“I write only what I love.” - Nikoletta Nousiopoulos
by Roger Zotti
New London-born poet Nikoletta Nousiopoulos says all the dead goats (Little Red Tree Publishing) “is about redemption. The speaker is in desperation over the loss of her familial relationships and their history.” It’s also “about a pilgrimage to Korifi, the ‘motherland’ the speaker witnesses in herself.”
Nikoletta wrote her book after her grandfather’s death because she believed it was her duty “to preserve his story…” And in writing about him, “I was dealing with my losses and emotions, and had to be cautious of sentimentality. Greece and Korifi have always been obsessions in my poetry. I had to write [my book] in order to move on to other projects.”
Yes, Nikoletta has a philosophy of writing: “It is a lifestyle that goes hand in hand with reading. In Frank O’Hara’s Personism he wrote, ‘Go on your nerve.’ I try to use that as my mantra and let my association and imagination lead me through the happening of a poem. I write what I love, so no matter what my subject is, it’s always an enjoyable process.” More, Nikoletta, who practices “organicism,” says, “I try to understand poetry and its relationship to the body.”
While Nikoletta contends that poetry must be challenging – and “a good poet should be accessible” – she suggests to the reader: “Take your time and appreciate the sounds of images. I read as a poet and try to appreciate interesting phrases, rather than dissect them for their ‘meaning.’ Many times I understand a poem through what it leads me to imagine and how it creates sensations.” She cautions that while reading a poem, the reader should be prudent when “making assumptions about what the poet means. Try reading the poem out loud. When we feel the poem in our mouth, it interacts more deeply with our senses.”
What Nikoletta learned from writing her book “was that there’s always time for forgiveness. I gained knowledge and insight into my family history and the struggles that lead to my existence.” What she hopes readers take away from her volume is “to be proud of where you came from and honor your family. My wish is that all the dead goats urges readers to reconnect with their past – and celebrate their heritage.”
In his Introduction to Nikoletta’s volume Michael Linnard, CEO, Little Red Tree, wrote: “…in each poem you will find that the ‘sacred resonance’ she speaks of is at the epicenter of her Greek heritage and language as she first walked in the footsteps of her ancestors in Korifi… the poems will draw you into a world of beauty and layered imagery… enhanced by the aesthetically innovative and subtly sculpted words on the page. The emotion is raw and her honesty palpable: one can ask no more of a poet.”
Nikoletta doesn’t want to be labeled as a poet who writes only about Greece or as “a family poet” and has many intellectual interests that she intends pursuing in her work. Her next project involves exploring, she said, “the dream world and use of persona.”
For more information about Nokoletta’s book and Red Tree Publishing, visit www.littleredtree.com.
Author Douglas Clegg believes writing “begins with an impulse to make something from the raw material of imagination.”
This was an exciting and rewarding summer for the Preston Public Library. It hosted three local writers – Amanda Marrone, Douglas Clegg, and Allan G. Johnson – as part of the 2010 CT Authors Trail. When he spoke at Preston in July, Doug discussed his books, answered questions about writing, and asked the audience questions about its writing and reading experiences.
In a recent interview, Doug Clegg said the reissued Neverland – first published in 1991 – is “a southern gothic set on the fictional Gull Island, Georgia, in the 1960s. Two families come together at their summer ancestral house with the grandmother-matriarch.” Before long family secrets and conflicts force two cousins to journey into the woods, where they find an old shack and turn it into their clubhouse. “They name it Neverland,” he continued, “because it’s where they’ve been told never to go.”
Of course, there’s a reason why it’s “a forbidden place. If I tell more, there’d be no reason to open the book … Neverland has a supernatural edge that grows into brooding horror.” It’s worth noting that Doug spent a lot of his youth on an island off the coast of Georgia, similar to the one he writes about in Neverland.
The author of over twenty-five books, Doug said he writes “for the same reason I breathe: It’s part of my nature and my life and keeps me alive. Writing has saved me again and again – since I was seven or eight years old. It carried me through rough as well as good years.” And it’s always challenging. He continued: “If the novel I’m working on now isn’t tougher for me to write than the one before, I’m doing it wrong.”
As a youngster, Doug rarely talked about his writing and later, when in college, only few people knew he wanted to be a writer: “By the time I sent off my first novel – I was in my 20′s – I wasn’t sure if I’d be a professional writer or not.” But Doug’s huge talent couldn’t be ignored. Recognizing his powerful imagination, a major publisher accepted his first book and since then “I’ve been making a living writing for more than twenty years.”
A New York Times best-selling author, what Doug finds most interesting about writing is how “it begins with an impulse to make something from the raw material of imagination.” More, he hopes readers take away from his books “a story. If I’m lucky, it’ll be a great story. Maybe some scares. I spend my adult life creating stories with the goal of engaging the reader until the last page.”
When Doug isn’t writing, he travels, canoes, bikes “and hangs out with friends or at home.” He’s also an animal rescue advocate. The pets he has are “all rescues” and he encourages people looking for pets “to first go to animal rescue groups, such as the CT Humane Society and its local pounds and animal shelters. The best animals I’ve ever known have come from these places – and the people who run them deserve support.”
In "The First Thing and the Last" Allan G. Johnson deals "with the aftermath of domestic violence…"
by Roger Zotti
Allan G. Johnson said his first work of fiction, The First Thing and the Last (Plain View Press), “is about a woman, Katherine, struggling to find healing and redemption in the aftermath of domestic violence, and she does that in relation to an elderly woman, Lucy Dudley, who seeks her out. Most of the novel is about the relationship between them.” In writing about the terrors of domestic violence, Allan pulls no punches: While some scenes will make you shudder, at the same time you’ll praise and admire his honesty and courage. Allan will appear September 16, at the Preston Public Library, 6:30 PM, as part of the 2010 CT Authors Trail.
Because Allan began as a short story writer and poet, “this book was not really a departure for me but rather a coming home. I’d be happy writing fiction for the rest of my life.” His non-fiction works were “a pleasure and meaningful” but the fiction comes “from an artistic, much deeper place. They’re just very different.”
And for upcoming writers, he has this suggestion: “I would echo the advice of Kurt Vonnegut, where he basically said if you don’t write because you love words and love story, you’ll probably be disappointed. So I think writers need to look inside themselves for why they’re writing. If it’s for fame and money, I’d do something else.”
He wrote The First Thing and the Last because “I spent many years as a sociologist and as activist trying to understand men’s violence against women, starting in the 1970s when I volunteered at the Rape Crisis Service in Hartford, CT.” Second, several years ago his partner in life, Nora, “told me she wished someone would tell the truth about domestic violence – which planted a seed and grabbed me by the throat. Writers don’t walk away from a story when it grabs them by the throat.” Third was “the art kicked in and story came.”
Allan has a knack of getting deep inside his characters, so that we feel – in Katherine’s case – her unbearable pain. Recovering in the hospital from a brutal attack and the horrific murder of her young son Ethan by her husband, Katherine “dreams of Ethan and when she wakes and remembers she begins to cry as she feels the enormous empty space where he used to be…. She dreads the emptiness the most, something in her core gone missing beyond the reach even of memory, the sense of absence always there, appearing in the subconscious like the vague discomfort of something you were supposed to remember but whose only trace is the fading sense that you did not.” Later, when she’s thinking more clearly, she felt “an unrelenting flood of memory roaring through her mind and pelting her from every side with tastes and smells, a wound suddenly torn open.…”
“The First Thing” isn’t quickly read and forgotten – for it will resonate long after you finish reading it. Allan is a new and major voice in contemporary American fiction. … Visit www.agjohnson.us/npr for his recent interview on National Public Radio.
Hank Schwartz’s book won this year’s Independent Book Publisher’s Gold Medal, Sports Division.
by Roger Zotti
If anyone is positioned to write about his work as a boxing promoter and fan of the sport, it’s Brooklyn-born Hank Schwartz. A WWII Veteran, graduate from Brooklyn Polytech, and an expert on satellite and microwave technology, Hank promoted one of the most famous fights of all time – the “Rumble in the Jungle,” the 1974 Muhammad Ali – George Foreman heavyweight championship bout in Zaire. (At the time, his vice-president was Don King.) Hank was also responsible for the 1973 Foreman – Joe Frazier bout in Jamaica and the third Ali-Frazier contest, the ‘Thrilla in Manila.’”
Now Hank and his collaborator, Paige Stover Hague, have written From the Corners of the Ring to the Corners of the Earth: The Adventure Behind the Champions (CIVCOM). Winner of the 2010 Independent Book Publisher’s Gold Medal in the Sports Division, the book is immensely entertaining, exciting and informative – for Hank takes the reader on an often surreal and hilarious journey behind the scenes of “the Golden Era of heavyweight boxing.”
Hank says many boxers – unfortunately – don’t know when to retire because “boxing is a gladiatorial sport … when you fight like a gladiator, you live in a world that, in your own mind, you have a position to defend. So you never want to say or think, ‘Well, I’ve had it. You take it over … and leave me alone.’ When they become mentally put down, that’s the time they’ll retire.” Heavyweight fighters, Hank continues, “almost paint a picture of themselves as being back in the Roman era fighting in the Coliseum against other gladiators … The heavyweight fighter is a machine trained to deliver powerful blows” and today’s heavyweights aren’t as good “as those before because I don’t see any of them as delivering the amount of power and speed delivered by Ali, Frazier and Foreman. If I were back in the industry, I would [search hard] to find better talent in the heavyweight area.” This doesn’t mean Hank believes the heavyweight division is dead. Rather, he hopes its glory can be restored using “the newer technology.” The sport “can be broadcast into homes in high definition television and taken in on the Internet, allowing you to [watch] it on your time.”
One of most laugh-out-loud chapters involves George Foreman, who wouldn’t fly to Zaire – for his title fight against Ali – unless his dog Diego was allowed to sit next to him on the plane. Somehow Hank, reeling in disbelief, persuaded incredulous American Airplanes officials to permit man’s best friend to sit beside George and travel first class. Of course, Ali exploited the situation. (See pages 246-47. It’s Ali at his funniest.)
“Ali’s Last Hurrah” is one of saddest chapters. Before the 1980 Larry Holmes fight, Hank reviewed Ali’s medical records: “I suggested the fight be canceled… this would allow Ali to retire with dignity and in relative good health.” But Ali disagreed. At the end of the tenth round Angelo Dundee, Ali’s trainer, stopped the one-sided bout, proving Ali should never have fought the younger, stronger Holmes.
Michael Maderia, Stonington High School graduate, 1969, authors a book that simplifies a massive subject.
by Roger Zotti
I taught wine for a long time and I find that people look for an understandable way to approach it, because the subject intimidates them,” said Michael Maderia, author of The Song of Wine: Music as a Metaphor for Wine. Writing his book was “an effort” because it meant “simplifying a massive subject that is intimidating.” So Michael used “another subject – music – that doesn’t intimidate us because we grow up with it.” He added that his musical background “is that of a lover of music. I have no professional background. I’ve played guitar and drums most of my life. But really this book isn’t written from the point of view of a music or wine expert. It’s written by someone whose favorite moments in life – well, music and wine have been a big part of those moments. And I found they go together really well.”
A Certified Sommelier, Michael has worked in hospitality for twenty-five years. In the 1980s, he said, “I took over the dining-room management at Flood Tide Restaurant at The Inn at Mystic and we had a pretty good wine list written by a purveyor. But there was no one on staff who understood wine.” So he educated himself and researched wine “pretty much the way someone would write a term paper – by studying and investigating and making sense of the subject.” And he hasn’t stopped learning and teaching: “I was an inn-keeper for twenty-five years and have taught wine both to wait staff and dinner classes.”
How and where does one start with wine? I mean, I suppose I have to pay big bucks for a bottle of “quaffable” red or white. “No!”Michael said. “This book recommends a procedure exactly for that.” Of the five thousand grapes used to produce wine, Michael suggests learning eight of them – “and I list the eight in the book. Once you learn the eight and reach a comfort level with them, after that you can begin to explore elsewhere.”
Here’s what Michael – who now works as a sommelier at a private golf club in Rhode Island – hopes readers take away from his book: “As we choose the music of our lives, we learn to understand what we enjoy. We love the music that’s part of our lives.” It’s the same with wine. “There’s this worry in wine drinkers they’re supposed to taste and enjoy what someone else likes – and that’s not the case. I’d be happy if people realized that their own favorite wines should be their own favorites.”
Reaction to the book has been good, though Michael admitted “it’s not a subject that will ever be a best-seller. It’s a specialized subject. The people who have enjoyed it – especially young people new to wine – have found it helpful.”
Michael Maderia took a diverse and daunting subject and – in clear, often lyrical prose – demystified it and made it exciting and enjoyable. His metaphoric technique demonstrates his knowledge, passion and appreciation for wine and music. The Song of Wine is a marvelous introduction to wine.
So, folks, forget what Miles, Paul Giamatti’s character in the film Sideways, said about Merlot and instead let’s treat ourselves to a glass.
