Sundress Publications announces the fifth episode of the podcast, Shitty First Drafts. A podcast made for, and by, writers, the show playfully investigates the creative processes of different artists to determine how a finished draft gets its polish.
In Episode 5, our very own Erin Elizabeth Smith hosts Brynn Martin and Stephanie Phillips at her home where Erin opens up about how reading a lot of poetry helped enlighten her to how great poems are structured and the devices they incorporate to become successful poems. Stephanie, Brynn, and Erin also reminisce about all the good times they’ve had together and discuss her almost 20-year-old poem. And, of course, they also play with Erin’s kittens!
While not entertaining kittens or other company, Erin tells us that she spends her free time working as founder and Managing Editor of Sundress Publications, Creative Director of SAFTA, and founder of Stirring. She is also a Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Tennessee and a Professional Sheep Wrangler at Firefly Farms. And we are delighted to hear that her newest collection of poems Down will be released in fall 2019 with Agape Editions.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the Managing Editor of Sundress Publications. Her work has appeared in journals including Guernica, Crab Orchard Review, Ecotone, and Mid-American. Smith teaches in the English Department at the University of Tennessee.
Stirringis excited to announce our fifth annual themed issue: Stirring Through the Years. We are calling on all past contributors of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews, and art to send us their new work. Stirring was proud to publish your work then, and we want to show the world what you are up to now. This issue is meant to shine the spotlight on the diverse voices we’ve witnessed the past two decades. We celebrated with you in the past, celebrate with us for the future.
There is no better person to guest edit this issue than our founder, Erin Elizabeth Smith. We would not be able to call ourselves the oldest, continuously published, online literary journal run by women if not for her. Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the Managing Editor of Sundress Publications. Her work has appeared in journals including Guernica, Crab Orchard Review, Ecotone, and Mid-American, and her third full-length collection, Down: The Alice Poems, will be released by Agape Editions in 2019. Smith teaches in the English Department at the University of Tennessee.
Please send up to five poems in the body of an email to Luci Brown at stirring.poetry@gmail.com with the subject line TWENTY YEARS. Send fiction submissions to Shaun Turner at stirring.fiction@gmail.com and nonfiction submissions to Gabe Montesanti at stirring.nonfiction@gmail.com with the subject line TWENTY YEARS. Send art to Stephanie Phillips at stirring.artphoto@gmail.com with the subject line TWENTY YEARS. If you have a book review written for the work of a former Stirring contributor, please send the written review to Katie Culligan at stirring.reviews@gmail.com with the subject line TWENTY YEARS.
When submitting to this issue, we also kindly ask that you let us know when you were published in Stirring (month and year would be ideal) so we can do our best to celebrate your past and present work. You may refer to our general submission guidelines for more specific, technical details here. The deadline for submissions is September 1st, 2019.
Some say, lying is done with words & silence,
but it is also done with küchen, streusel—
something scattered or sprinkled:
flour, cinnamon, butter, sugar, crème, nut meats, cherries, fat—
all the makings of happy marriages or happier funerals.
Simple cakes, these—though the baker knows better.
Yeast & milk, the freud-und-leid, mixed together to form dough,
which though silky to the touch, takes heft & might to make smooth.
In the kitchen, the baker kneads by hand, flipping & punching
until every knot turns soft & velvet.
Leave it still, heart-warmed, until it doubles.
Zuckerküchen assumes nothing.
Flat cakes for oblong unions, lopsided loves & slivered luck.
Most of the time, it’s more crumb than cake;
though sometimes—a puff pastry or short crust foundation,
a dough formed from shortening, more pie than küchen—
it’s up to the baker to decide: Sweet is sweet.
Years ago, a Silesian baker tied her apron strings,
pulling rolled pastries & butter-sugar tartlets,
veined & studded with pockets of cinnamon,
out of the warmth of her oven—to get to a husband’s heart,
travel a path from his tongue, & when he wrongs you,
invent Käseküchen; soft cheese will mask the salt.
Emboss it with cherries. Show him how sweet it is to sit at your table.
When he strays & comes back to you, celebrate the ripe fruit of reconciliation,
a bit sharp, sour-sweet as the reddest of strawberries in your famous Erdbeerküchen.
Lace it with an edge of whipped cream—
forget the way the crust crumbles under the tines of your dessert fork.
Later, use a flat pan for a simple confection: Baumküchen, whose layers are the rings of a tree,
gone from acorn to oak in the oven—
mature & ripe, its filling pinwheels vanilla, nutmeg-glazed apple slices,
the pinch of occasional jealousies & the remaining scars of old fights,
strident as an unexpected spike of ginger or cinnamon—
softened by a flutter of cardamom &
a skillful piping of sweet white icing on the top.
What’s left, in the kitchen,
after the husbands have been wedded, forgiven & buried,
after the kids have moved out &
the guests have come & gone:
just crumbs, & the memory of desserts not always sweet. Beerdigungsküchen; the baker grieves.
This selection comes from Allie Marini Batts’ collection Before Fire: Divorce Poems, available now from ELJ Publications! Purchase your copy here!
Allie Marini holds degrees from Antioch University of Los Angeles & New College of Florida, meaning she can explain deconstructionism, but cannot perform simple math. Her work has been a finalist for Best of the Net & nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is managing editor for the NonBinary Review, Unbound Octavo, & Zoetic Press, and co-edits for Lucky Bastard Press with her man, performance poet B Deep. She has previously served on the masthead for Lunch Ticket, Spry Literary Journal, The Weekenders Magazine, Mojave River Review & Press, & The Bookshelf Bombshells. Allie is the author of Unmade & Other Poems (Beautysleep Press), You Might Curse Before You Bless (ELJ Publications) wingless, scorched & beautiful (Imaginary Friend Press), Before Fire (ELJ Publications), This Is How We End (Bitterzoet), Pictures From The Center Of The Universe (Paper Nautilus, winner of the Vella Prize), Cliffdiving (Nomadic Press), And When She Tasted of Knowledge (Nomadic Press), Southern Cryptozoology: A Field Guide To Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Hyacinth Girl Press), Here Comes Hell {dancing girl press}, & Heart Radicals, a collaborative collection with Les Kay, Janeen Pergrin Rastall & Sandra Marchetti (ELJ Publications). Allie rarely sleeps, and her mother has hypothesized that she is actually a robot fueled by Diet Coke & Sri Racha. She met George R.R. Martin & did not die. Proof of immortality? Not sure, but it does make a compelling argument…Find her on the web: https://www.facebook.com/AllieMariniBatts or @kiddeternity.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake, 2011) and The Fear of Being Found, which will be re-released from Zoetic Press later this year.Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee. She serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and The Wardrobe.
In September 2014, NPR writer and critic Juan Vidal wrote an essay whose titular question, “Where Have All the Poets Gone?” provided a platform for various musings regarding the political state of contemporary American poetics. According to Vidal, “For centuries, poets were the mouthpieces railing loudly against injustice. They gave voice to the hardships and evils facing people everywhere… What has happened?” He further suggested that poets writing today have failed to create work that carries the same “weight” as the poems written by their literary forefathers.
Should American poets still be trying to write “Howl”? Are Neruda, Kerouac, Baraka, and the rest of the Beat Generation the only viable prototypes for political literary expression in American culture? How does the influx of identities, voices, and life experiences that are now expressed in mainstream American letters potentially create and communicate new political vision(s) — vision that may sound or appear different from Ginsberg’s poetic/political tour de force, but is no less necessary, compelling, challenging, or iconoclastic? What do we even mean when we talk about the weight of a political work? How is that weight both carried and expressed by poetry today?
To address these questions, Sundress Publications is now accepting poetry submissions for a new anthology on the politics of identity, to showcase the substantial amount of political writing that is being done today. This print anthology, edited by Fox Frazier-Foley, Mary Stone, and Erin Elizabeth Smith, will include multimedia features: we are open to submissions in audio/visual media (e.g., video files of ASL poetry, audio files of spoken word poetry, etc).
This anthology is looking for submissions that contemplate ideas about race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, educational background, different life experiences, etc. and how our identities shape and complicate how we see ourselves in the world.
To submit, please send 3-5 poems and a bio (no longer than 75 words) to anthology@sundresspublications.com. Previously published work will be considered. If you send previously published work, please note where it first appeared.
Submissions for this project are rolling.
Deadline: December 31, 2014, at 12:00 midnight PST.
Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to announce that they are one of the sponsors for Paulk+Co’s “Torsos and TaTas” First Friday event. The event, which is also sponsored by Mighty Mud, Downtown Wine and Spirits and Gage Talent will take place on First Friday, November 7, 2014 between 6PM and 10PM at Paulk+Co’s located at 510 Williams Street, Downtown Knoxville, TN 37917.
A portion of all sales during the evening will be donated to BreastStrokes, an organization which provides financial support to female cancer patients through the creation of empowering art featuring the painted busts of women whose lives, in one way or another, have been affected by cancer.
In a unique mix of fashion, spoken word, and art, “Torsos and TaTas” will feature the spectacular Raku ceramic torsos created by John McRae, a Professor of Architecture at UT, and musical guest Cindi Alpert & the Corduroy Jazz Trio;
Gage Models wearing custom Couture Corsets created just for this event by special guest Royal Peasantry, from Asheville, NC, will circulate through the gallery, as SAFTA poets Erin Elizabeth Smith, Luci Brown, and Lyric Dunagan present “Pop-Up Poetry” throughout the evening.
The community is cordially invited to join us in this unique celebration of the female form benefiting Breaststrokes. Free, covered parking is available in City Parking, adjacent to Paulk+Co. In addition to being an artist studio specializing in Concrete, Stone and Metal Fabrications, Paulk+Co is a gallery that showcases local and regional artists (Find them online at Paulk+Co.com).
Additional participant information can be found at:
KNOXVILLE, TN – Sundress Academy for the Arts, a branch of Sundress Publications, will be hosting an event devoted to Writing and Cooking the South, which will take place on Saturday, May 31, 2014 from 1:00PM – 7:00PM. A multi-genre workshop, the event will focus on the elements of what is considered “Southern” writing. Participants will discover how to incorporate elements of Southern mythos and history into their own storytelling. The workshop will be followed by a cooking demo that includes a number of traditional dishes from various regions of the American South. Participants will then enjoy a three-course dinner where they can sample the prepared recipes. The cost for this day-long workshop is $75.00.
Novice and advanced cooks and writers are welcome. The event is an opportunity for writers to integrate the rich mythologies and histories of the American South into their work and share a meal of traditional and re-imagined food. Participants will have the chance to learn from experienced and talented writers, including Dr. Erin Elizabeth Smith and Dr. Rhonda Lott.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press, 2008) and The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake Press, 2011). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She earned her PhD in Creative Writing at the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi and teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee. She also serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.
Rhonda Lott, an alumna of the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, recently earned her doctorate in creative writing with an emphasis in poetry from Texas Tech University. She has worked with Sundress Publications since 2008 as both an editor and artist-in-residence with contributions of poetry broadsides and book covers. Her writing has appeared internationally and locally in a variety of venues, including Hayden’s Ferry Review, cream city review, and The Los Angeles Review, as well as the Knoxville Film Festival 7-Day Shootout.
Leah Browning is the author of three nonfiction books for teens and pre-teens and three chapbooks. Her most recent chapbook, In the Chair Museum, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2013. Browning’s fiction, poetry, essays, and articles have previously appeared in publications including Queen’s Quarterly, Queen’s Feminist Review, 42opus, The Saint Ann’s Review, Blood Orange Review, 300 Days of Sun, Corium Magazine, Heron Tree, The Citron Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Dressing Room Poetry Journal, and Per Contra, as well as on a broadside from Broadsided Press, on postcards from the program Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, and in several anthologies. Her fourth chapbook, Out of Body, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. In addition to writing, Browning serves as editor of the Apple Valley Review. Her personal website is located at www.leahbrowning.com.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press 2008) and The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake Press 2011). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.
After a glass of wine, it no longer seems possible that he’s dead. You weren’t close, toward the end of his life, and it’s been months since he has floated into your thoughts, unbidden, out of the blue.
Now, sitting on the back porch, you can remember every line of his last letter. He had sounded at peace then, just a few short weeks before.
The wisteria is in bloom, with its thick, fragrant bunches of lavender flowers, and the lemon tree is heavy with fruit. At sunset, the dead seem close by,
present, lingering in your peripheral vision. And for a moment, in the golden light, this has to be heaven, because how could anyone truly be dead, here amidst so much beauty?
Leah Browning is the author of three nonfiction books for teens and pre-teens (Capstone Press) and three chapbooks: In the Chair Museum (Dancing Girl 2013), Picking Cherries in the Española Valley (Dancing Girl Press, 2010) and Making Love to the Same Man for Fifteen Years (Big Table Publishing, 2009). Browning’s fiction, poetry, essays, and articles have previously appeared in a variety of publications, including Queen’s Quarterly, Queen’s Feminist Review, 42opus, The Saint Ann’s Review, Blood Orange Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Brink Magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and Per Contra, as well as on a broadside from Broadsided Press, on postcards from the program Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, and in several anthologies. In addition to writing, Browning serves as editor of the Apple Valley Review. Her personal website is located at www.leahbrowning.com.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press 2008) and The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake Press 2011). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.
Things begin to fall apart. The kids are sick, the car’s engine won’t turn over, all the light bulbs are breaking. My fingers swell in the night. It’s the salt, the sugar, the heat— but it seems symptomatic of some larger failing.
Autumn. It’s been raining for days and days, and she’s back in the hospital again—is it the third time, the fourth? I can’t help thinking of the skirts she used to wear, the position of her hand on the banister, all the secret codes and signs.
The old life—the two of them holding hands on the porch, children running on the summer grass— did it all melt like ice under the smoldering weight of the words in her head? Or did it ever exist at all?
Outside, the rain falls heavily, like sparrows striking the roof. Her body is so slight, so fragile— and yet we are all silent, standing here in the dark, waiting once more for even a hint of breath, or a soft rush of wings.
Leah Browning is the author of three nonfiction books for teens and pre-teens (Capstone Press) and three chapbooks: In the Chair Museum (Dancing Girl 2013), Picking Cherries in the Española Valley (Dancing Girl Press, 2010) and Making Love to the Same Man for Fifteen Years (Big Table Publishing, 2009). Browning’s fiction, poetry, essays, and articles have previously appeared in a variety of publications, including Queen’s Quarterly, Queen’s Feminist Review, 42opus, The Saint Ann’s Review, Blood Orange Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Brink Magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and Per Contra, as well as on a broadside from Broadsided Press, on postcards from the program Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, and in several anthologies. In addition to writing, Browning serves as editor of the Apple Valley Review. Her personal website is located at www.leahbrowning.com.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press 2008) and The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake Press 2011). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.
Leah Browning is the author of three nonfiction books for teens and pre-teens (Capstone Press) and three chapbooks: In the Chair Museum (Dancing Girl 2013), Picking Cherries in the Española Valley (Dancing Girl Press, 2010) and Making Love to the Same Man for Fifteen Years (Big Table Publishing, 2009). Browning’s fiction, poetry, essays, and articles have previously appeared in a variety of publications, including Queen’s Quarterly, Queen’s Feminist Review, 42opus, The Saint Ann’s Review, Blood Orange Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Brink Magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and Per Contra, as well as on a broadside from Broadsided Press, on postcards from the program Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, and in several anthologies. In addition to writing, Browning serves as editor of the Apple Valley Review. Her personal website is located at www.leahbrowning.com.
Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the author of two full-length collections, The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press 2008) and The Naming of Strays (Gold Wake Press 2011). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Mid-American, 32 Poems, Zone 3, Gargoyle, Tusculum Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She teaches a bit of everything in the English Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.
