Category: Books
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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,…
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Time to Write
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts Did you know that Picasso created more than 50,000 works of art, but only about 100 of those are considered masterpieces? That’s less than 1% of his work! I think about that little fact every April, when I attempt to write a poem a month for NaPoWriMo (National…
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Sleeping with Ghosts Playlist
AN INTIMATE EXPLORATION OF LOVE, MEMORY, AND MEANING Known for her meditations and musings about our outside world, Connecticut writer Jen 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, and muses — reveal themselves…
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Creatively Speaking: Summer Reading
I remember with much fondness my local library’s summer reading programs. There was a large bulletin board with a hand-drawn map or roadway, and construction paper vehicles that we could move forward depending on how many books we had read. Even now, I have a deep sweet memory of the summers when I was 11,…
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Help Me Continue Manifest (zine)
Since 2020, MANIFEST (zine) has presented writing, art, photography, and creative bits of whatnot in a series of zines ranging in topics from creativity, grief, change, the environment, social issues, and finding refuge in turbulent times. It’s an eclectic combination of lit mag, artist book, and poetry chapbook, that also includes a curated Spotify playlist.…
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Breakwater Books Celebrates National Independent Bookstore Day with a Weekend of Guest Authors and Activities
Join Breakwater Books in celebrating the 12th Annual Independent Bookstore Day with a weekend of Connecticut authors and activities on Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27. On Saturday, author Amy Lionetti-Scorziello will be in the store with her bookLove, Mommy (an unintended book) from 10 a.m. – 12 noon. It is the perfect gift for new mothers…
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Happy National Poetry Month (+ NaPoWriMo)!
“Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month is a special occasion that celebrates poets’ integral role in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events…
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Creatively Speaking: Choose Real Dopamine
SPRING 2025 Choose Real Dopamine Phew! OK. Are we still breathing? It’s been three months since the last issue of Creatively Speaking and Wow! OK, how ’bout them Eagles? It’s been a pretty intense few months, and if you’re anything like me, it’s been hard to look away, right? And maybe you’re feeling a little over-stimulated, a…
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Happy World Poetry Day!
Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace. Held every year on March 21, World Poetry Day celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic…
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Have you seen Manifest (zine) #16?
“You Are Here” is the reassuring little icon on a trail map that gives you your bearings, lets you know, in the grand scheme of things Where. You. Are. It’s often the first thing you see when you start out on an adventure somewhere. These days, with things so frighteningly askew, it’s good to have…
Three Chairs Publishing 