tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743354727180970952024-03-13T21:15:56.858-07:00AfterViewsRamola D's blog--On books I'm reading, re-reading, should be reading, should have read a long time before, on writing...& things relatedRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-43214315607086304822014-02-11T09:00:00.000-08:002014-02-11T09:00:09.966-08:00 In solidarity with all on the Internet today
including Defending Dissent Foundation and the hundreds
of other civil rights and Internet rights groups, to call for
an end to the horrors of NSA surveillance.
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(function(){var e=document.createElement("script");e.type="text/javascript";e.async=true;e.src=document.location.protocol+"//Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-32080259601063129602013-10-20T07:43:00.002-07:002013-10-20T07:43:34.705-07:00Delphi Marks One Year
I'm so pleased and proud to note that Delphi Quarterly, the journal of online interviews with writers of literary prose and poetry that started as a small idea in my head last fall has marked a whole year of existence with its fourth issue this fall.
It's been a tremendous year, and I could not have done it without the help of my early co-editor and fellow-interviewer, Joe Ponepinto, Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-66614798711841009682013-01-16T11:26:00.001-08:002013-01-16T11:34:19.958-08:00Delphi Quarterly Launches Premiere Issue
"You
have to allow yourself to fall into the Void, stripping yourself of your
cherished certainties. Only then will you begin to see what there is to
see. "
--Neil Shepard, Delphi Quarterly
"There’s
a rule I call “Only use what is in the room,” meaning never introduce a
character or object into a novel or scene if you can use what is already there."
Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-15499182112211383542012-10-14T20:08:00.000-07:002012-10-14T20:42:00.822-07:00Of Pre-Digested Sunlight & Free Speech
Healing Energies
Mountain Rose Herbs are the ones who, through their email newsletter, apprised me of Rosemary Gladstar's lovely new video series where she talks about herbs and herbal remedies from her garden retreat in Vermont. I should probably note I am not in any way affiliated with anyone mentioned, I just love their ethos and their practice. In her recent videos Rosemary Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-80186983437281773572012-10-05T21:45:00.000-07:002012-10-05T21:45:00.142-07:00Writing News, Herbal Energy Tea for Writers, and Muriel Rukeyser
Some Writing News
A story Matter of a Few Hours appears this week in Kweli Journal, which has recently become a quarterly. Earlier this year in March Kweli published three poems I have read often at readings in DC, but just never placed. I am so admiring of Kweli, because it is diverse, it is unafraid, and it is run by thoughtful, visionary artists, like Laura Pegram. I'm very pleased toRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-27140011220947214232012-09-27T22:24:00.001-07:002012-09-27T22:24:22.436-07:00New BeginningsWell, having informally hiatus'd for almost two years now, I probably should start a new blog--I am so lost in writing short fiction, long fiction, poetry though currently I have put reviewing lately on the back-burner, it's a lovely thing to do but it does take time and in between dashing with my lovely 7-year-old Sophie to piano classes and gym classes and soccer practice and soccer games and Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-79482368054775621732011-04-08T20:19:00.000-07:002011-04-08T20:19:10.243-07:00Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan PatonGorgeous, lyric, Cry, the Beloved Country published in 1948 has a narrative pull seemingly drawn from both the clarity of the storytelling and the complexity of its subject matter--black struggle in the time of apartheid in South Africa--but also from the strength of its characters and the simultaneous simplicity and depth of the often lyric writing. An old Zulu pastor, Stephen Kumalo, leaves hisRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-14677051646679567062011-01-14T12:05:00.000-08:002011-01-14T12:11:33.157-08:00And the Winners Are...Thank you again, all of you who entered the Authorbuzz book giveaway and sent me your notes, well-wishes, and emails with fascinating ghost stories of your own. Thanks especially for waiting, since I found myself first wrapped up in schoolwork, then needing to finish school work, then rushing to do last-minute Christmassy things for my daughter. I'm coming out of all the fogs now! and hopingRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-15457831370851363202010-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:002010-10-21T20:12:37.265-07:00Going MobileDance on the Turquoise Whale, a story from my new collection of short fiction, For the Sake of the Boy (seeking a publisher :) is live today in the Ether Books app. on Apple--iPhones, -pads, -tunes, etc. Please drop in to read. The Ether Books blog which mentions the post is here. This is a first-time publication of Dance..., and also my first publication in the UK or globally by a UK publisher. Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-51844930561894401262010-09-27T20:08:00.000-07:002010-09-27T20:19:09.931-07:00Ghost Stories! Thanks everyone, for the wonderful--and spooky!--ghost stories trickling in to my mailbox! For those who didn't catch this edition of Authorbuzz, send in your own true-life ghost story to add your name to a drawing for one of 5 signed copies of Temporary Lives I'm giving away. (Via email: ramolad1@gmail.com) Contest still open. And here is the Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-9634259635224291502010-09-13T10:31:00.000-07:002010-09-13T10:31:25.029-07:00ReadingsWill be reading from Temporary Lives at Arlington's Central Library this Wed, Sep 15, at 7pm
http://arlingtonvalib.blogspot.com/2010/09/author-event-sept-15-temporary-lives.html
and also at the George Mason Fall for the Book MFA Alumni Reading, Sep 23, at 4:30 pm (Dewberry Hall North, Johnson) http://fallforthebook.org/?page_id=979/
Also looking forward to meeting with high school students at TRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-17900353486061281072010-09-07T19:58:00.000-07:002010-09-07T19:58:59.731-07:00Temporary Lives NewsSome lovely, if astonishing news: Temporary Lives has been named a finalist in fiction for the 13th Annual Literary Award in Fiction from the Library of Virginia, along with Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna (recent winner of the Orange Prize) and Josh Weil's The New Valley. Terribly illustrious company. Their books sound awfully interesting. Feel a bit like an impostor. But of course charmed and Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-28589427987530296732010-07-03T14:20:00.000-07:002010-07-04T09:31:26.588-07:00A Fourth of July Post: Against Endless War or War at AllI'd wanted to continue with my AWP posts -- so much to say! -- but realize the 4th is tomorrow and am reminded by The World Can't Wait that we are apparently living in a time -- and a place -- where one gruesome war after another is brought up, sanctioned, and embarked on, while most of the US shops on, in numb consumerism, unable to connect those images on the screen with the sinister bottomlessRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-44315380810965335812010-06-19T19:11:00.000-07:002010-06-19T19:11:42.780-07:00Writers and Readings and Panels at AWP Denver/1So, while everyone else typed their notes up at Denver, on the plane from Denver, and directly post Denver, I wrote mine in my head mostly and find I have them these days as a sort of subterranean constant companion--procrastination is my middle name apparently, I could possibly take up a new career selling it by the pound. I'd like to say I was so wrapped in teaching, writing, reviewing, playingRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-84821622977939963862010-05-23T21:55:00.000-07:002010-05-23T22:01:15.671-07:00Readings and BooksI read a story this cool rainy afternoon at The Writer's Center in Bethesda to a small and intimate group of listeners who braved the dripping rain beside the wonderfully and diversely talented Dan Gutstein, who read a series of variously intense and playful non/fictions from his new book titled Non/Fiction. It's a book to dip into and savor, and it's another I'm adding to my review list for thisRamola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-48462588022628399402010-05-18T20:54:00.000-07:002010-05-18T21:01:05.252-07:00Bree O'MaraIt's been more than a month, I know, and I have so much I've been plotting and planning to write about, but everything is interrupted for this. I can't seem to get over the enormous tragedy of South African Irish writer Bree O' Mara's life being taken, in the recent Libyan plane crash--the one where the lone Dutch boy survived--along, of course, with all else on the plane. I'd not heard of her Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-52698146557288336162010-03-09T19:00:00.000-08:002010-03-09T19:39:48.860-08:00The Book of Light, by Lucille Clifton
<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-59305236713572716492010-02-12T21:16:00.000-08:002010-02-12T21:40:17.988-08:00The Writer as Migrant, by Ha JinEarly in this book of essays, in the Preface actually, Ha Jin states that his “choice of the word “migrant” is meant to be as inclusive as possible—it encompasses all kinds of people who move, or are forced to move, from one country to another, such as exiles, emigrants, immigrants, and refugees,” and reveals his intent to “place the writer in the context of human migrations” in order to “Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-51992098658789334962010-02-08T13:53:00.000-08:002010-02-08T14:19:06.384-08:00Website onlineFinally, the site is online: www.ramolad.com.Now I just have to worry about the Big Snow, and getting in to DC when the Metro is not running above-ground, and the next big storm headed our way tomorrow and a 5-year-old who's excited about two more snow days! (What do you do after romps in the snow, igloos, snow forts, frozen toes, sledding, did I mention frozen toes? (my mitochondria are not Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-16495952014410446512010-02-02T23:03:00.000-08:002010-02-02T23:45:48.687-08:00little writer bitsNo, I'm still not ready to write a new review--not least because I switched from reading one book to three--and gone apparently are the days when I had the time to sit still and read from start to finish--sitting still is a luxury!!Reading, like writing these past weeks continues in tiny little fragments of time.I have been reading Ha Jin's collection of essays The Writer as Migrant on the metro Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-20787755052495069212010-01-14T19:18:00.000-08:002010-01-14T20:16:12.651-08:00Ways to Give Now to HaitiFrom what I read, it seems like the most wanted help is funds for all the groups taking food, clothing, medicine, water to Haiti. So I had to post these two links that came my way, in case anyone is looking for a women's group to donate to, or a quick way to donate online or from a cell phone:http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2010/01/how-you-can-help-in-haiti/http://www.pcworld.com/article/186937/Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-53020701062280254962010-01-11T09:04:00.000-08:002010-01-11T09:30:41.618-08:00Links for WritersWhile I am reading—and reading and reading—and still working on my web site which I hope to have up soon--maybe sometime this month, if I'm lucky--and working a little on publicity for the book, I’ve missed writing on the blog! (I can tell this blog is rapidly evolving into something other than a reviews-only space.) I wanted to share what I’ve been uncovering lately though, and to point to Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-69171649141754322412009-12-16T19:02:00.000-08:002009-12-16T19:38:47.923-08:00Girls Write Now—A Cause CelebreThis past weekend I went up to New York on the train to give a reading and workshop at Girls Write Now, on the joint invitation of GWN’s Stacy Noble and She Writes’ founder, Kamy Wicoff. It was luxury having all that time to read on the train, going and back—I am reading Susan Minot’s Evening, such a beautiful book—but anyway, the workshop: was wonderful.Fifty participants—twenty-five high Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3074335472718097095.post-81395998291658219852009-12-09T09:50:00.000-08:002009-12-16T19:01:41.789-08:00Lucy, by Jamaica KincaidIn April of this year, I went to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to see and hear Jamaica Kincaid talk about a painting she loved, in the American Pictures Distinguished Lectures series.I'd never heard Ms. Kincaid read before, or lecture. I'd read her work, taught her work. Before I saw her, I think I'd had in my mind a picture of a precise, articulate genius whose probing insights and deep Ramola Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02435975360734334241noreply@blogger.com1