Remembering Chuck Shandry
This weekend, I learned of the sudden passing of Chuck Shandry, who contributed interviews to Wild Violet in our early days, and who was a fellow staffer at the annual anime and East Asian cultural convention, Otakon. I met Chuck about 30 years ago, when I was an officer and newsletter editor for the Penn State Monty Python Society. He occasionally attended meetings, not performing in skits like the rest of us hams, but laughing in the audience and cheering us on. Nearly 20 years older than us, a Navy veteran, he genially turned down our offers to join us for a run to the College Diner after...
Read MoreContact Info Update
ADDRESS UPDATE: Because of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the current civil unrest in Philadelphia, for the time being, please use the following updated address instead of the post office box we have previously used for correspondence. Submissions and correspondence can be sent to: Alyce Wilson, editor Wild Violet Magazine 1925 Lawrence Rd., Apt. D-3 Havertown, PA 19083 E-mail: wildvioletmagazine@yahoo.com Inquire via e-mail before sending books or CDs for review.
Read MoreNaPoWriMo Prompt 30
At long last, it is Day 30, the final day of the NaPoWriMo challenge. We began the month by writing an “ars poetica,” a poem about our philosophy of poetry, a type of poem which often begins poetry collections. Now let’s end with the sort of poem that might end a poetry collection. Today, write either an epilogue or a poetic biography. An epilogue is defined as “a section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened.” For a great example, look at Robert Lowell’s “Epilogue,” which...
Read MoreNaPoWriMo Prompt 29
On Day 29, our NaPoWriMo prompt is: “Z” is for “Zenith.” Referring once more to Lewis Turco’s The New Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics (University Press of New England, 1986), the term “zenith” also means high point or climax. In his discussion of constructional schemas (or “the ways in which words, phrases, clauses, and larger units are grammatically balanced”), he defines auxesis, which is “the building up, in parallel structures, of a catalog or series that ultimately closes at the zenith (high point) of the set (the...
Read MoreNaPoWriMo Prompt 28
Ready for a challenge? Don’t worry: This form is fun. Today, “Y” is for “Yadu.” The Yadu is a Burmese poetry form. Here is the definition from Wikipedia: [The Yadu] consists of up to three stanzas of five lines. The first four lines of a stanza have four syllables each, but the fifth line can have 5, 7, 9, or 11 syllables. A yadu should contain a reference to a season. The form uses climbing rhyme. The rhyme is required on the fourth, third, and second syllables of both the first three lines and the last three...
Read MoreNaPoWriMo Prompt 27
On day 27 of the NaPoWriMo challenge, “X” is for… well, “X.” Today, take inspiration from the various meanings and uses of the letter “X.” According to Wikipedia: As a result of its use in algebra, X is often used to represent unknowns in other circumstances (e.g. Person X, Place X, etc.) X has been used as a namesake for a generation of humans: Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X. It is the generation born after the baby boom ended, ranging from 1961 to 1981. An X-shaped mark has traditionally been used by the illiterate in lieu of a...
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