Cynthia Brackett-Vincent
Publisher/Editor, the Aurorean
Managing Editor, the Unrorean
Grandchildren: Never too Early for Poetry!
Cynthia Brackett-Vincent holds a BFA in Creative Writing with a minor in Psychology from the University of Maine at Farmington and an AA in Social Sciences (Quincy College, MA, where she served as an editor of Stepping Stone and a member of Phi Theta Kappa). As well, she studied English at Bridgewater State College in MA. Cynthia serves as Membership Chairperson of The Maine Poets Society (click here for more information on MPS including a downloadable mail-in pdf membership application). A Pushcart Prize nominated and award-winning poet, Cynthia has had over 100 poems published in such journals as Avocet, YankeeMagazine.com, and Ibbetson Street; in her chapbook, the 95 Poems; and the online journals, Mannequin Envy, The Orange Room Review, Pirene's Fountain and others. Her nonfiction and poetry appear abroad. She has served as co-editor of a 45-church district newsletter and she co-founded the Tidepool Poets of Plymouth, MA in 2001. Three of her articles appear in Educators as Writers: Publishing for Professional and Personal Development (Carol Smallwood, ed., Peter Lang, 2006). Among other honors, her poetry has received an Honorable Mention in New England Writers, a citation in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and Second Place twice in Maine Poets Society contests, most recently in February 2011. Cynthia has judged poetry locally, regionally and nationally for such contests as the Writer's Digest annual writing competition.
* * *
View Cynthia's personal blog, WritingLyme, a blog centered on dealing with Lyme Disease: http://writinglyme.blogspot.com.
* * *
Cynthia's forthcoming co-edited anthology with Carol Smallwood and Colleen S. Harris with Foreword by Molly Peacock is Women on Poetry: Writing, Publishing and Teaching (early 2012, McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers). ISBN 978-0-7864-6392-3. E-book ISBN 978-0-7864-8871-1. Recommendations: “A true compilation of writing wisdom”—Leon Ogroske, editor of WRITERS’ Journal magazine; “rich with advice and inspiration”—Rebecca Foust, author of God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World; “excellent and most comprehensive”—Supriya Bhatnager, Director of Publications, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP); “a treasure trove”—Melissa Stein, author of Rough Honey (The American Poetry Review, 2010). “invaluable”—Caitlin Griscom, Mid-American Review, Editor-at-Large; “beyond valuable!”—Kate Hopper, author of Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers (Viva Editions, Spring 2012); “a cornucopia of advice and commentary”—Dr. Robert P. Holley, Wayne State University, contributor, Writing and Publishing: The Librarian’s Handbook (ALA Editions), 2010; “a gem...exquisite”—Cathryn Cofell, Poet and Essayist, Kamikaze Commotion; “a wealth of wisdom”—Diane Lockward, Temptation by Water.
From the publisher: "Throughout literary history, female writers have faced challenges different from those of their male counterparts. This collection of 59 essays captures the wit and wisdom of published contemporary female poets, who reveal their victories and struggles with writing. Topics include the collective writing life, tips on teaching in numerous contexts, the publishing process, and general advice to aid the poet in her chosen vocation."
About Cynthia's co-editors: Award winner Carol Smallwood is the author or editor of numerous books, including many about and for librarians. A Michigan resident, her library experience includes high school, public and special libraries. Her work has appeared in English Journal, Michigan Feminist Studies, The Writer’s Chronicle, and The Detroit News. Colleen S. Harris is the author of three books of poetry and her work has appeared in various literary magazines. She works on the library faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as an assistant professor and Head of Access Services.
Download full press release here. Orders: mcfarlandpub.com; amazon.com.
* * *
Cynthia's 2009 co-edited anthology (with Carol Smallwood), Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages, is from All Things That Matter Press and is available on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-American-Women-Defining-Passages/dp/0984259430/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262626451&sr=1-6. Nonfiction, this exciting collection addresses women's issues and will also provide a unique, dynamic much-needed new text for college/university Women's Studies classes. From the back cover: "This unique collection includes over fifty articles by more than thirty-five diverse American women who revisit, celebrate, and share defining moments in their lives. Readers will see the universal in milestones of body, mind, family, career, and personal empowerment—whether joyous or difficult, chosen or unexpected, common or rare. These are poignant passages of women, told by talented and award winning writers: intimate glimpses into the lives of our sisters, friends, aunts, mentors, wives, grandmothers, partners, mothers, daughters—ourselves."
View a book trailer for Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6m7PXGQIU
Even though this collection is about contemporary 'American' women the stories are universal. As I read each, I can see myself in them.
—Supriya Bhatnagar, Director of Publications at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, editor of The Writer's Chronicle.
This collection reveals those intimate moments that change women's lives: the ways we tough it out, break down, and become whole again.
—Arlene L. Mandell, Pushcart Prize nominee. American Association of University Women's short-story contest winner, 2008.
These experiences exemplify the range of passages that existing anthologies have yet to address in a single volume. The authentic, often lyrical prose speaks to a broad audience within and beyond academics
—Diane LeBlanc, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of College Writing, St. Olaf College; Bechtel Prize winner.
CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN WOMEN: OUR DEFINING PASSAGES, compiled & edited by Carol Smallwood & Cynthia Brackett-Vincent, All Things That Matter Press [Somerville, ME], 2009, 250 pages, price: (paper $18.99). ISBN-13: 978-0984259434.
This well written, easily read, and interesting book is a compilation of articles by women, all well-educated. The themes of the book cover passages of the average woman’s life. This includes physical, emotional, family, career, empowerment changes and challenges, reconnecting, dealing with, and accepting parts of our lives and histories. Importantly, it also covers the relationships women have with others, friends, family, and foes, that cause us to change, or evaluate our options. Some of these topics, such as one’s aging body, or the stress of career choices, difficult relationships and positive, affirming relationships, are those to which all women can relate. Other topics, such as surviving sexual abuse or the loss of a spouse, and the accompanying emotional traumas, are topics some of us have suffered, but all of us can feel empathy for those who endure.
Why read this “women’s book” and not another? Hope. The hope that is so affirming and omnipresent in this book is an essential thread that runs through the entire work, binding the stories together. Through all the changes and challenges of life, all the people who help and affirm, and those who seek to denigrate women, the authors not only endured their experiences, but moved forward into the future with hope.
This is not a depressing victim story from the past, and while the stories are autobiographical in nature, it is more than that. A strong sense of spirituality, and of empowerment, accompanies hope throughout the book, encouraging the reader. “That despite what weighs us down, even the tiniest movement or the smallest decision moves us closer to the light.” (p. 152, “Closer to the light,” Hope Payson) This is what the book is all about: that each of us, with hope, can make a choice that empowers us to move towards a brighter, happier, more fulfilling future.
Two of the stories which I continue to ponder long afterwards are “I couldn’t walk, talk or read: becoming a crow again” by Katie McKy, and “Returning to Russia: Returning home” by Yelizaveta P. Renfro. Both of these stories illustrate a turning point in the life of a girl or young woman. Katie McKy notes the moment she chose not to ridicule, but rather to befriend, a girl who fit in neither physically nor socially at school. Previously ostracized because of speech and walking challenges into a lowly school reading and social group called the crows, McKy chose to befriend another crow. As she notes “Suffering can bequeath us compassion. Of course, it can also curse us with bitterness. We get to choose. Of course, choosing well might mean becoming a crow once again, which I did. Rather, I just admitted to what I’d always been.” (p.7) McKy became a teacher, helping damaged children who had themselves become crows, and their parents.
The second story, “Returning to Russia: Returning home” by Yelizaveta P. Renfro, is the story of a self-destructive fifteen-year-old girl who is drinking, using drugs, smoking, destroying her bedroom, and flunking school. With her mother, Renfro traveled home to her ill Russian grandparents. She lived with them for a summer in a tiny, cockroach-infested apartment, lacking air conditioning or privacy. Here, she became aware of others and their dismal living conditions. Renfro kept a detailed diary and, later, typed her observations. She returned to California greatly affected, began writing, and left her old ways behind. Later, with her own daughter, Renfro recalled returning to her destroyed teenage bedroom to find her mother had cleaned it and spread a bedspread on her bed to welcome her home. “Only now do I realize that through such small actions we impose order, which is a kind of love… [Of her daughter, Renfro notes] “She will run away from me, too, literally perhaps, but certainly figuratively, I can only hope that she will return home again.” (p. 95) To me, this story demonstrates another individual making a choice, becoming aware of others around them, and choosing hope for the future, and hoping for the next generation.
Too often, the books I read in college women’s studies courses were about a woman’s endurance, and acceptance of an unhappy life with a father who did not appreciate or respect his daughter, a husband who did not understand her, or a dream abandoned. Her life was misery. It was all about negative relationships with men, no options for work or life, not having choices, working for less pay than a man, working in an unsatisfying job, and being discriminated against in many ways. My male college housemates once commented on how all the books in women’s studies were sad and blamed men. Well, it is a new century since I took women’s studies, and clearly the women in this book are more self-aware and have more options than the suffering women of the past. Part of that difference is education, providing women a chance for a quality job with pay and benefits, and laws preventing gross discrimination and allowing a vote. Like the book’s cover image of a woman looking towards the rising sun, the authors figuratively and collectively look towards the new day with hope, for an improved, empowered life, not just for them, but for all women.
Overall the writers tell us that highly educated, modern American women have options that allow us to determine our future and follow our dreams. It would be interesting to read stories from the life of women who are not as well educated as these writers. What do the women without a degree working at WalMart, trying to pay their bills, think of their lives? Or, what about the women who make negative choices? Do they find their lives inspiring enough to write about for the benefit of other women? Do they have hope? Perhaps that is a topic for a future book.
* * *
Cynthia teaches poetry writing to adults, assists her husband in the graphics services segment of Encircle Publications, and is active in bringing poetry into the public schools with a special interest in elementary students. She lives in rural Maine and enjoys attending poetry workshops as health permits, as well as membership in the Maine Poets Society and The New England Poetry Club. Other interests are animal welfare, bicycling, breast cancer research, cross-stitching, and hiking. She is married, has three grown sons, two wonderful daughters-in-law, a grandson, two granddaughters, and three adopted rescue cats—her helpers—two of which are pictured below.
Mr. Editor, Poseidon Medusa screens Aurorean submissions
