Category: Books
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Now on Sale! MANIFEST (zine) #19
Issue #19, Addendum When you get time to say more… ADDENDUM is a companion piece to the book Sleeping with Ghosts: Poems & Musings and a postscript to the chapter Wednesdays. Includes 10 new poems by Jen Payne and a collection of color photographs and paintings. 24-page, Full Color 5.5 x 8.5 booklet. Cost: $8.00.…
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Art & Poetry: Telling Stories at New Haven’s City Gallery
In THREADS: STORIES IN FIBER, on view at City Gallery in April, artist Catherine Lavoie explores topics related to recovery from trauma, family roots, natures beauty, Buddhist wisdom, and a bit of whimsy. Mirroring the theme of stories, Branford author Jen Payne will present a poetry reading from her memoir Sleeping with Ghosts on Sunday,…
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25th Annual Great Poetry Exhange
I am excited to be participating in the 25th Annual Poetry Super Highway Great Poetry Exchange! Earlier this year, 95 poets were selected to randomly exchange their poetry books with other participants. As part of the exchange, I received a copy of Atmosphere by Michael Friedman — a collection of poems that explores the elusiveness…
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New Issue! MANIFEST (zine): Pandemic Purchases
Issue #18, Pandemic Purchases Having heard the phrase “pandemic purchase” three separate times recently, I was inspired to create an issue of MANIFEST (zine) about just that — those random, weird, or wild items we purchased during the pandemic, remember? I hope you enjoy this eclectic assortment of Pandemic Purchases as shared by some of…
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Listening to Your Ghosts
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him… — Plato Ghosts, Muses, Inspiration, Universe, God. Call it what you…
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The Importance of Retreat
If the world were a sound, it would be flipping through all of the channels on a radio really fast. Announcers and DJs, commercials and music genres overlapping in the same way our 21st-century tasks seem to layer upon themselves. We’re always busy, there’s always something else to be managed, and the To Do list…
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About the Ghosts in Sleeping with Ghosts
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts I am a part of all that I have met;Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fadesFor ever and forever when I move.How dull it is to pause, to make an end,To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!As tho’ to breathe were…
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How One Phone Call in 1996 Led to a Life of Self-Publishing
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts I started my business, Words by Jen, in 1993. It was a part-time effort at first, offering writing and “desktop publishing” services to a small-but-growing list of local businesses, artists, and non-profits. By 1996, I had moved my office from the second bedroom of an apartment to commercial…
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The Artwork of Sleeping with Ghosts
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts People often comment about the visual nature of my creative work, and how my writing is usually accompanied by photography or artwork. As a graphic designer, artist, and writer, I firmly believe that partnering visuals and words layers the intentions of my work and makes the communication more…
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The Importance of Storytelling
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts My mother, who is easily insulted, often remembers the time a therapist called her a storyteller. Mom recounts the comment as one might an injustice, and she twists and elongates the word “storyteller” to make it sound as painful as it felt for her. What’s the old saying?…
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WOW! Women on Writing Interview with Jen Payne
by Jodi Webb WOW: Jen, welcome back to WOW! Women on Writing with your fifth book Sleeping with Ghosts. What inspired you to write about past relationships? JEN: Hi Jodi. Thanks for welcoming me back to WOW! I loved working with all of you for Evidence of Flossing and am happy to be back for…
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Sleeping with Ghosts Considers Love, Memory, and Storytelling
Sleeping with Ghosts is a collection of poems and musings by Branford, Connecticut poet Jen Payne. Known for her meditations and musings about our outside world, Payne takes readers inside this time…into the heart and mind of a poet, where memories wander, hearts break, and ghosts appear in dreams. Those ghosts — her lovers, soulmates,…
Three Chairs Publishing 