have to walk an orchard with Elaine Starkman and her grandson to 'remember lost worlds' and maybe rethink what we thought we knew of wisdom," Salzmann said. "These two poets bring us into places only they inhabit, but that we all share. When it's executed with both skill and insight, poetry can strike those universal chords."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(You can learn more about Naomi Ruth Lowinsky at her blog.)
Child of My Child featured in Woodstock Times and Spotlight newspapers
Click here to read the Woodstock Times' coverage of Child of My Child . . . and click here to read about contributor Joanne Seltzer . . .
