The Blue Heron Speaks Featured Author for November 2016 is Connie Post!

Welcome to the November edition of Blue Heron Speaks! We are proud to shine a spotlight on the work of our featured author, Connie Post. Connie’s voice beckons us to go deeply into her words and images. There is a magic to these subtle lines. We learn what it means to connect with the sacredness of a stranger. We are prompted to engage with nature as our wise mentor. These poems are meant to be read, slowly, and to be enjoyed several times. There are layers of meaning and nuance to uncover here. I hope that you will return to this feature in the month of November, and reflect on how the earth is changing for us – a display of quiet transformation. There is a certain gentleness, of going inward, which autumn invites.

To read two sample poems from Connie Post’s full-length poetry collection, Floodwater (Glass Lyre Press, 2014), please visit the Blue Heron Speaks page on our site.

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(photo credit: Ronna Leon)

Connie Post served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California (2005 to 2009). Her work has appeared in CalyxThe Big MuddyComstock ReviewSlipstreamSpoon River Poetry ReviewThe Pedestal MagazineValparaiso Poetry Review, and Verse Daily. Her chapbook, And When the Sun Drops, was the 2012 Fall Aurorean’s Editor’s Choice Award. Her work has received praise from Al Young, Ursula LeGuin, and Ellen Bass. She has been short listed for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize, The Muriel Craft Bailey awards (Comstock Review), Lois Cranston Memorial Awards (Calyx), Blood Root Literary Magazine, and the Gary Gildner Award (I 70 Review). Her first full length book, Floodwater, was released by Glass Lyre Press in 2014 and won the Lyrebird award. She is the winner of the 2009 Caesura Poetry Award, and most recently, the 2016 Crab Creek Poetry Award.

Floodwater (Glass Lyre Press, 2014)

Available on Amazon

Available online at Barnes and Noble

SPECIAL OFFER: For the Month of November, Glass Lyre Press is offering a promotional offer on Floodwater, if you order directly through the press. Send an e-mail to publisher@glasslyrepress.com. Price is $12.00 INCLUDING shipping and Handling. Just note “Floodwater Promotional Purchase for November” in the e-mail. Once the book is sent, the publisher will send a Pay Pal invoice to your e-mail address.

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The Blue Heron Speaks Featured Author for May is Tobi Alfier

Welcome to the May spotlight of the Blue Heron Speaks Featured Author page! Our featured poet this month is writer, editor, and publisher, Tobi Alfier.

Some poems engage the mind with quiet song, with imagery that flows seamlessly from one line to the next. Tobi Alfier does this, quite skillfully, in her writing. With each offering, we witness beautiful, languid paintings of verse – each line, a brushstroke. I hope you enjoy the narrative path of each of the 3 poems shared on the Blue Heron Speaks Page of our site. These are eloquent, evocative poems of reverie, love, and memory. Alfier reminds us that nature sings to us every day. These poems will call to you, and stay with you, long after the first reading.

Photo of Tobi alone

Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and a Best of the Net nominee. Her poems have appeared in The Chaffin Journal, Gargoyle, Hawai’i Pacific Review, The Los Angeles Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Town Creek Poetry, and other print and online journals in the United States and overseas. Her most current chapbooks are The Coincidence of Castles, from Glass Lyre Press, and Romance and Rust, from Blue Horse Press. Down Anstruther Way is forthcoming from FutureCycle Press. Along with her husband, Jeffrey Alfier, she is the co-editor and co-publisher of San Pedro River Review. You may reach Tobi at sprreview@gmail.com.

Romance and Rust (Blue Horse Press, 2015)

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The Coincidence of Castles (Glass Lyre Press, 2014)

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