#2017 chapbook series

[hyejungkook]

Tomorrow I read with the fabulous Jenny Molberg and Anna V.Q. Ross for A Common Sense Reading Series! Thank you, Jordan Stempleman, for hosting us.

Details:

Saturday, October 14th at 7 PM at KCAI Gallery: Center for Contemporary Practice, 4415 Warwick Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64111

Link to register: https://www.jordanstempleman.com/events/hyejung-kook-jenny-molberg-anna-vq-ross

Hyejung Kook’s poetry has appeared in POETRY Magazine, Denver Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Other works include essays in Poetry as Spellcasting and The Critical Flame and a chamber opera libretto. Born in Seoul, Hyejung now lives in Kansas with her husband and their two children. She is a Fulbright grantee and Kundiman Fellow. Find her online at hyejungkook.tumblr.com.

Jenny Molberg is the author of Marvels of the Invisible (winner of the Berkshire Prize, Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal(LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (LSU Press, 2023). Her poems and essays have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Cincinnati Review, VIDA, The Missouri Review, The Rumpus, The Adroit Journal, Oprah Quarterly, and other publications. She has received fellowships and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Longleaf Writers Conference. She is Associate Professor and Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Central Missouri, where she edits Pleiades: Literature in Context. Find her online at jennymolberg.com.

Anna V. Q. Ross’s most recent book, Flutter, Kick, won the 2020 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award from Red Hen Press and the 2023 Julia Ward Howe Award in Poetry. Her other books include If a Storm (winner of the Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize) and the chapbooks Figuring and Hawk Weather. A Fulbright Scholar, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow, and poetry editor for Salamander, her work appears in The Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, The Missouri Review, The Nation, and elsewhere. Anna teaches at Tufts University and through the Emerson Prison Initiative and lives with her family in Dorchester, MA, where she raises chickens. Find her at annaVQross.com.

Jordan Stempleman (host) is the author of nine collections of poetry including Cover Songs (the Blue Turn), Wallop, and No, Not Today (Magic Helicopter Press). Stempleman is the co-editor of The Continental Review, editor for Windfall Room, faculty advisor for the literary arts magazine Sprung Formal, and curator of A Common Sense Reading Series.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP BOOK OF THE DAY: Insert Coin by Joshua Zelesnick

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/insert-coin-by-joshua-zelesnick/

This title will be released on January 10, 2025

In Insert Coin the reckless project of #American #capitalism and #imperialism is felt through four characters—a contestant, a drone operator, a monster, and a prisoner—who interact in a world of game shows, chain-of-command killing, and confusion around the virtual and the real. Through video games, fantasy, and drone warfare by joystick, the book chronicles dissociation and denial as well as a soul longing for meaning in a world whose absurd violence and demand for profit feels simulated but is all too real. Insert Coin launches an experimental syntax with strict formal constraints, such as a 6-syllable line by 8-line stanza sequence to suggest the unbearable dimensions of a solitary confinement cell. In these #poems, a #civilization that can only imagine destruction asks, “how do I get to the next level?”

Joshua Zelesnick‘s poetry collection, Insert Coin (Finishing Line Press, 2025) was a finalist for the Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize at Conduit Books and Ephemera and the Trio Award at Trio House Press. Cherub Poems, his chapbook, was published with Bonfire Books in 2019. His poetry and prose have appeared widely in magazines and journals including Diagram, The Texas Review, Jubilat, Juked, Labor Notes, and Counterpunch. He’s currently working on a poetry book titled Very Beautifully, Suddenly. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his loving partner and kids in a garden co-housing community. With friends, he helps host a living-room music and reading series.

PRAISE FOR Insert Coin by Joshua Zelesnick

Insert Coin is indelibly shaped by the atrocities committed by the United States during its interminable War on Terror while meditating on the structures that underlie that violence, including the cultural form of the video game. For all the seemingly disembodied virtuality of our digital lives, of the simulacral experience of what theorist McKenzie Wark calls gamespace—“I’m in a video / game and there’s no way out”—Joshua Zelesnick tirelessly attends to the material realities of what it means to be human in the infowhelm throughout this superb collection, to the bodies, feelings, affects, and images of those who have to navigate this space—which is also battlespace, dronespace. Page after page of Insert Coin confronts the fact that “constructing walls can’t defend us / from our tectonic heart,” and this collection’s remarkable, dense poems document some of the more difficult aspects of what it means to live on this late planet in this late year of late empire, this “strange electronic limbo, white / hot clarity of nightmare / in infrared, heat signatures / ghostly white against the cool black earth.” Zelesnick’s work also holds out poetry as an alternative to the eradicating quantification that defines so much of contemporary life, inviting us to hear and see and sing and feel some other space of play, a space against and beyond the violence of the digital, what we might call a poetryspace.

–Bradley J. Fest, author of 2013-2017: Sonnets (2024)

“Zelesnick’s language game places a jar not in Tennessee but to the wall(s): listens proper, listens the better to hear a prisoner’s voice; cracked shouts; grandmothers; children’s rhymes; tulips; a command, light em up; reported statistics then applause; some audience… These all come through and are formed in rough clay into this almost-story taking almost-place on a large empty plain, the figures and characters becoming, as we read, haunted and haunting. Insert Coin is a fabulous, furious book.”

–Kate Northrop, author of Homewrecker (2022)

I found a narrow form of six-syllable lines and eight-line stanzas to reflect the six-foot by eight -foot cell solitary confinement prisoners are forced to live in. So begins Joshua Zelesnick‘s meticulous, terse, fearsome book, Insert Coin. Extraordinary the way these poems unflinchingly confer their intelligence on suffering, burrowing deep into the dehumanized and dystopic: the prisoner in the embassy/the prisoner in solitary/the prisoner with sleep-deprived/ eyes still pale as a suffocating/fish…the prisoner as a meme. Zelesnick’s poems arise out of the crises of the era, and they provide that era with a relentless, formidable critic.

–Lynn Emanuel, author of Transcript of the Disappearance, Exact and Diminishing (2023)

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetrybook #read #poems #USA #history #society #civilization

[movedbywords]

SAT AUG 26@2PM Join Moved By Words & Frye Art Museum for New Voices Of Color 2023

Our Moved By Words fall event is coming up this weekend presented by the Frye Art Museum, if you have a minute please pass this information on! More information about our New Voices 2023 reading featuring Zaji Cox, author of 'Plum For Months' below (and for writers a chance to write with us in the beautiful Frye Art Museum on Saturday!)

MOVED BY WORDS: NEW VOICES OF COLOR READING — SAT AUG 26 2PM MORE INFO & FREE EVENT REGISTRATION FOR ATTENDEES: https://fryemuseum.org/calendar/event/moved-words-new-voices-color-reading

WRITE WITH US 

We still have spots for writers and volunteers for this Saturday. Please reply ASAP if you would like to get early entry to the museum, sit with the writers, read with us during the event, and have a space to put your books or art after the show then give us a shout. There will be tables available and we will have time to spend as a writing community together. We are going to write one short piece on "Remixing Identity" based on the Kelly Akashi exhibition at the Frye Art Museum: https://youtu.be/3pxw5pJw-E8  VOLUNTEER TO HELP

If all you want to. do is come early and support, help set up tables, and do a general vibe check that's fine too—just reply to this email ASAP and tell us you are interested in volunteering. Otherwise we hope to see you at the show~!

MOVED BY WORDS: NEW VOICES OF COLOR READING — SAT AUG 23 2PM Join the Frye and Moved by Words as we celebrate 10 years of poetry project New Voices of Color with a special reading at the Frye Art Museum, honoring both a decade of emerging talent and the closing of current exhibition Kelly Akashi: Formations. Headlining the program, Zaji Cox will offer a special reading from her recently published book of essays Plums for Months, which explores life growing up mixed race in the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Other participating artists include Maryam Imam Gabriel, Stacy D Flood, Prashant Kakad, and more special guests!

New Voices of Color invites emerging authors and poets to workshop, connect, share works, and get inspired. Participating poets will have spent the day at the museum with Moved by Words founder Skyler Reed, touring the galleries to absorb Akashi’s work. Their responses will be shared during the reading, highlighting the special symbiosis between the visual and literary arts.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Zaji Cox wrote her first short story at age nine. A dancer, model, and artist, she has performed at the PDX Poetry Festival, Survival of the Feminist reading series, Corporeal Writing’s LOOP, and the Northwest Folklife Festival. She holds a bachelor's degree in English and her writing can be found in Pathos Literary Magazine, Entropy, The Portland Metrozine, Cultural Daily, CARE Covid Art REsource, and the anthology 2020: The Year of the Asterisk (University of Hell Press).

Skyler Reed (Skyler / Skylers / he / him / they / their) is a Sycan River Paiute (PIE-YOOT) artist, writer, and musician of the duo Lark & Raven currently living under the troll bridge in Sia’hl (SEE-AL-TH) on Duwamish (DOO-WAU-MISH) Tribal Lands. The founder of Moved By Words and a recipient of the Dean’s Residential Fellowship at the UW Information School, Skyler is the author of two chapbooks, And All Ampersands (2016) and Sex & Wikipedia (2017).

ABOUT MOVED BY WORDS

Founded by Skyler Reed, Moved By Words is a project dedicated to connecting new writers with writing workshops and community outreach. In 2020, Skyler hosted and organized the first ever free-of-charge women and queer folk of color writers' workshops and reading series, in community collaboration with the women and queer folk of Northwest Native Writers Circle and of the Whitenoise Reading Series community.

ABOUT KELLY AKASHI

Kelly Akashi: Formations is organized by the San José Museum of Art and curated by Lauren Schell Dickens, Chief Curator. The presentation at the Frye Art Museum is organized by Amanda Donnan, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions.

Major support for Kelly Akashi: Formations provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Fellows of Contemporary Art. Generous support for the Frye’s installation provided by the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, the Frye Foundation, and Frye Members. Media sponsorship provided by The Stranger.

SKYLER REED

MOVED BY WORDS

[lovepoemsforpace]

Poets 2023

Erin Kirsh is an award-winning writer from Toronto. Her work has appeared in Alma, The Malahat Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Pinch, Gordon Square Review, EVENT, CV2, QWERTY, PRISM International, Geist, and more. Visit her at www.erinkirsh.com or follow her on twitter @kirshwords.

Jasmine Ruff (they/them) writes from the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Their work has been published or is forthcoming in The Puritan, Foglifter Press, Plentitude Magazine, and elsewhere. Currently, they are the poetry editor at PRISM international. 

Edie Reaney Chunn (they/she) is a writer based on the the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Their poetry has recently been published in Maisonneuve, and they are the 2021 winner of the Norma Epstein National Award for Creative Writing. Edie loves love !, and enjoys working collaboratively and inefficiently on theatre projects, and other pursuits. 

Dora Prieto is a Vancouver-based emerging writer, translator, and cat mami based with work published or forthcoming in Acentos Review, Capilano Review, Catapult, GUTS, Maisonneuve, Room Magazine, and SOMOS. Her poem "the withholding map" was the winner of the 2022 Room Magazine Poetry Contest :))) She also co-facilitates El Mashup, a creative workshop series for Latinx youth in Vancouver. 

Dani Rodríguez Chevalier (she/ella) is passionate about analogue & lo-fi practices, poetry & hybrid forms, art making in community, and independent radio. She is a co-facilitator + co-creator of writing and experimental film programs for youth: "el mash up" and "filmfood". She currently lives with her two dachshunds and one of her 4 siblings in the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ nations.

Cristina Holman (she/her) lives and writes on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh). She was a participant in the 2017/18 Artspeak Studio for Emerging Writers and the 2022 Banff Centre Spring Writer’s Retreat. Her debut chapbook, published with Artspeak Gallery in 2018, is titled Stop Wincing/We’re Fine. Her work can be found in Bad Nudes magazine and Poetry is Dead, and her second chapbook, Repeater, was published in 2021 by Zed Press. 

Erin is a poet/playwright and performer who values interdisciplinarity, collaboration, care, sensitivity and hybridity in her own and others’ work. Learn more about Erin by following her poetry account @crowlake or visiting www.crowlake.space

Nadia (she/her) is a poetry and fiction writer raised on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver). Her fiction and poetry have previously appeared and are forthcoming in PRISM international, Bat City Review, The Temz Review and Phoebe. Her debut chapbook of poetry, Something Spectacular, was published by 845 press in 2021.  Follow her on instagram @ned4writing

[n-o-t-h-i-n-g-n-e-ss]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

 About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

 Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

 Book Video 

 About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[calii-classy]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

 About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

 Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

 Book Video 

About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[podcasttoday]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

 About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

 Book Video 

 About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[whomovedmywine]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[marble-mountain]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

 Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[n--i--s--s--e]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

 Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.”

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

 About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[bluntshroom]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

 Book Video 

 About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Everything is Ghosts by Tyler Robert Sheldon

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/everything-is-ghosts-by-tyler-robert-sheldon/

Everything is Ghosts is a meditation on the fragility of new independence, and a juxtaposition of personal histories-in-progress with the troubled histories of a college town’s residents—many of whom are dead. This collection’s #poems follow a group of #college #friends through their experiences with burgeoning #adulthood, as they reckon with where they’ve been and whom they might be turning into. Whether braving a dorm haunted by the spirit of a basketball player and nebulous “shadow people,” daring each other out onto a murder-scene bridge at midnight, witnessing ghost hunters in the campus library, or wrestling personal hauntings like vehicular accidents, drug use, the after-effects of polio, and the passage of #time, the players in Everything is Ghosts learn to keep one eye open at all times. As they create, carouse, and hold each other up, they learn that being haunted can have more than just one meaning.

PRAISE FOR Everything is Ghosts by Tyler Robert Sheldon

These luminous poems reveal how a college campus can be a whole cosmos where to ghost is not to disappear but to offer one’s presence, one’s abundance. Never have I encountered a collection so haunted by warmth, so peopled by tender stories. Tyler Robert Sheldon is a poet whose trust in language is only rivaled by his love for the places where strange meetings are inevitable, where libraries burst with gratitude, “where silence is sacred as saddles in summer.”

–Chen Chen, author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

In Tyler Robert Sheldon’s Everything is Ghosts young adulthood is a haunted time. Landscapes, dorm rooms, dreams and friends are all swarmed with ghosts. The specters in dreams are always more than imagination, and memory is always scratching the walls at night. Even the future is a ghost. But not everything is shadows; this book reminds us that our fear of death is what reminds us to hold loved ones close, to really appreciate the unbearable brightness of our lives.

–Traci Brimhall, Poet Laureate of Kansas 2023-2026, author of Love Prodigal

Refreshingly tender and celebratory, Everything is Ghosts offers a series of coming-of-age vignettes, sometimes playful, sometimes eerie, and always pulling us—paradoxically—into the future and the past at once: “The road opens before me / and yawns like the mouth / of a bright, waiting ghost.” This collection centers on a group of college kids as they face the joy and fear and awkwardness of newfound freedom. Among the cast is a mastiff terrified of pool noodles; a friend who channels a spirit named Gwen, who warns “Try not to piss me off”; and, of course, a whole chorus of ghosts, who seem to haunt with more benevolence than rage, more compassion than judgment. The author, too, embraces a stance of compassion, giving us a collection that—while spooky—is ultimately overwhelmed by warmth.

–Anders Carlson-Wee, author of Disease of Kings

Although we work here, we don’t all live with the legacy: mother and father and son all go to the same university, and all take up the mantle to teach English. Tyler examines his thoughtful, searching “early years” as a college student, where the mind enlarges and so does the heart. Richard Russo and Michael Chabon both take a look at university life, with humor and with heart, but not with the precision that Tyler does, not with a hand on the pulse of what it is to make it an entire life.

–Kevin Rabas, Poet Laureate of Kansas 2017-2019, author of Improvise

Tyler Robert Sheldon‘s new collection invites us to listen to what’s at the edges of our lives and callings from his first poem, “Legacies,” in which he writes: “The road opens before me / and yawns like the mouth / of a bright, waiting ghost.” The characters along this road, the tender and fierce moments these poems encounter, and the truths landed on and unfurled altogether welcome us into one rite of passage after another. Each poem helps us pause enough to take in the world in real time as well as what has seeded and tended this time. Even the titles—from “It’s Not Crazy If It’s Real” to “And Then Everything Was Different” to “So Many Ways You Cannot See”—point us toward new and renewed ways to see our pasts as well as to arrive in the present right now. This is a marvelous collection that multiplies its meanings through time.

–Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Poet Laureate of Kansas 2009-2013, author of How Time Moves: New and Selected Poems

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems

[marinela-nac-nac]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

 Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

  About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[maariyahfulat]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

 Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[mannieflirt]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.

[littleglasswalelu]

Room Service Please by Alicia Cahalane Lewis

About the Book:

Have you ever stopped to think what makes a modern woman, modern?

In Room Service Please, Edie May, a budding dance protégé, has lost her virginity on the night of her sixteenth birthday, June 17, 1922, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Unprepared for this turn of events, Edie is nonetheless determined to confront the man who seduced her and demand he make things right. However, Edie has been mistaken for Agnes Ayres, the famous Hollywood motion picture actress.

As much as she tries to convince everyone that she is not the rising starlet, Edie is whisked into a role she is not prepared to play. Using her wits and ingenuity, Edie transforms herself from the daughter of a washerwoman living on the Lower East Side into a shining star of her own making, a true Modern, and one of the first flappers of her era.

Reviews:

“It all starts with a pair of too-tight shoes from the dime store. Ugly, black pumps for Edith to wear. But her mother wants her to wear them so that’s what Edith does. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Edith goes dancing without a proper escort and is mistaken for a movie star. No one believes she’s not the rising starlet, no matter how much she tries to convince them otherwise. She only wants a fun night of dancing, to not lose her virginity, and to not have a whirlwind of problems the following morning. No obstacle will stop her; Edith is determined to confront the man who seduces her and demands he makes it right. As she performs a role she wasn’t prepared for, Edith starts to find her true self, not whom her mother wants her to be or whom her dance teacher wants her to be, but whom she’s meant to be.” 

~ Grace Derickson

Full Review

“This evocative, deeply immersive tale is character-driven, a tale about taking impossible chances. Fans of beautifully wrought and suspenseful coming-of-age stories will not be able to resist the spell in Room Service Please. Lewis introduces a young heroine who is born on the wrong side of life but who must reinvent herself to rise up from the conditions to which life has thrust her. She is determined, intelligent, and beautiful. The beguiling prose sets the allure that this novel takes, introducing scenes that are not only focused but infused with realism. In turn inspiring and entertaining, Room Service Please is a tale about art and beauty and choices that shape the characters. I loved everything about this book — the powerful premise, the compelling characters, the unexpected twist, and the gorgeous writing. You won't be able to put it down.” 

~ Christian Fernandez

Full Review

Buy the Book – Amazon, Bookshop.org

Book Video 

About the Author:

ALICIA CAHALANE LEWIS is a ninth-generation Quaker from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Naropa University where her poetry appeared in Not Enough Night. She is the author of nebulous beginnings and strings (Tattered Press, 2017), featuring art by Shenandoah Valley artist Winslow McCagg. Her chapbook, The Fish Turned the Waters Over So The Birds Would Have A Sky, a contemplative meditation on the origins of evolution, was published by The Lune Chapbook Series (Spring, 2017). The Intrepid Meditator (2021), a self-help memoir, and the accompanying novella, Room Service Please (2022), were published by Tattered Script Publishing. Her forthcoming novella, Restless, will be published by Tattered Script Publishing in February 2023. A Reiki Master, Alicia continues to live and work in the Shenandoah Valley.