Posted Wednesday, 21 April, 2021 by jorielov Arisa White, Augury Books, Who's Your Daddy 2 Comments
Acquired Book By:
I have been hosting for Poetic Book Tours for a few years now, where I am finding myself encouraged to seek out collections of poetry or incredible fiction being published through Small Trade publishers and presses. I have an Indie spirit and mentality as a writer and I appreciate finding authors who are writing creative works through Indie resources as I find Indies have a special spirit about them. It is a joy to work with Poetic Book Tours for their resilience in seeking out voices in Literature which others might overlook and thereby, increasing my own awareness of these beautiful lyrical voices in the craft.
I received a complimentary copy of “Who’s Your Daddy” direct from the publisher Augury Books in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Re-visiting what I loved about reading Arisa White’s poetry:
As you disappear into the mind of Ms White – you see how raw and visually acute she leaves behind her impressions of not only sexuality but of life – of the differences between cultures and the mindfulness of sensing what is not yet spoken aloud. She has a way of intuiting what is meant to be understood out of the recesses of memory whilst augmenting her own experiences against that of what is perceived by others of being a truth they could accept by their own observations. She tucks into the hearty topics of our world – whilst owning the rawer bits that are not always spoken about – in poetry or in everyday conversations.
White etches out her own authentic truth and the truth of everyone seeking to find love, compassion, acceptance and beauty in their life. She humbling approaches her poetry with the intrinsically of a woman who breathes a lifeblood of passion for living and the joy of embracing each new day as one full of possibility. Some of the poems are hard to read due to their emotional conviction and others, are a bit more sublime in how they can articulate the moment of life being captured within their poetic home. There is an umbrage of living narrative running throughout the collection that celebrates how life is lived and deeply felt whilst granting us a view of a passage of life different from our own.
-quoted from my review of You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened
Who's Your Daddy
by Arisa White (2021)
Source: Publisher via Poetic Book Tours
A lyrical, genre-bending coming-of-age tale featuring a queer, Black, Guyanese American woman who, while seeking to define her own place in the world, negotiates an estranged relationship with her father.
Genres: LGBTQIA Fiction, Non-Fiction, Memoir, Poetry & Drama Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9781936767618
Published by Augury Books
on 1st March, 2021
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 137
Published By: Augury Books (@augurybooks)
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #Poetry
About Arisa White (2021)
Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow and an assistant professor of creative writing at Colby College. She is the author of four books, including the poetry collection You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, and coauthor of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, winner of the Maine Literary Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal for Middle Grade Nonfiction. She serves on the board of directors for Foglifter and Nomadic Press.
Website | Facebook | Amazon | LibraryThing
Posted Wednesday, 21 April, 2021 by jorielov in 21st Century, Blog Tour Host, Fly in the Ointment, Indie Author, Introspective Literary Fiction, LGBTTQPlus Fiction | Non-Fiction, Memoir, Modern Day, Non-Fiction, Poetic Book Tours, Poetry, Vignettes of Real Life, Vulgarity in Literature
Posted Monday, 20 August, 2018 by jorielov Balboa Press, Diamante Lavendar, Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief 3 Comments
Acquired Book By:
I have been hosting for Poetic Book Tours for a few years now, where I am finding myself encouraged to seek out collections of poetry or incredible fiction being published through Small Trade publishers and presses. I have an Indie spirit and mentality as a writer and I appreciate finding authors who are writing creative works through Indie resources as I find Indies have a special spirit about them. It is a joy to work with Poetic Book Tours for their resilience in seeking out voices in Literature which others might overlook and thereby, increasing my own awareness of these beautiful lyrical voices in the craft.
I received a complimentary copy of “Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief” direct from the author Diamante Lavendar in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief
Subtitle: Spiritual Insights Expressed Through Art, Poetry and Prose
by Diamante Lavendar
Source: Publisher via Poetic Book Tours
This earthly plane offers much for us to learn: happiness, wisdom, loss, heartbreak, and enlightenment. It is a Pandora’s box of emotions, situations, opportunities, and failures, all wrapped into a package we call life. Nobody is immune, but everyone has the opportunity to grow tall or wither like a flower in harsh light. It’s completely up to us how we choose to respond.
Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief is a gleaning of insights from artist Diamante Lavender. For her, life has been a long, difficult road, but it has taught many poignant lessons. Her poetry collection is an exploration of the human soul, a traversing of situations that life throws at us. Diamante has always been intrigued by the ability to overcome and move on to bigger and better things.
She writes to encourage hope and possibility in those who read her stories. If she can help others heal, as she has, then Diamante’s work as an author and artist will have been well spent. She believes that everyone should try to leave a positive mark on the world, to make it a better place for all. Writing is the way that she is attempting to leave her mark—one story at a time.
Genres: Poetry & Drama Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781982205683
Also by this author: Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief
Published by Balboa Press
on 16th June, 2018
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 74
Published By: Balboa Press (@BalboaPress)
an imprint of Hay House (@hayhouse)
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #Poetry
About Diamante Lavendar
Diamante Lavendar began writing in college and published poetry in anthologies. Most of her writing is personal and stems from her experiences and those of her family and friends. She also creates visual art with colored pencils, acrylic paints, and various mixed media. Diamante is also the author of Breaking the Silence and Poetry and Ponderings: A Journey of Abuse and Healing through Poetry.
Website | Blog | Facebook | Goodreads | Secondary Site
Posted Monday, 20 August, 2018 by jorielov in 21st Century, Blog Tour Host, Indie Author, Modern Day, Poetic Book Tours, Poetry
Posted Saturday, 29 October, 2016 by jorielov Arisa White, Augury Books, You're the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened 3 Comments
Acquired Book By: I was selected to review “You’re the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened” by Poetic Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of “You’re the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened” direct from the publisher Augury Books in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
You're the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened
by Arisa White
Source: Publisher via Poetic Book Tours
Angular, smart, and fearless, Arisa White’s newest collection takes its titles from words used internationally as hate speech against gays and lesbians, reworking, re-envisioning, and re-embodying language as a conduit for art, love, and understanding.
“To live freely, observantly as a politically astute, sensually perceptive Queer Black woman is to be risk taker, at risk, a perceived danger to others and even dangerous to/as oneself,” writes poet Tracie Morris. “White’s attentive word substitutions and range of organized forms, lithe anecdotes, and disturbed resonances put us in the middle of living a realized, intelligent life of the senses.”
You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened works through intersectional encounters with gender, identity, and human barbarism, landing deftly and defiantly in beauty.
Genres: African-American Literature, Biography / Autobiography, LGBTQIA Fiction, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poetry & Drama, Self-Improvement & Self-Actualisation, Spirituality & Metaphysics, Women's Studies Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9780988735576
Published by Augury Books
on 21st October 2016
Format: Softcover Edition
Pages: 100
Published By: Augury Books (@augurybooks)
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #Poetry
About Arisa White
Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow, Sarah Lawrence College alumna, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of the poetry chapbooks Disposition for Shininess, Post Pardon, and Black Pearl.
She was selected by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for the 2010 Hot Pink List and is a member of the PlayGround writers’ pool; her play Frigidare was staged for the 15th Annual Best of Play Ground Festival. Recipient of the inaugural Rose O’Neill Literary House summer residency at Washington College in Maryland, Arisa has also received residencies, fellowships, or scholarships from Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Headlands Center for the Arts, Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Hedgebrook, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prague Summer Program, Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in 2005 and 2014, her poetry has been published widely and is featured on the recording WORD with the Jessica Jones Quartet.
Photo Credit: Nye’ Lyn Tho
Website | Facebook
Posted Saturday, 29 October, 2016 by jorielov in 21st Century, African-American Literature, Blog Tour Host, Equality In Literature, Indie Author, LGBTTQPlus Fiction | Non-Fiction, Modern Day, Poetic Book Tours, Poetry
Posted Wednesday, 12 October, 2016 by jorielov ergon, George HS Singer, Wordtech Communications, WordTech Editions 1 Comment
Acquired Book By: I was selected to review “ergon” by Poetic Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of “ergon” direct from the author George HS Singer in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
ergon
Source: Publisher via Poetic Book Tours
George Singer’s Ergon is precise, delicate and fierce in its engagement with the world.
George HS Singer, a former Buddhist monk, has written a debut collection of poems about his life as a monk and in the monastery and about his life when he left to marry and have a family. As he tries to balance his spiritual principles with every day life as a husband and father, these poems utilize nature as a backdrop for his quest.
Genres: Poetry & Drama Places to find the book:
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9781625491923
Published by Wordtech Editions
on 18th June, 2016
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 88
Published By: WordTech Editions an imprint of WordTech Communications
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #Poetry
Read More
Posted Wednesday, 12 October, 2016 by jorielov in 21st Century, Blog Tour Host, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Indie Author, Modern Day, Poetic Book Tours, Poetry, Vulgarity in Literature
Posted Monday, 15 August, 2016 by jorielov Loving Healing Press, Modern History Press, Saris and A Single Malt, Sweta Srivastava Vikram 4 Comments
Acquired Book By: I was selected to review “Saris and a Single Malt” by Poetic Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of Saris and a Single Malt direct from the publisher Modern History Press in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
Initially I felt reading about a daughter’s emotional journey through grief was a better fit for me personally than other collections of poetry being offered to review. I’ve known grief and sorrow throughout my life as I’ve lost one family member after another; including dearly beloved companions in fur and feathers. I have an interest in Indian Literature as well and writers from India in general – therefore, I felt compelled to join this blog tour.
The depths of the human emotional plane are as wide as the seven seas and as encompassing as the cosmos, as we truly live deeply and wholly true through how we emotional perceive and feel the events of our lives. Death is one of the hardest transitional moments of our lives, as we have to find a way to have closure out of loss and how loss cannot be a window towards an erasure of memory.
I felt reading about this particular collection of poems and words, fused to the author’s own journey of losing her Mum was one I could relate too, as I have experienced the heartache of loss and the difficulty in moving forward when a loved one’s presence is no longer at hand. The hope of light flickering at the tunneling end of grief is what keeps you moving forward but it’s the resolve to hold onto the memories where love flourished and thrived is what helps us heal our hearts.
Saris and a Single Malt
by Sweta Srivastava Vikram
Source: Publisher via Poetic Book Tours
Saris and a Single Malt is a moving collection of poems written by a daughter for and about her mother. The book spans the time from when the poet receives a phone call in New York City that her mother is in a hospital in New Delhi, to the time she carries out her mother’s last rites. The poems chronicle the author’s physical and emotional journey as she flies to India, tries to fight the inevitable, and succumbs to the grief of living in a motherless world. Divided into three sections, (Flight, Fire, and Grief), this collection will move you, astound you, and make you hug your loved ones.
Genres: Poetry & Drama Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9781615992942
Also by this author:
Published by Modern History Press
on 1st August, 2016
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 46
Published By: Modern History Press an imprint of Loving Healing Press
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #Poetry
About Sweta Srivastava Vikram
Sweta Srivastava Vikram, featured by Asian Fusion as “one of the most influential Asians of our time,” is an award-winning writer, five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Amazon bestselling author of 11 books, writing coach, columnist, marketing consultant, and wellness practitioner who currently lives in New York City. A graduate of Columbia University, she also teaches the power of yoga, Ayurveda, & mindful living to female trauma survivors, creative types, entrepreneurs, and business professionals.
Sweta is also the CEO-Founder of NimmiLife, which helps you attain your goals by elevating your creativity & productivity while paying attention to your wellness.
Website | Blog | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | LibraryThing | YouTube
Posted Monday, 15 August, 2016 by jorielov in 21st Century, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Equality In Literature, India, Indie Author, Literature of India, Modern Day, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Multi-cultural Characters and/or Honest Representations of Ethnicity, New York City, Poetic Book Tours, Poetry, Vulgarity in Literature
