ARYA'S WRITING & READING BLOG

Thanks to Reverie Magazine for featuring my poem, "Recuerdos de un vuelo," "Memories of a Flight," about my family's exodus from Peru in the 60s. https://www.magazinereverie.com/post/recuerdos-de-un-vuelo

Do you ever feel you can't wait, I mean really not wait for a magazine, a quarterly, that usually gifts you with everything literary you need, especially during the chokehold of winter, only to finally come upon it and find that, like a friend you once truly believed in, that magazine is actually totally devoid of wit, allure and promise, everything you lust for, and is really no more than a banal reminder of the quality of the world in which you are generally steeped. Then, just as you are about to toss away this streak of bad luck you once cherished and normally read from cover to cover, you come upon something fresh and unique, a funny, engaging, warm story that page by page takes you deeper into yourself and further away, until you are lost once more, or rather, found in the paradise of language.               Photos by Arya-Francesca Jenkins

It's not often that kindness is associated with art. More often than not, the artist is historically a fickle being riddled by angst, sometimes mad, quirky at best, cruel at worst. The artist is to be forgiven. She or he is after all toeing the line of super-humanity, stretching her or his limits for the sake of art. In a pivotal scene in Maestro , the stunning recent film by Bradley Cooper in which he plays Leonard Bernstein, and Carey Mulligan, his wife Felicia Montealegre, Bernstein's wife imparts one word to her children, her most important legacy, as she lays dying of cancer. "Kindness, kindness, kindness," she repeats, as if that is all that matters in life and death. It is a deeply touching and telling moment. Maestro is about the complicated relationship between Bernstein, who was bisexual if not homosexual, and the conflicts this generated in his marriage to Montealegre, a Costa Rican actress who performed on Broadway, bore Bernstein three children, and endu

Reverie Magazine, an international magazine run by students at Boston College, has offered me a lovely platform for several poems to date, the most recent, bilingual, and inspired by my childhood in Talara, Peru.  "Caracol, Caracol," and "Me Voy" came to me first in Spanish, which was my Colombian mother's language and the language of my childhood. The language of these poems is simple and fairly easy to translate to English. I'm deeply grateful to have a literary platform for this experiment. Thanks to Alexis and all the editors at Reverie. https://www.magazinereverie.com/post/caracol-caracol-y-me-voy

Happy Fall! Here's a short list of recent lit acceptances in case any of you want to read new work. The Dissident Voice will be featuring my poem, "Adriana," on Sept. 24, 2023. The Ekphrastic Review accepted my poem on the life and art of photographer Francesca Woodman. The poem's title is, "After Francesca Woodman's 'then at one point I did not need to translate the notes: they went directly to my hands,' Providence, Rhode Island, 1976" -- scheduled to post this Oct. 4. Reverie Magazine, an international journal, accepted two poems: "Prison Poem" and "Duende," the latter on the life and art of jazz composer and trumpeter Miles Davis. The first poem, which will also be accompanied by one of my photographs, is scheduled for publication late today. And here it is.   https://www.magazinereverie.com/post/prison-poem "Duende" is scheduled for publication in Reverie Magazine on October 2. The Bookends Review has accepted m

This interview with Mankh (Walter Harris III),  the publisher of AllBook Books, which published my first chapbook, Jewel Fire , took place a few days ago. We discuss my latest chapbook, Singing in the Dark , poetry, writing, activism and meditation. https://lnkd.in/gzzRpe4w