The Pearlsong Letter

Grab the Lapels review of the Fat Poets Speak poetry series Volumes 1-3

Melanie Page of Grab the Lapels praises the Fat Poets Speak series in her review of Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society, Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly, and Fat Poets Speak 3: FatDance Flying. Read her review here. 

"Really, the glory of reading this collection is that it's unique -- the poets' feelings about their fat bodies are typically silenced in media," she writes.

She adds, "This collection pushed me significantly. Though I've been reading about fat women for years now (all part of my quest), the love of fat bodies was surprising. Some part of me has accepted tolerance, rather than love. Can you love a fat body -- including your own? The answer is duh, yes, but because the message is so rarely distributed, I was shocked before I could normalize what I was reading."

The Fat Poets Speak series is edited by Frannie Zellman, who also contributes poems to the anthologies. The Fat Poets' Society was founded in 2006 at a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) conference. The first volume contains poems by Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan, Corinna Makris, Lesleigh Owen, and Zellman; the second, poems by Barron, Durette Hauser, Kaplan, Deb Lemire, Owen, Eileen Rosensteel, Dr. Deah Schwartz, M.M. Stine, Mary Ray Worley, and Zellman; and the third, poems by Barron, Tolonda Henderson, Hauser, Dawn Howard, Miranda Jacobson, Sherrie Myers, Kris Owen, Lesleigh Owen, Michelle Kriz Parkinson, and Zellman.

The Fat Poets Speak books are available in trade paperback and ebook from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Google Play, Apple Books, and other online retailers, as well as directly from Pearlsong Press. 

Celebrate the Ides of March with the Kindle or Nook ebook of Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly

No need to beware these Ides of March!

....especially if you've been waiting for the Kindle or Nook version of the new poetry anthology Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly, edited by Frannie Zellman.

You can now buy the ebook from Amazon's Kindle store, or from Barnes & Noble for the Nook. The PDF version of the ebook is already available (along with the EPUB and Mobi/Kindle versions) from the Pearlsong Press retail store. The original trade paperback is also available from all those venues and more.

Get links to all these retail purchase options, plus more info about the book and an excerpt to read and share, at the Fat Poets Speak 2 page at the Pearlsong website.

Enjoy! And please help spread the word....the Fat Poets Society is donating royalties from Fat Poets Speak 2 to Ragen Chastain (of Dances with Fat) to support her fat activism work.

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Fat Poets Speak again -- new poetry anthology forthcoming from Pearlsong Press

Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly poetry anthology now available from Pearlsong Press

Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly poetry anthology now available from Pearlsong Press

The official publication date isn't until April 1 (no fooling), but the new anthology from the Fat Poets' Society, Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly is now available in original trade paperback and PDF ebook!

Buy it now from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or the Pearlsong Press store. The PDF ebook is currently available only at the Pearlsong Press website, but the ebook should be available elsewhere in Kindle, Nook, iTunes and EPUB formats sometime in April.

Read more about Fat Poets Speak 2  -- including an excerpt you can share via Facebook and Twitter -- at the book's Pearlsong webpage here.

That's poet Anne S. Kaplan's face on the cover, by the way. The other poets (and poet/editor Frannie Zellman -- who is also the author of the novels FatLand and FatLand: The Early Days) are pictured below.

The Fat Poets' Society is donating royalties from Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly to Ragen Chastain of DancesWithFat.com, in support of her fat activism work.

Enjoy -- buy -- read -- and please help spread the word!

 

Fat Poets Speak again -- new poetry anthology forthcoming from Pearlsong Press

They're baack! Or soon will be. The poets from Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society are returning with a second volume of poems that will be published by Pearlsong Press in 2014.

In Fat Poets Speak 2: Living and Loving Fatly, the poets again embrace their lives as fat women in a thin-loving culture, with poems about negotiating their days among different, sometimes dangerous and hate-filled worlds.

"But they are more than just their voices," says Frannie Zellman, who edited both volumes in addition to contributing poems. "They are women who live and love with gusto, passion and yearning -- they live and love fatly."

Fat Poets Speak 2 will take readers on a journey through the days of 10 deeply angry, loving, creative poets. You will laugh, cry, commiserate and celebrate as the poets guide you through highs and lows, sadness and joy, grim defiance and determination and stunning pinnacles of loving and understanding. Especially lush and sensuous poems will be starred for the benefit of readers.

Kathy Barron, Anne Kaplan, Lesleigh Owen, Corinna Makris and Zellman authored the poems in the first volume, Fat Poets Speak. All are back for Fat Poets Speak 2 with the exception of Corinna Makris Winter, whom the poets hope will be able to join them again in the future. The second volume proudly adds Eileen Rosensteel and Mary Ray Worley, founder of the Fat Poets' Society at a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance convention in the Boston area in 2006. Fat Poets Speak 2 also features one poem each by four new voices, activists in the fat acceptance movement: Durette Hauser, Deb Lemire, Dr. Deah Schwartz and M.M. Stein.

The Fat Poets' Society is donating royalties from the first volume to NAAFA. Royalties from Fat Poets Speak 2 will be donated to fat activist Ragen Chastain.

Frannie Zellman is also the author of the fantasy and science fiction adventure novels FatLand and FatLand: The Early Days, volumes I & II of The FatLand Trilogy, also from Pearlsong Press.

Fat Poets Speak now available as an ebook!

Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society is now available as a PDF, Mobipocket & Kindle format ebook. Buy an ebook and help promote fat acceptance!

The poetry collection by Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan, Corinna Makris, Leslie J. Owen & Frannie Zellman (edited by Zellman) shares the poetry & process of fat embodiment. In a sociocultural climate in which fat bodies are considered diseased and blamed for everything from rising medical costs to global warning, it takes courage for fat women, especially, to express anything but shame about their bodies. Fat Poets Speak is part of and intended for the growing movement reclaiming "fat" as a valid way to exist in the world.

The Fat Poets' Society was born during a poetry workshop at the 2006 annual convention of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a civil rights organization. The poets are donating their royalties to NAAFA.

You can purchase the PDF version (which is similar in layout to the original trade paperback edition) & the Mobipocket version (which is in plain text suitable for resizing & reflowing on mobile devices) here at the Pearlsong Press website. The Mobipocket version is also available through Mobipocket.com & its affiliated retailers. The Kindle version is now available in Amazon.com's Kindle store. Barnes & Noble will also soon carry the ebook in its online catalog.

Browse an excerpt from the trade paperback edition via the BookBuzzr widget below.

Listen to A Conversation with Lauri J Owen, author of the new paranormal romance novel Fallen Embers

Click here to listen to and/or download the 50-minute mp3 recording of Lauri J Owen chatting with Pearlsong publisher Peggy Elam, Ph.D. and other Pearlsong authors in the September 12, 2010 Pearlsong Conversations teleconference call.

Pearlsong Press holds these free teleconference calls once a month as a way for readers and fans to connect with Pearlsong authors -- and, often, for authors to connect with each other. (Lynne Murray, author of the new romantic comedy Bride of the Living Dead, and Lesleigh Owen, co-author of Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society, were also on this call.)

Lauri talked about the genesis of her paranormal romance novel Fallen Embers and its magic-rich alternate Alaska setting, her astrology-based system of magic, and what's in store in future volumes of The Embers Series. (Taste the book yourself by clicking on the Bookbuzzr widget below and reading the first chapter.)

Fallen Embers is available in original trade paperback and ebook editions from Pearlsong Press and your favorite online bookstores.

New free ebook from Pearlsong Press -- Frannie Zellman's fun Fat Acceptance test

At the summer 2009 convention of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), Frannie Zellman and other members of the Fat Poets' Society performed a skit Zellman wrote and dubbed "The Super Duper Incontrovertibly Incredible & Unrelentingly Exciting Fat Acceptance Multiple Choice Test."

Zellman & Lesleigh J. Owen did a two-person version of the skit during the October 2009 Pearlsong Conversation teleconference call with their publisher, me. (Pearlsong Press published Zellman's fatopian novel FatLand as well as Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society, which Zellman co-authored and edited.

I enjoyed the skit so much I suggested we offer the text as a free ebook, along with excerpts from Zellman's books. She readily agreed.

So the Super Duper Incontrovertibly Incredible & Unrelentingly Exciting Fat Acceptance Multiple Choice Test is now available as a free, colorful 42-page PDF ebook. Check it out via the Bookbuzzr widget below, or download in PDF form directly from the Pearlsong Press website here. Share it with friends and enjoy!

Super-Duper Incontrovertibly Incredible & Unrelentingly Exciting Fat Acceptance Multiple Choice Test & Conversation with Frannie Zellman & Lesleigh J. Owen

Click here to listen to the 45-minute October 14, 2009 Pearlsong Conversation with poets Frannie Zellman & Lesleigh J. Owen.

Frannie and Lesleigh are members of the Fat Poets' Society and co-authors (with Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan & Corinna Makris) of Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society. Frannie edited Fat Poets Speak and is also the author of the novel FatLand.

Frannie and Lesleigh talked with publisher Peggy Elam, Ph.D. (and fellow Pearlsong author Pat Ballard, the Queen of Rubenesque Romances) about their writing workshop at the recent NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) convention. Frannie and Lesleigh started off the Conversation with a 2-woman version of the skit the Fat Poets Society performed at the post-workshop coffeehouse at which participants could share their creative expressions.

The skit began with the Super-Duper Incontrovertibly Incredible and Unrelentingly Exciting Fat Acceptance Multiple Choice Test, followed by "fat definitions" and a performance of Lesleigh's poem "Fat Beauty," which begins on pg. 61 of Fat Poets Speak.  (Peggy's favorite "fat definition" was "fatatonic: a state that occurs when one hears too many recitations on how everything will improve in the nation and in the world if fat people lose weight, like from task forces on obesity which do not contain any fat or obese members.")

Click here to listen to just the 17-minute skit portion of the teleconference call. [3/2/2010 Update: The 17-minute skit mp3 is no loner available.]

Frannie has an MA in creative writing from Boston University. Lesleigh has a Ph.D. in sociology and is a college instructor and social activist.

The Fat Poets' Society was born at a poetry workshop at the 2006 NAAFA convention. The authors are donating the royalties from Fat Poets Speak to NAAFA.

Pearlsong Conversation with authors Frannie Zellman & Lesleigh J. Owen Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Pearlsong Press publisher Peggy Elam, Ph.D. will chat with authors Frannie Zellman & Lesleigh J. Owens in a free teleconfererence call this Wednesday, October 14, 2009. The call, the 10th in a series of monthly Pearlsong Conversations Peggy has with authors and readers, will begin at noon Eastern/11 a.m. Central.

Frannie & Lesleigh plan to discuss their writing workshops and performances at the recent NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) convention.

Email pearlsongconversations @ pearlsong.com for the details (teleconference phone number & access code). There is no cost to participate in the call, other than usual long distance charges. We'd love for readers to participate. You can also email questions or comments for the authors or publisher before the call to peggyelam @ pearlsong.com.

Zellman & Owens are co-authors (with Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan & Corinna Makris) of Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society. Frannie edited Fat Poets Speak and is also the author of the novel FatLand. She has an MA in creative writing from Boston University. Lesleigh has a Ph.D. in sociology and is a college instructor and social activist. 

The hour-long teleconference calls are recorded and the mp3 recordings made available for listening online or downloading. You can find links to the previous Conversation recordings on the Pearlsong Conversations webpage (http://www.pearlsong,com/pearlsongconversations.htm).

Next month's Pearlsong Conversation will feature Rebecca Brock, author of the romance novel The Giving Season, which will be released by Pearlsong Press in November. Mark the November 11, 2009 date on your calendar and plan to join us!

Fat poetry, fat pride, & the Fat Poets' Society -- A Pearlsong Conversation with the authors of Fat Poets Speak

Hear the five co-authors of Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets' Society share the poetry and process of fat embodiment in this hour-long Pearlsong Conversation with publisher/psychologist Peggy Elam, Ph.D.

The teleconference call featuring Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan, Corinna Makris, Lesleigh J. Owen & Frannie Zellman was held May 13, 2009 as one of a monthly series in which Elam chats with Pearlsong authors and fans have the opportunity to listen live, comment and ask questions. (For more on the series, including archived recordings of previous Conversations, click here.)

In a sociocultural climate in which fat bodies are considered diseased and blamed for everything from rising medical costs to global warming, it takes courage for fat women, especially, to express anything but shame about their bodies. Fat Poets Speak is part of and intended for the growing movement reclaiming "fat" as a valid way to exist in the world.

The Fat Poets' Society was born during the 2006 annual convention of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), a civil rights organization. The authors are donating the royalties from Fat Poets Speak to NAAFA.