Intermission: A Midsummer Poem and Announcements
"Summer Relay"; the month ahead; Enchanted by the Book CONTEST
“Summer Relay”
Lilac and wisteria have borne the baton of summer as far as they can go. Their petals droop and fall. They clutch their knees and gasp at the side of the track. It looks worse than it is. The black-eyed Susans are rested and ready to make it twice that distance. Count on the vigorous Susans to cross the finish line of summer and bring home the gold.
Dear Readers,
Today’s post is a short one, and the first of its kind at Enchanted in America. As in old-time movie houses, while the projector operator changes the reels, we have a few short features to keep you amused and up to date between the longer ones. The short features are a poem, a July preview, a reminder about the Enchanted-by-the-Book CONTEST that kicked off this weekend, links to the archive, and a link to the artist who donated a beautiful print to illustrate a post this month. Also this week, the website has a new entry post called The Mudroom. It’s a good place to get oriented if you are a new subscriber. Busy times!
The summer schedule calls for two literary posts and one personal essay per month. If you missed them, you can find the earlier June essays here (“Stumps” - a light family piece drenched in enchantment from the Pacific Northwest), and here and here (Parts I & II on how characters in the novel Fools Crow manage dissent in small communities). You can also find here a bonus post published over the weekend in support of the Enchanted-by-the-Book contest, on the domestic necessity of the board book, Good Night, Gorilla. Because of five Mondays, July will also have a bonus post.
And now it’s Intermission. Grab some Red Vines or a vino and enjoy the remaining shorts. We’ll be back next Monday with a regular feature chosen from the list below.
July Preview ~
In no particular order, we’ll be reading about:
A bad case of united states from Octavia Butler’s Kindred;
An 1862 newspaper reprint about “hate” in America - ahem;
A quirky fusion of Garth Brooks with nineteenth-century short-story writer Bret Harte, in honor of outdoor concert season;
A personal essay on my first literary enchantment (hint: A Little Golden Book costing 39 cents); AND
📣 Enchanted by the Book
Announcing a friendly CONTEST :
When were you enchanted by a book, poem, or story? Click to see the call. 🥇. Due date for responses: Thurs, July 13. End of reading and voting: Sun, July 16. Winners of the Most Like-ly and Most Florid awards announced: Mon, July 17.
“Wait! What did I miss?”
If you’re new here and feeling a little robbed to get an Intermission snack instead of a full meal today, try some of these links:
The Mudroom for an overview of what’s on the site.
Posts 1 and 2 to give you a sense of what motivated this project.
The post about Ursula Le Guin’s “She Unnames Them”, popular among the literary essays.
This post about false enchanters and Flannery O’Connor, because enchantment is sometimes a problem.
This St. Patrick’s Day dive into old newspapers or the report on a San Francisco lecture from the Civil War era, for trivia and history buffs.
A post illustrated by Montana artist Monte Dolack, who gave permission for his print “Animal Rites” to accompany an essay about the novel Fools Crow, by his old friend, the late James Welch.
I hope you’ll consider submitting to the Enchanted-by-the-Book Contest!
See you next Monday for the resumption of regular features. Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting, Liking, and generally supporting this project!
This is so awesome!!