Author / J.L. Smith

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Posts by J.L. Smith

I am a writer/political scientist based in Eagle River, Alaska. I hold a BA degree in English/Creative Writing and a MA in International Relations. Best of both worlds, I write everything from naturalistic poetry to Russia and the former Soviet Republics. Recent publications: Academic Nonfiction: The Syrian Dilemma: Moscow's Motives in the Syrian Uprising (2013). ISBN: 9781304283931 Creative Nonfiction: "The Important Things" - Alaska Women Speak - Winter 2015 issue Fiction: How to Eat a Bagel - 50-word Stories - Sept 15, 2015 The Devil and the White Room - Down in the Dirt - July/August 2016 Poetry: "Sara" - Grassroots - Fall 1999 "Femininity" - Cirque - Summer 2015 "Sitting in the Bathroom" - Yellow Chair Review - July 2015 "A Happy Poem" - Eunoia Review - August 2015 "Willow Rebuilds" "Spectators" "Fire Angels" - Alaska Women Speak- Fall 2015 "Dark Clouds Descend Low" - Three Line Poetry - Issue 33 - Sept 2015 "Da!" - Peeking Cat Poetry - 8th issue - Oct 2015 "Three times my baby's stroller passes by" - Eunoia Review - Oct 2015 "Babushka's Samovar", "If I May Speak", and "High Tea and Fancy Things" - Alaska Women Speak - Winter 2015 Issue "Joanna's Child" - Cirque - Winter Solstice issue 2015. "Away with the Bitterness!" - Peeking Cat Poetry - 9th Issue - Dec 2015 "Away with the Bitterness!" - Alaska Shorts (49 Writers blog) - December 22, 2015 "The Reflex", "The Drop Off", and "Crossed Eyes" - Eskimo Pie - Feb 2016 "The Fragments You Carry", "The Fireweed Dies", and "Crabapples" - 13 Chairs - Spring 2016
by J.L. Smith

June PoWriMo Prompt#18

This is a technique introduced to me at a workshop at the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference that I found interesting and effective. It is negative inversion. In this technique, you take an existing poem (yours or someone else’s) and flip (or reverse negatively) the nouns and verbs in each of the lines.

Take this example, from one of my poems.
Her whisper guided him along the banks
of the river where the rocks..

Flip the nouns and verbs negatively:
Her scream pushed him away, away from his embrace
across the room and beyond his walls,

or something similar. This is just a crude example. This is a technique of play and word manipulation. Try it out. You may get nonsense or it may take you somewhere you may never go on your own. Try it.

by J.L. Smith

June PoWriMo Prompt #17

Because it didn’t post yesterday…

Prompt for the day: Take out a map. It could be a national map or a world map. It really doesn’t matter. Find a place on it where you have never visited, whether it be a city, lake or river. Write about someone returning to this destination after a long time away. What does it look like. Write about the journey.

by J.L. Smith

June PoWriMo Day 16

Raw excerpt for today:
The Collection Plate
Yeah, we weren’t supposed to pay attention to what was placed in the collection plate, but you know you did. While your eyes were supposed to be on the minister, clad in beige trousers and the same black jacket every Sunday, your eyes lingered where they should not have, and you didn’t care.

by J.L. Smith

June PoWriMo Prompt #16

Thinking of food today. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to partake in the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference in Homer, Alaska. Thorough the many exercises and workshops I participated in, I thought of a story I had about babka. It is a bread typically served around Easter in many Eastern European countries. In my story, I was making the bread for the first time while I was pregnant with my daughter. Never would I imagine how much and how often you had to punch bread dough down before you could bake it. This act of repetitive punching and dough became a metaphor for a piece that I will write and finish later on.

Prompt for today: think about food. It could be a seasonal food, like babka, or any common dish. Think about preparing it. What would you prepare, and what parallels can be make from the preparation, or even eating, of this food or dish. Write about it.