Moderating a Panel on "Metrical Illiteracy" at AWP16 in LA

I was delighted to learn that my proposal, "Endangered Music: Formal Poetry in the 21st Century," has been accepted to AWP 16's program in LA.  The all-star panel includes Annie Finch, Timothy Steele, Amanda Johnston, and Dean Kostos.  Our topic follows.

What are the consequences of what Brad Leithauser has termed the "metrical illiteracy" of contemporary poetry in the U.S.? Poetry readership here has diminished, in contrast to the vitality of poetry in countries where formal poetry is strong. Offering controversial views from a now minority aesthetic, panelists will discuss why basic knowledge of metrical analysis and prosody has waned and why accentual forms such as spoken word are popular.  We will demonstrate the essential role of music in poetry today and as a tool vital to understanding poetry of the past.

If you are in LA next AWP, I invite you to join us.

Evan Myquest's Review of My New Novel, Patient Women

Evan Myquest's review of my new novel, Patient Women (thank you, Evan!)
I thought this book looked me in the eye and dared me to keep up. There are times I wished Ms. Shmailo was a less gifted storyteller as her protagonist Nora's turbulent history accumulated detail by detail, a brick by brick walling in of her life. With a symphonic score-like style complete with spiraling themes and backtracking recapitulations (a tiny mercy in case the reader lost pace), there is no doubt a master is at work. There is even an appendix of brilliant poetry that becomes a jazzband distillation, a coda, of the generational storylines. If you have read Ms. Shmailo before, this is everything you have waited for in a novel by her. And so much more.

Patient Women

Larissa Shmailo’s Patient Women tells the story of Nora, a gifted young woman who comes of age in New York against heavy odds. Her Russian mother is demanding; the young men around her are uncaring; and her dependence on drink and sex...

amazon.com

Rant Alert: Abraham Hicks

Rant alert: Is there something about people who can speak volubly in long impassioned spurts that is attractive? I am listening to Abraham Hicks, the teacher of the well-loved Louise Hay, and he/she/it orates that way, as Hitler did (Abraham is an non-corporeal energy being, channeled by a woman called Ester). In essence, Abraham advises that you seek your bliss and vibrate at that "frequency" to manifest everything you want, which is being stored up for you in a personal "vortex." You must always remain on a "high disc." Helping others, quoth this rather Ayn Randian alien, causes you to leave the "high flying disc" and you must seek to "inspire" others rather than lend a hand.

I love Louise Hay and much this Abraham says has merit. But both suggest constant positive emotion. If a situation is bad, then affirm it is good. A belief in a negative government, says Louise, perpetuates said; affirm the Tea Party is loving and honorable. Don't watch the news, Abraham and Louise advise, even as armed militias are walking our streets. Let the enormous yachts and conspicuous consumption of the wealthy give you pleasure; if you don't admire the rich, you might not become one of them. Don't look at statistics about poverty, and don't be codependent and slip from your high disc by wondering how many meals-on-wheels the wealth in that yacht might buy.

I like positive thinking as much as the next poet, but constant meditation on unreal thoughts, saying what is bad is good, is Orwellian doublethink, doublespeak. And it may be in the better interest of some of us to help one another than lose ourselves in atomizing and alienating new age philosophies. I am not saying that Louise Hay and Abraham are tools of the powers that be, but they are a great help to them.

Join the Patient Women Group

Join the Facebook Patient Women group for music, excerpts from the book, and lively discussion!
Patient Women Group on Facebook

Preview of Patient Women

Read the Scribd preview of Patient Women:

 https://www.scribd.com/doc/267413252/Patient-Women-a-Novel-by-Larissa-Shmailo-Book-Preview#scribd

Patient Women is available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Patient-Women-Larissa-Shmailo/dp/1609642015

Tiziana Rinaldi's video of my poem, "Sibyl"

Filmmaker Tiziana Simona Rinaldi's creative video of me reading my poem "Sibyl" at the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park:



https://vimeo.com/132761090?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfGM1YjA4YTVkMDBiYWIyMDg2NDAwZTc3OTRmYWRhZGY0ODY3fDExODcyMTUxfDE0MzYyMTgzNDB8NzcwMQ%3D%3D

My novel, Patient Women, is up on Amazon!

Buy Patient Women


Larissa Shmailo’s Patient Women tells the story of Nora, a gifted young woman who comes of age in New York against heavy odds. Her Russian mother is demanding; the young men around her are uncaring; and her dependence on drink and sex leads her to a shadowy life filled with self-made demons. Yet Nora’s intelligence pulls her through the difficult times—there are even moments of (very) dark humor here. As well, an appendix of poems attributed to Nora lets us into the corners of her heart and mind.
—Thaddeus Rutkowski, author of Haywire


Larissa Shmailo’s novel, Patient Women (and the title is absolutely meaningful, in so many ways), is a brutally honest wrestling match of truth-telling and sex. I had to put this book down and walk away from it more than once; it was a bit like holding a hot coal in my hands. And even though the subject matter is over the top, the writing is stylistically brilliant. Absolutely recommended!
—Ron Kolm, author of Suburban Ambush and editor, Evergreen Review


Larissa Shmailo's Patient Women explores the intersection of mind and body, posing several compelling philosophical questions to the reader: Is gender biological or do we inscribe these social categories through our use of language? Is it possible to separate one's intellect from one's physical being? To what extent is language itself tactile and embodied? As Shmailo teases out possible answers to these questions, she utilizes a variety of literary forms, which include diary entries, appendices, poems, and vignettes. Formally adventurous and engaging, Shmailo's book is as artfully written as it is thought provoking, offering us stylistic innovation that is both daring and meaningful.
—Kristina Marie Darling, author of Scorched Altar: Selected Poems & Stories 2007-2014.


Christ-figures are likely to be cross-dressers in this engaging bildungsroman, which takes us on a wild ride through NYC nightclubs of the 1970's, rock-bottom blackouts, a whorehouse, and the slogan-filled rooms of recovery. Surreal and lyrical, then bawdy and riotous, then plainspoken and tragic, Patient Women had me rooting hard for its lovable, drowning heroine to keep her head above water and let in grace.
— Anne Elliott, www.AnneElliottStories.com


Nora, born to a holocaust survivor mother, finds herself, at the threshold of adolescence in “boring Queens”. Lying about her age, her first transgression from her mother’s iron rule, she begins a series of ill-fated attempts to put distance between herself and the familial web she so desperately wants to disentangle from. She reels from one dysfunctional relationship to another, druggies, pimps, losers and masochists, searching for her lovable self. This novel unfolds in a whirlwind that is sometimes dream, sometimes nightmare yet, at it’s core, is an honest tale of one woman’s coming to terms with her past in order to claim her present. Be ready to have your heart broken and then made whole.
—Bonny Finberg, author of Kali’s Day


Larissa Shmailo’s newest work, Patient Women, is an unflinching exploration of the lasting damage some people can inflict on their children. Nora, Shmailo’s protagonist, evolves as she struggles to understand and heal her own self-hatred and her on-going self-destructive choices. Slogging one's way through a morass of denial and repression is a strong trope throughout this raw, honest book. Nora is fiercely vulnerable and the sympathetic hero of her own salvation. This novel is dark, but there is hope that even the pain one lives through can cause one to create, finally, lasting and beautiful art.
—Joani Reese, author of Dead Letters (Cervena Barva Press) and Night Chorus, forthcoming from Lit Fest Press