
Winter Newsletter
“History says don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.” — Seamus Heaney And so, we find ourselves in the final month of this annus horribilis—and since we've just...

The long slow lazy days of summer
Fall Newsletter Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of...

A Happy Hour both Old & New
Ben Tanzer is all bookish things to all book people and Lori Hettler likes to use numerous alternative channels to spread the word about small press and self-publishing communities. I couldn't be more thrilled to have been invited to join them for this live Instagram...

A Twofer!
As deliciously surprising as it was be named a 2020 Next Generation Indie Books Awards Finalist for Memoirs it was astounding to find out that the wondrous Ben Tanzer had also entered me in the NGIBA Regional category. Huge congratulations to the winners and my...

An overshadowed musical life
The close sibling relationship between Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn intrigues me—because of the close relationship I had with my own brother, Peter. For WBJC, I put together an 8-minute reflection on her overshadowed musical life. You can listen here.

ONW at The Owl
This evening, I was scheduled to be in discussion with the author, Tony Peake (North Facing), at the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town, London. Like all other book events, this one had to be cancelled/postponed—in fact, Tony was one of the poor souls who succumbed early to...

Audio reading in lieu of Charm City Books event
This is the watercolor painted by my mother, Joan, which inspired the print at the opening of Part Six—the last segment of Old New Worlds. Part Six: Chapter Thirty-Seven

Creative thinking in the time of COVID-19
"Thinking outside the box" has taken on a whole new meaning during the Covid-19 response. Musicians offer virtual concerts from their living rooms, commencement addresses are streamed, happy hours are zoomed, businesses have to rethink how they do … well, business....

How do you program music during a pandemic?
“THE MUSIC YOU OFFER US HAS ALWAYS MATTERED, BUT RIGHT NOW IT’S EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.” This wonderful comment from Linda Cades is one of the many we have been receiving from WBJC listeners during the COVID-19 response. Linda was reacting, in part, to the interview I’d...

Reading in the time of COVID-19
Old New Worlds Part II Chapter Fourteen As my contralto-nutritionist friend Monica Reinagel has pointed out, “By now, you've gotten emails from every website and business you've ever visited, announcing how they are responding to current...