Official site of poet James Schwartz, author of The Literary Party: Growing Up Gay and Amish in America
Your Plain Rainbows co-hosts are happy to have recently presented an overview on LGBTQ Amish to the PCADV Gender and Sexual Justice Caucus!
PLAIN RAINBOWS: LGBTQ AMISH AND ANABAPTIST STORIES
I am happy to be skipping the party with Alien Buddha Press! Which is to say, I am honored to have poetry in the forthcoming anthology The Alien Buddha Skips the Party 2! Look for it later this year!
You can now support me via PATREON! Gain access to newsletters, ebooks, more!
PLAIN RAINBOWS 2 PODCAST EPISODE GUIDE
(YOUTUBE)
Edward joins us to discuss LGBTQ Ukraine for a live episode.
Chris on living with authenticity in Amish country.
Dr. Lars, PhD on a "Plain / Southern" identity etc.
Lars on Amish in academia etc.
Growing up gay and Beachy Mennonite
A discussion on (Mennonite) education
Gay and Horning Mennonite
Special episode co-hosted by Kris
ALSO AVAILABLE ON:
FACEBOOK/ PLAINRAINBOWS
Consider a donation via PATREON!
Dear Readers,
My summer / 2022 plans include writing and whatever my next creative endeavor may take shape as. Poetry? Fiction / non-fic memoir mixtape? We shall see!
This will also give me a nice hiatus from social media as well, now that Plain Rainbows 2 is out!
New and recent poetry can be found at FeversOfTheMind.com and IceFloe Press.
For your summer reading list consider checking out:
THE LITERARY PARTY: GROWING UP GAY AND AMISH IN AMERICA
Happy Summer Solstice & publication day to HARD RAIN POETRY: FOREVER DYLAN anthology, now available!
It is rare when a poet will emerge that becomes a wonderful musician, artist, activist
and celebrated with a Nobel Prize in the end for writing.
He is a natural with words, freestyle to deeply thoughtful. Within metaphors that’ll
make you think inevitably if you study each line it’ll make sense in the end.
Bob Dylan came around when folk was almost bubblegum. It took him, Joan Baez,
Odetta, Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs to continue the folk that endured the same feeling
of hardships of a Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, the many blues and jazz musicians before. It was less about what Elvis, Buddy Holly, and what Chuck Berry was putting out (which definitely is a great style on itself) Dylan was about shifting, changing with the times, understanding what was to come and being 1 step ahead. He sung and wrote like an artist painting a picture. He is a storyteller. He wasn’t afraid to bring sarcasm, his truth to a story and laying it out for everyone the bones, the bruises, and the sweat . He had many muses to help him write to his perfections in writing. Whether it be personal relationships with Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, his wife Sara, Carolyn Dennis, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, but also with musical counterparts such as Woody Guthrie, once again Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young. Influences in writing of Arthur Rimbaud, Dylan Thomas, and just exploring cities from Minneapolis to New York to London and exploring this world like Kerouac and Ginsberg & other beats. He had a natural flow of thought, passion & yes, bitterness but he wanted to protect the dignity of true art, and not lead it to what most people hear today on the radio, youtube, and more. He was always exploring his faith (another muse)? He made friendships and enemies and friendships with enemies. Everyone in music from the 60’s til now knew Dylan. Whether they liked his personality or not, they definitely had to have some form of admiration of his art. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, The Byrds, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell (a frenemy at times), The Band, even Judas Priest.
* * *
Kindle & Paperback Links:
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Featuring the following:
Art/photos by Tony Aiken, Geoffrey Wren, David L O’Nan
Featured Poetry from
Elizabeth Cusack
David L O'Nan (including debut poetry)
Ron Whitehead (U.S. Beat Poet Laureate)
John Guzlowski
Ivor Daniel
Lynn White
James Schwartz
Robert Frede Kenter
Thasia Anne Lunger
Christian Garduno
R.M. Engelhardt
Peter Hague
Spriha Kant
Beth Mulcahy
Matthew Freeman
Kushal Poddar
Carrie Anne Golden
Joe Kidd
Troy Jackson
Mark Andrew Heathcote
w v sutra
Owen Bullock
F.E. Clark
Ethan McGuire
Ian Richardson
Doreen Stock
Peter Lilly
Dan Carpenter
Jude Neale
Clive Gresswell
Derek Smith
Tim Troglen
Billy Watson
Maid Corbic
Brenda E. Nwafor
Kathryn Sadakierski
Sadie Maskery
Jeremy Limn 
Crime writer Robert Ragan & my Plain Rainbows podcast co-host Mary Byler dropped book pics recently!
ICEFLOE PRESS has published an alternate extended mix of my WOODWARD BUS POEM! The original version of the poem is available in MOTOR CITY MIX!
It's officially Pride day in Detroit! To celebrate I joined various Alien Buddha Press authors at TWITTER SPACES for an open mic reading from #MotorCityMix!
Happy Pride from Alien Buddha Press - celebrating Pride Month 2022!
Happy Pride! FEVERS OF THE MIND has published my June contribution LAST NIGHT A DRAG QUEEN SAVED MY LIFE!
THE LITERARY PARTY: GROWING UP GAY AND AMISH IN AMERICA (EBOOK) BOOK REVIEWS: As a country boy in Kentucky, I’m acquainted with the Ami...
