Scavella's Blogsphere

Caribbean Women Writers Speak

Nico Bethel — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:24:55 +0000

This is a repost about Lynn Sweeting's new WomanSpeak collection out of the Bahamas, but featuring the fresh voices of contemporary female writers from across the Caribbean. Including yours truly. You can read samples of the chosen pieces at Tongues of the Ocean including Trinidadian Simone Leid Etiquette for Fine Young Cannibals - which Sweeting describes as "one of the most important pieces in the collection" and "a disturbing depiction of Caribbean rape culture"; American Anita McDonald's…

Sevens for June

Nico Bethel — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:05:14 +0000

Resurrecting this blog to post my draft poems for Seven/Seven. PFFA’s still having issues and I don’t have time to play with them. So I’ll crosspost my poems for June Sevens here.

Stop Censorship – I’m against SOPA/PIPA!

Nico Bethel — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:25:20 +0000

Watch. Read. Then occupy the internet.

Edited: I’ve blacked out all my other sites:

Blogworld
tongues of the ocean
Shakespeare in Paradise

I’ve not blacked out this site because I wanted to share this video. But don’t be fooled. I’m entirely on board.

Too Cool: Paris Review – Document: The Symbolism Survey, Sarah Funke Butler

Nico Bethel — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:28:54 +0000

In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Who noticed symbols appearing from their subconscious, and who saw them arrive in their text, unbidden, created in the minds of their readers? When this happened, did the authors mind?

via Paris Review – Document: The Symbolism Survey, Sarah Funke Butler.

via Featherless Biped, PFFA.

Yes, I know it’s been months…

Nico Bethel — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:49:31 +0000

… but I’m surfacing to share a little good news for a change. New publication in sx salon, a literary platform for Small Axe:

To balance our emphasis on nonfiction in this issue, we have new poems from Fred D’Aguiar, Kemar Cummings, Nicolette Bethel, Yannick Giovanni Marshall, and dub poet Malachi Smith with an audio sample of Smith performing “Papine”. We are also happy to announce in this issue the winners of the 2011 Small Axe Literary Competition:

via Discussions » Blog Archive » sx salon, issue 7 December 2011.

I’m also working, with Sonia Farmer and Nic Sebastian, on a nanopress project. We’re calling it Lent/Elegies, and it’ll be ready to go soon. But more on that later.

Feature in Avatar Review

Nico Bethel — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:14:53 +0000

Four poems from the “Fear of Frogs” sequence are featured at Avatar Review 13

They’re collected here, and mentioned here, together with the most squeamy photograph.

But read the whole issue: you won’t be sorry.

tongues of the ocean update (2)

Nico Bethel — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:25:50 +0000

This week:

Andre Marsden, “Kevin” (catch a fire)

Chike Pilgrim, “Drought”

tongues of the ocean update

Nico Bethel — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:20:55 +0000

Last week:

Paula Obè, “The Space that We Name” (spoken word)

Shivanee Ramlochan, “Good Names for Three Children”

tongues of the ocean issue 8

Nico Bethel — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:06:52 +0000

is live and has been all month.

Here are this week’s poems:

Autumn Moving in from the Coast – Wendy Howe (USA)

Winter Poinciana - Nancy Anne Miller (Bermuda)

Here’s the link to the rest.

Not at all sure

Nico Bethel — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:48:35 +0000

I want to do this, but here goes.

It’s Lent, and my mother died barely two months ago, and her brother died eight days before her. I didn’t give up anything else for Lent, but vowed to write a poem a day. A sevenling a day, to be exact.

As Lent started in March and Easter comes in April, this meant that some of the discipline would cross over into NaPoWriMo, when I usually commit to the poem-a-day business.

I must admit I missed a week at the end of March, and will have to catch up. But the goal for Lent is forty sevenlings to lay the foundation for one long elegy. Taking inspiration, not surprisingly, from Tennyson’s In Memoriam; similar, but not the same.

So: March