Summer Solstice, 2019

Good day my friends. I hope this newsletter finds you relaxing into the season of cold beer, hammocks, and water-love.

Words

Summer = reading. At the top of my list is Tori Bond’s new collection of short stories, Familyism. Check out her lovely cover below. Tori’s book launch will be on June 29th from 6PM to10PM at Shanteel Yoga Sanctuary at 111 N. Branch St. in Sellersville, PA. It will be a night to remember.

Family, in all its strange, dark, quirky glory, is at the center of this collection of tightly woven, deliciously wrought stories…Bond knows the vagaries of the human heart and explores it with warmth and wit and savage intelligence.
—Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018
 

Regarding my own book news, I’m happy to report that after three years and a thousand hours or so, I’m finished with my second novel:)

I’ll just take a moment to say: “Ah….” 

Earlier this week I learned that the agent I was working with has changed her business model and so is no longer the best advocate for my writing. I’ll be looking for a new agent to represent this book. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I find myself with the summer off — something that hasn’t been true since I was 13. So besides Tori’s book, I’m also reading my way through the stack below and adding more all the time.


In other word-related news, I recently helped lead a writing retreat about the geography of home and soul at the Highlights Foundation. It was a truly special time. Here’s the group of writers who attended, along with my fellow retreat leaders and super talented writers, Kate Racculia and Ruth Setton.


Art

There are quite a few botanical gardens in southeast, Pennsylvania, but Chanticleer is my favorite. I love the thought, beauty, freedom and fun the garden embodies. Go visit if you can.

Also, my friend, Cleveland Wall, has put out an art call for postcards featuring poems, pictures, prose, etc. that express interpretations of Fierce Women. These postcards will be displayed at one of two mail art pop-up shows! You can mail your postcards (by August 13) directly to Cleveland and I’m happy to share her address upon request. The pop-up exhibits will be on August 13 and September 3 at the Ice House in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (56 River Street) from 6-7 PM. 
Finally, don’t miss Chawne Kimber‘s quilt exhibit at the Grossman Gallery at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Chawne uses improvisational variations of common patchwork quilt forms to engage viewers in conversation about issues of identity, difference, and social justice. Her work is extraordinary.

Exhibition Reception, Friday, June 28, 5 – 8 p.m.

Artist’s talk, Tuesday, July 9, 7:30 p.m., Media Room 2, 248 North Third Street, Easton , “​When the Cotton is High: Social Justice and Textiles​.”​


Have a lovely summer,
Kate