Month: January 2015

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Call for Stories from People Who Have Considered Bariatric Surgery

Photograph of surgeons around an operating table.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

I’m writing a piece about fat acceptance and bariatric surgery. So far, it’s mostly from my perspective, but my editor suggested that I do some research into what other people have to say about it. As you might imagine from my previous posts, I have an opinion on the matter. But a big part of the article is exploring the intersection between fat politics and personal healthcare decisions.

If you’d like to share your experience with me, you can submit a comment via this post. Please use your real name and provide contact information so a fact-checker can verify your identity — you can choose whether or not I use your name in the piece. The comment won’t appear until I approve it unless you’ve already commented on the site. If you prefer, you can use my contact form or email me at gardenofwordseditor at gmail.

Anything you share with me is welcome, but here are some questions that might help:

  • Have you considered weight loss surgery for yourself?
  • What made you decide to do it or not do it?
  • Did your doctor suggest it?
  • Was the suggestion unsolicited, or did you bring up the topic first?
  • What sort of research did you do before making your decision? Was there something you learned that influenced your choice?
  • Did you talk to other people who had the surgery? Did this influence your choice?
  • If you did get the surgery, what has your experience been with it?
  • If you had the surgery more than a few years ago, did you gain back the weight or some of the weight?
  • Did it cause or alleviate any other health problems?
  • Would you do it again?
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Review of Mark of Voodoo, by Sharon Caulder

Cover image of Mark of Voodoo by Sharon CaulderThere are a lot of books on the market about pagan and neo-pagan traditions like Wicca and Asatruar. There’s a smaller number of books about Afro-Carribean syncretic religions like Santeria, Voodoo, and Candomble. This is the only book I’ve come across that is the personal story of a voodoo priestess’s own reclamation of her heritage. It’s fascinating for a variety of reasons. Caulder’s personal story is wrenching and compelling, her description of her trip to Benin to rediscover her Voodoo roots is fascinating as travel writing and cultural comparison, and her account of the cultural differences between African Americans and native Africans is eye-opening. It’s also a good foil to the many myths and misconceptions that surround a religious tradition that, like any religion, has the potential for both good and evil.

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Review of The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin

Arguably my favorite book, unarguably my favorite author, The Dispossessed tells the story of a brilliant physicist born and raised in a colony established on Anarres, the barren red moon of Urras, a blue planet that bears a striking resemblance to late-19th-century Earth. LeGuin’s Hainish cycle often explores socio-political issues at play in our own society, and this book is no exception. The Dispossessed describes what might have happened if a group of anarcho-communists (Odonians) had been able to establish and develop a society in isolation from the hierarchical, capitalist world that rejected it. I appreciate LeGuin’s evenhanded presentation of each world: the egalitarianism and austerity of Anarres, and the lush abundance and injustice of Urras.

Cover image for the novel The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin
Old-school cover

Shevek leaves Urras because his work as a physicist isn’t considered “central” by Odionian society, but he struggles to maintain his ideals and his identity on a planet that grants him luxury and wealth while forcing others to live in hardship and poverty. As Shevek travels between the two worlds, his journey sheds light on the wonders and flaws of each.

On Anarres, it is an insult of the highest order to call someone a profiteer. In her 2014 acceptance speech for the National Book Award, LeGuin used the word “profiteers” to refer to the increasingly money-focused publishing industry. Anyone who’s read The Dispossessed will recognize the philosophy of the Odonians in the following excerpt from that speech:

“We need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries, the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between the production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profits and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.”

View the full speech via this link, or embedded below:

[A previous version of this review was posted on November 3, 2009 on Goodreads]

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Making Love in Public: Part One of Poets & Writers ((LIVE)) San Francisco

Always good to hear about existential angst and fear of writing conferences from another poet.

Dinty W. Moore's avatarThe Brevity Blog

A guest blog post (and nifty sketches) from Rebecca Fish Ewan reviewing the recent Poets & Writers ((LIVE)) event in San Francisco:

Why go to a writer’s conference? Isn’t writing an occupation of isolation? Of loneliness? David Shields often quotes David Foster Wallace’s wisdom on loneliness. He did so in Melbourne in 2012 (see Is Writing Better Than Sex?) and again this past weekend in San Francisco at Poets & Writers ((LIVE)), while his friend Caleb Powell joined him on stage looking agitated (This is their collaborative art form … arguing in public).

Wallace had said: “We’re existentially alone on the planet. I can’t know what you’re thinking and feeling and you can’t know what I’m thinking and feeling. And the very best works construct a bridge across that abyss of human loneliness.”

Right. The work constructs a bridge, not the actual writer, so why fly from Phoenix to…

View original post 724 more words

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Poetry Readings in the Boston Area for January and February 2015

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but
expanding your poetic horizons
feeding the soul with beauty
connecting with your ancestors by gathering together in the warmth to hear the older sister of song
the poetry’s so delightful.

Revision is the mother of skill.

Below are listings for the Boston area and environs. My fellow poet Adam Stone is also on a mysterious poetry tour across America. He’s been seen most recently in Utah. Follow him on Facebook for more details.

Sunday, January 11, 3 – 5 pm
Kim Baker, J.D. Scrimgeour, and Cammy Thomas
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
Donation: $5. Refreshments provided

Sunday, January 18, 2-4 pm
Kathi Aguero and Denise Bergman
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Thursday, February 5, 7 pm
Joan Houlihan and Martha Collins
Suffolk University Poetry Center
Mildred F. Sawyer Library
73 Tremont Street
Boston

Sunday, February 8, 3 – 5 pm
Mark Hart, Audrey Henderson, and Jennifer Tseng
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
$5

Sunday, February 15, 2-4 pm
Stephen Burt, opening reader TBA
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village

Thursday, February 26, 6 pm
Eliza Griswold
Katzenberg Center, 3rd floor, CGS
871 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston University
Boston