“Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?”–Late December 2017

Update on my dogs:

After the savage pit bull attack last month (see the previous blog), my dogs York (black Lab, 8), Savane (Spaniel mix), and Cookie (2, Chi-Spaniel) were injured and had stitches and drains. Now they have managed to recover: their stitches are out, and they’ve returned to their normal activities–looking for food, barking, sleeping.

Clarification re: Cats

I love cats as much as I love dogs. Our cute, furry, loving cat Luckie died two months ago from old age–he was 17. I haven’t “replaced” Luckie with another cat (Well, Luckie can’t be replaced, of course). But we have three dogs. That’s enough, I figure.

Interviews: In October 2017, I was interviewed by Arya-francesca Jenkins for a WritersnReaders feature. If you want to know more details about me, this article is a good resource. http://writersnreadersii.blogspot.com/2017/10/

On January 13, 2018, I am featured on in a podcast interview with Marcia Epstein, who has a show called Talk With ME, “at the intersection of art and mental illness.” http://lawrencehits.com/wp/blog/podcast/mish-eileen-murphy-writer-visualartist-professor/

Update on my writing: Recently I’ve had awards, poems, book reviews, and magazine articles published. Here’s a list of some of them:

Awards

• My book review in Cultural Weekly of John Yamrus and Janne Karlsson’s illustrated poetry book As Real As Rain was placed in the Top Ten articles for 2017 per Cultural Weekly. In fact, it was #4.  https://www.culturalweekly.com/cultural-weeklys-top-10-2017/
• The John Yamrus book review involved in Cultural Weekly’s Award is found at this link:                                                                      https://www.culturalweekly.com/book-review-real-rain-john-yamrus/
• I also just did an interview with John Yamrus for Cultural Weekly (January 2018). In it, he discusses some old family photos that are involved in his writing Memory Lane, his highly-acclaimed memoirs.   https://www.culturalweekly.com/join-john-yamrus-on-memory-lane/
• My poetry book The Knife Tree was a runner-up (in the top ten) of the prize-winning books at Michigan State University’s Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize contest for 2016 (announced 2017).

Visual Art

• • In 2017, Thirteen Myna Birds published my visual art entitled “Magic Hand.”
  • The magazine Tifiret Journal published my artwork “Lilies of the Field.”
  • In April 2017, my work was exhibited in Jemez Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  • Since September 2017, I have been associated with Funky As A Monkey Art Studio in Tampa, Florida, and have participated in three gallery shows in Tampa/St. Petersburg since then.
  • I have also taken art lessons from Tim Gibbons of Funky As A Monkey Art Studio, starting fall 2017.
  • I displayed my art at the “Oneness Event” in Lakeland, October 22, 2017, where I also read some poetry.
  • I made an agreement with poet John Yamrus to illustrate his next book, a book for children of all ages, Phoebe and Ito are dogs. I’m excited about the project. I have taken a lot of photos of dogs and have drawn a lot of dog pictures in anticipation.
  • I did collage art for the inside front pages and back cover of John Yamrus’s new  memoir Memory Lane. It was published December 2017.
  • I’m also doing “dog” art for sale. Here’s one of the “dog art” pictures:

  • 

    Poetry

• I had 23 poems published in 2017.
• My poem “A King of Shreds & Patches (Cento)” was published in Yes, Poetry. This same poem was part of an anthology put together by Yes, Poetry called “RESIST: POEMS (EBOOK).” Follow this link for your free download: #RESIST: POEMS from Yes, Poetry
• My poems “My Head Lives,” “Mother’s Pregnancy Dream,” “Duct Tape Dad,” and “Immaculate Conception” were published in the web zine Thirteen Myna Birds. In addition, my poem “Myna Bird” was made part of the Thirteen Myna Birds masthead, thanks to Juliet Cook, Editor. Look for it on the masthead of the magazine: http://13myna.blogspot.com/
• The Sand Hill Review published my two poems “The High Diver ” and “The Deer Hunter.”
• My poem “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was published by the literary journal Rogue Agent, Jill Khoury, Editor. http://www.rogueagentjournal.com/emurphy-2
• My poems “Cloud Cento #5,” “Sleepwalking,” “Rabbit,” “The Everyday Saint,” and “Waking Up in October” were published by Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Beate Sigriddaughter, Editor. Check it out at http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/2017/10/waking-up-in-october-by-eileenmurphy.html.
• My poems “The Tattooed Man,” “The Rain Has Lost Its Mind,” and “Caravan” were published by The Open Mouse, Colin Will, Editor (located in Scotland!). See https://theopenmouse.wordpress.com/?s=Eileen+Murphy
• Autumn Sky Daily published my poems “After me, Annihilation” and “The Office Dreams of Freedom”–thanks to Editor Christine Klocek-Lim. https://autumnskypoetrydaily.com/2017/04/13/after-me-annihilation-by-eileen-murphy/ AND https://autumnskypoetrydaily.com/?s=The+office+dreams+of+freedom
• My poem “‘Lost'” was published by Silver Birch Press. You can find it at https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/?s=murphy
• My poems “The Geographical Cure,” “Evil Me,” and “Notes from the Dead Via Ouiji Board”  were published by Wraith Infirmity Muses, a literary journal in Canada…                                              https://wraithinfirmitymuses.wordpress.com/wraith-infirmity-muses-poetry-1-1/

• 

Articles

I am now a staff writer for the Los Angeles-based non-profit magazine Cultural Weekly.  Besides my book review of John Yamrus’s As Real As Rain (discussed above), I published the following articles in Cultural Weekly: 

• https://www.culturalweekly.com/music-in-the-wilderness/        
• https://www.culturalweekly.com/tampa-heights-funky-culture/         
• https://www.culturalweekly.com/dog-fight-lives/  
• This year, I published a guest blog “Laugh Your Way Through Writer’s Block” as part of Trish Hopkinson’s website. She posts everything you ever want to know about the poetry biz and how to get published. I highly recommend. https://trishhopkinson.com/2017/08/13/laugh-your-way-through-writers-block-guest-blog-post-by-eileen-murphy/

• 

• Book Reviews
• I published a number of book reviews–six (6) in 2017 (counting the John Yamrus/As Real As Rain review–see link, above under “Awards”).
• Some of my book reviews are:
  • My review of Angele Ellis and Rebe Clever’s book Under the Kaufman’s Clock was published this year: http://crabfatmagazine.com/2017/12/under-the-kaufmanns-clock-angele-ellis-rebecca-clever/;
  • My review of Villain Songs by Tammy Robacker was published in Tinderbox Journal: http://tinderboxpoetry.com/review-of-villain-songs-by-tammy-robacker;
  • My review of Alexis Rhone Fancher’s Enter Here was published in the blog section of The Los Angeles Review of Books (BLARB). http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/reviews/fearless-poems-sex-power-enter-alexis-rhone-fancher/\
  • My review of Aperture by Anne Leahy was published in Rain Taxi. http://www.raintaxi.com/aperture/
  • My review of The Laura Poems, a chapbook by Juliet Cook, was published this year by Glass Poetry http://www.glass-poetry.com/journal/reviews/murphy-cook.html;
  • My review of Martin Bareas Mattos: Never Made in America is scheduled to be published soon in Rain Taxi.
  • My review of Footnote by Trish Hopkinson is scheduled to be published soon in Tinderbox Journal. 
  • My review of Cutting Eyes from Ghosts by Ariana D. Den Bleyker is scheduled to be published soon in Arsenic Lobster.\
  • My review for Cultural Weekly of Jennifer Givhan’s third poetry book Girl With Death Mask was published in the January 4, 2018, issue of Cultural Weekly. https://www.culturalweekly.com/review-girl-death-mask-jennifer-givhan/
  • Books that I’ll review in 2018:
  • • Gallery Withheld by Jennifer Met, published by Glass Poetry Press
    • The Night I Danced With Maya by Colin Will
    • Hell or High Water by Wolfgang Carstens
    • Nasty Women & Bad Hombres (anthology), Deena November and Nina Padoff, Editors, published by Lascaux Editions
    • This Is Poetry, Volume III, Poets of the West (anthology), Michele McDannold, Editor, published by Citizens for Decent Literature Press
    • Paloma by Jennifer Hudgens, published by Blood Pudding Press, Juliet Cook Editor.
  • Thank you
    • Thanks for reading this down to the bottom. I felt I needed to sum things up, think about what happened during the year.
    • Starting this year, I’m not teaching extra classes. I’ll still have five classes of about 25 students each, although I’ll take summers off.
    • New Year’s resolutions? I have a few.  I’m not sharing, because if I do, they won’t come true. Well, there is one I will share: In 2018, I’m going to enjoy life like my dogs do, a day at a time, or from moment  to moment, at times. Because all we have are moments anyway, no?

    • 

Author: Mish (Eileen) Murphy

Hi. I am a writer, visual artist, and professor. I write and publish poetry and book reviews. I take photos and create photo art. I teach literature and English at Polk State College, Lakeland, Florida. View all posts by Mish (Eileen) Murphy