Love, Your Artsy Girl

http://www.cristinaquerrer.com

Buddha's Dog & Other Meditations by Ira Sukrungruang Living in the Tampa Bay area for some years now, aside from finally attending AAWP this year that was held in Tampa, I wanted to know what writers live around me.  Lo and behold, there is a prominent writer who is also Asian American. Thai-American to be exact and his name is Ira Sukrungruang and he is a creative writing professor at University of South Florida's MFA program. I have heard his name in certain circles before, but I searched University of Tampa's booth out at the writer's conference and got to meet Ira and purchase his latest collection of personal essays. Let me tell you, what depth and breadth of his prose, though seemingly personable in diction, like listening to your best friend confessing his or her worries and fears, it is balanced with a great amount of humor and heartbreak.  Most of all, it is also interspersed with such lyricism and universal truths.  Buddha's Dog &...

This creative non-fiction piece of mine was published by Flagler Review in 2013 https://issuu.com/bthompson73/docs/flare_fall_2013/85 I Perhaps between heaven and hell typifies an experience outside the pain of childbirth, beyond the anguish of loss and the perpetuity of the arctic, hospital waiting room—where, like the airport, the masses wait anxiously for their arrivals and departures. Here is what I am writing about now.  A place where someone cannot absolve are the spaces where I cannot let go.  Therefore, ghosts still walk on my paper and step all over my canvas and pull my hair at night and I cannot remember where I stashed my poems—my paintings—destroyed in my brother's basement during one rainy season that I have not been able to hold a mordant gaze upon an original idea.  Assuredly, I told my brother, John, that if I die now, I would like him to oversee my writing and artwork.  I can see it in his expression—who the hell do you think yo...

photo by Henrietta Bogdan Agave Press has announced the upcoming publication of my full-length poetry collection in November 2018! I n anticipation of the publication of By Astrolabes & Constellations by Cristina Querrer (forthcoming from Agave Press this November), we are pleased to share with you an excerpt from this volume. This collection of poems explores an interweaving and melding of worlds and experiences; it is an ebb and flow of awareness, bringing together questions of the self and of identity, travel, nostalgia, loss, and the beauty of forgiveness. https://www.agavemag.com/author-spotlight.html

"the spirit of the staircase" by Tiana Nobile When I visited the Asian American Workshop Workshop's table at AAWP Tampa 2018, I was greeted by a bubbly young Korean-American woman who entertained all my weird questions. I introduced myself to her and asked if she had a book for sale here and she lit up and presented me "the spirit of the staircase" as shown above which upon first blush, appeared to me like a graphic novel when I started flipping through it. But what caught my attention (as I'm sure it did for many people) was the brazen index of poems: I. Is it true Asian pussies are sideways? II. Go back to China! III. I used to work in Korea. Ya'll make really great cars. IV. I used to watch Thai porn with my Taiwanese ex-girlfriend. Then we'd fuck. V. Where are you really from? VI. I've never had an Asian before. VII. What are you? These titles coupled with Brigid Conroy's paintings, which are light a...

I t's April, National Poetry Month, and I thought I'd dedicate my next posts to reviewing a couple Asian-American writers and other poets whose works I've discovered this past 2018 AWWP (Association of Writers & Writers Program). It was my first time ever attending the event and because this time for once, it actually convened in my area, therefore, had no excuse but to attend at least one day.  I was overwhelmed, swirling, like a kid in a candy store for I was surrounded by books and my artsy fartsy tribe! I got a chance to run into the women at the Sundress Publication's   table.  One of my poems have appeared in their earliest online magazine back in the late '90s.  While there, I  stumbled upon the work of Jim Warner, entitled "Actual Miles" published by Sundress Publications.  He's a Filipino-American poet.  How do I know?  Well, when I was thumbing through the pages, his poem "subic bay" jumped out at me. Jim Warner...

What is deep reading, exactly?  Basically, it’s submersing yourself in a contiguous block of time reading a sizable book of text (not just mere images) from beginning to end.  Oh, you think: that’s easy! Or, you’ve done it plenty of times.  If you done it recently and regularly, then kudos to you! But for some, have you noticed that your attention wanders so fast when trying to sink into a good book that you had to put it down as soon as you started?  You’ve chosen a topic you want to read about, a topic you want to learn and educate yourself on, or a novel you heard about and wondered what the hype was about, but the book sits on your nightstand for weeks on end, if not months, only collecting dust.   I am glad you are reading my blog posts and would love you to come back, but I challenge you to make a goal to read a book a month and then two books a month, if you are not a reader, or an avid reader.  I know people read at different speeds...