PEN America & P-town

I’m thrilled that Love Justice won its author acceptance to PEN America. The fresh opportunities PEN offers to stand for justice with and for other poets and writers worldwide, not only in words but in deeds, are gratifyingly congruent with the mission and message of the book. Unfortunately, my PEN profile is listed privately on their Web site, but members can look it up under BOMZE. I wish everyone could read the segment where Marilyn Wrubel, my junior high school English teacher par excellence, is acknowledged, so I’ll quote it here:

Even with the four years it took to write Love Justice, middle school years were the most prolific because, like so many of you, Bracha had an English teacher who “got” her. Marilyn Wrubel, a deeply literary anti-war activist, told her back in 1967 when she was 10 that Bracha would be a published poet one day, and so would read anything Bracha would write! Though it may take decades to publish one’s societally, politically, or religiously “unsayable” truths, we carry our beloved teachers inside us, all the way to the podium.

In celebration of Pride Month, and to stand for jailed or otherwise oppressed LGBTQ poets and writers worldwide, my wife, Carol, and I are excited to attend the upcoming PEN Mingle with Lambda Literary on June 17th in New York.

Especially encouraging was the the chance to read from Love Justice in Provincetown in May at The Mews’ annual literary series, curated by Peter Donnolly (who has been doing so brilliantly for years), this as I’d read as part of the same series back when the book was in manuscript form.  Hats off to Stan and Eva Sikorski, patrons of the arts and proprietors of Provincetown’s Lands End Inn  ( www.LandsEndInn.com ) who’ve been especially supportive not only personally, but of many featured artists who contribute their creations to The Mews’ annual arts and music performance season.

Exciting, too, is that the Provincetown Public Library  (www.ProvincetownPublicLibrary.org ) wanted copies of Love Justice not only for the poetry section, but for the Cape Cod history shelf as well. Carol and I married in Provincetown in 2008 after 25 years together, as were denied legal union in our (supposedly progressive!) hometown, NYC. The Wellfleet Public Library also houses Love Justice , thanks to our Unsolemn Solemnizer, Jaya Karlson, a Wellfleet resident, who wed us gorgeously in Hebrew, Greek and Pali! I highly recommend her heartfelt professional services!