"God in Her Ruffled Dress" Fall 2023 Book Launch Highlights - Two Videos

I made a couple of videos highlighting the launch and tour I did in Fall 2023 for my new poetry book, God in Her Ruffled Dress (What Books Press). 

 
The book appeared on many publishing platforms in late October 2023, with full publication in December 2023.

The first video recaps the tour to the accompaniment of some of my original tune "Lisa's Lord's Prayers," the poem for which is in the book. The second vid is a short using part of a remixed tune by DJ Davion.


I read/sang at:

- Village Well Books & Coffee, Culver City, Calif., with other authors with fall releases from What Books Press and their affiliated publisher Giant Claw, Michael Ventura, Maria Perez-Talavera, Celeste Goyer, Bryan Price, and Sarah Maclay;

- Books & Books, Coral Gables, Florida, with Caridad Moro-Gronier;

- Poetry Flash at the Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, Berkeley, Calif., with Dick Cluster;

- The Livermore Jazz Society, Livermore, Calif., with my fabulous band Ben Flint, piano, Fred Randolph, bass, and Julian Hogan, drums;

- Bird & Beckett, San Francisco, with Thoreau Lovell;

- And the second What Books/Giant Claw fall launch reading, Beyond Baroque, Venice, Calif., with Sarah Maclay, Michael Ventura, Celeste Goyer, and Bryan Price.

Lots of fun to get out there and share this material after so much careful seclusion during the first stage of the COVID pandemic! More since (the LA Times Festival of Books) and more to come (Santa Cruz, Calif. and NYC in August, yay!). 

See my website for links to purchase the book.

Digging in to George Herbert's Sensuous, Spiritual Poem "The Flower" on The Talking Poem Podcast

The Talking Poem Podcast run by Charlie Green was my first podcast appearance, and a juicy one! 

A professor of English literature and creative writing at Cornell University, Charlie lends his fierce enthusiasm for pop and music culture and a sensibility both erudite and goofy to his joy at discussing the favorite poems of various poets. 

I was the lucky such guest on March 17, 2024, digging in to one of the most delightful, emotional, and memorable poems I've ever encountered, "The Flower" by 17th century metaphysical poet George Herbert. 

Spirituality and sensuality, or we might say religion and sex, and the wrenching, impassioned relationship of the poet with God are expressed in vivid and often colloquial language about nature in this Flower. 

And I got to discuss Herbert's influence on my poetry and to read the first poem in my new book God in Her Ruffled Dress, "God No. 2," charting Herbert's inspirational impact throughout it. 

Charlie topped off our rather excited chat with a little test he gave me: Guess the Exact Lyrics, often spoken, in songs by selected, white rock/rap musicians. It was quite a shift, but fun.

Your favorite podcast links to the episode here:

Apple

Spotify

Podcast Index

Amazon Music

Pandora

Tune In

iHeart Radio

Deezer (search for Lisa B Lisa Bernstein "The Flower")

Charlie features a distinguished array of contemporary poets (David Baker, Kevin Young, Jorie Graham, Franny Choi, Patricia Spears Jones, Lorenzo Thomas, William Matthews, Natalie Diaz, Russell Edson, Louise Gluck, Carl Phillips, Kim Addonizio, A.R. Ammons, Ocean Vuong) and those coming before us (Robert Hayden, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edna St. Vincent Millay), to name just some of the poets you'll find on The Talking Poem Podcast, so be sure to explore it.

 

"God in Her Ruffled Dress" Noted in Broad Street Review Best-of-2023 Books

Philly's Broad Street Review noted God in Her Ruffled Dress in its 2023 end-of-the-year recommendations! 

This year, I returned to reading a lot of poetry! I highly recommend a new volume called God in Her Ruffled Dress, by Lisa Bernstein. The volume is a playful, soulful, feminist imagining of how we experience the sacred. What emerges from these poems is a God whose only limits might be the metaphors we can create for the life force that animates the world.

– Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer

Seven Questions from Kabir Sehgal to Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) on New Poetry Book "God in Her Ruffled Dress"

I met Kabir Sehgal through the Recording Academy (the Grammy organization) and immediately felt an affinity with him, as he's one of the few people I know who, like me, is actively creating and releasing both music and books—and there's far more. 

In short, he's a Grammy and Latin Grammy award winner, nominee of multiple Emmys, bestselling author of 19 books, U.S. Navy veteran, and former J.P. Morgan banker. Not to mention a kind and simpatico guy. 

So I was thrilled that my new poetry book God in Her Ruffled Dress (What Books Press, late fall 2023) was spotlighted in his newsletter and website:

Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) answers 7 questions

By Kabir Sehgal | Feb 8, 2024

1. Why are you an author?

As a sensitive person since childhood, I acutely felt my own emotions and dramas as well as those of my family and friends, and even strangers, plus the sensory stimulation of being alive. Growing up in a book-and music-filled household nurtured my own verbal and musical abilities. Plus, as my mother called me just the other day, I was always a “truth meter.” Becoming a poet was inevitable, both a survival strategy and a source of joy.

2. Who inspired your literary inspirations?

Metaphysical poet George Herbert, Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Charles Simic, W.S. Merwin, Allen Ginsberg

3. What is your writing routine?

I write poetry when I’m inspired: by another writer, by an image, phrase, or sound, and fundamentally, by a charged slice of my experience that is tugging on me unconsciously to be explored, expressed, and transformed.

4. Why did you write this book?

God In Her Ruffled Dress
By Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein)

“God in Her Ruffled Dress” took shape over three decades, a way to explore the interface between body and spirit, human and divine, illness and wellness. Insistent sources of inspiration were my own type 1 diabetes, my work as a jazz singer, my work as a professional psychic (poetry-writing led me to further training in this arena, which in turn fed my poems), and my life as a woman in this era.

5. What were the biggest obstacles in writing this book?

There were no obstacles to writing it, though I’m a believer in trustworthy feedback and then revision. The only obstacles involved finding a publisher!

6. What are the key points of this book?

Well, the titles of the book’s three main sections give clues: “Return to the Body,” “Drum the Beginning of the World,” “Sever the Head,” and “Propagate.” The final poem, “Lisa’s Lord’s Prayers,” also includes imperatives; for instance, from one verse: “Letters of God/in every cell/golden be each stroke./Your power come,/meaning be done/electrically in nerve and spirit./Give us today our act of truth/and forgive our indecision/as we forgive the strong-voiced who stay mute…”

7. Where may we find you online?

• Website
• Bookshop
• Amazon

Consider subscribing to Kabir's Seven Point Sunday newsletter—the quickest read you'll ever receive in a regular mailing, chock-full of tips on books, music, film, what to invest in, how to be more productive, and more. 

Thanks, Kabir!