Acceptance News: “Paradise Road”

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Publication News, Writing

My poem, “Paradise Road,” has been accepted for publication in the May 2025 print and digital editions of Voices Unbound: An Anthology of International Poetry. A project of Fresh Words: An International Literary Magazine, Voices Unbound is a space for poems that explore the myriad facets of life, love, loss, identity, resilience, and the world around us…

 
Read more…

All That Remains in the Light

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, Musings, Writing

Spring with all of its blooming and blossoming is a good time of year to learn how to see the world anew again. About a month ago, I had cataracts removed from both of my eyes. Since then, I not only have extraordinary distance vision for the first time almost sixty years but the world seems somehow brighter than ever. Throughout the day, I find myself startled…

 
Read more…

Walk an Alley, Stumble upon Art

Nancy FlynnWriting

We are lucky to live in a city neighborhood that has alleys. An extensive network, sometimes overgrown, sometimes maintained, often a way to escape the noise of the street when out and about on a walk. Several years back, during the doldrum days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a gang of us worked with artist extraordinaire Jenny Joyce to paint a mural…

 
Read more…

Buy Nothing Day

Nancy FlynnHistory Lessons, Musings, Political News, Writing

Today no money changed hands as far as I was concerned. I did not drive. I did not order anything online. I did not even patronize local businesses—that was yesterday. What did I do? Wash clothes using laundry detergent purchased many moons ago. Activated the big-gun leaf blower we inherited from my son to begin the annual ritual spring cleaning up of the mess that is our outside universe here in Western Oregon…

 
Read more…

We Can Still Have (Some) Nice Things

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Neighborhood, Writing

Today was my first visit to the recently remodeled, newly reopened North Portland branch of the Multnomah County Library to return books I had finished reading, to pick up new ones waiting for me on the hold shelf. North Portland Library began as the North Albina Reading Room in 1909. The Jacobethan-style library was built in 1913 and renovated in 1999. The building closed in April 2023 for construction which included additional space to accommodate a new Black Cultural Center, updated technology, and new artwork…

 
Read more…

Keep on reading in the free (for now) world…

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Book Report, Wisdom, Writing

Tonight, I am finishing up a novel called Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey. Harvey won the latest Booker Prize for her excellent slim novel, Orbital. Last week I read a superb non-fiction book, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi by Wright Thompson; it shed new, compelling light on the 1955 lynching of the young Emmett Till…

 
Read more…

Publication News: Passager

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Publication News, Writing

My narrative poem about my great-grandmother, Charity Schaeffer Lamoureaux, was published in print in Passager a long, long time ag0—yikes, a dozen years past, in Spring 2012. Per their website, Passager (passage + passenger) is “a small, independent literary press whose mission is to publish the work of older writers, encourage the imagination in the later stages of life, and create beautiful and welcoming publications. Passager was born in Baltimore in 1990…

 
Read more…