The latest issue of High Desert Journal includes a couple of new poems by LLG member Charles Goodrich, along with prose and poetry by many other fine writers. Great photos and artwork, too.

High Desert Journal is dedicated to further understanding the people, places and issues of the interior West. They invite submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, memoirs, interviews, essays, book reviews, letters to the editor and visual art from residents of the region working with any theme and from anyone living outside the region creating work with high desert themes and elements.

email:  information@highdesertjournal.com

web: http://www.highdesertjournal.com/

Erik Muller has poems in the current issues of Windfall, Hubbub, and Cloudbank, with a review of Lex Runciman’s Starting from Anywhere forthcoming in the winter Cloudbank. At Poets’ Concord he led discussion of the poems of Clem Starck read by the author.

Writing to Explore Your Spiritual Journey, a seven-week, on-line, summer course, will be taught by member, Nan Phifer, author of Memoirs of the Soul: A Writing Guide. Offered through Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, find descriptions at http://www.cdsp.edu/center_online.php and www.memoirworkshops.com. Nan’s description– We’ll go beyond chronological, autobiographical writing to focus on our most significant spiritual experiences.  I’ll guide you in identifying the landmarks of your spiritual journey and lure you with writing prompts that lead into not-yet-explored territory.  You’ll write to recognize your inner light, to reconcile your sorrows and blessings, to forge paths toward altruism, and to express the presence of the numinous.  I’ll illustrate a technique you may employ to breathe life into narration. You’ll write in pace with each other in small, ongoing groups, sharing drafts and responding to them in a prescribed, constructive way.  From the affirmations and questions of group members, you’ll gain personal insights and collegial affiliation, for supportive bonds often form within the small groups.  From the course overall, you’ll master a writing process you can continue to use any time you want to write so vividly that you awaken readers, as well as yourself.

Nan Phifer

http://www.memoirworkshops.com

Sharon Lask Munson has poems in Earth’s Daughters, Brevities, and Groundwaters.  She has forthcoming poems in Goose River Anthology, Silver Boomers, and Drash: Northwest Mosaic.  Her forthcoming chapbook, Silence Settles Down the Lane will be published in the spring, 2010, by Uttered Chaos Press.

Amy MacLennan will have an article appear in the 2011 Poet’s Market. Her work has recently been accepted by the online magazine Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, and she will be a featured guest on Rustin Larson’s poetry radio program out of Fairfield, Iowa.

Ralph Salisbury’s poem “Some Hunts” is included in the anthology, To Topos: Poetry International, Ahani: Poetry of the Indigenous Americas from University of Arizona Press.Valparaiso Review is publishing his poem, “At Play in the Earth of Uncle Jimmy’s Grave.” Ralph will be signing books at the Michigan State University Press table at the April AWP in Denver, and his books will be on display at a number of other tables including University of Arizona Press, earthworks, and Small Press Distributors. He has recently finished guest editing Yellow Medicine Review.

Deb Casey says, Finishing Line Press will be publishing my chapbook, As-Is, Several Sisters late this spring. For anyone who would like a copy (and to support the press & help the print run!), orders are open now through March 26 during the ”advance-sales pre-publication” period. www.finishinglinepress.com (go to New Releases page) or contact the press at PO Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324

Finishing Line has recently published Quinton Hallett’s book, Refuge from Flux. Quinton will read from her book at Tsunami on March 20 (see events calendar).