Writing

In 1998, Molly and I toured the West Coast for five weeks and she learned to do everything but drive the car. Resurrection tells that tale. Now she can drive, writes her own songs, sings them and plays the bass. She also sings with me! (Susan Wilson photo)

I meant to be a writer and the fiddle swept me away, though I’ve kept a pen as as well as a bow in my hand. My original songs are in collections that include two Smithsonian anthologies, I’m revising a novel, compiling a poetry collection, and writing a music memoir. The first two essays below are from the memoir.

No one writes in a vacuum. Jane Yolen has encouraged me personally as well as through her “Take Joy” writing manual. We’ve collaborated on a recording featuring her poetry (The Infinite Dark – 2018) and she included my poems in her anthology about Western Massachusetts, “Compass Roads – Poems about the Pioneer Valley,” Levellers Press (2018)

The Franco-American Women’s Institute, edited by writer Rhea Coté Robbins, has published my poetry and essays in Moé pi toé, with several pieces also included in her 2016 anthology Heliotrope: French Heritage Women Create.

ESSAYS

Teaching the Baby to Swear – 2014

Resurrection – 2016

Matriarch – 2016

POETRY

For Pete Sutherland – 2022

The Fiddler’s Eye – 1995

At the Dance – 1996

On the Road – 1998

Jammin’ – 1998

Chain Lightning – 2010

Poem for my loud upstairs neighbor – 2010