Anaïs Nin and Her Journals are Paid Tribute Through Poetry Collection
Friday, February 27, 2009 Lovers of Anaïs Nin will appreciate Diana Raab’s new tribute that contains poems modeled after N
in’s journalistic style and humor. Thoughtful images and fresh perspectives are evoked in Raab’s already much acclaimed new poetry collection "Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You" (ISBN 9781891386411, Plain View Press, 2008).
Diana Raab began keeping a journal when she was ten. Her mother thought journaling would help Diana express her emotions after her grandmother took her own life. Like her grandmother, Diana would become a lifelong diarist. Later, she would discover Anaïs Nin also started writing by keeping a journal following the death of her father. This shared experience inspired Raab to write a poetry collection, based on her personal journal entries, as a tribute to Anaïs Nin.
In retelling her own experiences, Raab writes poems where "people drip with stories." Raab’s humor and touches of eroticism are similar to those of Nin, but they also poignantly detail her own priceless moments with family. Her poems offer a wide array of topics presented in a light to catch readers off-guard, yet make them reflect on a subject to find may have always been there. Raab’s poetic subjects range from luggage to laundromats, steel-tipped boots to champagne, patched jeans to paramedics, blueberries and even autographed photos of Paul Newman.
"Dear Anaïs" is written in short, concise lines that get to the heart of emotions. Through Raab’s poems, readers are asked to reflect upon their own lives, to place themselves in Raab’s shoes, or rather her poems, and then leave the poem with a new understanding of an aspect of life that affects them as well as Raab. Readers recall their pasts, including past dreams for their futures, and look for new dreams in new futures, having now found appreciation for the smallest parts of life where the greatest meaning may exist.
Literary critics highly praise "Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You." Denise Duhamel, author of "Queen for a Day," says, "Raab's poetry is seductive in its earnestness, appealing in its vulnerability, mystery, and enchantment." Steven Reigns, Nin scholar and editor of "My Life in Poetry," declares Raab’s passages to be "as intimate as a diary. She reconstructs her past mirroring Nin's emotional honesty." And David Starkey, author of "Ways of Being Dead" states, "Like Nin, Raab is indefatigable in her desire to commit one woman's life to paper."
About the Author
Diana M. Raab, MFA, is a memoirist, essayist and poet who has written from an early age. As an only child of two working parents, she spent a lot of time crafting letters and keeping a daily journal. In university she studied journalism, health administration and nursing, all serving as platforms for her years as a medical and self-help writer. Diana teaches memoir, journaling and poetry in the UCLA Writers Program and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. She also narrates and teaches workshops around the country. Her memoir, "Regina's Closet," won the National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir. She has also written the poetry chapbook, "My Muse Undresses Me," and her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and been widely anthologized. Diana is currently editing a forthcoming anthology written by well-known authors who journal, called "Writers and Their Notebooks."
"Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You" (ISBN 9781891386411, Plain View Press, 2008) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit www.dianaraab.com.
Reader Comments (4)
����������� ����������� � ����������� � �������
___________
http://avto-strahov.ru http://strahovane.ru
The loans suppose to be essential for people, which want to ground their career. As a fact, that is not really hard to receive a term loan.
Excellent Info. Tweeted about it. I?l bookmark this post too.
penny stocks chaser
Halloween
I felt like if they didn't re-sign Cliff Lee that they were going to be an average team, and I feel that's probably what's going to end up happening," Berkman said on a Houston radio station in the offseason.