Inner Circle

Featured Blog: Habits of Hestia by Kristin Berger

2007-04-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

The Habits of Hestia

There is something about a kitchen full of food
greeting you at 6 a.m. -- a greedy comfort --
the coffee pot ready to brew and a tough cut of beef
all night shift-shaping its proteins in the pickling brine,
trading secrets you thought were only shared
in your long-gone grandmothers' kitchens.

Someone else starts the assembling
of cabbage wedges, carrots, onion and oil drizzle,
sets potatoes and eggs and beets to boil
in their separate copper pots, each rumbling awake
at the same swipe of the second hand.
The family must taste this cooking-cloud in their dreams.

Your lone cup of coffee.
The radio news is companion
to sharpened knives, oven mitts and the curtain
just parted for the clover owling their faces
towards the source. This might save you,

allotting left-overs for neighbors
like a mother-in-law. The hearth-witch doesn't apologize
for her old-world stove-sauna, for setting fire
to appetites, for waking up the drowsy.
She chips the plates on purpose,
sets the table, and waits.

About the Poet
Kristin Berger lives in Portland, OR with her husband and two young children. Her poetry and essays have appeared or is forthcoming, among others, in The Wild Goose Poetry Review, Under the Sun, and online at mamazine.com, Hipmama.com and Hotmetalpress.net. "Habits of Hestia" was originally published in the anthology of Portland women writers, VoiceCatcher.

Featured Blog: The Night You Lay on A Bed of Spikes by Erica Miriam Fabri

2007-04-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Night You Lay in a Bed of Spikes

It was just after every man you knew was killed in the war.

It was the same year you refused to wear widow s weeds.

You refused to jump into a fire pit, to join a man in a pile of ash.

It was a time when you should ve been growing babies,
watering them, turning their limbs
under a florescent light in the greenhouse.

But the monsoon came on cycle
and all you could remember was your mother dying:
the way she stared at little doe-eyed you,
then pressed the black metal statue of His tiny body
hard into your palm, saying: make love to Him. only to Him.

They wanted you to wear sequins for eyes.
They wanted you to duck your chin to the floor,
to put oily kisses on their curling toes.

You said No. The way a woman never said No.
No, to a lump-cut of stone. No, to a gold dress.
No, to a man. No, to a man. No, to any man but Him.

You took to the road: wrote song after radiant song.
You tramped to the Forest of Honey:
did the circle-dance with the cow-herding girls.

It went tick tick tick
as you snapped the
silver straps on your ankles,

clack clack clack
as you swung the beads
at your throat,

thump-ah thump-ah
went the clay pot of indigo
on your head

your robes snagged your nose ring,
hair knot slipped loose,

you looked like a jade, a scanty wench waltzing in the compost,

that s why they did it:

lined up the spikes in your sheets
one by one
like alloy scales on a fish s back.

You ran for the bed anyway
dove for that stretcher
no matter how the cuts would sting,
the bloody mess it was bound to make:

it was what you d been waiting for all day
what you d been kicking for, clapping for:

the room where you could be
eclipsed on the mattress
by Him.

But, just when you collapsed
the curve of your back onto the cot,
when you spread out the skin
that wrapped tight and brown
over your hips,

it was then
that He turned the razors
into rose petals:

Silly Girl, you screamed
and swirled
in the red stain
of their powder,
sweet-smelling
and slippery,

but no sharper
than a thistle.

About the Poet
Erica Miriam Fabri is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and received her MFA in poetry from The New School. She is the author of the chapbook, High Heel Magazine and her work has appeared in The Texas Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Good Foot Magazine and Paper Street. She currently teaches creative writing at The School of Visual Arts and for the City University of New York. www.ericafabri.com

Featured Blog: Stifling by Nanette Rayman Rivera

2007-04-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

Stifling

In this amalgamate and anomalous light
she pleasures in her body, placing herself
near the hyacinth branches, naked before
the full-length mirror, fingers shelled

around the budding globe of her belly.
It is spring and the air and mulberry congeal
by symmetry, this woman lost in the cocoonery
of mothering and the dream of the archaic

fostering of silkworms retelling her own private
status, the spring outside and in, posing as if
concentric within the other. She read
that it begins with the minuscule pearly seeds
women pour into delicate hand-sewn sachets,

hands them snug to their corseted breasts.
Women as incubators, their bodies nurturing
those nascent silkworms, waiting for the first
shoots of l amorie blanc to sprout, nourishment

assured. Placed in their own cocoonery, the
roar of their munching like a hammering monsoon
amidst a shrunken, deciduous woodland, delicious
sound, the sound a mother loves to hear, the

sound of growth, expelling all effluence, raised
to an unalloyed sheerness, clear as a ready white grape.
And you, woman, mother for a full ten days, mother
who redeploys according to need, to nurture again,

your need safely hidden and tiptoeing through
the universe as the silkworms you've birthed
have faded to nothing, like blue sky for clouds.
Medicinal light of afternoon as you remove

the cocoons from brushwood ladders, as you
steam them so the butterflies won't burst
through their shells demolishing all the fragile
spun thread, because the thread is everything.
The reward you're expecting
never comes, but the stifling does.

About the poet

Nanette Rayman Rivera lives with her husband in New York City. She graduated from New School University with a degree in Writing and Philosophy. In addition to being a writer, she is a trained actress, having studied at Circle in the Square Theatre School, The Gene Frankel Studio and The New England Shakespeare Festival. She has performed in many plays off-off Broadway, in independent films, and played a waitress four times on All My Children.

Her first poetry book from Foothills Publishing, Project: Butterflies has just been released. She has been published in The Berkeley Fiction Review, The Worcester Review, Dragonfire, MiPOesias, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Pedestal, Carousel, Wicked Alice, The Pebble Lake Review, AntiMuse, Sein Und Werden, andwerve, Barnwood, The Centrifugal Eye, Words and Pictures, Her Circle, Poesia, Arsenic Lobster, Stirring, Flashquake, A Little Poetry, DMQ Review, Velvet Avalanche Anthology, Verse Libre, Erosha, Three Candles, Snow Monkey, Jack, Flutter, Small Spiral Notebook, Carve Magazine, 5 Trope, Mindfire Renewed, Grasslimb, Wanderings, Concrete Wolf, Rogue’s Scholars, remark, eye-rhyme, Central Avenue, Red River Review, Mannequin Envy, and Underground Window among others. She was nominated for two Pushcart Prizes this year: Arsenic Lobster for poetry and Dragonfire for memoir. Upcoming: Gambara, Wheelhouse, The Externalist. She is also a proofreader for Moondance Journal.

Celebrating National Poetry Month

2007-04-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult tasks in editing for our publication is making final selections. The job was particularly tough when working on our forthcoming Spring issue, as there were many excellent poets who submitted their work for consideration.

As a result, I'm happy to announce that April's Feature Blog Series will celebrate National Poetry Month by showcasing many of the wonderful writing talents we've seen in recent months. Hailing from places around the U.S. and abroad, these poets illuminated our discussions, leaving a mark that will not soon be forgotten.

Enjoy!
Misty K. Ericson
Publisher & Editor

Submit your book for a review

2007-03-05T17:15:00.001-08:00

We are currently reviewing selections for the New and Recent Titles book review section of our Spring issue.

To be eligible for a review in HCE, the title must be authored by a woman, have a release date on or after January 2007, and cover a theme relevent to women and cross-cultural issues. Fiction and non-fiction works are desired.

To be considered for a review, please forward review copies to:

Books Editor
Her Circle Ezine
335 Cherry
Wyandotte, MI 48192

Deadline for review copies is April 30th.

Featured Blog: A Review of Autobiography of My Mother by Jamiaca Kincaid

2007-02-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Jamiaca Kincaid's Autobiography of My Mother is a reflection on dispossession and how it relates to motherhood. Xuela Claudette Richardson narrates her life story, and that of her father's and her mother's history as she understands it. Xuela's Caribbean mother died while delivering Xuela in childbirth. This loss deeply affects Xuela's life. Her half-Scottish half-African father is a criminal who is widely feared in her community. He sends Xuela to be raised by a woman who cleans his clothes, Ma Eunice. Xuela illustrates, "Ma Eunice was not unkind: she treated me just the way she treated her own children – but this is not to say she was kind to her own children. In a place like this, brutality is the only real inheritance and cruelty is sometimes the only thing freely given." Xuela is miserable and feels hopeless in Ma Eunice's home until her father is given letters that Xuela had written privately about her situation, without the intention to send the letters. Xuela's writing saves her from one form of life void of love or emotion only to bring her to another that is equally crippling. Xuela eventually turns into herself, a habit she continues unto her death.

Xuela relates the experience of dispossession to the loss of her mother. She expresses regret that while she was developing into a woman, she did not have someone to comfort her, to give her meaning, or encourage her in her pursuits. Her father, who is represented as the new, foreign land of the conqueror, does not know her and is not interested in knowing her. As a result, Xuela feels apathetic about the people surrounding her, even her lovers. She chooses not to bear children. Her life ends as it began, with emptiness, loss, and indifference.

Autobiography of My Mother gives a succinct expression of the experience of dispossession. The reader sees the world through Xuela's eyes, an intelligent and beautiful woman who deeply senses her lack of history or home. The theme of motherhood as the anchor of identity and passion echoes throughout the reading.

Review by Kellie Roblin

Featured Blog: A Review of Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

2007-02-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

Breath, Eyes, Memory is a quietly written novel that nonetheless comes off as lavish. It’s the story of Sophie Caco, who until the age of twelve lives in a small village in Haiti, then is transported to New York City to be with her mother. The usual painful growing up events transpire—a falling out with her mother, marriage, a baby—after which Sophie feels the need to return to Haiti, not even sure what she’s looking for.

What she finds is her aunt Atie, who raised her until her departure, her grandmother, a host of stories, and closure with her mother. Information about her personal past as well as the collective past of the village is communicated through stories, and the novel is doused with such stories, especially about girls and women—a girl who wants to marry a star, a woman who kills men after she sleeps with them, a woman who bleeds so much she must give up being a human and turns into a butterfly, a woman who is killed by her husband for flying without her skin at night. Sophie’s grandmother tells a story about a girl who is tempted with pomegranates by a lark, and tricks him out of taking her across the sea, where her heart will be taken by a king. In Danticat’s world, women are bonded to each other through these stories.

Sophie’s mother comes to Haiti to take her back to her husband in New York City, and in the process they both confront their pasts and make amends. Their pasts include the richness, the beauty, but also the political turmoil of their homeland, “where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head.”

Review by Elizabeth Crachiolo

Featured Blog: A Review of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

2007-02-21T10:53:00.001-08:00

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is a stirring recollection the savagery of 19th century slavery in the United States. Jacobs was born into slavery and, throughout her young life, struggled to free herself from the bonds laid upon her. She watched her family struggle to survive and stay together. Many times, Jacobs records how such struggles were not successful. Her family experienced both triumph and defeat.

Jacobs' autobiography is especially unique because she was one of the very few slaves who were taught how to read and write. One of Jacobs' masters taught her how to use the tool of literacy. She used this precious knowledge to record the horror that she and others experienced under slavery. Her story is historically accurate and authentic.

Jacobs' narrative is direct and matter-of-fact, as though she were talking to her readers in her kitchen. She does not decorate her words or embellish her experiences. She simply allows the reader to have an intimate view of her personal experience as a beautiful woman who is caught in slavery. However, she does recall details and events that make her experience especially poignant and compelling. Jacobs provides her readers with a sense of the profound devastation slavery caused.
Throughout the devastation, Jacobs' hope and vigor was impenetrable. She never acquiesced to slavery, even when her determination caused her more pain. Her life is a testament to the power of human dignity and wisdom.

Review by Kellie Roblin

Celebrating Black History Month

2007-02-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

In honor of Black History Month, February's feature blog series will celebrate the many wonderful black women artists and authors from here in the United States and abroad.

Kicking things off is a review of Gloria Naylor's "The Women of Brewster Place," for which the author received a National Book Award for first fiction in 1983.

The Women of Brewster Place
by Gloria Naylor
New York: Penguin, 1983

In sensuous prose, Gloria Naylor unravels in seven connected short stories the growth and demise of a dead-end (both literally and metaphorically) street during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. She accomplishes this by focusing on several women who live there: Mattie, who adores her son, who leaves and never comes back; Etta, a spirited music-lover who learns to love herself more than the men she sleeps with; Kiswana, nee Melanie, who rebels against her middle-class upbringing by selecting an African name and becoming a Civil Rights activist; Lucielia, who survives the deaths, caused by her love for a difficult man, of two children; Cora Lee, who lives to have babies but can't handle the children they become; and Theresa and Lorraine, lesbians brutally victimized by hate.
The stories depict unbelievable hardship, but they are not sob stories. Rather, they tell of how impoverished, persecuted, and otherwise damaged women find strength in themselves and each other: "The colored daughters of Brewster, spread over the canvas of time, still wake up with their dreams misted on the edge of a yawn. They get up and pin those dreams to wet laundry hung out to dry, they're mixed with a pinch of salt and thrown into pots of soup, and they're diapered around babies. They ebb and flow, ebb and flow, but never disappear." Indeed, the only constants in these stories are the women's dreams of a better life and the sometimes conflicted, but always necessary, presence of other women.

Review by Elizabeth Crachiolo

Spring 2007 Cover Art Preview

2007-02-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

The Spring 2007 cover of Her Circle Ezine will feature the work of photographer and artist Sarah E. Smith. For more information on Sarah and her work, visit her online at rusticrelics.net

The Spring 2007 issue of Her Circle will be available online on May 1st.

Feature Blog Series Coming in February

2007-01-17T13:37:00.001-08:00

As part of our continued commitment to the exploration of women's experiences and creative expression, Her Circle announces the launch of a monthly feature blog series. Beginning with February's celebration of Black History Month, visit our blog each week for interviews, reviews, and other bonus material you won't find anywhere else.

Tackling the Featured Artist Essay

2006-12-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

In today’s art world preparing a written artist information page colorfully detailing who you are and what you do is commonplace. Yet, as a faculty member at NYU, I come across many budding artists who have difficulty writing about their work and motivation. My experience as Art Editor for Her Circle Ezine is much the same.

Queries exposing the soft underbelly of prospective contributors roll in: Why must I write an essay? Can’t I just submit my images and you write the essay? I can’t write anything. I can draw, but I can’t write. I really want to submit, but I just don’t think I can do the essay. No! Anything but an essay! Then there are those who stake claim to a higher critical theory: My work speaks for itself, I don’t need to write anything.

This may be true, but the readers of Her Circle are interested in more than one’s work. When considering submissions for our Featured Artists, we look at the story behind an artist’s work to uncover sources of inspiration and depths of meaning, often identifying levels that the artist herself wasn’t even aware existed.

This was the case with German artist Marjan Zahed Kindersley (Spring 06). “But I am not a feminist,” she wrote, holding firmly to her feeling that as a woman in her country she enjoyed the same freedoms and opportunities as men. Therefore, when editing Marjan’s essay, it was very important to us as editors to remain loyal to her sentiments, while also exploring the possibilities of how her work might be received by others. After a series of drafts and subsequent queries to the artist for additional information, we ended up with an essay that conveyed the artist’s personality, expressed her genuine feelings about women, and also addressed her reactions to feminist readings about her work. Following publication Marjan wrote to thank us for the experience, and for allowing her to see her work in a new way that she had not previously thought to consider.

The "I never thought of it that way" response is why the essay component of submissions to Her Circle is so important. Here are some thoughts and suggestions to help you get started on your own essay.

Looking at images with a title, medium and a brief sentence about the piece does not reveal who you are. There is a reason why you draw, paint or photograph your subject matter and how it is depicted.

Think about the subject and medium for a minute. Ask yourself, Do I paint, draw or photograph surreal images, or are they depictions of women, locations or family in every day situations? Are they placed indoors or outside? Do I focus on the clothing or are they nudes? What motivates me to create that subject in my particular style? Who am I? Are you single, a wife, mother, or married? How has society and status affected the way I see the world? All of these issues come out in your work. Sometimes we are not really aware of this until you begin to write about it.

For further information submitting to Her Circle Ezine, please visit our submission guidelines page (http://www.hercircleezine.com/guidelines.html). Questions and queries can be directed to me at arteditor@hercircleezine.com

Diane Leon Ferdico
Art Editor

Diane Leon Ferdico was born in New York City. She has a BA in art history from New York University, and an MA from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, NYU, The Draper Interdisciplinary Masters in Humanities and Social Thought. She is an adjunct associate professor of arts at NYU, Paul McGhee Undergraduate liberal arts degree program. She also writes personal essays and articles and is a member of The National Association of Women Artists and Life Member of the Art Students League. Diane maintains an apartment in Spain with her husband, artist John Ferdico. See her work at www.ManhattanArts.com.