The Pearlsong Letter

Front Street Reviews praises The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino

Sandra Shwayder Sanchez praises The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino in her review at Front Street Reviews.

The author's evocations of the natural world are exquisite, as are her descriptions of a history so ancient it blends into myth. The author has combined a great deal of historical research with a soaring imagination, a passion for nature and a gift for drawing believable characters to create a truly masterful work that includes and transcends actual history, myth and epic poetry.

....The Singing of Swans will appeal to serious readers interested in magical realist literature, feminist spirituality, religious history, mythology and herbal lore, as well as those who just love a good story brilliantly told. Highly recommended!

The Singing of Swans was published by Pearlsong Press in October 2006. It was a finalist in the spirituality category of the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards.

Mary Saracino essay places third in first Italian/American Citizen Journalist Digital Witness contest

Mary Saracino's essay "Non Parlo Italiano" has earned third place in the first annual Italian/American Citizen Journalist Digital Witness contest sponsored by i-Italy,org.

Read her essay here.

Saracino's most recent novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press, 2006), is partially set in Italy.

Mary Saracino's Red Room webpage

Check out Mary Saracino's webpage at the Red Room website: www.redroom.com/author/mary-saracino.

Saracino is the author of The Singing of Swans, published by Pearlsong Press in 2006.

Mary Saracino discusses fiction's role in the sacred feminine

Mary Saracino, whose novel The Singing of Swans was a finalist in the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards' Spirituality category, was interviewed on Karen Tate's Voices of the Sacred Feminine internet radio show Wednesday evening. The archived recording of the show is now available for downloading or listening online.

The interview focuses on fiction's role in rethinking, reclaiming and reawakening the memory of the sacred female, with an emphasis on Saracino's novel and how she claim to write it. Tate and Saracino also discuss Sicily's Lake Pergusa, long associated with feminine spirituality and the goddess Persephone. The lake plays an important role in Saracino's novel.

Download the mp3 recording of Saracino's interview by going to the webpage for Tate's radio show and scrolling down to the list of Feburary 2008 guests and topics, where a link is available to the Feb. 6, 2008 show.
 

Mary Saracino discusses the sacred feminine on Karen Tate's internet radio show

Mary Saracino, author of The Singing of Swans, will be interviewed on Karen Tate's Voices of the Sacred Feminine internet radio show Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. Mountain).

Saracino will discuss "Fiction's Role in Rethinking, Reclaiming and Reawakening the Memory of the Sacred Female." Her fourth book, The Singing of Swans, a novel about the divine feminine and the Black Madonna, was a finalist for the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards.

Following the broadcast, which can be heard live over the internet at http://internetvoicesradioradio.com,  a recording of the show will be archived at http://internetvoicesradio.com/Arch-Karen.htm.

New Verse News publishes another Mary Saracino poem

New Verse News has published another timely poem by Mary Saracino: "The Eliminated Girl."

Saracino begins the poem with a March 5, 2007 quotation by Indian activist & artist Sabu George:

In our country ultrasound is becoming a weapon of mass destruction. Instead of saving lives, what we are finding is that millions of girls are being eliminated before birth.

Read the poem here.

Saracino is an award-winning writer currently living in Denver, CO. Her most recent novel, The Singing of Swans, was published by Pearlsong Press in 2006 and was a finalist in the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards. Her short story "Vicky's Secret" recently won the 2007 Glass Woman Prize.

Sage Woman magazine recommends The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino

Sage Woman magazine features Mary Saracino's The Singing of Swans in its "Leaves of Sage: Books We Recommend" section in Issue #73.

Reviewer Barbara Ardinger calls the novel "a complex, sometimes disturbing, sometimes enchanting fairy tale about a long line of Sicilian* women who worship the Divine She, as they sometimes call the Black Mother of us all."

The importance of The Singing of Swans is that it presents both history and our foundational myths in an accessible format. Like other novels centering on the Goddess, this book also demonstrates why the mainstream publishers need to catch on to the fact that there is an audience for our literature....Let us hope that books like The Singing of Swans find wide audiences so that the lessons they teach will bring readers back to the Divine She.

Read a PDF clipping of the entire review here.

The Singing of Swans was published by Pearlsong Press in October 2006. It was a finalist in the Spirituality category of the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards.

*Actually, not all the women featured in the novel are Sicilian; some parts of the novel are set in other regions of Italy.

New Mary Saracino poem posted at New Verse News

Mary Saracino's poem "Bombs Into Bread" has been published by New Verse News. It was posted today in honor of December 17, the day when bloggers around the world have been asked to post material on acts of kindness.

Saracino begins the poem with an April 16, 1953 quotation by Dwight D. Eisenhower:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Read the poem here.

Saracino is the author of The Singing of Swans, a novel about the Divine Feminine and the Black Madonna (Pearlsong Press 2006), which was a finalist in the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards. Her short story "Vicky's Secret" recently won the 2007 Glass Woman Prize.

Mary Saracino short story wins Second Glass Woman Prize

"Vicky's Secret," a short story by Mary Saracino, is the winner of the Second Glass Woman Prize.

Saracino's short story, in which a middle-aged divorcee finds empowerment through an unlikely mass media image, was chosen from among 364 entries in the writing contest facilitated by Beate Sigriddaughter of Denver, CO. The short story is available online at Sigriddaughter's website and will also be published in the March 2008 edition of Moondance.

Sigriddaughter funds the Glass Woman Prize with 10 percent of her personal income. "My criterion is passion, excellence, and authenticity in the woman's writing voice."

The "Glass Woman" title comes from her desire for women "to be able to acknowledge, transparently, who we are, and that who we are is not trivial and unimportant, despite the fact that is it not typically rewarded in a man-made and money-motivated world." Sigridaughter's Glass Woman would be made of "unbreakable glass, transparent, but shatter-proof."

Saracino's novel The Singing of Swans (published by Pearlsong Press in October 2006) was a finalist in the Spirituality category for the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards. The Singing of Swans is a novel about the divine feminine in the form of the Black Madonna. The story of Madalene Ross, a thirty-year-old American woman cut off her body, her heart, and her sense of purpose in the world, is interwoven with the lives of three women: Rosalina, a priestess of Persephone in 70 B.C.E. Sicily; Ziza, a strega (Italian witch) in 16th century northeastern southern Italy; and Ibla, an herbalist and painter in 18th century southern Italy. An environmentally compromised lake in Sicily also acts as a portal to the rich tradition of pre-Christian spirituality that lies beneath Church dogma.

In announcing Saracino's win, Sigriddaughter reports that reading the work of the women who entered the contest was "a phenomenal experience...

I am moved by all your writing, your passion, your thoughts. Our voices are important. Above all, keep writing! Ursula Le Guin writes, "We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains."

Sigriddaughter is now receiving entries through March 21, 2008 for the Third Glass Woman Prize, for a piece of short fiction or creative nonfiction written by a woman. For details, see http://www.sigriddaughter.com/GlassWomanPrize.htm.

Curled Up with a Good Book review of Mary Saracino's The Singing of Swans

Curled Up with a Good Book calls Mary Saracino's novel The Singing of Swans "an engrossing tale" and "a fascinating read. Rich in historical detail, this novel will keep you turning the pages."

Read the review at www.curledup.com/singswan.htm.