Proud to be part of Versal Magazine

It has been a wonderful experience this fall to be part of Versal magazine, to be involved, as I currently am, in reading submissions for issue 8, submerged in the reading of poems by writers all over the globe. And to be part of a wonderful group. It was great to go to Amsterdam in Holland last spring and read at the Sugar Factory, and then to return last week to Amsterdam and then to Utrecht to read with the great group of authors and musicians pictured at the left here: me (top left), rufo quintavalle (top right), jobic(next step down, left), anna arov (our fearless MC and organisatrice of Salon des Mots, at right), john betsch (next step down left), amy hollowell (at his right), unknown blonde (sorry, we chatted, but I forget her name, does it start with an M?, and she wasn't performing!!! bottom left) and arturo from Aruba (bottom right). We had a great night of poetry, prose, jazz, wine, conversation, laughter.

It is not easy to make people work together. And when it comes to art, the way people's brains shoot roots out every which way can make teamwork even more difficult. So that is why Versal is surprising me, too--for the group is vey tightly knit, thanks to the efforts of Megan Garr, and the lines of dialogue are open.

I think it is for this reason Versal keeps finding itself lauded for its accomplishments and on its past issues (I know, I was not part of the staff for these, but I am the proud contributor of translations of poems by Albane Gellé in Versal 7). For example, this fall Versal has not only been awarded a Best Of Amsterdam prize, but was just reviewed online at New Pages. Check out what others have to say about the magazine! http://www.newpages.com/magazinestand/litmags/#Versal

Oh, and if you have not yet submitted, you still have a chance. So get on that!!!! (Dust off the ol' manuscripts on the shelf and fling some pages our way!)

We're (and I am) looking forward to reading you!