Your Memoir, the Way You Want It | | | |  | |
For the Love of Poetry
When I read the question of the month Director of Publishing Ali de Groot shares below, I was both delighted and daunted at the task of naming a favorite poet. Delight arose from my lifelong love of poetry, and this was also the source of fretting over choosing just one. So, I selected Mary Oliver and decided to use this space (and another piece featuring U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón) to cheat and name others while linking their names to favorite poems you might like to read for National Poetry Month.
I’ll start with Oliver. A mentor gifted me a collection of Oliver’s poetry when I graduated from Smith College in 1996. It’s no exaggeration to say that there have been times when Oliver’s words, and the poem “Wild Geese,” in particular, have offered me lifesaving solace.
While still in college, I participated in a service-learning trip to Nicaragua. I cherish memories of a place where statues of poets seemed as prevalent as those of military and political figures, and where people I met recited verses by heart from the likes of Rubén Darío, Ernesto Cardenal, Gioconda Belli, and Daisy Zamora. Our group was fortunate to meet with Zamora at the University of Managua, and my journal entry from that day is filled with notes and scribblings in my earnest 18-year-old hand.
Later that same year, I spent a semester in Washington, D.C., where I interned with a nonprofit organization and studied political science. My final seminar paper examined the intersection of American politics and poetry, and in the process of writing it, I rediscovered Robert Frost and fell in love with poetry by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Martín Espada, Maya Angelou, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, Lucille Clifton, and many others. Rich’s work, in particular, later led me to the work of so-called “confessional poets” as well as that of other women whose lives overtly inform(ed) their work, such as Jane Kenyon, Elizabeth Alexander, Sharon Olds, Maggie Smith, Victoria Chang, Sylvia Plath, Marge Piercy, Wisława Szymborska, and Anne Sexton.
Starting with Mother Goose, I also love reading poetry and verse with my children. Children’s book publishing today (including abundant verse novels) offers an embarrassment of riches. To perennial favorites such as Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne, Shel Silverstein, Judith Viorst, and Jack Prelutsky, I recommend: Jacqueline Woodson, Jeannine Atkins, Jane Yolen, Kwame Alexander, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Nelson, Janet Wong, Thanhhà Lai, Eloise Greenfield...and I could go on!
Although most Modern Memoirs clients come to us with memoirs and family history books, my love of poetry makes me especially excited to work with poets, too. The header photo above includes several such volumes that we are proud to highlight, including some books in which poetry is mixed in with other kinds of writing. If you or someone you know has poems to publish, reach out! We’ll be ever so glad to let our love of poetry guide us in helping you create the beautiful book you envision.
Megan St. Marie
President
| |
 | |
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, who is serving as the Guest Editor of the Poem-a-Day project for National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets
A few years ago, I subscribed to the Poem-A-Day project of the Academy of American Poets. Each day amidst emails from various merchants, news outlets, organizations, politicians, family, and friends, I receive one poem in my inbox. I usually read the poem over breakfast, giving myself a welcome bit of artful inspiration to start my day.
Here’s what the Academy says about the project on their website:
“Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. As part of a collaboration with the Library of Congress, Poet Laureate of the United States Ada Limón is the guest editor of April, which is National Poetry Month. Read or listen to a Q&A with Limón about her curatorial process, and learn more about the 2023 guest editors. Support Poem-a-Day.
If you have any questions about Poem-a-Day, visit our Poem-a-Day FAQ.”
Join me in subscribing today!
—Megan St. Marie
| |
A poem by my late friend Jenny
offered by Ali de Groot
| |
|
Messages
At night
when life slowed down
at last
she would sit in her chair
knitting
and think of the
ghosts from the past
that would flit through her mind
hover about
and speak to her.
As the needles clicked
she sometimes wished
the stitches could be tiny messages
sent out through the quiet:
“Thinking of you…”
“Hope all is well…”
“Did your daughter finally finish school?”
“Are you still seeing that guy with the old guitar?”
“Have you started to get gray hairs, like me?”
She knit
while the ghosts flitted
and finally drifted away.
“Whatever happened
to the dog you found?
The one with no tail
that looked so sad?”
—Jennifer P. Atkins
| |
Announcing New Books for Sale by Megan St. Marie
| | |
|
Writing under the name Megan Dowd Lambert, the president of Modern Memoirs has published Read It Again: 70 Whole Book Approach Plans to Help You Shake Up Storytime under our imprint, White Poppy Press in digital and print formats.
The book offers teachers, librarians, homeschooling families, and anyone who reads with children practical guidance to foster a love of books in young readers. Extension activities and further resources round out the offering, and you can purchase digital and/or print copies through the Modern Memoirs online shop, Memory Lane Books & Gifts. Megan is happy to sign your print edition, too, and will contact you after your purchase to confirm personalization.
| |
|
Writing under the name Megan Dowd Lambert, the president of Modern Memoirs has published Book Bonding: Building Connections Through Family Reading, with Imagine, the adult nonfiction imprint of Charlesbridge Publishing. This poignant, funny, and touching essay collection invites readers to consider how they bond with children, other family, friends, and students through shared reading.
Available wherever books are sold, Megan is happy to sign copies purchased through the Modern Memoirs online shop, Memory Lane Books & Gifts, and she will contact you after your purchase to confirm personalization.
| |
Featured Blog Posts by Our Staff | |
Titles Are Born
By Director of Publishing Ali de Groot
What I really want to say here is that I believe titles don’t need to be forced; they are born. And like most babies, they will emerge at the time that is right for them, and you don’t always know when that’s going to be…
| |
|
Reflections from Client
James Heffernan
Interview by Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg
With this month’s client interview, we are proud to feature James Heffernan’s poetry book Many Worlds, also for sale in our online shop, Memory Lane Books & Gifts.
| | |
|
April Question:
Who is a favorite poet of yours?
| |
Staff responses
Megan St. Marie: Mary Oliver
Sean St. Marie: Emily Dickinson, of course! (Outside of Modern Memoirs, I work at the Emily Dickinson Museum.)
Ali de Groot: Michael Ondaatje
Liz Sonnenberg: David Whyte
Nicole Miller: Not my favorite but certainly memorable poems by Robert Frost that have been stuck in my head since reciting in grade school, “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
Cori Garrett-Goodyear: Nikki Giovanni
Charlie Mark: Jeannine Ouellette
| |
Memory Lane Stroll
We’d love to hear your brief personal reflections on the question of the month (at left). Write your response for a chance to be featured in the next edition of our e-newsletter!
***
March Response to “favorite tree”:
“American Chestnut, for the hours of pleasant memories in my days gone by.”
—Terry St. Marie
| | | | |
|
|
Stop by to see us in person or online:
417 West Street, Suite 104
Amherst, MA 01002
www.modernmemoirs.com
| Was this e-newsletter forwarded to you? | | | | |
