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Your eighth annual “5 Over 50” (November/December 2023) [1] was a joy to read; however, you might consider a piece on “1 Over 80.” My poetry collection, Walking Naked Under a Yellow Rain Slicker, was released by Kelsay Books in late 2022. In addition to readings and interviews in Connecticut and New York State, I did a reading tour in Ireland this past summer. (Several poems in the collection have Irish themes due to my heritage, and I have studied at the W. B. Yeats International Summer School over several years.) Oh, I am eighty-six and have nearly completed my second collection, “Walking Through Wind Storms: Danger, Danger.”
Deanie Rowan LaPlante-Blank
East Haven, Connecticut
I’ve been a subscriber for just a few issues now and was worried that people like me (retired, pale, wrinkly) were not typical Poets & Writers Magazine readers. Cover photos and inside shots show young, beautiful writers. They glow like models in fashion magazines! I gave those up long ago. At sixty-six, I am an emerging poet and writer, trying hard not to put two spaces after periods, so I was glad to see the feature “5 Over 50” [1] about debut authors.
Jane Vander Velde
Pasadena, California
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A decade ago, six years before she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, poet Louise Glück agreed to a wide-ranging interview with novelist William Giraldi for the cover feature of the September/October 2014 [3] issue of this magazine. (As the final exchange in that interview, Giraldi remarked, “You said once that the life of a poet oscillates between ecstasy and agony, and what mitigates those extremes is the necessary daily business of living.” To which Glück replied, “Yes. Friends, conversations, gardens. Daily life. It’s what we have. I believe in the world. I trust it to provide me.”) So in October, upon hearing the news that the Nobel laureate had died at the age of eighty, we shared the link [4] to that cherished interview on social media, eliciting a wave of responses on Facebook and Instagram: “Rest in peace, beloved, Louise. With eternal gratitude,” wrote one writer. Another posted: “Thank you for everything, Louise, my number 1 favorite poet of all time.”
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Three of the most popular posts from pw.org
1. “5 Over 50” [1] (November/December 2023)
2. “Literary Magazines That Pay” [5] (November/December 2022) by Aaron Gilbreath
3. “The Written Image: Crystallized Books” [6] (March/April 2023)