News Flash! My story, Her/She/Me, won the Ginosko Literary Journal Flash Fiction Contest for 2025. Click on the link to the website, or you can read it on my social media pages.

Hello friends and family.

I am writing to you from the City of Roses where we love getting together for coffee, walking through our many parks, wandering down to the river, listening to music and much more. Portland is a great city brimming with energy and countless activities, contrary to what you might be hearing in the news or from our government. I have been writing, attending workshops, and hitting the streets to protest all that is wrong with our country. If you are interested in joining the resistance, go to 50501 (50 Protests. 50 States. 1 Movement.) or Indivisible to connect to local protests and national initiatives. None of us can afford to be silent.

As always, there are opportunities for writers, announcements of new books published, and more. Check out the hyperlinks for more information. And thanks for joining me on this journey. Please remember, if you have writing news to share, email me so I can mention your achievements and events in my newsletter. Stay in touch!
Talk soon, 

Margi

Where can you buy my books in Portland and beyond?

• Rose City Book Pub now carries my books in their shop.
• My Ko-fi site. Autographed copies and volume discounts available.
• I’ll be attending and selling my books at the Waves of Peace, Oregon Poetry Association Annual Conference in Newport, Oregon, Oct. 3^rd and 4^th.

Upcoming Publications

• The Songs of Summer: Poems about Baseball. “Everybody is a Mets Fan Today,” Tom Erickson, Ed Werstein, editors.
• The Telephone Game is “a message, changing forms as it travels across the world from artist → artist.” This project has 1350 artists in more than 900 cities and 64 countries. The project will launch on October 10^th with artist get-togethers. I will be joining the one in Portland.
• Unbroken: A Reel Poetry Anthology. Pen and Leaf Press. “I Do Not Have to Be Good.”
• Ginosko Literary Journal. Winner of the 2025 Flash Fiction Contest. “Her/She/Me”. The story is online and will appear in print. 
• The Fringe 999 Poetry Forum. “Vision.” Issue 3.1 Laura Daniels, editor.

Upcoming Readings 

Newly added!  10/6/2025 Poetry Near and Afar. Oceanside Library Reading Series. Virtual. 7 pm EDT (4 pm PDT.) Free. “We are delighted to announce the return of Poetry Near & Afar! This series, started during lockdown in 2020, brings together poets from around the world. Poetry: Near & Afar, is an online poetry reading with two features: one from the NY area and one from “afar”. Features get 20 minutes and then we have an open mic (one non-epic-length poem, please!) Monday, we feature poets from Oregon and right here in Oceanside, New York.”

• 11/7/2025 Calling All Poets. Virtual reading. 7 pm EDT. Follow the instructions on the website to register. There is a $5 admission fee ($4 if you are a member.) A generous open mic. Usually 5 minutes. Register for the virtual call ahead of time.  
• 12/11/2025 Parkland Poets Open Mic Host. 6 pm PST (9 pm EST).
• 01/08/2026 Parkland Poets Featured Reading. 6 pm PST (9 pm EST).
• 4/14/26: Word Fest, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428   22^nd Ave, Longview, WA, 6:00-8:00 pm PDT. My first featured reading in the Pacific Northwest.

Podcasts and Videos

• Ameerah Shabazz, editor of Whisper, Whisper, Shout, interviewed me for her When Women Speak podcast. Ameerah is an amazing poet, spoken word artist, visual artist, editor, and interviewer. This was a great conversation. I also had an opportunity to read a poem by Anita Nahal during the podcast, one of the 80+ contributors to the anthology, Subscribe to Ameerah’s podcast. Read the anthology. And share. (Click on this link to purchase the book: Whisper, Whisper, Shout.)
• For Poetry of Protest and Struggle, September 1, 2025, I recorded my poem, “A Good Storyteller” (originally published in Poetry X Hunger and Mary Oliver’s  poem “Tecumseh.” Steve Bloom, curator and creator, wrote “Anyone who would like to participate in the Poetry of Protest and Struggle project we are projecting three videos per year, one every four months, and we are always looking for new voices. Send a sample of your work to steve@stevebloompoetry.net.”
• The Italian American Writers Association (IAWA) hosted a virtual reading called “Share your Works in Progress.”  Amazing writers! I read a section of one chapter from my novel, very much in progress. 

Recent Publications

• The Songs of Summer: Poems about Baseball. “Everybody is a Mets Fan Today,” Tom Erickson, Ed Werstein, editors.
• Brownstone Poets 2025 Anthology, ed. Patricia Carragon. “By the Bay.”

Mentions

Made new friends at the Italian American Writer’s Association reading, who recently published:

• Falling Through the New World by Cynthia Reeves
• And there were red geraniums everywhere: Women’s voices of the Italian diaspora in North America, edited by Michela Valmori and Valentina Di Cesare.
• Echoes of Growing up Italian: Women’s Stories from Across North America, edited by Gina Valle. (Maria Lisella, contributor)
• More Than a Feeling: A Novella by Phyllis Carito

-and-

• Life Aid 4 Palestine Performed by Do It Now (Paul Richmond (spoken word) & John Sheldon (harp guitar). Their remarkable piece was part of a whole afternoon of artists who donated their time to raise money and awareness for the genocide in Palestine at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, VT.
• Finally, my apologies to Paul Rabinowitz, whose book, Syncopated Rhythms, is being released on November 28, 2025, not 2026 as incorrectly noted in my last newsletter. Paul’s book is available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press.

More of a list than a letter, between traveling to the coast and the mountains, seeing our children and grandbaby, going to farmer’s markets and parks, Alex and I have been busy and happy. We continue to set up our home, including our writing and art studios.  As always, there are opportunities for writers, new books published, and more. Check out the hyperlinks for more information. Thanks for joining me on this journey. Please remember, if you have writing news to share, email me so I can mention your achievements and events in my newsletter. Stay in touch!

• In June, I read my poem, “Bras for Breasts,” with an amazing group of women to celebrate the publication of the International Women’s Writing Guild’s Write Forward anthology. This group of international writers were from Malta, Colombia, Spain, Germany, Greece, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and in the U.S. from Martha’s Vineyard, New York City, Long Island, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Portland, Oregon (yours truly), and Longmont, Colorado.
• I took part in the annual Bigfoot Poetry Festival in Portland and read at Powell’s Books for my first open mic in my new city. The organizers offered writing workshops. It was there I was introduced to slam, Portland style. There was a tournament with teams from Iowa, Utah, California, and Oregon. Alex and I attended the finals. What a great event!
•  Poetry Superhighway is conducting its annual poetry contest, and I am one of many sponsors. Reasonable rate of $1 per poem to submit, and the money will be divided among the 3 award winners. Poets submitting work received something from the sponsors. I am giving away 4 books. 
• And on a political note, I am joining up with Miller Street Indivisible in Portland to write postcards to get out the vote in New Jersey. If you want to know how that’s going, email me. I am always looking for opportunities to stand up and speak. This is What Democracy Looks Like!

Where can you buy my books in Portland and beyond?

• Rose City Book Pub now carries my books in its shop.
• Willamette Writers Conference with Another Bookstore, early August.
• Oregon Poets Association Annual Conference, Waves of Peace on the Oregon coast, October 3-4.
• My Ko-fi site. Autographed copies and volume discounts available.
  Recent Publications

• National and International Goddess Anthology: Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations: “One of Many Secrets,” Debbie Tosun Kilday, editor
• Paterson Literary Review, “Jell-O, An American Conundrum,” “Benvenuto a Roma” (Honorable Mention in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest), Maria Mazziotti Gillan, editor.
• Poem of the Week: “When I Was 18, A Reflection So Many Years Later,” The Poet Heroic, Timothy Arliss O’Brien, editor. You can listen to the recording Timothy made of the poem on his website. 
• S/He Speaks 3: Voices of Women, Trans & Nonbinary Folx, Moonstone Press.
• Shabdaguchha, “Collage of Misery,” Hassanal Abdullah, ed., available at Barnes and Noble.
• Write Forward: A Constellation of Voices: “Lifting and Separating” International Women’s Writing Guild (publisher and editor).

Upcoming Publications

• 2025, Baseball Anthology “Everybody is a Mets Fan Today,” Tom Erickson, Ed Werstein, editors.
• The Telephone Game is “a message, changing forms as it travels across the world from artist → artist.” This project has 1247 artists who have completed their work, with around 350 in process. You can still join in by signing up here, but hurry, the submission portal will close soon. The project will launch on October 10^th.

Upcoming Readings

• 8/14/25: Italian American Writers Association, Share your Progress at All Open Mic. Free registration is required before the reading. Come and listen or join in! 6-8 pm EST; 3-5 pm PST.
• 9/13/25: Sustained Resistance: Our Resilience time TBD, virtual, free
• 11/7/2025 Calling All Poets. Virtual reading. Follow the instructions on the website to register. There is a $5 admission fee.
• 4/14/26: WordFest, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428-22^nd Ave, Longview, WA, 6:00-8:00 pm PST. My first scheduled feature reading in the Pacific Northwest.

Workshops and Writing Groups in Portland A shout-out to groups I have been working with and/or joined since I got here. The writing community is welcoming and exciting. Look them up!

• Bigfoot Poetry Festival
• Drink and Write with Jeanne Faulkner at Rose City Book Pub
• Hocus
• Oregon Poetry Association
• Willamette Writers

Mentions

• Michelle Ortega published her book, When you Ask Me, “Why Paris?”
•  Paul Rabinowitz’s book, Syncopated Rhythms, is available for pre-order. Finishing Line Press will release the book in November 2026. 

Sad PostScript

• The poet, Neil Silberblatt, passed away this month. He was the founder of Voices of Poetry, an 11,000- member Facebook group, and an avid promoter of the arts. Throughout his career, besides writing and performing his own poetry, he ran readings and featured poets in libraries, community centers, museums, and more, in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for years. There is a GoFundMe donation site set up for his wife if you wish to help.
• Albert Knutson passed away. He was the husband of Sharon Knutson, editor of the Storyteller Poetry Review. At Sharon’s request, someone set up a GoFundMe page to help support wildlife in Arizona, where she lives, as well as provide goods and services for Sharon. Albert and Sharon have been caring for the animals in the Sonora Desert, providing food and water, for 25 years.