Hey Mary Washington College folks, your distinguished thespian alumnus Russell Morgan was featured on WDBJ7 here in Southwest Virginia! The television station did a segment on David Walton’s excellent stage dramedy, “Closing Arguments,” in which Russ had a starring role.
Let me tell you something — the dude was damned funny too. I guess the old MWC theater department taught him well!
Check out the link below:
Or … I will be, after I die. That is how it works, right?
And you should be one too! It’s easy if you live in a state like Virginia. You just check off a box when you apply for (or renew) your driver’s license.
Or, you can find out how to register right here with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Image credit: pd4u, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
I am so happy to see my poem “March Midnight Window” included in cc&d magazine’s latest anthology, Letter from the End of the World. The piece was originally published in cc&d’s regular issue at the start of March; it is reprinted here in the new literary collection.
You can order a copy of Letter from the End of the World right here at Amazon.
Thanks once again to Editor Janet Kuypers at Scars Publications for allowing me to join the community at cc&d magazine!
I immensely enjoyed today’s matinee performance of Closing Arguments at The Bear Theater at 302 Campbell Avenue in Roanoke. (A caveat — I cannot offer an unbiased review here, because a great old college friend, Russell Morgan, is one of the cast.)
But suffice to say I had a blast. Closing Arguments is an engaging, thoughtful, and genuinely funny comedy delivered by a talented, energetic cast. It portrays a dysfunctional family reuniting in a small town for a funeral for one of their own, where their latent animosities and neuroses boil over.
Writer and director David Walton was on hand to introduce the performance. (And it occurs to me as a theater neophyte that there must be a benefit to playwrights directing their own plays — who better to guide actors performances toward matching the intent of the text?)
Anyway, I cheerfully recommend this. Closing Arguments’ next weekend is its last; if you are interested, you can buy tickets here.
And check out the photo there of a creepy tree out in Salem, Virginia. Seriously, that thing is straight out of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'” (1937) haunted forest.
Wonderful news! Poetry Hall translated selections of my work into Chinese for a third time. The quarterly bilingual journal printed my poems “Feast,” “Bumblebee,” and “she” in Issue 27, which you can order right here at Amazon. The publication has a truly interesting format in that it features poems in both languages, side by side.
Poetry Hall is a not-for-profit journal that is published by the Chinese Poetry Association. Its mission is to “introduce well-written Chinese and English poetry to the world in both its original language and translation forms. ” It showcases work from contributors worldwide, and also has a global readership.
That was an April Fool’s joke.
I’ve gotta hand it to you people — you’re sharp. There were verrrry few people who fell for my ruse this year. (You distinguished believers know who you are.)
Maybe I went too far in naming the fictional “Jowicker” zoological agency. Or maybe my citing of witness “April Flanagan” was a little too on the nose.
Oh, well. I can still reminisce with pride about last year’s gem of a hoax. That one actually worked a little too well — I spent days afterward clarifying for people that I had not joined a traveling dance company for middle-aged performers.
People, 2025 could not get any weirder than this. There is now an escaped tiger in the vicinity of Cave Spring/southern Roanoke. Check the local news. The radio station is doing better than TV in keeping up with the story, I think, even if there isn’t much detail yet.
Supposedly the animal escaped from its temporary enclosure on Mill Mountain — it was being transported by Jowicker Large Game Farm between Knoxville, TN and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. It apparently a “juvenile,” which means it isn’t full-sized, but the news is saying it could easily kill a person. So don’t mess with it.
There is a Cave Spring resident, April Flanagan, who told the radio that she spotted the animal walking north alongside North Jefferson Street.
I will keep you posted when I learn more. Please be safe.
You can order your copy right here. Local Gems Press developed this anthology to honor the rich poetic traditions in both America and the United Kingdom.
Bards Across the Pond includes work from over 120 poets across the United States and over 50 poets from various regions in the UK. (I am one of the former — if you purchase the volume, I hope you enjoy “The Rough, Violet Stone.”) 😉
Hey, gang — I’ve been nominated for another Spillwords Press Award, this time for March 2025 Author of the Month. (Spillwords Press featured my poem “Like White Plumeria Petal” on March 8th.)
If you would care to vote for me, you can do so right here. Just remember you have to register with Spillwords Press and log in first.
I hope your spring is off to a great start!
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 