Congratulations! 🎉 I don’t need coffee this morning after TWO wake up calls!
Wow! Another reason to CELEBRATE! LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s Chapbook WINS Again!
Congratulations to LindaAnn LoSchiavo for this Big Win!
What Great News to wake up to this morning!
HUGE Congratulations to LindaAnn LoSchiavo for this well-deserved win!
Get your copy today: Cancer Courts My Mother https://www.prolificpulse.com/lindaannloschiavo
Reviews matter…check this one out!
Thank you to Dawn Reviews Books for this outstanding review!
ANNOUNCEMENT! “Cancer Courts My Mother” by LindaAnn LoSchiavo is Now Available
Defying expectations, a caregiver’s journey is told as a story of adultery.
In "Cancer Courts My Mother" by LindaAnn LoSchiavo, disease becomes a Casanova.
Book Awards:
Winner of . . . .
Award nomination: The Brew Awards, nominee, The Chrysalis BREW Project
Award nomination: CLMP’s Firecracker Award
In "Cancer Courts My Mother," a daughter becomes caregiver to her
abusive, soul-scorching mother, discovering that tending to the dying can unexpectedly
heal the living. In this intimate drama, cancer plays Casanova—a relentless suitor
determined to steal a mother from her family.
Essence: Defying expectations, a caregiver’s journey is told as a story of adultery.
In "Cancer Courts My Mother" by LindaAnn LoSchiavo, disease becomes a
Casanova.
Death ends a life but memories hang on.
Haiku Summary:
Cancer’s intrusions
cannot prevent lifelong wounds
from healing
Advanced Acclaim:
When an adult child becomes caretaker for a parent with cancer, family dynamics shift
profoundly. In “Cancer Courts My Mother,” LindaAnn LoSchiavo captures this complex
journey through poetry that balances tenderness with brutal honesty. She navigates
caregiving’s challenges with grace, inviting readers to witness the delicate interplay of
love and fear while portraying her mother as a fully realized, complex human being. The
journey isn’t pretty—sometimes the words are fierce—but this collection digs deep into
universal experiences of loss and care.
― Kellie Scott Reed, Poetry Editor, Roi Fainéant(USA)
In “Cancer Courts My Mother,” LindaAnn LoSchiavo chronicles an emotional journey
through varied poetic forms. She weaves a metaphor of nurturing plants back to life
while her mother finds remission, then faces cancer’s return. The collection reconciles
memories of a difficult mother with the current, vulnerable one—”Bad memories are
cadavers that refuse burial.” As both subject and narrator, LoSchiavo illuminates the
delicate balance between personal autonomy and familial duty.
― Karen Cline-Tardiff, poet and Editor-in-Chief of Gnashing Teeth Publishing
(USA)
Real and harried, purposeful and comprehensive, when understanding is sought and
reason is not always kind, “Cancer Courts My Mother” provides readers with great
measures of meaning.
― Matt Potter, Editor-in-Chief of Pure Slush Publishing (Australia) and
author of “Hamburgers and Berliners”
Remembering Remission Christmas
They’d bickered over her like two suitors:
Vitality, her birthright, who had known
My mother well before her married life,
And Cancer, who’d mapped out his own terrain,
Unravelled secret strands of resistance,
Until oncologists chased him away.
Remission Christmas reunited us,
Our joy like steam escaping after frost.
I shipped my gifts to Florida ahead:
Biscotti, pignola cookies, torrone
From Little Italy, fine leather goods,
And for her green thumb, a red amaryllis.
But Safety Harbor’s Gulf of Mexico,
Producing Christmastime’s Cancerian
Heat in December, had confused this bulb.
Amidst the presents and nativity,
Its empty cradle strewn with straw, green life
Ripped up gay mummy wrapping, and tore loose,
Unhampered by its ground like Lazarus
Unbound. My parents, unprepared for ghosts
Of miracles, became unnerved by sounds
Newborn right by their crèche, the fir tree’s base,
Invisible and inexplicable
Like faith. Or like remission. After Mass,
They found a determined amaryllis, force
Which sleeps but cannot die, that mother took to heart.
LindaAnn LoSchiavo
While you are waiting for your copy to arrive, enjoy this interview with the lovely LindaAnn LoSchiavo
ANNOUNCEMENT! “Perihelion” by Roberta Batorsky is Published Today!!
We are pleased to announce that “Perihelion” by Roberta Batorsky is now ready for your bookshelf. Her debut poetry book, “Perihelion” is a poetry collection which has been carefully crafted, critiqued, and polished for the best of reading.
About “Perihelion”
This book uses powerful, colorful imagery and often humor, applied to everyday life situations, to delve deep into the realms of love, loss, childhood, memory, aging, relationships, partnership and friendship. The writer’s command of language, including colorful and strong vocabulary, will appeal to poetry readers of all stripes in its accuracy, insight and universality. Her critical insight and unsparing explorations of feelings will bring readers into her circle with recognition of the beauty of her words and the similarities with their own experiences. Her love for nature and ability to describe people’s lived experiences, mental problems, societal upheaval, relationship struggles, love for family, and deep love for, and familiarity with, literature will inspire all who pick up her book. Her style is a giving and loving one which will be meaningful to all readers.
Note the cover design by Kelli Jackson of KRynae Design Co. She really captured the meaning of the poem by the same name.
What others have to say:
It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Perihelion, the debut collection of poetry by Roberta Batorsky. Roberta’s poetry has taken the literary community by storm, her words will make you want to sit up and think, stir emotions, as she pulls you into her world. Her poetry reflects her interest in people, through lived experiences and the world of science. Each one is full of humour, pathos, and empathy. She is incredibly articulate and precise, reflecting her intellectual ability as an educator.
This collection has over one hundred poems; each one is a masterpiece in its own right, beautifully crafted to perfection. Each poem gives you an insight into her life and the lives of others, incredibly observant and full of wit, as you are transported to her world.
This book will appeal to readers of all ages and genders because it is relatable, to enchant, move and delight. Stand out poems include “American Standard or The Loo’s Lament,” “Social Dancing on Neptoon,” “Lost Lives Matter,” “Unstrung, for Richard,” “I Remember It,” “If I die first,” “Picking Apples in Stilettos,” “Bismillah,” “Autumn Finds Me,” “My Dis Connect,” “Drinking with Mom,” “Man to Man,” “The Walkers in the Rain,” and “Gasp.” This poignant book of poetry is an entertaining read, will make you laugh out loud, smile in places and shed a tear, extremely relatable and utterly brilliant, it will be a welcome addition to your bookshelf, a classic in the making.
Sarfraz Ahmed, Poet and Writer (UK)
Roberta Batorsky’s “Perihelion” carries rich layers of meaning in the context of poetic creativity. Like planets drawing close to the sun, the poet’s voice circles the most intense experiences of human life: mental health struggles (“Unit 4,” “New Year to Be Born”), grief (“Irreplaceable, for Mariana”, “Tremolo”), and love (“You Are All I Need”). These are moments of most excellent exposure, where both illumination and pain work together. It suggests that poetry itself becomes a perihelion. In this space, the poet dares to move nearest to the burning core of experience, and in doing so, offers illumination to the readers. In “Perihelion”, readers encounter humour, grief, survival, and renewal in equal measure. It is a collection that burns close, like its namesake, leaving the reader illuminated.
Munmun Samanta, Author of “Yellow Chrysanthemum”
Roberta Batorsky is a Biology teacher and freelance science writer. Her poetry reflects her interest in people, their lived experiences and science. She writes with empathy, knowledge and humor and has been published in Heron Clan, Fine Lines, NJ Bards, Delaware Valley Poets and other collections. This is her first book. She lives in NJ with her husband and has 2 children and 2 grandchildren.
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