Three San Antonio Poets (one recently come to settle in Austin) will be reading from their new books. While their subject matter ranges from an exploration of often disorienting aspects of everyday life to world affairs to the Middle Ages, their poems share a well-defined feminine perspective. These poets are attuned to the nuances of the moment and to the possibility of transcendence in these moments.  

Margie McCreless Roe has had poems in several anthologies and in journals such as Borderlands, Concho River Review, Gulf Coast, New Texas, The Texas Observer, and Windhover.  She has published two books, Flight Patterns and Call and Response.  Naomi Shihab Nye has called Roe's poems “finely crafted, carefully perceived.”  Retired from teaching college English, Roe now divides her time between Cedar Park, Texas, and Estes Park, Colorado.  

Cyra Dumitru is a nationally published poet who has three collections of poems.  Poet Hayan Charara has praised her third book Remains for "its quiet wisdom; what's remarkable about it is that even when it looks at the horrors and losses of the world, it finds beauty."  Dumitru teaches full-time at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Judith Infante has published her poetry and translations of Mexican poetry in numerous national literary journals and anthologies.  Love, A Suspect Form, which is a verse re-telling of the story of Heloise and Abelard, is her first book-length publication. Of the poems in this volume Wendy Barker writes " (Infante) brilliantly evokes the twelfth-century world of the doomed lovers . . . this is a highly original work." Steve Bennett writing in the San Antonio Express News calls the work "fascinating." The composer Jan Gilbert who is using the book as the basis for an opera praises the poems for their "fine balance between medieval and contemporary sensibilities." Infante lives in San Antonio.

Edited by Judy Jensen, Borderlands' upcoming issue features poetry, reviews and a photographic series on the Great Inagua, Bahamas, by Emily Ann Griffin.

Come celebrate the launch with us!

Poets whose new works are published in the fall issue and who will be attendance include:
Marian Aitches, Joe Ahearn, Alice Batt, Joe Blanda, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Cindy Huyser, Ann McCrady, David Meischen, Katherine Durham Oldmixon, Kathleen Peirce and Abe Louise Young.

You are invited to a love-filled early evening reading to celebrate the creative process. Come here eight women poets share new work from the Fall Women's Writing Workshop!

Have tea, write a little poem of your own, dance with scarves, and enjoy readings. Some of these poets will read in public for the first time...let's welcome them!

Readers include Mel Cofer, Martha Ramos-Duffer, Jamie Harris, Teresa Hall, Cheney Crow, Emma Skogstad, Shannon Baley,  and Abe Louise Young

Patricia Austin, professional psychic, will be reading Tarot Cards, Palms and sharing other divination tools for BookWoman's clientele as a benefit for BookWoman. Recommended donation is $1 a minute.

Pat gives positive and constructive information. Call (472-2785) to get on the list, or take your chances and just drop by!

Most people know about the Buddha, his travels, teachings and so on. But the author offers us a rare glimpse of Yasodhara, the woman he left behind. When Yasodhara was a mere 16 years old, Buddha left her in the middle of the night to care for their two-day-old son, Rahula, while he went off to find himself.

Buddha's Wife tells a fascinating story, little known in the west, about the woman whom Buddha left behind. Gabriel Constans focuses the reader's attention on the strong and complicated women who surrounded Buddha and makes us re-think the nature of spiritual life.
-- Chitra Divakaruni, international best-selling author, whose books include Mistress of Spices,Sister of My Heart and Palace of Illusions.