The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

(on left)
Melissa Studdard Writer, Professor, Editor and Talk Show Host of Tiferet Talk radio, and Best Selling author of the books Six Weeks to Yehi­dah and its companion journal My Yehidah.

(on right)

Donna Baier Stein Writer, Editor, Producer of Tiferet Talk and Publisher of the globally acclaimed literary journal of multi-faith prose, poetry and art: Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature.

Listen to the Tiferet Talk interview archive
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tiferetjournal/2012/09/06/melissa-studdard-donna-baier-stein-guest-host-r-jeffreys

Listen to internet radio with tiferetjournal on Blog Talk Radio

I am beyond honored and pleased to guest host the Tiferet Talk radio show on September 6th at 7 pm, EST! I will be interviewing Tiferet editor and Tiferet Talk show host (and dear friend) Melissa Studdard, and Donna Baier Stein, the publisher of Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature, a global community of writers.

We will be discussing the release of the “Tiferet Talk” book: a collection of the first year of Tiferet Talk interviews with some of the most brilliant, creative thinkers, and writers of our times.

"Imagine joining intimate conversations with a brilliant and eclectic group of writers and thinkers who are eager to improve the world. That is what this book invites you to do, and you will savor every word."
Publisher, Tiferet Journal ~ Donna Baier Stein

The Tiferet Talk Interviews book includes a special introduction by publisher, Donna Baier Stein and in-depth interviews with Julia Cameron, Edward Hirsch, Jude Rittenhouse, Marc Allen, Arielle Ford, Robert Pinksy, Dr. Bernie Siegel, Robin Rice, Jeffrey Davis, Floyd Skloot, Anthony Lawlor, and Lois P. Jones.

The Tiferet Talk Interviews is a fascinating collection of twelve interviews transcribed from the Tiferet Talk Radio show, hosted by Melissa Studdard. Some of the world’s most notable writers and spiritual leaders share their thoughts on writing, tolerance, and the world we live in today. Gain incredible insight into their perspective on ways to tell the truth of our lives, access creativity, and balance magic and craft.

Within these pages you will be moved and inspired by the wisdom and creative minds of these literary luminaries, spiritual teachers, internationally published authors, award-winning poets and great thinkers and lecturers.

  You can purchase The Tiferet Talk Interviews book on Amazon! 

Click here: http://tinyurl.com/ccyov9m

 

About Melissa Studdard

Melissa Stud­dard is the author of the best­selling novel Six Weeks to Yehi­dah and the newly released My Yehidah, a companion journal that nurtures emotional intelligence, creativity, and authenticity. Since its August 2011 release, Six Weeks to Yehidah has been the recipient of many accolades, including the Forward National Literature Award and January Magazine's best children's books of 2011. She is also, with Scott Lutz, co-author of For the Love of All, which is the fifth story in the Mark Miller’s One series, and which debuted in the number one spot for Hot New Releases in Literary Criticism and Theory in the Amazon Kindle store. Her poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and arti­cles have appeared in numer­ous jour­nals and antholo­gies, includ­ing Boule­vard, Con­necti­cut Review, Pleiades, Gradiva, Amer­i­can Book Review, Poets and Writers, and The Smok­ing Poet. She cur­rently serves as a Reviewer-at-Large for The National Poetry Review, an editorial advisor for Lapis Lazuli Journal of The Harold Pinter Society of India, and a con­tribut­ing edi­tor for Tiferet. As well, she is the host of Tiferet’s radio inter­view program, Tiferet Talk, which interviews writers and spiritual and religious leaders. The Tiferet Talk Interviews, a collection of the first year of Tiferet’s interviews, will be released by Tiferet Press this summer. Additionally, Studdard is a professor at a community college in Texas, where she teaches literature, composition, rhetoric, and creative writing, and she is a teaching artist at The Rooster Moans Poetry Cooperative.

About Donna Baier Stein

Donna Baier Stein's writing has appeared in New York Quarterly, Virginia Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner and many other journals and anthologies She has received a Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, a Scholarship from Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the PEN/New England Discovery Award, Finalist in Iowa Fiction Awards, Honorable Mention in Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, four Pushcart nominations, a New Jersey Council for the Arts grant, awards from the Poetry Societies of Virginia and New Hampshire, and more. Her chapbook Sometimes You Sense the Difference was published by Finishing Line Press. Her story collection is forthcoming from Serving House Books. She was a Founding Poetry Editor of Bellevue Literary Review and is Founder and Publisher of TIFERET Journal. www.donnabaierstein.com

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Doug Holder 

Co-founder and publisher of Ibbetson Street Press  

Literary columnist for The Somerville News, 

Host of "Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer" 

College writing professor

Listen to the Doug Holder interview archive

Listen to internet radio with The WriteStep with R Jeffreys on Blog Talk Radio

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writestep/2012/10/24/the-write-step-with-r-jeffreys

My guest is fellow writer, poet and Bostonian, Doug Holder. Doug writes a literary column for The Somerville News, is the host of his own interview show "Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer" a college writing professor and tireless promoter of fellow poets, writers and the Arts.

His latest book of poetry is "The Man in the Booth in the Midtown Tunnel" (Cervena Barva Press).

Doug Holder co-founded Ibbetson Street Press in 1998 with Richard Wilhelm and Dianne Robitaille. Ibbetson has published over 60 books of poetry and has released 26 issues of its acclaimed literary journal "Ibbetson Street."

Doug conducts a series of interviews with poets and writers on his Somerville, Massachusetts Community Access TV Show "Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer" as well as for his literary column in The Somerville News, and at the Wilderness House Literary Retreat, founded by his friend Steve Glines. Acclaimed poets and writers he has interviewed include Mark Doty, Tom Perrotta, Pagan Kennedy, Claire Messud, Lan Samantha Chang, Afaa Michael Weaver, Lois Ames, Steve Almond, and many more.

He is on the Creative Writing Faculty of Endicott College, and teaches College Writing at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. His work, both poetry and prose have appeared in Rattle, Cafe Review, Boston Globe Magazine, Toronto Quarterly, Endicott Review, Small Press Review and many others. 

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Founder and Director, Global Medical Relief Fund for Children

Outstanding Humanitarian and now Author

Elissa Montanti

http://www.elissamontanti.com/

Listen to Elissa Montanti interview

Listen to internet radio with The WriteStep with R Jeffreys on Blog Talk Radio

Our very special guest is Elissa Montanti: Founder and Director, Global Medical Relief Fund for Children and who People Magazine dubbed "the saint of Staten Island"—is changing the world, one child at a time.

I am thrilled to co-host this interview with my dear friend Melissa Studdard, author of the award winning book "Six Weeks to Yehida" and host of the radio show Tifert Talk.

Fourteen years ago, Elissa Montanti was a lab technician in Staten Island. She had, in the span of only a few years, lost her beloved mother, grandmother, and high school sweetheart. Hoping to find a way past her own troubles and the depression and panic attacks that quietly crippled her, she decided to raise money for school supplies for the children of war-torn Bosnia. But at a meeting with the UN ambassador she learned that those children didn’t need pencils. He showed her a photo of a boy who had lost both arms and one leg to a land mine; these children needed a lot more.

She went to Bosnia, brought the boy and his mother back to Staten Island, and arranged for free prosthetic's and medical care. The Global Medical Relief Fund was born.

Elissa Montanti will also be joined by multi-published writer and Psychology Today columnist Jennifer Haupt. Jennifer worked in collaboration with Ms. Montanti in writing “I'll Stand by You” (to be released August 2, 2012) about Elissa’s personal experiences in aiding children who are missing or have lost the use of limbs or eyes, who have been severely burned, or have been injured through war, natural disaster or illness throughout the world.

Elissa founded the non-profit, non-partisan Global Medical Relief Fund. A 501c3 organization, GMRF is supported entirely by private donations and grants. Since 1997, GMRF has brought more than 150 children to the U.S, from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia for treatment, surgery and prosthetic limb and eye fittings. The countries include Bosnia, China, El Salvador, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Mexico, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, the Congo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Libya .The injured children come from countries or regions that can offer only minimal medical care, poorly fitted prostheses, or none at all.

Elissa Montanti and her story of unconditional love and charity to grievously injured children throughout the world has been widely featured in every media outlet. She has also received numerous awards and honorariums for her outstanding humanitarian work.

Print:

Ms. Montanti has been featured in Parade Magazine, Reader’s Digest, People Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, and numerous other print media’s.

Television:

“60 minutes”, “Life Time Television for Women”, MSNBC, NBC “Today-New York”, CBS “Early Show”, Dr. Phil Show, (presented the first “Heart of a Woman Award “), Hallmark Family Channel, American Morning CNN, Aaron Brown, Anderson Cooper 360 CNN, and all local major news networks.

Radio:

BBC World News, WBAI, “Democracy Now” World Vision Radio, Senator Bill Bradley radio program, “American Voices”, Voice of America, WCBS.

Books:

“I'll Stand by You” “Why good things happen to good people” and “Being the Change”

Newspapers:

The NY Times, Washington Post, N.Y Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kuwait Times, UK Herald, Jesuit Provincial, Catholic New York

Honors/ Notable Mention

People Magazine voted Elissa Story “the Saint of Staten Island” one of the five best stories of the year

Amnesty International “Modern Day Saints”

Dr. Phil and his wife Robin Presented “Heart of a woman” award

HOC (Humanitarian Operating center) in Kuwait, awarded Elissa for her bravery and humanitarian work in Iraq.

Beliefnet.com, Voted one of the 12 most inspirational people of the year.

First woman Grand Marshall in the Staten Island Columbus Day parade, given the honor by Borough President James P. Molinaro.

Athena Award. The Woman’s Coalition Organization in Staten Island.

American Legion

The Circle of Friends Award. The Staten Island children’s Museum

ACIM American Committee on Italian Migration

Circle of Friends, Mount Manresa

“To Walk Without Fear”. Documentary Produced by Miracle Mile Films. Premiered at the United Nations, Nov.16^th 2006. Sponsored by the UN Correspondence Association and the Prince of Jordon

Inducted in her New Dorp High School Hall of Fame

Shriners Humanitarian award

Woman Of University Award

St Johns University presidents Medal

Soon to be honored:

The Salvation Army

The Urban League

Staten Island Woman Of achievement

For further information visit: www.gmrfchildren.org

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Mutli-talented, Actress, Voice-Over Artist, Poet,

Translator/Interpreter, Lyricist and Teacher/ Language Coach

Helene Cardona

http://www.helenecardona.com/

http://www.imdb.me/helenecardona

Listen to Helene Cardona interview

Listen to internet radio with The WriteStep with R Jeffreys on Blog Talk Radio

My celebrated and award winning guest this evening is Helene Cardona.

Helene Cardona's glorious poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Mythic Passages, The American Center for Artists, Askew, Barnwood Mag, Spillway, Pirene’s Fountain, Mediterranean Poetry, qarrtsiluni, Maintenant 5: A Dada Poetry Journal, Saint Julian Press, From the Fishouse, THRUSH Poetry Journal, Maintenant 6, Poetry International, Washington Square and the Warwick review.

In the anthology Illuminations: Expressions of the Spiritual Experience (Celestial Arts, 2006), Helene Cardona is in such phenomenal company. This beautiful book gives voice to a worldwide collective of truth seekers, including Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, peace activist Fatima Gailani, and bestselling authors Julia Cameron and Marianne Williamson. Helene's emotionally evocative poetry is also published in the anthologies Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (Salmon Poetry, 2011) and Fermoy International Poetry Festival Anthology (2012).

Ms. Cardona is the author of three books of poems: THE ASTONISHED UNIVERSE (Red Hen Press, 2006); DREAMING MY ANIMAL SELVES (Salmon Poetry, 2013); and LIFE IN SUSPENSION (forthcoming from Tupelo Press.)

She graduated from the Music Conservatory in Geneva with the 2nd prize in piano and from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Helene earned a Master’s degree in American Literature from the Sorbonne. She attended Hamilton College, New York, where she was also assistant professor of French and Spanish. She has taught at the Ecole Bilingue in Paris and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles..

Helene is the author of children stories. With John FitzGerald, she co-wrote the screenplay Primate, based on his novel. She translated the Lawrence Bridges film Muse of Fire for the NEA, What We Carry by Dorianne Laux, and the poetry of her father José Manuel Cardona, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Aloysius Bertrand, Jacques Crickillon and Jean-Claude Renard into English. Her studies have included English Philology in Cambridge, England; Spanish at the International Universities of Santander and Baeza, Spain; and German at the Goethe Institute in Bremen, Germany and received fellowships from the DAAD and the University of Baeza, Andalusia.

Ms Cardona has been a Guest Lecturer at Brown University and U.C. Irvine, featured poetry reader at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the West Hollywood Book Fair, the Geffen Playhouse, the Orange County Poetry Festival and on national radio and is a Member of the National Foreign Language Honor Society.

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Psychologist, teacher and author

Andrea Polard PsyD.

http://www.aunifiedtheoryofhappiness.com/

Los Angeles Center for Zen Psychology

Listen to Dr. Andrea Polard interview

Please join me on June 27th at 6:30 pm, EST. (3:30 pm PST.) and my illustrious guest, the celebrated Psychologist, teacher, and author, Andrea Polard PsyD. We will be having an in-depth and informative discussion with Dr. Polard about the meaning of true happiness, and a life in equilibrium, through the teachings of her outstanding, breakout book "A Unified Theory of Happiness: An East-Meets-West Approach to Fully Loving Your Life" published by Sounds True.

A licensed Psychologist, Dr. Andrea F. Polard's mission is to help abolish unnecessary suffering and promote happiness in the capacity of a Zen Psychologist (based on Clinical Psychology, combined with mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and Zen), writer, and teacher. Her phenomenal book: "A Unified Theory of Happiness: An East-Meets-West Approach to Fully Loving Your Life" will help you to bring new insight and clarity into your thoughts and feelings, and therefore, more happiness into your life.

In Dr. Polard's own words, "When we view happiness as a buildup of happy feelings, seeking such happiness actually leaves us empty. Alternatively, happiness seen as full life participation is fulfilling. Published by Sounds True in April 2012, A Unified Theory of Happiness: An East-Meets-West-Approach to Fully Loving Your Life offers a clear understanding on how to go about experiencing full life participation. It lays out the tools coming from our

Western culture to make us actively part of life. It also presents Eastern paths that foster awareness of our participation in life.
With the Theory of Elastic Consciousnessthe author and practicing psychologist Dr. Andrea F. Polard provides a much needed synthesis of Western and Eastern thought."

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Acclaimed essayist, author and teacher

Edie Clark

http://www.edieclark.com/

Listen to Edie Clark interview

Listen to internet radio with The WriteStep with R Jeffreys on Blog Talk Radio

Tonight's guest is acclaimed essayist and author Edie Clark. Please join me and my marvelous guest on June 13th at 6:30 pm, EST.

For almost twenty years, Edie Clark has written a popular, monthly essay for the renowned Yankee magazine, known as Mary’s Farm. She served as Senior Editor for ten years and then Senior Writer and Fiction Editor for another fourteen years at Yankee magazine.

Ms. Clark is the author of multiple, best-selling books, which include The Place He Made, a memoir about her husband, Paul Bolton. The View from Mary's Farm, a collection of her essays from Yankee magazine and Saturday Beans and Sunday Suppers: Kitchen Stories from Mary's Farm, a food memoir with recipes, among many others.

Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Northeast magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Hope magazine and Reader’s Digest. She has taught workshops and lectured frequently about writing and reporting. She has received the New Hampshire Writers and Publishers Project’s award for Excellence in Journalism and for four years in a row, her essays have been listed in the Best American Essays. In 1998, she was named, “Writer of the Year” by the City and Regional Magazine Publishers Association.

Edie has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and at Hedgebrook Writer’s Retreat on Whidbey Island, Washington. She has been in residence as the Visiting Writer at the University of Northern Michigan. For several years, she taught in the MFA program at Emerson College in Boston.

Currently, she is Contributing Editor for Yankee magazine and teaches at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H. Edie Clark is available for freelance assignments and speaking engagements.

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Award winning author, poet, book reviewer,

contributing editor and talk show host

Melissa Studdard

http://www.melissastuddard.com/

Listen to Melissa Studdard interview

Listen to internet radio with The WriteStep with R Jeffreys on Blog Talk Radio

Please join me and my marvelous guest, Melissa Studdard on May 16th at 6:30 pm, EST. Ms Studdard is the author of the bestselling novel "Six Weeks to Yehidah" (winner of The Forward National Literature Award) and the companion journal "My Yehidah." (click here for show link)

She is also a book reviewer at-large for The National Poetry Review, an editorial advisor for Lapis Lazuli Journal (of the Harold Pinter Society of India), and a contributing editor for both Tiferet Journal and The Criterion Journal For Tiferet.

Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Chelsea, Boulevard, Gradiva, The American Book Review, Literal latte, Poets and Writers, Connecticut Review, Dash, The Smoking Poet, and elsewhere.

She also hosts her own Blogtalk radio program Tiferet Talk where she interviews writers and spiritual and religious leaders.

Melissa also holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College

The Write Step with R Jeffreys -- Talk Radio -- Live!

Screenwriter, director, filmmaker and short story writer

Taylor Grant

http://www.taylorgrant.com/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1678484/

Listen to Taylor Grant interview

Listen to internet radio with The WriteStep with R Jeffreys on Blog Talk Radio

A former military journalist, Taylor Grant began his creative writing career in the field of children’s entertainment, writing for animated and live action series such as Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Stan Lee’s The Accuser and Saban’s Power Rangers.

Later, Taylor segued into writing music videos for international superstars such as Whitney Houston and Diddy which aired on both MTV and VH1. Taylor has sold, optioned and developed feature film projects for Universal Studios, Imagine Entertainment, Dreamworks, Lion’s Gate Films and more.

Taylot Grant is also a professional script consultant, award-winning copywriter and multi-hyphenate filmmaker.

Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology

HWA Bram Stoker Award™ 2012 Reading List!

Bareback Alchemy: Great Minds One (Jeffreys on Bradbury)

Great Minds One (Jeffreys on Bradbury): Something Wicked (and Wondrous) This Way Comes

I am truly honored in being the first entry in Melissa Studdard's wonderful new blog series Great Minds. Such a marvelous concept for a blog theme. I look forward, in earnest, to reading all the next posts there at Bareback Alchemy.

Dust-jacket art by Gray Foy from the first edition  Simon & Schuster, 1962 

Bareback Alchemy: Great Minds One (Jeffreys on Bradbury 

"Today I’d like to introduce you to “Great Minds,” a new blog post series on Bareback Alchemy. At inspired, irregular intervals, I’ll share guest posts in which writers, artists, and intellectuals make tributes to others who have influenced their work. Of course, the title is a play on the phrase, “Great minds think alike,” but I’m looking to bring you heart, soul, and inspiration too."

"I’m honored now to present the first post, an homage by R Jeffreys for Ray Bradbury. Enjoy!" 

~ Melissa Studdard 

Writer, Professor, Editor and Talk Show Host of Tiferet Talk radio, and Best Selling author of the books Six Weeks to Yehi­dah and its companion journal My Yehidah.

Update!

The essay on the incomparable Ray Bradbury has just been reprinted by the wonderful publication and community at Tiferet Journal. My sincerest thank you to Tiferet Journal publisher, Donna Baier Stein and Editor-in-Chief, Diane Bonavist for this great honor. If you are not already a subscribed member of the outstanding Tiferet Journal community, you must, my friends!

Also, a huge thank you to the marvelous, Mellissa Studdard for honoring me, by having this essay as the 1st entry in the "Great Minds" series at her excellent blog, "Bareback Alchemy."

http://tiferetjournal.com/2012/10/15/great-minds-one-jeffreys-on-bradbury-something-wicked-and-wondrous-this-way-comes/