NEW POEMS AND NONFICTION:
2022
2021
“A Long Time from Burdick Street.” Essay. North Meridian Review. Fall 2021
Poem at Feral: A Journal of Poetry & Art
3 Linked Micro Nonfiction at MacQueen’s Quinterly
Poem at The Orchards Poetry Journal (page 95 in online version)
2020
The blog tour for Rooted and Winged has begun:
Review Tales – Luanne Castle Interview
The Bookish Elf – Luanne Castle Interview
The Bookworm – Luanne Castle guest post
Anthony Avina’s Blog – Luanne Castle Interview
The Book Connection – Luanne Castle Interview
Celtic Lady’s Reviews – Luanne Castle Guest Post
The Soapy Violinist – Luanne Castle Guest Post
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Harbor Review has published a review by Carla McGill of Rooted and Winged. You can find it here: Harbor Review: Rooted and Winged Review by Carla McGill
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To celebrate my new poetry collection, I am holding a prose and poetry writing contest! Eligibility ends on July 15, so read the guidelines now: Rooted and Winged Writing Contest Guidelines
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I am happy to announce the debut of my newest poetry collection Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press, 2022).
—Diane Seuss (2022, Pulitzer for poetry)
The presale ends on July 15! The number of copies of books sold during the presale determines the press run, so if you are interested in my book, it would be much better to purchase it during the presale.
As an added motivation (during the presale period only), for each book sold, $5 will be donated in the purchaser’s name to Liberty Wildlife, an amazing wildlife rehab center in Phoenix (presale purchasers who provide me with their name and email address will get an email receipt from LW at the end of the presale period).
Preorder here: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/rooted-and-winged-by-luanne-castle/
Rooted and Winged is a fitting title for this collection of poems that plant themselves in reality but often hint at the surreal.
–Karen Paul Holmes, author of No Such Thing as Distance.
To whet your appetite, here is a poem from Rooted and Winged:
Tuesday Afternoon at Magpie’s Grill
Flickering afternoon light slatted and parsed.
At 3PM, the booths empty except for me
and my notebook.
Would I notice if not for my companion,
my need to recognize and remember?
Without a record, will I hear the ice crashing
into the sink, the Dodger talk at the bar
at the end of the room under the Miller Lite
neon confident and beckoning?
My mother used to say about me,
In one ear and out the other, as if the words
flowed through me without stopping,
without truly entering me, leaving little
effect, as if I had no memory
of all the little parental transgressions.
Why am I not under the sycamore I spot
through the blinds in this Tuesday sunshine
listening to the very song with the shady tree?
What have I done with my life? When
I should have written a poem, I didn’t.
When I did, I didn’t get it quite right.
How can a poem do so many things:
wishing for the shade and thirsty for a beer,
feeling an urge to move my pen and noting
the tiny feet and brush of cuticle,
the solitary fly on my bare arm, while
imagining the chattering of the birds that swoop
from sycamore to jacaranda as if the parking lot
and dumpsters and broken bottles don’t exist.
No matter what I notice,
no matter what I record, I will never
capture the ease of wind-filled wings,
tail feathers a translucent backlit fan,
as my hollow bones jettison the detritus
to fly upward against the source.
Recently published:
Poetry
Poem at Tipton Poetry Journal: “Thank you for meeting me for coffee,” a Little Red Riding Hood poem
Prose
A Long Time from Burdick Street. North Meridian Review. Fall 2021
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Luanne Castle’s KIN TYPES has been named a 2018 Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award.
Read the official press release here.
Kin Types, published in 2017 by Finishing Line Press, is a collection of lyric poetry, prose poetry, and flash prose that imaginatively retells the lives of private individuals from previous generations. Using family history research, the writer has reconstructed the stories of women and men from Michigan to Illinois to the Netherlands. Read together, the pieces create a history of women dealing with infant mortality, vanity, housewife skills, divorce, secret abortion, the artist versus mother dilemma, mysterious death, wife beating, and a brave heroine saving a family’s home.
Her debut poetry collection, Doll God, winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Poetry Award, studies traces of the spirit world in human-made and natural objects–a Japanese doll, a Palo Verde tree, a hummingbird. Her exploration leads the reader between the twin poles of nature and creations of the imagination in dolls, myth, and art.
You can read excerpts from Doll God and Kin Types, as well as samples of Luanne’s other writing at Samples of Luanne’s Writing, or read her latest blog entries at www.writersite.org.