I am thrilled, proud, and excited so time to celebrate! Eleven months ago when I started Literary Revelations I secretly hoped that my publishing house would be listed by Doutrope in three or four years. I did not share my hope with anyone. Eleven months after Literary Revelations was born it made to Doutrope. I am happy as a human can be. I will share the links after I set up the profile for the publishing house.
Doutrope is an award-winner resource for writers and artists. As a writer and artist you can use it for a fee. You can access what Doutrope lists as best publishers, editors, journals, and literary agents.
On Sunday Literary Revelations received the following email.
And this is not all. Our upcoming collection Petal of Haiku: An Anthology was added as a resource too.
Please continue to submit to our anthology Petals of Haiku. Submission guidelines here.
Please note that mid-December we will publish Greenlandos, an excellent book for children written by Virginia Mateias. More about the book here.
Enjoy the rest of the week and thank you for submitting to Literary Revelations.
I am thrilled to let you know that Literary Revelations is working hard to bring you an excellent children book written by Virginia Mateias aka Virginia Witch mid-December.
Let’s open the curtains:
Good morning/Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen
Welcome to Greenlandos! In this epic clash of good versus evil, loyalty versus betrayal, and the natural world battling the artificial one, who will triumph?
Meet Belladonna, the enigmatic heroine, as she defends her pristine land. Follow the clever and brave Mandragoras as he unravels a sinister plot to obliterate Greenlandos, while Mr. Pepper falls hopelessly in love with Miss. Cauliflower. What is threatening everyone in Greenlandos?
This gripping tale raises its voice against the rampant use of pesticides, championing a return to a cleaner world. It’s ideal for young adventurers aged 9 and up, as well as for their parents. Greenlandos introduces ecological and moral values through its unforgettable characters and extraordinary escapades.
Greenlandos is a fantastic book. Children and parents will enjoy it alike. Virginia is an outstanding writer. The book is illustrated by Serban Adreescu whose work shines.
For the moment, let’s listen to Virginia
I was five years old when I discovered books. For me books are a magical universe. I started reading long before going to school and my mother was proud I was able to read the newspaper to my father. Boredom prompted me to learn how to read early on. However, I wasn’t bored at all once I started reading books.
On my journey to becoming an author I read a lot, studied literature and drama at the university. I was and I still am a cultural journalist. Yet I believe life itself has been the most effective instructor for me.
I was born in Europe. I left Europe and moved to Canada. Moving to a new country with a new culture has brought about a new perspective and new challenges. I would say that life constantly gives us the opportunities we need in order to evolve. It’s up to us to accept or reject these challenges.
My first book called “The Persistence of Memory” was published in Romania and it was received with much success. The public purchased all the available copies and the book was highly praised by critics. The second book called “In the Shadow of the Angel” was published in Canada in 2019. The poetry I wrote emerged from a soul that has walked along fiery instants and from a mind that never ceased to question existential concepts.
In my opinion, the author and the reader are the opposite sides of the same coin. Writers cannot exist without readers and readers cannot exist without writers. A book is simply a bridge that invites the mind and soul of the two entities to meet.
A book is a chance for the reader to enter a new time frame, to live a new life and learn something new. I would encourage readers to choose books that allow them to dream, to learn what they do not know and to rediscover themselves.
My passion for nature extends beyond my poetry to Greenlandos. I’m an advocate for preserving our environment and stop harming it. Children and animals hold a special place in my heart. Tyger, my cat, being a cherished family member. Lost civilizations have always captivated my curiosity. Traveling with my daughter, Andra Maria, to explore ancient ruins brings me immense joy. I hold life in the highest regard, and it saddens me to witness ongoing conflicts at the dawn of the 21st century. My hope is for human progress and peace.
Announcements:
Please, stay tuned for more news on Greenlandos!
Thank you to everyone who submitted to Petals of Haiku: An Anthology. Please continue to submit by entitling your email only HAIKU SUBMISSION. If you use more words your email will end up in the wrong folder. Those of you who submitted incorrectly please resubmit.
I have big and exciting news about the Literary Revelations Journal and our anthology Petals of Haiku. I am beyond happy and beyond proud. I will share the news with you in an upcoming post.
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poems of Peter Kaczmarczyk . I hope you enjoy them.
Bio
Peter Kaczmarczyk was raised in New England and has lived the last 30 years in Southern Indiana. He has written poetry his whole life but has only recently been putting them out into the world. His works are inspired by his life, loves, travels, and experiences. Peter strives to create poems that are accessible to all, and hopes that his words will resonate with those who read them. Peter is always surrounded by cats. He has published a chapbook of his work through Alien Buddha Press titled Distant Yet Always Heard as well he was works in numerous journals and anthologies. He is co-creator of the Captain Janeway Statue in Bloomington, Indiana.
Bittersweet
That moving on is bittersweet Tells me it was right To be with her Even as I face the end That I should not regret That all that is left now Is fading memories and growing pain
Bittersweet tells me Had I never loved her So much happiness Would never have been So much that she taught me Never learned That I must leave and begin again Will never diminish All the love All the strength That I still and always will Carry along with me
A Flower Rises
A weed is defined as something that grows Where you don’t want it to be We raise neighborhoods for high-rises Pave farm fields for interchanges All just human capital pushed aside Weeds cleansed from the earth As gardens are turned
Yet sometimes a flower rises From a pile of refuse leaves and debris Resurrected like the body of Christ To demonstrate the resilience Of nature and the human spirit
Thank you to everyone who submitted to our Petals of Haiku: An Anthology. I am humbled by the number of submissions I received. Please continue to submit but do not forget to label your submission email Haiku Submission only. More info here.
Literary Revelations invites you to unleash your poetic prowess and be part of our upcoming poetry collection entitled “Petals of Haiku: An Anthology.” With a cover designed by the brilliant duo of award-winning Japanese artists, Hikari, and her mentor Naoki Kimura, please do not miss the chance to have your words grace the pages of our anthology.
Featured image by Hikari and Naoki Kimura. Note: This is not the image that will be used for the cover design, but it’s a work that those fabulous artists created together and I hope you enjoy it.
Interpret the theme the way you want.
Here are two haiku that I like.
“A Poppy Blooms” by Katsushika Hokusai
I write, erase, rewrite Erase again, and then A poppy blooms.
“The Old Pond” by Matsuo Basho translated into English by Robert Hass
Email your submission at literaryrevelations@pm.me and title your submission HAIKU SUBMISSION. Please note that any other title will land your submission in the wrong email folder, and your submission will not be read.
Do not submit more than 6 haiku. We will select 3 or 4 for publication. For your submission you should use Times New Roman 12, double space.
Submit your name and your haiku in the body of the email. No attachments will be open. No need to submit a bio.
By submitting to the Petals of Haiku: An Anthology you, as a contributor, affirm that you own the rights to your piece(s) submitted and/or accepted for publication by Literary Revelations LLC and give Literary Revelations LLC permission to publish your work.
You attest that you are 18 years or older.
If you commit plagiarism Literary Revelations LLC is discharged from any liabilities.
You retain the right to your work. Literary Revelations LLC retains the right to the anthology, and it remains its exclusive publisher in perpetuity.
Pieces accepted for the anthology may be used by Literary Revelations LLC in whole or in part to promote the anthology. Writers and artists will be appropriately credited in all promotional materials.
Read the About section before submitting. You will find the Terms and Conditions under which we operate there.
Example of submission:
Dear Editor, Name: (please use the exact name you want to appear in the anthology)
Here are my 6 haiku
Haiku 1
Haiku 2
Haiku 3
Haiku 4
Haiku 5
Haiku 6
If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below.
Thank you.
Submissions will close on January 15, 2024. We will let you know when the book will be publish.
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of Marion Berndt. I hope you enjoy it.
BIO
Marion Berndt was born in 1968 in Oldenburg in Northern Germany. Even as a preschooler, she loved books and dreamed of writing. She always made up stories and wrote as soon as she learned to. At the age of five Marion announced to the family that she would become a teacher and “book writer.”
First she set out on the teacher’s path. After graduating from high school in 1988, Marion studied German, religion and mathematics at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg until 1992 to become a teacher at primary and secondary schools. The trainee service in Verden an der Aller followed from 1992-94. Since 1994 she has been teaching at primary schools in the district of Cloppenburg, currently at the GS Halen / Emstek.
Between 2004 and 2008 she completed two distance learning courses at the Axel-Andersson-Akademie in Hamburg parallel to her teaching activity, in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a “book writer”. In 2014 Marion started publishing teaching materials at Persen-Verlag and the GSV.
Since 2020 she also ventures into poetry. Her poetry can be found on her Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. A few of Marion’s poems can be listened to at Dead Letter Radio Podcast, and she joined the Move Me Poetry community. Her first poetry collection Lockdown Poetry is available since January 2022 at Olympia Publishers London.
Ghostly
An eager emptiness. A ghostly longing covered in a lingering twilight. A fathomless hole of deep intimacy. Heartfelt in the mirror of the untenanted moon. Swallowing star nebula nourish a desperate hope to sink into the roaring silence of a numbing sleep soon…
Timeless
Timeless moment, all masks fall, and the smile is finally real. Even the day gives in, and the truth meets the moon. Sleep beats the fake. Sigh of letting go. Long breaths so deep. Brain loses control. Timeless sinking into a dream. For a long walk the soul is freed…
Literary Revelations is thrilled to invite you to Montreal, Canada, where our wonderful correspondent and writer Virginia Mateias takes you to visit two beautiful art galleries. I hope you enjoy this Sunday feature.
Let’s listen to Virginia:
If you are an art lover, like me, you’d enjoy a stroll through the art galleries of Montreal. Inside the over 225 existing galleries, painters, sculptors, and photographers sell and exhibit their original works. All styles are present: modern art, classical art, naive style, figurative and abstract.
Spending an afternoon in an art gallery means escaping everyday life in the happiest way possible. There are many art galleries in Montreal that deserve our time and interest. I stopped at two less known and I discovered true artistic gems at affordable prices.
Art Gallery Valmi
Located in the fancy Outremont neighborhood, the Valmi Gallery has been operating for 21 years. Unlike other galleries, the prices are accessible to all budgets, starting at $20 for a watercolor greeting card and going up to $15,000 for large oil paintings designed for those who appreciate the classical style.
The owner of the Valmi Gallery is Valeria Gruia. A member signatory of the prestigious Canadian Society of Watercolorists. Valeria comes from a family of artists and had her first exhibition at the age of 11. As a unique feature, the artists who exhibit here pay only 10% of their sales to the gallery, not the usual 50%.
1595 Ave Van Horne, Outremont, Quebec H2V 1L6
Art Gallery BOA
Located in Montreal’s touristic area, Boa Gallery exhibits modern art, contemporary art and pop art from around the world. Thanks to its highly varied offer, you are sure to find interesting new paintings for your home or office. The prices of the paintings range from $1,000 $ to $3,000 $.
Opened in October 2022, the gallery also rents space for events. You will also discover books in the gallery. It was here that art critic Andre Seleanu’s book “Comprendre l’art contemporain” was launched. The gallery’s director and owner is the writer Bob Ore. Passionate about art and literature, he states that one of the gallery’s goals is to promote Quebec art worldwide.
263 Rue de la Commune est, Montréal-Nord, QC, Canada, Quebec
I will close here with the promise that Literary Revelations will be back from Montreal.
Have a great week ahead.
Featured picture: Tour de l’Horloge, Vieux-Port de Montréal, Gabriela Marie Milton
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of a very accomplished author: R.C. Thomas. I hope you enjoy it.
BIO
R.C. Thomas resides in Plymouth, UK, with his daughter, where he received a BA in Creative Writing from Plymouth University. His first collection ‘The Strangest Thank you’ (2012), and his pamphlet ‘Zygote Poems’ (2015) were published by Cultured Llama. His poetry and haiku have appeared in journals internationally. Of creative writing publications, he edited Symmetry Pebbles, was Creative Writing Editor of Tribe, co-edited it’s sister journal Thief, and was Managing Editor of INK, Plymouth University’s creative writing journal. R.C. Thomas was selected as one of the ‘Top Creative Haiku Authors’ in Europe in 2021 and 2022; he received joint first place in the Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest 2022, first place in the Third Maya Lyubenova Haiku Contest, had a ‘Selected Haiku Submission’ in the 13th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest and was shortlisted for the Touchstone Best Individual Poem Award. His short story, ‘My Third Wife Was Called Wendy-Ellen’ received an Honourable Mention in the Globe Soup Open Short Story Competition 2022. R.C. Is currently working on various projects, including a collection of fauna-based haiku.
winding down around the mountain mouflons lower horns
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of Tina Mowrey. We hope you enjoy this feature.
BIO
Educator and lifelong learner, Tina spends much of her free time reading, writing, and observing the world around her. Most recently, she has been focusing on the craft of short form poetry (haiku, senryu, tanka) with original pieces published in the following journals: Mayfly, Frogpond, Presence, Wales Haiku, Modern Haiku, Trash Panda, Folk ku, Cold Moon, and Poetry Pea. Tina’s work has also appeared in several anthologies including Hidden in Childhood, To Live Here, and From One Line – If I Were A House.
In another life, Tina is a picture book author, with three books to her name and a singer/songwriter. She loves listening to music, traveling with her family, spoiling their five pets, and eating tacos. Lots of tacos!
4 haiku/senryu by Tina Mowrey
warm winds stirring the foliage summer’s last dance
recalling how distant we’ve become desert sky
water lilies a flight of dragonflies tends the nursery
Tanka poems are a representative type of classical Japanese poetry with a long history. Beginning as waka, which were widely composed starting in the 7th century, today they continue to be produced by people of diverse backgrounds while retaining their ancient characteristics. In other words, tanka poems can be regarded as a valuable part of Japanese cultural heritage that are loved and enjoyed in contemporary Japan…
It can be said that social media has had a great impact on modern tanka. As a result, the traditional framework of social exclusiveness of this poetic genre from ancient times has been removed, leaving an environment where people of any social status and cultural background can easily create and read tanka and join the tanka community.
Kensuke, Koshida. “Globalization of tanka: how Twitter contributes to development of traditional Japanese poetry.” Relacje Międzykulturowe= Intercultural Relations 2 (8) (2020).
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the magnificent art and tanka of Hikari, a fabulous Japanese artist. Read more about Hikari here. Some of the art that you will see in this feature is done by Hikari in collaboration with her mentor the Japanese artist Naoki Kimura. Read more about Naoki Kimura here.
The introduction to tanka, the art, the poems, and the translations below belong to Hikari, unless otherwise noted.
Introduction to Japanese Tanka by Hikari
Tanka is one of the forms of Japanese poems consisting of 31 syllables of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 (*a).
By comparison, Japanese haiku consists only of 17 syllables of 5, 7, 5.
◆Haiku is mostly liked to seasons. tanka is not.
◆Tanka conveys one’s feelings in more detail than haiku because of its longer form.
◆The origin of tanka is said to be around the latter half of the 7th century in Japan.
Famous Tanka Anthologies
The most famous anthologies of tanka in Japan include “Manyoshu” (*b) and “Kokin Wakashu”, as well as the “Hyakunin Isshu”, a collection of poems selected from various anthologies.
I would like to introduce one of the representative tanka in Japan.
It is composed by Lady Murasaki, who depicts “The Genji Monogatari” (*c), and has been translated in many languages around around the world.
“I met you, my friend, for the first time in a long time and enjoyed talking to you, but at night, you hurried home like the moon hiding in the clouds. I wonder if that was really you…”
Tanka by Hikari/painting Hikari with Naoki Kimura
I always add a tanka written by me to the painting I drew.
Even if you regret it, put on your mask and quietly wait for the light at the gate of tolerance
“la porta della Tolleranza”(*d),
Tanka and painting by Hikari
(Japanese)残照に 今日の佳き事焼き付けて 悔い燃し進む 沖つ船みる
“Za-N-Sho-Ni Kyo-U-No-Yo-Ki-Ko-To Ya-Ki-Tsu-Ke-Te
Ku-I-Mo-Shi-Su-Su-Mu O-Ki-Tsu-Fu-Ne-Mi-Ru”
(English translation)
“In the afterglow I’m going to burn today’s good things in my heart and at the same time burn up my regret. Watching the ship sailing offshore. Moving forward to tomorrow”
“Amidst the light, where cherry blossoms dance, you twirl. Though the world may change, the seasons continue to turn”
Thank you for reading.
*a 31 characters is not an absolute rule.
*b Manyoshu is the oldest collection of poetry in Japan(Late 7th century), and includes Chinese poems and waka poems too.
*c “The Genji Monogatari” is a story about Hikaru Genji, the main character, and the feelings of the women surrounding him. It was written around the beginning of the 11th century.
Norinaga Motoori , 18th century Japanese scholar of literature, advocated that “Genji Monogatari” is the literature at the top of “Mono no Aware,” a feeling unique to Japan.
This idea also influenced Naoki Kimura, a Fine photographic artist.
Literary Revelations hopes you enjoy our Sunday Feature: The Poetry of Bartholomew Barker.
BIO
Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was “served” in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, Bartholomew worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit at bartbarkerpoet.com
Canis Redivivus!
My dog sleeps like a beach towel drying in the sun after a vibrant afternoon throwing his tennis ball into the lake, scaring fish and snapping gnats.
When he’s had his fill of fecund water, he collapses onto the sand, panting, tongue drooped. I cajole him home, where I wash the souvenir smells from his fur.
It’s the best way to get some quiet time to work until I hear the distinctive music of his tags shaking and he yawns into my office where I proclaim,
“Behold! Bobo Redivivus!” He returns my wag, ready for dinner.
I was more popular when I drove a pickup
She asked me to drop her at the airport and I was happy to repay the favor until I discovered it also involved moving her out of my apartment
Please check our latest #1 Amazon Bestseller Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh. Launched on August 11, 2023 Building Sandcastles was still #1 in the Poetry/Haiku category last night.
