A Review of I AM, an exhibition of Middle Eastern women artists
/This review is in the current issue of Vermont Woman Magazine:
https://www.vermontwoman.com/articles/2018/1118/03-mideast-art/mid-east-art.html
Here you will find postings of recently published articles, book, film and exhibition reviews written by me. Occasionally I'll toss in a link to something of interest to practicing writers, artists, and filmmakers.
This review is in the current issue of Vermont Woman Magazine:
https://www.vermontwoman.com/articles/2018/1118/03-mideast-art/mid-east-art.html
This comment about my writing from the editor of Adelaide Literary Magazine made my day.
"I would like to thank you for your contribution and to invite you to continue publishing in the Adelaide Literary Magazine. Your writing is expressive, mature, and multi-layered, and it was my particular pleasure to bring it to readers."
Here's my essay titled Going Hunting:
http://adelaidemagazine.org/nf_cynthia_close.html
They also publish in print. You can order a copy on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1949180441/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542478294&sr=1-1&keywords=ADelaide+Literary+Magazine+No.18+November+2018
Here's my latest review in Art New England of New England Now, an intelligently curated exhibition full of surprises at the Shelburne Museum:
It was a pleasure being interviewed by Garrett Dennert, nonfiction editor for Orson's Publishing. My essay, "What's Love Got to do With It?" will be appearing in their spring 2019 issue.
https://orsonspublishing.com/blog/orsons-review-issue-two-interview-cynthia-close
10 great ways to be “present” in the experience of art:
https://www.artandobject.com/news/10-fleeting-art-experiences
Here’s my latest book review published in Documentary Magazine online and in print in the fall issue.
https://www.documentary.org/column/reality-ink-zen-editing-primer
Fabulous photos of the art work covered in my review published in Vermont Woman of this most revealing exhibition: https://www.vermontwoman.com/articles/2018/0918/06-women-art/women-arts.html
Here’s my latest feature article for documentary.org
As I found out when I interviewed her for this article in Art & Object
https://www.artandobject.com/articles/audacious-creativity-crystal-wagner
Writing this article for Art New England was fun. I laughed out loud as I worked on it.
http://artnewengland.com/ed_columns/the-toon-state-cartoonists-find-sanctuary-in-vermont/
An innovative way for some collectors to bring their art into the public sphere was to open their own hotels. I cover that and other revelations about museum quality art found in hotels in this recent article for Art & Object:
https://www.artandobject.com/articles/room-view-9-hotels-art-worth-seeing
On Monday night August 13th at the BWW Open Mic Night here in Burlington Vermont I read one of my first commercially published pieces, Grandma at MOMA which found it's way to GRAND Magazine in 2014. A brief search indicated it is still accessible online: http://www.grandmagazine.com/2014/03/grandma-moma/
Two articles published in the Spring 2018 print edition of Documentary Magazine
https://www.documentary.org/column/films-within-films-collected-ethno-fiction-jean-rouch
It was a pleasure writing about the beautiful work of these two artist/farmers for Vermont Woman Magazine:
http://www.vermontwoman.com/articles/2018/0618/07-Farmer-Artists/farmer-artists.html
I'm pleased to be writing for Professional Artist Magazine. My first article, From Student to Professional has just been published.
https://professionalartistmag.com/…/august-september-2018-…/
https://professionalartistmag.com/…/august-september-2018-…/
The online literary journal, Across the Margin, just published American Cab my essay about a chance meeting in a Vermont snowstorm.
One of my essays titled Being From Boston was included in Seasons of Our Lives the Spring Anthology. It was published a few years ago. They have now released the paperback edition.
This was the press release I just received from the editors:
More Than 100 Award-Winning Memoir Stories
Now Available in Paperback
Milbridge, ME (May 2018) There’s no such thing as too many good stories. And it seems, there’s no such thing as a single technology for reading these stories. WomensMemoirs.com previously released four volumes of true stories in the Seasons of Our Lives series for the Kindle. These memoir anthologies won seven book awards, and stayed on the Kindle bestseller list for more than a week. A real success story.
Since that time, these stories have continued to resonate with readers across the US and many countries and are now also used by memoir teachers and coaches. These stories are not only inspirational. They are also exemplars of memoir writing.
We’re all modern women and like digital technology. BUT there is still something special and satisfying about holding a book in your hands, enjoying a story, setting it aside on the coffee table where it lands with a thud rather than a ping, and returning the next day to read more. Due to the large number of requests for print copies, WomensMemoirs.com through Knowledge Access Books has just released the four volumes of the Seasons of Our Lives anthologies in paperback.
Motivating Lessons. In addition to the more than 100 true stories, the anthologies have lessons that help the reader to reflect on her life and to see how she might write about her own experiences. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of these four volumes of stories, added a lesson, or what they call a "takeaway," at the end of each story. As you read the 100-plus stories, you'll also find an equal number of short lessons, one tied to each vignette, designed to motivate and instruct in the writing of life vignettes.
The mini-lessons that follow each award-winning story cover many of the topics important in memoir writing such as:
Inspiring Exemplars.Want inspiration for your life as well as your writing? Consider the just-released paperback version of the four volumes of Seasons of Our Lives -- Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. These 100+ award-winning true stories from http://WomensMemoirs.com and http://KnowledgeAccessBooks.com are inspirational. They'll make you laugh. Cry. Feel joy. Experience sorrow. Collectively they form a kaleidoscope of life's multi-faceted seasons.
WomensMemoirs.com held four contests and received hundreds of remarkable stories. Award-winning authors and memoir coaches Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of these four volumes of life stories, read each submission, ranked them, and then made decisions on the winners. These four volumes contain the award-winning stories.
Your Way. Here's what special about the concept of "Read a Story, Tell a Story." If you mainly like to read memoir, then you'll savor these stories just for themselves. Through them you can reflect on your own life, think about your past and how you want to shape your future. Or, if you are interested in writing, let these stories inspire you and then study the takeaways that accompany each one so that you'll have new techniques for writing your own life stories. Either way, your way, you have a real treat awaiting you in these four volumes.
Book Specs and Availability
Seasons of Our Lives is a four volume series (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) edited by award-winning authors and memoir coaches Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett; Knowledge Access Books Publisher.
Seasons of Our Lives: Spring (includes 28 stories and takeaways; 155 pages)
Seasons of Our Lives: Summer (includes 25 stories and takeaways; 135 pages)
Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn (includes 26 stories and takeaways; 153 pages)
Seasons of Our Lives: Winter (includes 33 stories and takeaways; 211 pages)
Seasons of Our Lives: Spring https://amzn.to/2KklLXN
Seasons of Our Lives: Summer https://amzn.to/2HWoSXq
Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn https://amzn.to/2HUEGtH
Seasons of Our Lives: Winter https://amzn.to/2KlyXLN
Seasons of Our Lives: Spring http://bit.ly/Seasons-Spring
Seasons of Our Lives: Summer http://bit.ly/Seasons-Summer
Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn http://bit.ly/Seasons-Autumn
Seasons of Our Lives: Winter http://bit.ly/Seasons-Winter-Stories
Editors
Matilda Butler is the award-winning co-author of the collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story, Second Edition, Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep and other books. A psychologist, online and in-person memoir coach and writing conference speaker, she writes and teaches in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. In 2014, Butler is also offering classes in Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii.
Kendra Bonnett is the award-winning co-author of Rosie’s Daughters and Writing Alchemy and author/ghostwriter of nine books, a marketing executive, and a speaker and memoir coach. She regularly blogs with Matilda Butler at WomensMemoirs.com and writes and teaches from her home in Downeast Maine.
We invite you to share news about these four volumes through your blog or in articles about memoir writing. If you need additional information, please contact:
Matilda@WomensMemoirs.com or Kendra@WomensMemoirs.com
What Readers of Seasons of Our Lives Are Saying
It is true that each woman is a story waiting to be told—and in this outstanding collection of memoirs you’ll find many wonderful women’s stories. It is also true that each woman’s story is everywoman’s story, for we share so many of the same experiences. As I read these stories [in Seasons of Our Lives], I am reading bits and pieces from my own life, and I am inspired to write my own with a more passionate and compassionate heart. I hope you are, too. ~Susan Wittig Albert, bestselling author of Writing from Life
Seasons of Our Lives, a compilation of memoirists’ vignettes, brings poignant stories of history and nostalgia to the reader, as well as writing observations and lessons for the author in everyone. Seasons of our Lives is sure to be another award-winning work from the dynamic duo of Butler and Bonnett. ~Judy Sheer Watters, author of The Road Home: The Legacy that was, is and is to Come
A summer’s bouquet of award–winning stories that engage, inspire, and also teach. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett’s “takeaways” on each piece illuminate the modes of thought and specific techniques that make each story work. A delight for anyone who enjoys compelling stories as well as a handbook for those who desire to tell or write their own. I’m proud to be included in Seasons of Our Lives: Summer. ~Judith Newton, Professor Emerita, UC Davis, Women and Gender Studies, award-winning food memoir author, Tasting Home
Writing memoir is like walking into an immense clearing and finding a wild stallion waiting there just for you. Climbing up, you wonder if you can take this ride. ...but wait. Help is there to accompany you on your ride. Help in the form of award-winning memoir vignettes to read and takeaway lessons to give you guidance in sharing your life stories. That's what Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of Seasons of Our Lives have given all of us, readers and writers. I am so proud to be part of this anthology series. ~Kathleen Hewitt, author of The Scent of Her
Following is a list of the stories in each of the four volumes, currently available on Amazon:
Introduction by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett
I. SPRING MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD
Journey to America by Phyllis Mattson
1945 by Sharon Miller
Cut the Cake by Deborah Gilson
Spring's Surprise in July by Cynthia Briggs
Montreal Spring by Janet Caplan
The Spring Snowball Fight by Sabine Naus
Spring Chickens by Shirley Pugh Thomson
The Spring of 1942 by Kristiane McKee Maas
II. SPRING STORIES OF COMING OF AGE
Innocence by Nancy Pogue LaTurner
A Special Sibling by Nancy Julien Kopp
Remember by Robin Sherwood Moore
Spring Dances by Kathleen Hewitt
Pink Pearls of Wisdom by Sara Etgen-Baker
III. SPRING MEMORIES OF ADULT YEARS
As Time Runs Out by Susan Payne
Being from Boston by Cynthia Close
And a Child was Born by Linda Austin
No Green Thumb Here...Yet! by Lucille Joyner
Haphazard Gardener by Nancy Obermueller
Unexpected Pleasure by Linda Greeley
Letter to Roland by Iris Gersh
Down Home for Decoration Day by Lisa Libowitz
Esther's Easter by Marcy N. Jubach
A Spring Tale by Micki Peluso
Army Green by Robin Dake
IV. SPRING MEMORIES OF AGING AND REFLECTING ON THE PASSAGE OF TIME
Who's Looking Anyway? by Trudi Goodman
Spring Sorrow by Mairi Neil
Springtime Herald Mother Memories by Laureen Elaine Andrews
White Carnations and Buried Answers by Patricia Higbie
Looking forward to Machine de Cirque at the Flynn Theater:
https://flynncenter.tumblr.com/post/173361072988/the-new-greatest-show-on-earth
The published works of Cynthia Close on documentary film, art, and women in the arts.
© 2025 | Cynthia Close
Website developed by Radiance Studios LLC | Powered by Squarespace.