I don’t submit to contests very often, but I did to a couple this fall and it’s a delight to have been chosen as a finalist for Sycamore Review‘s 2020 Wabash Prize in Poetry. Thank you to the Poetry Editors and readers for this honor, and congratulations to the winner!
Here’s a video of me reading my poem, “The New Avenues the Only Avenues We Have,” for the launch of the new online issue of Witness. It meant a great deal to me to make this video. This poem about old and new friendships is very close to my heart and I made the recording shortly after the death of a very dear old friend.
Thank you to the editors of Witness for giving this poem a home and for hosting this virtual launch. I hope you all enjoy the video. Check back each weekend in February for more Witness Weekends video readings from the new issue…which you can read in its entirety online!
As the temps drop into the single digits here in sunny Syracuse, I’m warmed by the news that my poem “The Effect Lasting Half a Minute” has just been accepted at Barrow Street! Huge thank yous to Michael Broek and the other Barrow Street editors and readers. This poem’s inspired by, among other things, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and an episode of the “In Our Time” Podcast about Feathered Dinosaurs, in which we learn the evolutionary function of the wishbone.
Massive congratulations to my darling Sarah whose short story “The Man Stealer” has just been published online today in the new issue of DIAGRAM!!! Before the New Year’s Eve champagne kicks in, give it a read! It’s crammed with sizzling shipwrecks, pirates, mathematical formulae, rum, secret societies, etc. Happy new year!
Read her story HERE.
I’m giddy-thrilled to have just sent in my comments on the latest round of proofs for my second book of poetry, If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun, winner of the 2019 Antivenom Poetry Award from Elixir Press. It’s really starting to feel real. I can almost touch it!
Huge congratulations to my sweetie whose short story, “The Ailments of Thomas Pepys,” has just been published today in the new online issue of Guesthouse. They also nominated it for a Pushcart Prize! The new issue contains tons of awesome stuff, including poems by my friend Steve Castro! Yes!
https://www.guesthouselit.com/i6-ruhlen-sarah-e-fiction
Dear friends. I’m delighted to receive my contributor’s copy of The Greensboro Review, which contains my poem, “Blood in the Air.” Massive, geese-flying-overhead-honking thank yous to Terry L. Kennedy, Matthew Valades, Julia Edwards and the rest of the good folks at The Greensboro Review!
I’m thrilled to share the news that West Branch has accepted three of my poems: “If Alone Has a Flavor,” “Quartered Suns” and “That’s Me When That’s You”! Massive thank yous to Joe Scapellato and the rest of the crew of West Branch! It may be gray as all get-out here in Syracuse, but today things seem bright. 🙂
Massive congratulations to my sweetie for being nominated by Guesthouse for a Pushcart Prize for her soon to be published short story, “The Ailments of Thomas Pepys”!!! Your third pushcart nomination, one in poetry, two in fiction. You are so awesome! ❤
I’m thrilled to share that my lyric essay “What You’re Thinking Now Is a Chunk of Marble” has just been published in Southeast Review‘s new online issue. This essay is from my series inspired by the four fundamental forces. This is the gravity essay, so naturally it touches on…stuff that’s fallen on my head, visiting the local apple festival, Kansas meteorites, buying a house, hanging out on rooftops, Cal Tjader, Yves Klein, middle school science fair, and so on and so on. I wanna say a huge thanks to Zach Linge, Dyan Neary, and everyone at SER!
Read it HERE!