ARYA'S WRITING & READING BLOG

A Courtship of Winds Literary Journal is a beautifully curated venue for diverse and lyrical poetry. Its summer issue includes a narrative that came to me one early morning, its visuals as clear as if I was watching a film unfold before me. The editor, William Ray, introduces the summer issue with these words: "Poetry in this issue depicts subjects as varied as suicide and fraught family relations to those moments of grace we all live for and marvel at. Fiction in this issue is unusually varied, from lyrical and unconventional pieces to fine conventional storytelling."  Once again I am proud to support a literary journal that is on the right side of history. The summer issue includes an essay that elaborates on that and an exciting array of poets that includes Marc Jacobs, Alexander Payne Morgan, Martina Reisz Newberry, Emma Goldman-Sherman and Terry Trowbridge. Here's my narrative: https://www.thecourtshipofwinds.org/arya-f-jenkins

fifth wheel press editor-in-chief nat baum has compiled a unique and exciting digital anthology titled 'motherboard', which includes my noir prose poem, le rouge a levres--sorry, this medium does not facilitate my accenting French words--and a multitude of innovative and outstanding works by poets such as Bethany Cutkomp,  D.W. Baker, Flossie Hedges, Tyler Gillespie, Meagan Kane, Gemma Cooper-Novack and many others. Explore the anthology here. https://fifthwheelpress.com/anth9-backend/jenkins1 The letter from the editor-in-chief introducing the works in 'motherboard' is worth sharing as well for its timely and courageous declarations, which this writer celebrates. https://fifthwheelpress.com/anth9-backend/letter-raum fifth wheel press accepts submissions from "individuals who belong to the queer, trans, and/or gender variant communities." It does not accept AI-generated work and is currently open for blog submissions, meaning, only interviews or reviews.

Feeling overwhelmed? Join the club. Feeling overwhelmed right now is normal, but sometimes a good book can lighten the load. Books, as any avid reader knows, have the power to change, transform and enlighten us. I feel intensely, therefore I write and read. Books help me to stay on track emotionally and spiritually. They are my escape to  what is important and valuable in life and art. The books I'm going to recommend are wildly diverse, although all are considered inspirational. I've read some but not all of my recommendations. With two exceptions these books were all published recently.  There are numerous authors not mentioned whose entire oeuvre I find inspirational, consistently yielding lightness and offering rare vantage points and light-- Ann Patchett and Amy Tan come to mind immediately. Reading virtually any of the many works produced by either of these authors is likely to put you in a state of wonder and awe and to bring you powerfully into a sense of your own co...

Note to artists and writers: those elements in your work that bother people the most are probably the very ones you should cultivate. In my novel, Punk Disco Bohemian , I set out to rub people the wrong way w a transgressive approach to plot, for one. I wanted people to think differently about time, space and memory, and even alerted the reader about that at the start of my book. Sure enough, it was the very aspect two reviewers, one a transgressive writer herself, seized upon as the novel's weakness.  In the long run the criticisms please me as contradiction is necessary to any conversation about art and, personally, I don't believe anything that is praised exclusively is likely to have a long life beyond the cultural moment in which it was conceived.  I've found and continue to find that utter fearlessness and constant experimentation are the keys to growing artistically. Not everything is going to work, but if you don't go off the deep end from time to time, you won...

House of Gucci , a two and a half hour operatic-style extravaganza, is currently streaming on Netflix and is worth watching exclusively for Lady Gaga 's performance as the lead character Patricia Reggiani , a real life personage (still alive). The 2021 film, directed by Scott Ridley , is a take off on a scandalous true story about the Italian fashion empire and has a big-name cast that includes Adam Driver as Maurizio Guzzi , Al Pacino as his uncle Aldo Gucci , Jeremy Irons as Maurizio's father Rodolfo Gucci , and Jared Leto as Paolo Gucci , Maurizio's cousin. Whether you take this film seriously or as an invigorating dose of camp, replete with memorable disco songs and 70s fashion and styles, it's Lady Gaga's acting and scenes you will want to watch, as she simply steals the entire movie. An espresso and Napoleon while watching House of Gucci would have surely added to the fun. A critical PS: I've told myself I will not make fun of other actors or neg...

  The Assistant on Netflix is a 2019 movie starring Julia Garner ( Ozark ) in a harrowing role as a young aspiring producer named Jane who is hugely overworked and underlooked in a male-driven company. The film, which runs about an hour and a half, takes the viewer through the complicated tedium of Jane's days and her struggles not to become overwhelmed by petty and gross injustices as she starts to uncover her boss's sexual secrets. I had to double and triple check the setting/date of the movie which so accurately depicted horrors I endured working as an admin assistant for various companies, including non-profits, in the late 80s and early 90s, when I was fresh out of a little ivy league college and only knew I wanted mostly to write, and primarily make money so I could do what I wanted artistically. To realize that this is a present-day story in which nothing, absolutely nothing has changed from what I knew working dead end jobs in the early 90s brought a double punch to...