Content Warning: This installment is collaborative and because caregiving is often a solitary endeavor, both authors encourage readers to take a moment to honor/recognize those who tend to the needs of others with limitations due to illness, injury, or disability.
Hi Friends:
Because writer’s block is a loss of connection absent of provocation, this issue includes:
A sip…
If ever the opportunity presents itself, ask the muse about the Sicilian Kiss…
A shout out…
Social transformation is only obtained if there is a desire to change, and many agree with actress, author, podcast host/public speaker, screenwriter, and television producer, Tembekile (Tembi) Locke, that society’s available options surrounding end-of-life care significantly fail to address patient and familial needs.
The younger sister of author/producer, Attica Locke, an alumna of Wesleyan University, and the author of the NY Times bestseller, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home, she is the first creative professional to consciously advocate on behalf of caregivers and for greater grief awareness.
An urban homesteader, avid cook, and the recipient of multiple NAACP Image Award nominations, she is a strong supporter of efforts that endorse seamless access to palliative care, early access to hospice care, and equitable bereavement leave and deserves accolades for creating space to openly discuss what should no longer be considered taboo, death.
A sentence…
Prompts inspired by From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home…
On Italian women of the house: "She, like many women in town, saw their time at the stove as their domain. I was forbidden to even set the table."
On grief: "Grief, in particular, had become my personal grief aggressor. Whereas I had loved it before, in grief it took work to eat, work to digest, work to make it into something that soothed."
On the experience of having an Italian coffee breakfast: "The clatter of cups hitting saucers, spoons clinking against porcelain, plates being stacked, the aroma of coffee and fresh pastries, seduced me."
On the Sicilian way of food making: “In the kitchen, when Sicilians juxtapose something amaro (bitter)—with something else dolce—sweet—they bring the contrasting flavors to life, make a stage for both. side by side. Bitterness, Sicilians understand, is an essential flavor both in food and in life. It has shaped the island’s culinary identity. There is no sweet without the bitter. The poetry of the island tells us that the same is true of the Sicilian heart."
On grief: "I began to understand that cheese making, especially making a wheel of infused pecorino, is a lot like dealing with grief. It requires time, labor and attention. It also needs to be left alone for a time. It requires gentle hands but also strong intentions. And in the process, there is pressure...the curing and solidifying."
A few useful tips…
When writing a memoir…
Tell the truth.
Don’t write self-consciously.
Lead with the down and dirty.
Tell your story from multiple perspectives.
Know readers expect an emotional journey.
Adding enough fictional elements will give the story life.
Don’t expect every reader to understand or validate your written experiences.
A few contest opportunities…
ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction
Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award
BWW 2024 Chapter One Writing Competition
A few grant/fellowship/scholarship opportunities…
CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing for Cuban Writers
Fund for Investigative Journalism Seed Grants
Nancy Ludmerer Fellowship for Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
O’Shaughnessy Fellowships and Grants
The Salty Quill Scholarship for Writers Retreat
Speculative Literature Foundation Older Writers Grant
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Whiting Creative Non-Fiction Grant
A few freelance opportunities…
Life & Thyme is seeking contributors.
VegNews welcomes pitches related to the plant-based lifestyle.
Eater seeks stories and critical examination of the world of food and drink, with a particular focus on restaurants.
A few sessions & workshops…
April 23rd
April 24th
April 25th
April 26th
April 27th
Ongoing
A few virtual book clubs…
This Black Girl Reads Monthly Book Club
And a final thought…
This installment is a collaborative effort; the featured author and prompts were suggested by
the host of Marinarena travel & Poetic Deep Dive -the Substack filled with poetically creative takes on travel and fine dining. Subscribe here:It also contains an affiliate link; I earn commissions when you purchase books using that link, or you may please buy me a coffee.
Thanks for reading,
Beautiful. Thank you. Italy is on my bucket list. I've traveled to Mexico (of course), Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, and Turkey. But I've never been to Italy. This gorgeous collaboration makes me want to buy a sundress and drive down the Amalfi Coast.
So, right now I'm in a season of expanding my family by getting married in a couple months. I am very excited but my grief is starting to resurface because my mothers will not be there. My fiancée's mother has also passed, and so I grieve for his loss as well. The grief has pushed me to go back to working on my personal essays. I think its going to serve as a way to get through this space of family change I'm in.