{"id":354,"date":"2016-04-16T01:52:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/?page_id=354"},"modified":"2016-04-16T01:52:25","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:52:25","slug":"blooming-red","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/?page_id=354","title":{"rendered":"Blooming Red"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational<\/strong>
\n by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn \u00a0Howard-Johnson<\/strong>
\n Featuring artwork by Vicki Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI love reading poetry aloud, and this volume is full of delight.\u00a0Make your holiday great and read your family Blooming Red.\u201d~Margaret Fieland<\/p>\n

Click on the book cover to purchase or for reading samples.\u00a0Special price on quantity orders for\u00a0holiday gifts or greeting cards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Best Book Award finalist in the USA Book News awards!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Military Writers Society of America Silver Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few reviews<\/h2>\n

“Blooming Red<\/em> is worthy of a Gold Medal. I read the entire collection cover to cover. Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard Johnson write with authority and skill, and the language throughout the collection is stunning. Reading this collection made me hungry to pick up the pen and write. Each poem took me outside of myself, lifted me to another place, and made me think while I relished the language.\u00a0Highly recommended. You don’t have to be a poetry lover to enjoy this collection.\u201d \u00a0Kathleen M. Rodgers, author of the award-winning novel Johnnie Come Lately<\/p>\n

“Blooming Red is not your traditional schmaltzy Christmas poems. This is a thoughtful collection filled with bits of reality that will connect to any reader. Blooming Red is a great stocking stuffer or gift for anyone on your list.\u201d Mary Jo Guilliamo<\/p>\n

“This poetry chapbook would make a nice and affordable holiday present (and stocking filler!) to any poetry-loving friend or family member.\u00a0You won’t find pull-the-heartstrings sentimentality here, though. The collection combines the realism of Christmas–that is, the good and the bad–while at the same time evoking the true warm feelings of the season. Vivid images and poignant language make some of the poems memorable.\u00a0Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball make a great poetry-writing team. I’ve purchased two of their previous collections in the past and I’ve never been disappointed. Recommended!\u201d Mayra Calvani<\/p>\n

“Just the subtitle made me curious to read this little stocking-stuffer of a Christmas book of poetry. Ball and Howard-Johnson each contributed thirteen poems of various lengths and attitudes.\u00a0I confess I’m not as much of a poetry fan as an arm’s length admirer, but I certainly picked up on the emotion in many of these poems.\u00a0Carolyn’s poems touch a glancing blow toward the commercialism of the holiday. One in particular, Test of Faith, is an intriguing study on societal quirks. I mean, how ironic is it that of all the characters of the cr\u00e8che scenes sold in stores, the infant Christ-child is the most purloined?\u00a0Magdalena’s poetry uses darker punchier words to describe the harsher side of Christmas. In Infinity in Red, for instance, she asks whether bad dreams count against you if St. Nick sees you when you’re sleeping and knows if you’re naughty or nice.\u00a0These are poems to ponder, not necessarily read aloud with the family on Christmas Eve. They encourage a thoughtful attitude about the reality of American society.\u00a0The poems are free-form with a lyric visual grace.\u201d Lisa J Lickel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn \u00a0Howard-Johnson Featuring artwork by Vicki Thomas \u201cI love reading poetry aloud, and this volume is full of delight.\u00a0Make your holiday great and read your family Blooming Red.\u201d~Margaret Fieland … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-354","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}