The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon: Author Page, Barbara Knott
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
IN EVERY CARNATION: The Body of God
A full-length collection of poems by Barbara Knott is going to be published by Finishing Line Press, release date June 22, 2018, with advance sales starting now. Tuck a twenty and three ones for book and postage into your spring book-buying budget, and pre-order from FLP to help set the number of books to be printed. Thanks for your interest. We predict you won't be disappointed!
Also, see Barbara's poem featured on FLP's The Paddock Review: "Luna Moths"
Award-winning poet and fiction writer Barbara Knott says of her work: I am interested in the world and its diversity of creatures, in what makes us human, and in whatever lies in the depths of human experience, where oppositions lay down their arms, where the erotic meets the sacred, and where serious sits down with humor to sort it all out. And this: My goal as a writer is to get the reader to feel part of an ongoing conversation I am having with myself about matters that appeal to my imagination and to become as excited about them as I am.
AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS
In 2009 Barbara's poem "Boxwood" was selected by Judge Nikki Giovanni as first-prize winner of the New Millennium Writings Awards 28 prize for poetry. In 2010 Francois Camoin chose her short story "Song of the Goatman" as third-prize winner in the Writers at Work fiction competition. In 2013 Ireland's Fish Publishing short-listed "Apples in the Cellar of Dread and Desire" for their prize in short memoir. Her short story "The Legend of Abigail Jones" received first prize in the wild card category of Atlanta Writers Club's Spring 2014 competitions. Barbara was among a select group of poets representing Finishing Line Press as readers at the Abroad Writers' Conference in Dublin, December 2015. Her work has been published in Minerva Rising, The Distillery, Now and Then, New Millennium Writings, and Permafrost.
BOOKS
Besides the forthcoming publication of IN EVERY CARNATION: The Body of God, Barbara has had two chapbooks published by Finishing Line Press: Soul Mining (2011) and MANTA Poems (2015).
Barbara Knott's "Boxwood" is one of the most astounding poems I've read recently. She has a voice that can reach high notes, and I hope that like a diva she will keep on singing them. I love her work and wish her and her readers a long and wonderful love affair.
Nikki Giovanni, author of 16 books of poetry including Bicycles: Love Poems (2009). As Judge of New Millennium Writings' Awards 28 poetry competition, she chose "Boxwood" as first prize winner.
Barbara Knott's poetry is deftly written and a pleasure to read. Soul Mining is a true gem.
Leah Maines, author of Beyond the River.
Barbara Knott's aptly titled Soul Mining is a treasure trove of wisdom, both ancient and modern. Her expression of depth and evocativeness in these highly original poems is stunning. Indeed, this first collection is a tour de force that will delight every serious reader of poetry.
Rosemary Daniell, author of A Sexual Tour of the Deep South (poems) and Fatal Flowers (memoir), as well as other books of poetry and prose. She is founder and leader of Zona Rosa writing workshops.
A collection of poems celebrating the liveliness and humor embodied and inspired by MANTA MAE ADAMS LESTER who departed this world on December 13, 2013, at age 96, and who would have turned 100 on September 12, 2017.
Barbara Knott's second collection, MANTA Poems, is an apt and generous demonstration of how it is not necessary to wait, as poets so often do, for dramatic epiphanies to come to them before making poems. In this story -- and it is a story -- Knott gives us perfectly shaped pieces crammed with wit, concrete detail and the deliciousness to be found in the ordinary things of life, which, all coming together, express an elegant and hard-won philosophy. In them, her sensitivity, intelligence and poetic control shine through as she addresses, in a profound and original way, the possibilities of a life lived simply but well. Indeed, this deceptively uncomplicated yet beautiful book will bring pleasure and aha moments to her many readers.
Rosemary Daniell, author of two collections of poetry, A Sexual Tour of the Deep South and Fort Bragg & Other Points South, as well as a chapbook, The Feathered Trees, and six other books.
Barbara Knott's collection pays a wonderful tribute to her friend Manta Lester. "Manta Finds Her Edge" draws the reader into the richness of their friendship while capturing Manta's essence. "Two Ladies Discover Dali's Nuclear Mysticism" is another wonderful poem. I greatly admire Manta for her acute mind at her age and Barbara for teaching me more about Dali. Through the words and images with which Barbara shaped these poems, both Manta's memory and their friendship endure. I even found myself feeling a bit jealous that Manta had not been my friend, too. MANTA Poems is a memorable read.
Anne Webster, author of the poetry collection, A History of Nursing.
I love reading Barbara Knott's poetry because it refreshes the soul and challenges the mind like an afternoon spent with a witty and intelligent friend. Each poem left me feeling as if I too had known Manta and that I was better off for the experience.
Kim Brown, Editor in Chief, Minerva Rising Literary Journal. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Today's Chicago Woman, The National View Alumni Magazine, Naperville Sun and Pitkin Review.
WORK CIRCULATING
MOONSHINE TO MOONBLOOM: Becoming Aradella Stark, a coming of age novel with story chapters that help create a rich context for Aradella's early life. An early version was short-listed in a James Jones First Novel Competition under the title Muscadine.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
THE ART OF LYING DOWN, a novel set in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1990s
GOAT SONGS, a book of short stories with the same setting as the Aradella Stark novel: rural north Georgia, first half of the twentieth century.
KEEPERS OF THE FIRE, a play about the Etowah Indians in Georgia
For more information, including bio and links to Barbara's writing for The Grapevine Art and Soul Salon, click on the sidebar's Contributing Writers and then on the link in her name.
Celebrating the Love of Life
A selection of places to go on the Internet just for the fun of it.
Johnny Mathis, Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
D. H. Lawrence, Women In Love (film), Fig-eating Scene
On Being, Nikki Giovanni on Soul Food, Sex and Space
There are several references to the work of Wendell Berry in The Grapevine. Here are other glimpses:
Wendell Berry in Music Album trailer
The Peace of Wild Things: Wendell Berry, On Being
We've just discovered that a wonderful documentary film on Georgia poet Byron Herbert Reece starring Atlanta actor Chris Kayser is available to be watched in full on YouTube: The Bitter Berry
Ireland Chooses Seamus Heaney Poem as Its Favorite
400 Times Shakespeare Totally Blew Our Minds
Copyright 2018, Barbara Knott. All Rights Reserved