Avrom Bendavid-Val knows the power of keeping a memory alive. The story of his search for the town where his father was born - a town that had completely disappeared - is the subject of two books and a film. This is his message to his readers, family, and friends. 

If you're going to be in Springfield, MA, on August 13th, come by Falcetti Music for an evening of Letting Go. 

A great line-up of readers​.

Maria Ostrowski, "Lionheart"
Joan Scott, "The Paper Room"
Kerry Guerin, "The Boy Who Saved Me"
Myra Chanin, "A May-December Valentine"
​Martha Hughes, "Isolation," editor of Letting Go

There will be a reception and book signing following the reading. 

On July 27th at 7:00 pm, Letting Go authors David Turnoff and Sue Parman will be reading from their essays. They'll be joined by Gigi Pandian for a great event at Books, Inc, Berkeley. 

To celebrate their reading, here again, is the interview with author and artist Sue Parman. Next week - David Turnoff. 

You can read Sue Parman's beautiful essay, "The Holy Ghost Bird,"in Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts.
 
Retired professor of anthropology and the author of numerous academic books (including Scottish Crofters, now in its second edition), Sue Parman lives in Oregon where she has won numerous awards for poetry, plays, essays, short stories, and art.  Her most recent book combines poetry and art (The Carnivorous Gaze, Turnstone Press, 2014), and her most recent article is a memoir based on her correspondence with Tolkien (“A Song for J.R.R. Tolkien,” The Antioch Review, 2015). Web site: www.sueparman.com
​
Letting Go is an anthology of true stories. As a writer of fiction, did you find it harder to write a nonfiction story?
 
     I love the power that fact lends to story-telling. Fiction is always grounded in nonfiction (the details of memory and observation), and nonfiction requires the rules of fiction to take flight. A story about a bird requires knowledge of birds; a detailed description of a bird would be boring without the underlying structure of plot and character. Having said this, I think it’s harder to write nonfiction for two reasons: one, you can get so mired in “facts” that you go off the rails of a good story; and two, the details of memory are frequently painful. I found it very difficult to write “The Holy Ghost Bird” because the memories that inspired it were so painful; but it was cathartic to shape it into a story. Fiction can heal.
     Birds make great metaphors. Because they fly between the ground and the sky, they can represent freedom, or messengers between gods and men, or vehicles to convey souls to the land of the dead. In New Guinea, men call themselves “dead birds” because of a myth that explains why men must die. In 2012 a short story of mine called “The Spirit Bird” was published in The Grove Literary Review. Similar title to the one in Letting Go, similar emotions of longing and loss, but a completely different story vehicle: a young Muslim widow visits the grave of her ancestors in Sulawesi. Fiction gives us wings.
 
What do you enjoy most about writing?
 
     I find writing to be cathartic and freeing. I love the words themselves (I read the OED as a form of play and source of poems), and I love the rhythm of language and its capacity to build worlds, arguments, persuasions, expressions of love and hope, fury and disdain. I miss letter-writing but am intrigued by the potential of social media for haiku-like utterances. Writing takes me to a liminal zone where I can transform the mundane realities of life into beauty. The pursuit of beauty is paramount—it is the essence of a creative life well lived, whether as a writer or any other occupation.
     At the close of a Navajo Blessing Way ceremony are the words to walk in beauty. With beauty all around me may I walk. In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk. To be a writer is to walk in beauty—immersed in it, gathering it, experiencing it, sometimes capturing it. To be a writer is not poetry or journalism, school or reputation.  It’s a way of life, consciously living from one unpredictable moment to another without a skin--a kind of pilgrimage to live out all the lines of one’s body. As a writer, my goal is to have created beauty that leaves people breathless and thinking what, where, how, why, and I am.
 
How much time each week do you devote to writing?
 
     I write every day. When I was teaching, I got up at 4 a.m. and wrote until 7 a.m., then went to work. I still get up at 4, but now I can write in chunks throughout the day, and how long I write depends on what project I’m caught up in. Sometimes I get caught up in art projects instead. I worry sometimes that I’m less systematic and disciplined than I was when I was working, but I’m having a lot more fun.
 
What are you working on?
 
     Last June I joined an art critique group, and after one of our meetings I dreamed of a flower that was shades of brown. I woke up with an art mantra running through my head: “Color gets the credit, value does the work.” I sat down and wrote a short story, “The Brown Study,” that I entered as a first book chapter in a contest sponsored by the Oregon Writers Colony. It won first place, and within two months I had the first draft of a book tentatively titled The Flowers of Rappaccini from the Nathaniel Hawthorne story about a woman raised by her father in a garden of poisonous flowers who herself becomes poisonous to others. I’m now on the third draft, and have been describing it as a literary-eco-thriller set in the Amazon rainforest.
 
What has been the most surprising about learning your craft?
 
     At the heart of every creative act lies a burst of spontaneous humor, a form of play. I’ve come to recognize this feeling, this sense of surprise, without which a writing project is flat, uninspiring, and boring. I touch on these ideas in my essay, “An Evolutionary Theory of Poetry,” VoiceCatcher (posted July 29, 2013)
 
Do you have any advice for other writers?
 
            Are you kidding? Writers take advice?
 
Do you think workshops have helped you become a better writer?
 
     Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that workshops, critique groups, and First Readers provide useful feedback, training in getting used to putting your writing up for public view and criticism, and the opportunity to learn from other writers. No, in the sense that unlike an art workshop, you can’t really learn from other people’s techniques; you only catch little glimpses of finished writing. The usefulness of a workshop depends a lot on where you are in the writing process. New writers benefit from discussions of craft—how to construct plot and character, for example. Writers who have finished two or three drafts of a manuscript would benefit from workshops that work on whole manuscripts. I’ve found very helpful information about workshops from magazines such as Poets and Writers, and from fellow writers in local writing organizations (such as the Oregon Writers Colony).
  
Tell us any secret rituals you have for getting started each day.
 
     I write as soon as I wake up. Sometimes I have an idea from a dream; sometimes from something I’ve been reading, especially nonfiction (e.g., James Prosek’s “Eels”). I write my initial ideas sitting in my favorite chair that looks out a window; I use a yellow pad and pens that vary with what I’m writing (a fountain pen for poetry, a liquid gel pen for prose—I LOVE pens). Once I get going, I write with a computer on a treadmill desk—a great alternative to sitting. But the most important ritual: write. Or as my father used to say, “Don’t get it right, just get it written.”
 
Any writers you like to read to inspire you to write (or if you're blocked)?

     I’m an omnivorous reader, from Tolkien to Sci-Fi (The Ship Who Sang, The Foundation Series, Something Wicked This Way Comes) to poetry (Anne Carson, Kay Ryan, Dylan Thomas) to mystery (Raymond Chandler, The Bee Keeper’s Apprentice, Scandinavian noir) to literary (Cloud Atlas, J.M. Coetzee, Dickens) to books about writing (Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Novel, The Making of a Story). The OED inspires me to write. The writing on the back of cereal boxes inspires me to write. Michael Frayne’s “Copenhagen” makes me want to write plays; Montaigne’s Essays make me want to hole up in a tower and blog.

   

Just in time for summer.
Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts, edited by M. E. Hughes is FREE in Ebook from June 22nd through June 25th. 

Here are just a few of the great things readers have been saying about this fascinating anthology:

"I loved this book -- the writing is excellent! I recommend it for anyone who wants a great summer read!"

"This is a gorgeous collection of essays and stories. Variously funny, sad, bittersweet or uplifting, each piece is thoughtful and beautifully written. The collection is perfectly curated by M.E Hughes to show each writer to their natural advantage."

"Each essay in Letting Go has gripped me. Several I have reread. The brave truth reaches out to the reader, grabbing the heart and the mind, allowing both reader and writer to explore the winding path, or the abrupt reality that allows us, finally, to let go, or forces us to recognize that we cannot do it, yet.

"Reader, dive into the section Letting Go of Haunting Memories and Places. For a story demonstrating strength of will, don’t miss Sue Parman’s “The Holy Ghost Bird”. Then, read Evalyn Lee’s “Throwing Out the Trash”.

"From there move forward and back in the collection. Take your time. Each one has a message for you and for me. Among the special re-read messages is Maria Ostrowski’s pwerful images in “LionHeart”."

There are two kinds of people. Those who think short stories are the greatest art form - closer to poetry than novels in their elegance and precision,  

Then there are those who just don't get it. They finish a story and still want more. 

This sale isn't for them.

​Hope you'll take a look at:

• ​​The Man Who Built Boxes and other stories, by Frank Tavares
• You Won't Remember This by Kate Blackwell
• ​Blues for Beginners: Stories and Obsessions by Judith Podell

And we're sneaking in a novella with a short story at the end

• The Man from the Sky by Danny Wynn. 

​Sale ends May 31st. 

Here are just a few readers' reviews. 
​

  “If you are searching for interesting short stories that aren't burdened      by wrapping everything up for you then this is a must read. If you like    your stories to lead you to a predictable conclusion then this writer        and these stories are not for you.

  “The characters are amazing. Some are like strangers I've seen from a    distance in my own life. Some are friends I've known forever. Some are  former girlfriends and lovers. All are flawed.

“The writing is almost poetic and the emotions that well up in most of these stories were very real to me. You feel for these people. No the stories don't have a neat little ending and that's the point. Does your life? "

​Pick up a copy on sale.

Instead of an interview with Letting Go author Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould, below is an excerpt of an article from The Guardian about her transgender health center.
 
You can read Carolyn Wolf-Gould's essay - "A Prayer for Lost Things" - in _Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts
​