ChaptGPT and Book Reviews

 

Ask any writer who reviews books, how hard is it?

It’s hard, a genuine struggle to understand, digest, and then write something meaningful and true. Hours go by.

 

 

Enter ChatGPT.  I asked for a review of Karren Alenier’s book how we hold on. Within seconds, the bot produced thoughts that rang true. Here’s the conclusion:

“How We Hold On is a beautifully crafted collection that marries formal discipline with heartfelt depth. Alenier navigates memory, grief, joy, and language with elegance, offering an emotionally resonant journey through family ties, love, and loss—both intimate and universal. A compelling read for anyone who appreciates lyrical precision and emotional honesty.”

The only nit I might pick is that I meant for the title of the book to be in lowercase but that’s a hard thing to know given how my publisher rendered the title on the front cover and on the title page inside the book (all uppercase letters).

Furthermore, ChatGPT picks up the details. It knows that my section “Mama’s not a trapezoid” deals with the “complex relationship” with my mother. It recognizes that I wrote in various poetic forms from villanelle to Golden shovel. It draws professionally  from the excellent review that was published in the Mom Egg Review. What I mean by professional is that ChatGPT provides a quote from the MER essay. There is no pirating of the words in that review.  And surprise surprise, it also mentions the video of the reading I did from how we hold on for Poets vs. the Pandemic.

Now it seems justifiable to do profile reviews that provide the vital details plus key descriptors, first and last lines, and a short comment. Have a look at this format done for Fables from Italy and Beyond and The Mouth Is Also a Compass. 

The Grace of Guest Artist Diana Tokaji

 

Invitation to be a guest artist on her website is something the Steiny Road Poet does to promote other poets and to keep her website vital. Usually, she asks poets for permission to feature a short poem with short lines. However, for the month of April 2025, she asked Diana Tokaji to allow an excerpt from a long poem which also had some long lines. Her website format is not so flexible. Nonetheless, she was profoundly moved by the poetry (and prose) Diana had sent her and felt her words bore witness to the difficult times we are enduring.

I was also moved by her Facebook post that reads as follows:

In the kindest way, Karren Alenier occasionally invites fellow poets as guest artists on her site. This month I was so honored, an act that seems especially generous in an ever creepier world. It's not just the posting that is kind but the way she goes about it, with enthusiasm and her bright aesthetic in play. She read both of my books and expressed that Conversation 4 in SURVIVING ASSAULT especially speaks to these times, as it both empathizes with and asks us to rise above despair. Create Courage is the theme of that chapter - how do we manufacture courage when we actually don't feel it? She asked me to pull an excerpt out for this feature, and with hope that it's not too disjointed, that's what I did ...a short offering in the space. My thanks to her for this and multiple ways she touches and guides the artistic community.

 

Here's the cover of SURVIVING ASSAULT–Words that Rock & Quiet & Tell the Truth, of the book that the featured excerpt comes from. After reading SURVIVING ASSAULT, Steiny highy recommends you proceed to the prose memoir Six Women in a Cell: Survival and Sisterhood After Police Assault. These books are companion pieces.

 

The Intimate Interview—Miller of Alenier

 

 

What makes a good interview? In September 2024, Karren Alenier was interviewed for an hour by E. Ethelbert Miller for his podcast On the Margin.

 

Besides interesting questions that addressed the concerns of working poets like how does one arrange a book manuscript, it was clear that interviewer and interviewee liked and trusted each other. Trust is crucial if the interviewer wants honest discussion about such issues as grief and race.  The good chemistry between Miller and Alenier added to the shared history of the literary scene in the Washington, DC area.

 

People who listened to this interview made such comments as:

 

—I didn’t expect to watch the whole interview, but I was swept along by the exchange.

 

—I learned new things about the DC literary scene.

 

—I got to know Karren Alenier better.

Heron Clan XII accepting submissions

 

 

Heron Clan XI: 2024 Poems from Katherine James Books has been published. It includes such poets as Lola Haskins, Hiram Larew, Ed Lyons, Doug Stouber, Brad Strahan, and Karren Alenier (a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet).

Here are some snippets from poets that caught Steiny’s attention

 

What There is to Lose  [excerpt]

A Golden Shovel with thanks to Louise Gluck

     by Frances Klein

 

Leather shoes in the rain, of course, and the endless why

of your child’s third year. A pillowy slice of cake. Love.

 

 

 

 

 

Cloud-Speak  [excerpt]

     by Brad Strahan

 

What comes from this cloud of words?

Surely not rain. – Blood perhaps?

Surely not coins. – Maybe stones?

Not hail, perchance pale maidens

dressed in wet veils.

 

 

Stage Fright  [excerpt]

     by Earl Carlton Huband

 

You sit, staring straight ahead.

Your jaw tight. Hot. The spotlight

focused, overhead a hood

poised, the final curtain drops.

 

 

To submit for the 2025 Heron Clan anthology, send three poems and a 50-word bio to

katherinejamesbooks@gmail.com

Checklist for an Excellent Poetry Manuscript

 

What does a poetry manuscript in the 21^st Century include? Here are some of the elements possible.

 

[ ]        Prologue Poem

 

This is a poem that sets up the major themes of this collection and ties its sections together. It should be short and easy to enter.

 

[ ]        Sections

 

A typical collection might have three to five sections. Fewer seem better but it depends on the work. There are collections where the work is one long poem without sections.

 

[ ]        A Repeating Title

 

This is a technique for demonstrating that the collection contains poems that talk to each other and deepen the subject matter. Such poems might open or close each section. To identify these poems with exactly the same title consider picking up a few words from the first line of the poem.

 

[ ]        Forms

 

While there are successful collections that use the same form for every poem in the collection (e.g. the sonnet is a popular form), variety shows the poet’s mastery of craft. Creating your own form and then, if possible, writing another poem in that form also shows craft.

 

[ ]        Poems in a Series

 

Poems that repeat some aspect such as subject matter, character, linguistic marker, add glue to a collection. The question is whether to group these together or spread them out in the manuscript.

 

[ ]        Poems that Contain Research

 

Whole collections of poetry might be based on extensive research but poems in a series might also operate under the magnifying glass of  researched information. Be careful about keeping end notes to a minimum.

 

[ ]        Metapoems

 

Poems that are about writing poetry. This is another way to demonstrate your knowledge of poetic craft.

 

[ ]         A Repeating Word 

A word or a version of a word that repeats throughout every poem of the collection creates an undercurrent of meaning to deepen the subject matter.

 

[ ]        Punctuation & Capitalization

Many poets have quit using punctuation and capitalization. Whatever you decide, just be consistent.

 

 

 

 

Don't Go into the Steinian Woods Alone

 

Because the Stockbridge Library poetry series airs on Zoom at midday Eastern time, it's a great opportunity to include poets in Europe and on the US west coast. So Steiny (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) is taking her own advice about don't go into the Steinian woods alone.

 

 

 

Mark your calendars now!

 

March 20, 2024 12:30 pm Eastern

 

On Zoom

 

 

Who: Karren Alenier with Andrea Carter Brown & Margo Berdeshevsky

 

What: Stockbridge Library presents The French Connection—Karren Alenier reads with Andrea Carter Brown & Margo Berdeshevsky their poems in From the Belly: Volume I "Objects" and much more.

 

How: Visit stockbridgelibrary.org (close to the date, go to events calendar to register or email Karren@Alenier.com and she will make sure you get the link.)

 

Free 

 

 

 

About the Words Being Spoken: upcoming reading

 

 

 

Part of publishing poetry is getting the words spoken, getting the poems read out loud to an audience. The Steiny Road Poet is pleased to say she has lined up another reading of From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

 

This time Steiny goes solo. This means she will focus on poems she wrote in response to Tender Buttons Objects. There are over 20 poems of Alenier's to choose from. She will also be reading the Tender Buttons that inspired Alenier's poems and shining light on those buttons. It is a one-hour program. Here’s an example:

 

 

 

 

NOTHING ELEGANT.

     from Tender Buttons Objects by Gertrude Stein

 

A charm a single charm is doubtful. If the red is rose and there is a gate surrounding it, if inside is let in and there places change then certainly something is upright. It is earnest.

 

about the word

     by Karren L. Alenier

 

the pen is the

pen is an organ

flaccid or sound

 

muscular music

flowing milk or ink

Horace said pen

 

is tongue of

mind who needs

articles point is

 

pen is maker

of kind teacher

teaching us

 

right

 

Mark your calendars now.

 

March 20, 2024 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

On Zoom

Who: Karren Alenier

What: Stockbridge Library presents Karren Alenier reading her poems in From the Belly Volume I Objects—reading & discussion

Free

 

Contact Karren at  Alenier.com and she will make sure you get the zoom link.

Poetic Honoraria: One Breath at a Time

 

The issue of getting paid for presenting poetry is ever present among poets. Most of us present without any promise of honorarium because we need to reach audience.

 

Recently, the Steiny Road Poet organized a reading featuring four other poets and herself based on her anthology From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons through the Brooklyn, NY organization One Breath Rising. The reading was spectacular with lots of great questions posed by our host. Although there was some mention that we might get an honorarium, we had no expectation. Some weeks later we each received a check for $100 thanks to funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council and Poets & Writers (NY).

 

Stepping back to see the bigger picture, one should note that was $500 for one program. Some speakers easily get that kind of money, insist on that level of funding.  Just saying that poetry is an art form that brings spiritual benefits if not entertainment and that we poets are much like monks sitting with our begging bowls. Kudos to One Breath Rising for their generosity in sharing their resources.

Poetry Mutual: A New Washington DC Poetry Promoter

 

Washington, DC, has a new poetry promoter in town called Poetry Mutual.

 

Years ago, DC had the Poetry Committee of Greater Washington, DC Area which was hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library. That poetry promotion group had a literary calendar and an award system (the Columbia Prize). It’s a brave thing to do because it takes staying power.

 

Behind Poetry Mutual are Kim Roberts (founder of Beltway Journal now hosted by Indran Amirthanayagam), Michael Gushue, and Dan Vera. These three poets have been involved in promoting other people’s poetry through small presses they have formed and supported. They are an awesome literary force.

 

The Steiny Road Poet is pleased to have had From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons selected by Poetry Mutual as one of the three best anthologies of 2023. The other two selected were Dora Malech and Laura T. Smith’s The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays and Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and Jeremy S. Hoffman’s Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States.  There were many wonderful anthologies they could have singled out for recognition. Check out Poetry Mutual and sign up for all their news, including their selection of the ten best single author poetry collections.

The low down on the low profile Heron Clan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Steiny Road Poet (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) usually doesn’t submit work to publications where she has been published before. However, she finds herself drawn to Doug Stuber’s Heron Clan anthologies and has been published annually there since 2020 in volumes VII, VIII, IX and recently X. The books, numbering over 200 pages of poetry by mostly poets she has never read before, are handsomely produced. They are promoted by Stuber on his weekly Sunday afternoon Zoom readings.

 

In a way, these volumes, in English, which often include poets who are not United States citizens, seem oasis often for unexpected poetic gems. Poets of all levels are represented. Stuber, Ed Lyons and librarian Richard Smyth developed the project in Rochester, NY in 1998 and has included such luminaries as Ilya Kaminsky.

 

Here’s one poem published in Heron Clan X

 

a mother in selma

   by Karren L. Alenier

 

there’s a mother

in Selma Alabama

I reached her

during a phone bank

an eleventh hour

action to flip

a Republican seat

in Congress she said

no one cares

about my vote

in one ear I spoke

I do they do in the other

ear her baby fussed

later I thought your

child will thank you

for joining the

community to elect

a better human being

but then I said

god bless you

and I could feel

her hanging on

with her life

 

 

The collection is published by Katherine James Books, but does not appear regularly in Amazon listings. For more information contact KatherineJamesBooks@gmail.com.

How to Make a Sound Byte of Promotion

 So you need a sound byte of a minute or so to promote your new book of poetry. 

Here's what to do:

—Choose a poem and think of a snappy intro.

—Write a script.

—Go to your personal Zoom account and record.

When you exit your Zoom account your video file with be ready.

Upload that file to your YouTube Account.

Here's What the Steiny Road Poet did recently with her reading of Gertrude Stein's Tender Button "A Blue Coat" and her own response poem.

W-E Poets Reading: The Bones

 

 

 

 

 

On September 17, 2023 through W-E Poets of the Pandemic and Beyond—a tri-coastal Zoom reading, the Steiny Road Poet (a.k.a. Karren Alenier) presented several selections from From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons that included Nils Michals (CA), Susana Case (NY), Carolyne Wright (WA), Brad Richard (LA), and Karren Alenier (MD).

 

 

 

 

Each presenting poet followed this format:

—A sound byte of bio

—A signature poem

—Stein’s text (read by Karren Alenier)

—Response poem

—Remarks on process of writing response poem

—Introduction of next responding poet

 

An unedited video now sits on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncEa1I89ZSQ.

 

Here is how to navigate this one hour plus footage:

 

 1:49     Introduction by Sandy Yannone

 6:00     Karren Alenier

11:30    Nils Michals

23:00    Susana Case

27:54    Carolyne Wright

39:40    Brad Richard

48:21    Closing remarks and Q&A, Karren Alenier, Carolyne Wright, Susana Case, Lynn McGee, Brad Richard, Sandy Yannone, Nils Michals

 

Highlights

—Sandy Yannone’s introduction: She calls Alenier a Gertrude Stein whisperer and hopes to present all three volumes in this forum

 

—Karren Alenier: responds to Stein’s “Nothing Elegant.”

—Nils Michals: responds to Stein’s “A Chair.”

—Susana Case: responds to Stein’s “A Table.”

—Carolyne Wright: responds to Stein’s “Suppose an Eyes.”

—Brad Richard: responds to Stein’s “It Was a Black, Black Took.”

 

—Comments and Q&A:

 ­——Respondents appreciated getting assigned Stein text and felt that they wrote a poem that took them to a new place in their writing.

——Did respondent learn anything new about Stein?

——Responding to Stein’s work is an exercise in ekphrasis because her work is an object of art.

——The responses brought our world to Stein’s work and showed relevance.

——What did you learn about yourself as a poet in responding to Stein?

——Responding to Stein became a tale of gaining more life experience.

——Stein morphed in one poet’s prejudice from being the Jackson Pollack of poetry to a poet that brings out realities not seen before.

Feedback from a Reader

 Feedback from a reader is often more rewarding than what comes from a formal published review.

 

 

 

Karren:

  As you know, I’m not a Steinian addict, but your book [From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons] serves as an excellent introduction or textbook on to how to read, wonder and appreciate what she does.  Your emphasis on the invitation to play—to having fun with writing—is a lesson I need to absorb in order to write more pleasurably, perhaps more creatively.  As I slowly wade through the poems, thus far a few of my favorites include your “the wars of Leo Stein”,  “birth of the long dress made in America”, “two more purses” by Duhamel, “hat before snow” by Cavalieri, and “after “A Leave” by Armantrout.  Your challenging project certainly attracted some big name poets.  Kudos!      --Gary

Picked by the Critics

 

 

 

Karren Alenier (a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet) was just published in the premiere issue of the online magazine Porlock…along with Paul Muldoon and many others with impressive literary credentials.

 

How a poem is picked for this publication is unusual. A panel of people of various occupations does the choosing. Here’s what the Porlock website says about these guest editors: A philosopher, three science writers, a political candidate, a fiction writer, two critics and a filmmaker selected 39 poems for this first issue of Porlock.

 

While each poem presumably ends with the names of the guest editors who chose the poem, the biographies of these editors are not published. For that matter, the biographies of the contributing poets also are not published. A reader must search on these mostly unfamiliar names to discover who these editors might be. Sven Birkerts and Matt Hanson are listed with “Paul Bowles Laments theDeath of His Wife Jane” by Karren L. Alenier. As best as she can determine, both of these people are critics.

 

There might be more to this story. Stay tuned.

Catch Poets as Rock Stars

 

Admit it. Haven’t you always wanted to be a rock star standing at a mic with the audience leaning in to catch your every word?

Actually, the Steiny Road Poet didn’t know she still had that desire in her until she started rehearsing with DC Musica Viva’s Carl Banner and his colleague saxophonist Rhonda Buckley-Bishop. Here’s a cut of the rehearsal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOS7Cby7lJI

 

Poet Anne Becker worked with Carl Banner to create the Leider Project in which poets were able to choose Brahms songs based on the poetry of 19^th century poems to update the linguistic message in English.

 

Steiny has done improvisational readings with saxophonists before but this time the musicians weren’t training their ears to the ebb and flow of the poet’s words. This time the music wasn’t improvisational. This music is Brahms and by the laws of artistic ethics and esthetics, the poet was tasked to fit the words along the score of what this master composed!

 

In this performance, you will hear the original German lyrics along with the original re-interpretations of poets Karren Alenier, Anne Becker, Laura Costas, Craig Flaherty, and Dine Watson performing new poems created in response to the original German lyrics.

 

While the in-person performances are sold out, you can catch the livestreaming at www.youtube.com/washingtonmusicaviva on April 22 & 23 at 3 pm Eastern.

The Pleasure of Those Met at AWP

 More than half the pleasure of going to AWP is who you meet and who you see again. Here are photos of such meetups: 

It was a pleasant surprise to find myself talking to Monica Youn, who I had just heard on the Podcast Between the Covers.

Another little frisson was I realized I was talking to Leslie Pietrzyk, a fiction writer I met years ago at a party in Washington, DC but do not see except once in a blue moon.

         

Why Kazim Ali knows me is beyond my imagination but we always greet each other at AWP.

This masked duo turned out to be Allison Hedge Coke and her granddaughter. I "know" Allison from an online listserv.

 

 

 

  This is Nate Brown who stopped by The Word Works table where we gave him a protea flower and a book of poetry so he asked to buy a book by me!

 

 

Always congenial is Jericho Brown who once read at Word Works Cafe Muse Literary Salon.

 

I run into Sandra Beasley at all sorts of venues and we conduct business on the fly. Sometimes we even meet dancing!

OH! The Company She Keeps

 

Karren Alenier, a.k.a. the Steiny Road Poet, says don’t go into the Steinian woods alone and so the literary community is paying notice to her new creation From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

 

From ModPo Professor Al Filreis:

https://web.sas.upenn.edu/afilreis/2023/03/01/blurb-for-new-edition-of-poets-responses-to-steins-tender-buttons/

 

Al Filreis’ blurb on the back cover means that this online endorsement has been announced to thousands of people who have been reading Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons thanks to this professor’s MOOC Modern and Contemporary American Poetry course that has been running every fall for 12 years.

 

 

 

Distribution of From the Belly:

https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781944585617/from-the-belly-poets-respond-to-gertrude-steins-tender-buttons-vol-i.aspx

 

Find the book for sale at Small Press Distribution (SPD)

 

 

The Word Works is the publisher of From the Belly:

https://wordworksbooks.org/

 

Learn about the collection of brand new titles that  From the Belly is being launched with at AWP Seattle.