Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest (Merit Award)
https://thepoetrydepartment.wordpress.com/winners/
Isn’t this a lovely illustration?
Sue C. Boynton Merit Award Bus Placard
Recent publications and award
It’s been a good spring for poetry! Here are my recent publications and an award.
CURE Today
https://www.curetoday.com/view/a-poem-about-cancer-and-weeds
There are always weeds
The weeds don’t end,
can’t be extirpated,
only held in balance.
They’re good at what they do,
better than I, with my
big brain and distractions.
Horsetail older than us all
proliferates, infiltrates,
takes it over with its
itchy rhizomes.
My own secret cells,
self and not-self
and the fungi, too,
the blood grass, too.
As you know,
I’m not very smart
sometimes, walking barefoot
in the garden
against medical advice.
Walking where the black widow walks,
grasping where the blackberries
force their thorns, under
the hot sun, also proscribed.
I dig my toes into the damp soil,
remind myself that I become
these weeds, rooting everywhere,
upending everything,
sunward, all.
Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest (Merit Award)
https://thepoetrydepartment.wordpress.com/winners/ My link there will go live after the poem is published on the blog sometime in the next few months. My poem will appear on bus placards for the next year.
Bellingham Bay
I drink coffee in a briny fog.
Three gulls (not “seagulls,” no such bird)
tumble and squabble, call out
the bald eagle. It drifts low in blue mist.
Seas and factories, a whiff
of burning wood. In fact, I should
be walking, doing something,
be of use. I rest instead
at the heart of this long, white day
by Bellingham Bay.
Corridor, v. 15, May 2024
The favas
The favas
unzip, wrist-flick,
thumb in the seam.
Each white bean
cradled in velvet,
nestled gems.
Blanched, drained,
white to green and bright
diamond-salted night.
50 Days recommended
Thanks to Camino expert Dr. Guylene Gigi Tree for recommending 50 Days in May in her latest Perpetual Pilgrim video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWxjBQ_wyk&t=391s
On the shelf at Village Books
If you’re in the Fairhaven, Washington area, stop by for a copy to demonstrate why my books should be available on the shelf of this independent bookstore!
If you’re not in Fairhaven, you can order copies from Village Books or Amazon.
Chapter available
My chapter, co-authored with a then-grad student, appears to be visible in its entirety on Google books. Give it a look! “Have You Got What It Takes to Train Security Trolls? Career Counseling for Wizards” appeared in The Psychology of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Examination of the Boy Who Lived (Neil Mulholland, PhD [Ed.], ©2007, BenBella.
Jell-o linkages
Librodidact and I both attended an online workshop led by Natalie Goldberg last week. It was terrific fun! One of Natalie’s prompts was to write as quickly as we could about Jell-o. I read my piece aloud, and fellow participant Librodidact took note. Check out their blog post, “Wrestling with Jell-o.”
Participants’ responses to my Jell-o narrative were affirming in and of themselves, but there was also a more potently significant aspect to this. In Cancer, Kintsugi, Camino, I wrote about having Susan Sontag as one of my writing instructors. I commented, “She didn’t like the story I workshopped, which was about wrestling a drag queen in a Jell-O pit. It was mostly autobiographical. The best detail was the realization that lime Jell-O stings when a drag queen has scratched up your arms and throat with her long, sharp nails.” The story I wrote at that time, decades ago, was a straightforward narrative. The other workshop participants didn’t like it, either. I haven’t re-read it since 1984.
When Natalie gave us the prompt, this story was the first association that came to mind, so I went with it in the spirit of the pen-keeps-moving-fast no-editing experience. The detail abstracted above is the story I told again. Now that I’m 40 years older, I’ve learned to focus on conveying the concrete, specific details, which is another way to say, “Show, don’t tell.” All the rest of that long-ago story was absent. Only the sting of the Jell-o and the wrestling contest with the drag queen were present. It was not the heart of the story I was trying to tell then, but has become the heart of the story now. If I work with it more, this will be the live center of it. That other people liked it tells me that I conveyed its essence. After 40 years, that feels good!
New book!
My new book, 50 Days in May: Reflections Along the Camino de Santiago, has just gone live as a Kindle book on Amazon. The paperback will be available on February 6th. I hope to have a short story collection prepared soon as well.
Available at https://a.co/d/h11areI or by searching for Kerewsky on Amazon.
In short lyrical prose and poems, Shoshana Kerewsky considers her pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago. Her reflections touch on birds, Columbus and Isabella, a pilgrim’s death, being Jewish in Spain, the hero’s journey, the mythic and symbolic, meditation, the quest for balance in the pilgrim and the pilgrimage, and the malleability of story. Her memoir, Cancer, Kintsugi, Camino, won a 2023 Firebird Book Award.
If you missed my first book, here’s the information:
Available at https://a.co/d/eLO8Yut or by searching for Kerewsky on Amazon.
Not just a memoir of breast cancer and the Camino de Santiago. It’s also about Jewish identity, atheism, family, AIDS, COVID, metaphors and similes, breathing, bricolage, journeys, self-reflection, and hypothetical cuckoos. Through richly-layered fragments of lyrical prose and poetry, Shoshana Kerewsky conveys the rhythms of thought, feeling, and walking in a sparkling narrative mosaic.
If you like it, your review on Amazon and Goodreads makes a huge difference in search algorithms! Even a 1 or 2 sentence review is very helpful. Thank you!
You can find me on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5171297.Shoshana_D_Kerewsky
Serving suggestion: My favorite font is Palatino, which is available as an option on Kindle. Try out one of these books in Palatino and see how you like it.
Want to use either book as a text for a class? Want to bring me in for a visit? Let’s talk!
If you’re attending the American Pilgrims on the Camino Gathering this March, I’ll be facilitating a 2-part workshop entitled A Camino Poetry-Writing Workshop: Your Rhythm Meets the Way. I’ll also have a vendor table with a limited number of copies of both books.
New book coming soon
Hello, all. I’m hard at work on a new book. I hope to finish in February. This is another Camino-related work, blending memoir and reflection, but not chronological or highly autobiographical.
After this, I’m poised to put out a non-Camino-related short story collection.
More details as they arise!
International reading and discussion!
International book club reading and discussion! I’m very excited! Hope to see you (virtually) there.
£5 for non-members, free for Confraternity of St. James members.
CSJ Book Club: August 22nd @ 7:00 PM (UK zone): https://www.csj.org.uk/Event/camino-book-club-cancer-kintsugi-camino-a-memoir?mc_cid=a513ea6c9a&mc_eid=ba3e6c26a1
Cancer, Kintsugi, Camino: A Memoir by Shoshana D. Kerewsky
Shoshana D. Kerewsky is emerita faculty at University of Oregon and a retired psychotherapist. She has walked three Caminos since her cancer treatment. She is at work on two short Camino-related books. Shoshana also volunteers as one of the hospitaleras at the CSJ Virtual Albergue.
Firebird Book Award
I was delighted to learn today that my memoir won a Firebrand Book Award in the LGBTQ Nonfiction category! I’m happy for the recognition and hope this will help it reach a wider audience.
Shoshana D. Kerewsky 