ARYA'S WRITING & READING BLOG

The effects of violence in media on the American public is a loaded topic I have not been alone in considering for some time. My perspective is that of an avid consumer of literature and film, a poet and writer who is not mainstream, and someone who is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, which promotes mindfulness and peacefulness. These are the vantage points from which I come while examining my visceral, emotional and intellectual responses to violence via various media.  Monday through Sunday, any viewer can get their fill of blood and gore watching FBI, CSI, Law & Order, Dateline, and many other TV shows that feature true and imagined stories of killings and other atrocities. This is what we go to bed with folks. Bloody murder on our minds, filtering into our nervous system and dreams. In 2007, years before the Las Vegas or Orlando or Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook shootings, New Scientist reported that "by the time the U.S. child starts elementary school he or she will have ...

I'm so grateful to Neda Aria, a Thailand-based writer, artist, researcher and lecturer, for inviting me to do this interview about my writing and writing in general. Neda is a transgressive writer too and features fascinating profiles and essays on the subject of transgressive lit and art on her website. Anyone interesting in what underground writers are doing now should peruse and subscribe to www.nedaaria.info/blog. Enjoy!  https://www.nedaaria.info/post/writer-vs-writer-arya-f-jenkins

I might be wrong in guessing that most writers are rebels--if not out front, open and proud, then in the closet--but I doubt it. Respecting and nurturing your inner rebel is necessary to the writing journey, which has a lot of bumps, many of them in the form of others constantly telling the writer what to do. Well-meaning friends, readers, other writers and critics will always have an opinion about your work. Whether those opinions are good or bad, encouraging or not, should not be taken to heart, but viewed like snow on your shoulder soon to dissipate. Here and there, you might take hints about what direction to go in as a writer, but the meat and potatoes, so to speak, will always be yours to conjure, develop and serve. Trust your gut first and that precious guide that is your true best friend and teacher, your inner rebel. Speaking of rebels, I will soon be moderating a banned book club and I can't wait. First on our list is Alice Walker's classic,  The Color Purple . Other ...

HOMEGROWN TOLEDO CREATIVES is doing great work to support the local, regional and national literary, artistic and musical communities. Tune into WAKT 106.1 FM Wednesday evenings to check out their shows which livestream nationally. On Wednesday, April 6, from 7PM-8PM, Homegrown Toledo Creatives will host a program that will include a segment featuring my recently published novel,  Punk Disco Bohemian,  and poetry by Michelle Reale, an Italian-American poet and Full Professor at Arcadia University in Glenside, Penn. Share the news and tune in! Thank you Homegrown Toledo Creatives and WAKT 106.1 FM Toledo for all you do in support of artists, musicians, poets and writers!! #art #inspiration #bloggerlife #writinglife  #writer Arya F. Jenkins photo

In writing  Punk Disco Bohemian , I hoped to reawaken an interest in the varied, rich and transgressive culture, literature and music of the 1970s, when disco took over the bar scene, especially the gay bar scene.  Disco featured four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines and exciting, sometimes symphonic arrangements (as in the case of Barry White) using electric piano, electric guitar and synthesizers. It spread a carefree and joyously raucous mood across the country that epitomized the gay lifestyle as well as colorful Provincetown, which was a miniature cosmos of the scene in the 70s. The following excerpt from Punk Disco Bohemian  takes place in the Back Room, a prominent, mostly gay male club on Commercial Street, and highlights the music and styles of the era: "One Saturday night, shortly before New Orleans, Maggie and I ran into one of her exes in the Back Room. Tall, lean Jess with jet curly hair danced with his hips like a female, but his glance fell with equ...

Enjoy! https://gayflashfiction.com/

Blue Songs in An Open Key  is comprised of a series of jazz-themed short stories that were commissioned by Jerry Jazz Musician, a premier online jazz zine, and its founder, Joe Maita, and launched with the publication of my short story, "So What," which won the 30th Jerry Jazz Musician Fiction Contest in 2012. Jerry Jazz Musician published more than 20 of my jazz-themed short stories between 2012 and 2018. Blue Songs in An Open Key features 13 of those stories. Like bebop, which inspired the collection, the stories in this collection are meant to jolt and invigorate readers while taking them on a journey outside the norm.  Praise for my book: "These are powerful stories, with appeal to more than jazz aficionados." - Booklist " Her prose weaves many of the compelling characteristics of jazz--its spontaneous beauty, its poetic inspiration, its political essence, its cultural complexity --into an inventive fabric that so effectively envelops her reader in stories...