
I was a student enrolled in Carlow University’s Low Residency M.F.A. program the day I met Lewis “Buddy” Nordan. He was scheduled to read at one of our events in Pittsburgh. Many of the other students had been excited about the event most of the day. Past students had come to town for the [...]

Try, for a moment, to imagine a world without J.R.R. Tolkien. There would be no Frodo, no Shire, no Gandalf. But what else would disappear without this author? By my thinking, if Tolkien goes, so goes Prachett, Pullman, and…Rowling. Sure there were other fantasy authors during Tolkien’s time (the Inklings wouldn’t have been much [...]

Greetings Shaking followers. This is my first foray into the Shaking blog, but I feel that I deliver an important message. This is a blog about music and literature. We value music as and artistic endeavor. For those of you in the Lancaster, PA region, the Chameleon Club may be synonymous with the live [...]

For me, the experience of poetry has most often been a painful one. Reading poetry is usually like trying to catch a butterfly—I’m running and leaping and stretching with all I have, trying to get that damn butterfly, but it always remains just out of my grasp. There are some poets with whom I [...]

On July 19th I visited the local Borders bookstore in York County, Pennsylvania after hearing a wave of rumors about this location closing their doors in the upcoming month. Pulling up to the store I noticed a large red sign hanging above the entryway. My heart plummeted; the rumors must be true I thought as [...]

