Reading with Dina

I am Catholic but I have never sat down and read the Bible from start to finish. I am almost done! I have a lot to say about it but I want to encourage my readers to take the time to read all the major religious texts. It helps to know what it actually says versus the way it is interpreted and mishandled in the media. Be a critical thinker! That is what I say to my students and what I encourage all of us to shoot for.                                                    Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

                                                                                                           This is a photo I took yesterday while visiting a garden in Rainbow Park here in Chicago.  Nature is a major theme in my books and in my life.  Here-- look at the shape of these flowers--  I love their puffiness.   I also appreciate the Chicago Park District working so hard so us residents can enjoy nature even among lots of buildings! I am going to be taking a break from working on my blog to focus on writing my new novel this summer and also prepping for the publication of my novella, Mary's Wings .  I had hoped to publish it this past ...

My first cat was a black and white stray named April who joined our family on Virginia Street.  I got her in the third grade for getting straight As.  My mom, little brother and sister had picked me up and were excitedly exclaiming to, “look in the back!” I looked in the back of our blue station wagon and tucked into the right pocket was a tiny, black and white kitten named April procured from an animal shelter. April grew up with me.  I had her for 16 years and when I was angry, or disappointed, happy or enchanted, there she would be sleeping or standing or meowing right along with me.  I was 24 when my little sister, the same sister who was there in that blue station wagon excitedly telling me to look in the back, called me in Indianapolis telling me that I needed to come home.  I was about forty-five minutes away. April had not been doing well for the past few days.  And when I got there, I knew she had been waiting for me before dying.  My sister a...

  There are magazines covering all sorts of topics these days—cars, cooking and fashion among others.  Readers may not be as familiar with another form of a publication—literary journals! Literary journals have been around for many years.  One of the first was North American Review which was founded in Boston in 1815.  It continues to create issues.  You can visit their site here.  Walt Whitman had been known to say, “The North American is hospitable to new, strange views; invites, accepts, and that is a gift these days.”   Since North American Review , there have been many other literary journals launched.  Two of my favorites are Fiction and The Paris Review . Fiction was founded by Mark Mirsky, Donald Barthelme, Max Frisch and Jane Delynn in 1972.  In its early years, they published experimental works by writers such as Jerome Charyn and Samuel Beckett.  Fiction did publish my short story, “Silver Boxes” as well.  Th...

                          A Love Letter to Thyself   Valentine’s Day has come and past—but love and hate are all year, regret and remorse are all year round.  I am not speaking of the relationship between one and his/her/their partner but of the relationship one has with thyself. I have made many, many mistakes in my lifetime.  At times, I have hurt people enormously with my words, I have disappointed those I care most about, I have been selfish when I should have thought of the needs of others as well.   And so I can go one like this, whipping myself like the medieval flaggelants who used whipping as a form of expulsion of their sins. I am religious, so I do ask and often do ask God for forgiveness.  But there are secular ways as well, one of the strongest being self-compassion. Self-compassion-- for me-- is about giving youself the same room for growth and forgiveness as you would (or ...

  Lucille Clifton and Other Accomplished African-American Poets I am continuing a celebration of African American literature with this week’s post.  As we move into February, my posts for that month will be about the art of the love letter and we will be writing one together as well!  Black poets will also be highlighted. I am a huge fan of poetry.   It amazes me how a poet, in a few stanzas, can capture an incredible moment in life, the adoration of another human being, a disappointment of life, a hope for something new.   Some people are intimidated by poetry, my first tip is to read it out loud.   My other tips come from a background in teaching/education.   We use these strategies to help our students better understand a poem. Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash In general, I read a poem three times.  FIRST READ:   just to read all the way through and get an overview on the piece.   SECOND READ: is a check for understanding. ...

By Gwendolyn Bennett photograph collection at NYPL Digital Archives - https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/370048f0-0c0f-0131-bd26-58d385a7b928, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75748946 One of my frustrations is the celebration of certain marginalized groups that last for the day and then disappear.   Martin Luther King Jr Day was January 17th.  Many of us have gone on with their lives.  Instead of dedicating one post to honoring Zora Neale Hurston, I wanted to continue this month with discussing other aspects of African American literature.   Today's blog will focus on one of the epic eras of African American creativity, the Harlem Renaissance. Many people have heard of the Harlem Renaissance but don't quite understand it.  One of my goals with my blog and my other social media platforms is to help readers learn about literature as well as the historical contexts that contributed to their creation.  I want you, ...