Author: Nicole M. Coonradt

Nicole M. Coonradt is a pilgrim who counts teaching in the prison among her most rewarding professional experiences to date. Besides scholarly studies on canonical authors from Shakespeare to Toni Morrison, she also writes creatively. Her poems have been published in online and print journals internationally, cross-genre historical fiction has appeared in Dappled Things, and a short story, “The Brick Wall,” was semi-finalist for a fiction contest at Ruminate. In collaboration with composer Mark Douglass, she is currently writing the libretto for a tragic opera in three acts.

Cruel April: An Interview with the Author of “Sonnets from the Pandemic”

Daniel Mark Epstein is an award-winning poet and biographer. In April of 2020, he wrote a sonnet sequence about the pandemic, which formed the basis of a collaborative film produced by Holly Peppe, along with input by Paul Hecht and artistic direction by Doug Trapp. Below is the recent conversation I had with Epstein last summer about the remarkable project (edited for length and clarity). 

Readers may access the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDJ4TKPqNTc

Cruel April: An Interview with the Author of “Sonnets from the Pandemic” full post

(2709 words, 1 image, estimated 10:50 mins reading time)

Calypso’s Spell

This host who should be at his home
Tending to his very own
Defending them from suitors long
Camped upon his fertile lawn
Consuming his substantial wealth
While vying for his faithful wife—
He, the brave Odysseus,
The quick-change artist Ithacan,
Cannot escape the witching nymph
Bright host who yet detains her guest
To occupy unwilling lips
And other parts (his nether tips)
In arching cave by night her slave
When god-sent darkness shrouds the sea
Its brackish channels beckoning
To one who cannot leave.

Permanent link to this post (86 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)