Letters from Our Readers

Editor’s Note: We’d like to know what interests and concerns you, what you’d like to see in the magazine, and your reactions to what’s already there. Persimmon Tree depends upon your suggestions and thoughts, so write us at editor@persimmontree.org. We reserve the right to edit letters that are published in this column.

Appreciation

Dear Editor,

"Nine Poems" by Carolyn Kizer was a remarkable read! Her work is wonderful. Also, Ten Images by Mayumi Oda !! (Both now in Archive.) Really enjoy your magazine. Such an amazing display of women!!!

Best to you,
Phibby Venable


Dear Editors:

Thank you for Marcia Freedman’s "Going Back" (now in Archive.) I had come and gone from my young years in Israel by the time Marcia became well-known, so I attach no particular politic to her name. What her essay did for me on this endlessly cold and still snowy Vermont morning was to bathe me with memory of the balmy October air, spiced with scent, and the pungent tastes, the lemon and the mint, balanced by my own stories of wearing jeans on Mea Shearim as I traversed the short cut from the sculpture department of Bezalel, the Academy of Art, to the ceramics studio. My own ensuing battles with fundamentalists ended up one day with bricks being thrown at my little, hurrying, eighteen-year-old self, a vision that I have most likely carried in metaphor long past its due, but nonetheless a potent piece of who I have become these many years later.

Thanks again for this essay, a chance meeting with an old self! I look forward to reading Marcia’s memoir.

Nina Gaby
Vermont


Dear Editor,

I just must say something to express my admiration for "Rings," your wonderful story by Charlotte Painter (now in Archive.) When one gets to read a story like this, it is like finding a gem. Real feeling is attributed to real people of intelligence with real flaws. That such work can find an outlet is more than a comfort to those of us who are beyond tired of the dumbing-down of contemporary literature.

Thank you.
Joan L. Cannon


Dear Editor,

I just love the little bit in Martha Roth’s "Grandma Season" (now in Archive) about her persnickety little granddaughter, Penelope. There is a lot of personality and spunk in this little person. It made me smile.

Thanks,
Mary Tilghman


From an Australian Reader

Hi,

When I read that Persimmon Tree’s mission is to bring the creativity and talent of women over sixty to a wide audience of readers of all ages, I couldn’t resist emailing you. I am an Australian writer, and my first novel Pickle to Pi won the Ilura Press International Fiction Quest and was published last August. To say that I’m excited would be an understatement. In Australia I am now considered an "emerging" writer—I’m delighted to know that even senior citizens can "emerge."

All the best,
Glenice Whitting


More on Northeast Open Poetry Submissions

(Editor’s Note: Poetry for the Fall 2008 issue has been accepted from women poets in the Northeast region. Our next open submissions will be for poetry from the Southwest region; details forthcoming.)


Dear Editor:

I think this is a great idea and hope you will extend it to poets writing in English but living outside the country. I know there are a lot of expat poets living in Mexico.

Thanks for all you’re doing,
Rochelle Cashdan


Dear Editor,

As an active poet, age 72, from the Midwest, my nose is quite out-of-joint by such regional discrimination!

Sincerely,
Beth Schultz


Dear Beth Schultz,

I’m sorry about your frustration about our poetry submissions. We had to divide the U.S. into regions because we’d be deluged by hundreds of poets otherwise. Since none of us has the energy/time to handle that big of a load, we decided to handle it this way. At a later date there will be a call for Midwest poetry.

Best regards,
Nan Gefen


Dear Nan Gefen,

Thanks so much for your good reply. I do understand, though it would have been reassuring had you placed this caveat in your initial invitation. May Persimmon Tree flourish.

Beth Schultz