Poetry – Book Awards Review – Juror’s Commentary
5 November 2020
UPDATE D 29 April 2021
Lynda McKinney Lambert
Official Author Website
Lynda McKinney Lambert
This year I thought about how to choose
a design for my latest book cover.
Our cover is the first thing the public views.
The BOOK COVER determines how
the poems and stories are measured.
I asked,
How does this image reflect what is in the book?
Measure the content of the book against the initial impression that my cover portends.
Your image on the book cover is a signifier.
What?
I received an unexpected review by a juror who examined my book :
Star Signs: New and Selected Poems
Full-length book of poetry by Lynda McKinney Lambert.
Available NOW on Amazon, Smashwords, and all retail booksellers. Kindle, Paperback, e-book.
The Juror’s Commentary gave me more to think about for future books .
A juror’s comment is a gift, even if it is not positive or what you were expecting.
The comments are timely. because I am an actively publishing writer, I wrote FIVE published books.
I also write spare poetry and thoughtful personal essays. My work is published internationally on a regular basis – in anthologies and literary magazines. I am a blogger. I care about what a juror writes about my writing.
During the early weeks of 2001, I was in the final stages of revising and expanding my first published book
Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage
Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage.
Stories and Poems by Lynda McKinney Lambert.
This book is currently out of print.
For some years I thought about revising the collection of poems and memoirs to include actual journal entries, back-stories, prayers and meditations. I began work on this project the beginning of 2000.
I wanted to have the book published by spring in 2021.
New – Just published!
Songs for the Pilgrimage
Published April 13, 2021.
I used The Juror’s Commentary to look at my manuscript carefully.
Below, I am sharing the JUROR”S COMMENTARY, I received for my book of poetry
Star Signs: New and Selected Poems
Star Signs: New and Selected Poems
See it now!
~ Book Awards Review ~
Full-length book of poetry by Lynda McKinney Lambert.
Available NOW – Buy it here!
Juror’s Commentary:
I really like the cover design of this collection.
The deep purple sky and all the stars are so soothing to look at, and I think it’s a great image to captivate and draw in readers.
Excellent choice.
I also appreciated how simply and clearly formatted the rest of the collection was.
That way the poems are featured, and there’s nothing in the way of reading them, getting right into them. I appreciated the variety of theme and subject here too. There’s a lovely mood to them all that stays through the collection in the same vibe as the cover image.
One of my favorites was the
“Minotaur” poem,
which has an inky spookiness to it, but it also light and ephemeral as dreams so often feel. It’s really effusive and lovely.
I also loved
“Eggplant Parmesan with Spaghetti”
for how it was almost a narrative but hit that poetic level of description. I really like how that one moment in time, described so nicely, relates to moments in my life and hits poignantly on those small things that make life interesting in how normal they can be.
Hard to describe the feeling that one gave me, but I really loved it.
I would love to see the voice expressed here pushed even more to see what else could be touched on.
(The commentary was provided by Juror #74.
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Lynda McKinney Lambert. Copyright November 5, 2020.
Updated and published on April 29, 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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Who is??? Lynda McKinney Lambert
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