New publications
It is my joy and privilege to have two poems in the Scars issue of Of Rust and Glass. Big thanks to editors Jonie McIntire and Curtis Deeter. Check out the poetry section at this link.
One of three manuscripts selected for 2022, my chapbook, ASKING PRICE, is now available for preorders from Workhorse Writers. I am grateful to editor Christopher McCurry and patrons of the community for this wonderful publication. And dang, how I love that Ron Davis cover art!
Here's a brief description:
In Roberta Schultz's fourth chapbook, ASKING PRICE, questions are key to examining humanity's relationship to the planet we live on. Who eats what? When comes another dragon's charm for pain? Why don't we ever see a live armadillo? Join the bargaining war as a couple haggles with a reluctant seller over the sale of his home. Consider why some of us slash glyphs that forbid while others sail their ragged boats forward to rescue the drowning.
I am delighted to have a poem, “Deep Ends” in the latest volume of Kakalak, 2022. My pantoum about family recipes, “We are Some Sad-ass Bad Cooks in My Family” found a home in the winter issue of Persimmon Tree. Thanks to guest editor, Ann Fisher-Wirth. And I'm real excited that my poem about Dolly Parton's influence on my job-seeking skills, “Interview” is included in the new anthology from Madville Publishing, Let Me Say This. The publication date is January 19, 2023--Dolly's birthday, of course. Take a look at the fabulous cover here. Thanks to the editors, Dustin Brookshire and Julie E. Bloemeke.
Kentucky Writers Roundtable(with hosts Linda Bryant, Jay McCoy, and Kevin Nance) interviewed me in their wonderful conversational style for a November 2 broadcast on RadioLex. You can listen to the archived episode of our literary conversation at this link.
I am so happy that my song lyrics for "Babushkas" and "Like the Sycamore Stands" are published in the volume 8 of Women Speak, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour. You can order copies at this webpage.
The new volume 25 of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel launches November 20. I am proud to have a poem, "Bones in the Woods" on page 157. 
Thanks to Cincinnati/Hamilton County Library's Writer-in-Residence, Pauletta Hansel, for including my thoughts about publishing in her latest blog along with 11 other writers from the Cincinnati area.
I am grateful to poetry editor, Marianne Worthington, for including my poem, "Dark Shadows in Afterglow" in a sampler of memory poems for issue 40 of Still: the Journal, 2022.
Read Elaine Palencia's review of Underscore in Pegasus , the literary journal of Kentucky State Poetry Society.
"Yosemite" appears in issue 22 of Panoply, September, 2022. Thanks to editor. Jeff Santosuosso.
I had a blast talking to Poet Laureate of Parma, OH, Jeremy Jusek on Ohio Poetry Association's podcast, "Poetry Spotlight," on August 4. He wanted the perspective of a KY-based poet living so close to and immersed in the Greater Cincinnati poetry community. We also compared dirges to worms and insects. You can listen to the podcast on one of the streaming services suggested on Ohio Poetry Association's webpage.
"The Last Word" is included in the latest issue of Pegasus, the publication of Kentucky State Poetry Society. Thanks to the editor, Jon Thrower.
"Thicker Than Blood" is published in Stone Quarterly's May issue. Thanks to editor, Damian Ward Hey.
"The Healing Question" received Honorable Mention in the 4th Annual October Project Poetry Contest. They are one of my favorite music groups ever, so I am thrilled to have these laurels to post. :-)
My first-ever poetry collection is now available from Dos Madres Press. Read about Underscore at this link.
I am happy to announce that my manuscript, Asking Price, has been accepted for the Workhorse Writers Chapbook Series 2022. It is one of three books selected for publication this year. You can read more at this link.
I am so pleased to have lyrics for two of my songs( "The Two-in-One Junior" and "Like Horses") published in Vol. 7 of Women Speak. Check out details about the anthology at this link.
"Indecent Exposure" appears in issue 20 of Panoply.
"Drive-by Sonetto" is included in Volume 24 of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel.
"Mr. Paolucci" appears in the latest edition of Kakalak.
"The Dead Speak After Hades Floods Over," appears in the Blood Moon edition of Black Moon Magazine, issue 4 2021. You can have a look at the issue at the website.
My poem, "Temple of the Smiley Man," is included in the "Short Takes" section of Persimmon Tree's 2021 fall issue. The theme for this issue's "Short Takes" was Secrets. Karen L. George has a story in that section as well. You can have a look at the poem at this link.
I'm so happy to have my poem, "Cross Chest Carry" up in the fall 2021 issue of Panoplyzine. Proud to be published in the same issue with the poetry icon, Pauletta Hansel.
"Like Huge Moths," appears in the summer 2021 issue of Sheila-Na-Gig. Check it out here. Lots of other Greater Cincinnati area poets are featured in the summer issue. We've been busy!
"Note to the Composer" and "For May Whenever I May Find Her" are included in Black Moon Magazine, Issue 2, April 2021. Check out the online magazine here.
"Spring Styles Can Really Hang You Up the Most," is featured in Table Rock Journal for May 2021.
"I Think He Heard it Wrong" published at Sheila-Na-Gig online, Vol. 5.3, Spring 2021. Have a look here.
New poem published at Panoply. Check it out here.
Roberta reads from her just released chapbook, Touchstones. Here's a link.
New poem in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Vol 23: Appalachian Edge. Here's a link to purchase or to see the beautiful cover art by Loren Crawford. This facebook page will also promote any upcoming readings for Volumes 22 & 23.
New chapbook available
A new chapbook
Buy Touchstones at Finishing Line Press. Order at this link
Roberta Schultz’ Touchstones takes on the big questions using the smallest things—the touchstones of a life—with an occasional foray into the cosmos, and even John Donne. God (or god) is a plumber, an uncle, a cat weaving around her person’s ankles, sending her to her death. The book explores the relationship of family of origin to who we become, and our responsibility and complicity both in families and in the larger family of humans. The poems are often humorous, but with a wry, serious humor. Chuckles of recognition rather than belly laughs. Each of the poet’s touchstones—from family, to religion, to music—are explored for their relationships to the question of what it means to be human.--Pauletta Hansel, author of Friend, Dos Madres, 2020.
In Touchstones by Roberta Schultz, we have poems as totems that lead to the interior life of the artist’s experience. Emotional and mysterious yet straightforward in its narrative, Roberta explores the landscape of relationships between mothers and sisters but also inheritances of all types. Along the way, there is struggle and loss as well as humor and celebration. We meet characters and visit places we may only travel if we read these poems (or happen to be a Webster sister). The use of nonchalant spiritual imagery and extended metaphor lifts up the present world’s troubles. Our shared cultural past and her genetic legacy are revealed poem by poem, where she uses the touchstones of her life to interpret the larger world. There is insight, musicality, and a moving vision of life interpreted through poetry.--Dale Marie Prenatt, author of Plum Kill't, MagCloud, 2019.
Chapbooks from Finishing Line Press
Touchstones
Songs from the Shaper's Harp, 2017
Outposts on the Border of Longing, 2014
Reviews
New Review of Touchstones from Grady Ormsby(October 2020.)
I just had a wonderful visit with my friend Roberta Schultz. I had been to the mailbox and found an envelope from Kentucky. In it was a copy of her newest chapbook, Touchstones. It is her third poetry collection from Finishing Line Press.
I picked up my Pilot Precise V7 Rolling Ball Fine Point pen, settled into my recliner and began the conversation. With the pen I make marginal comments, asked questions, recorded observations and added a couple of snarky reactions.
It was fabulous spending time with her again. We met a dozen or so years ago. We are not the closest of friends. Time and distance conspire against us. We live too far apart. We only see each other once or maybe twice a year, and then for only a short time. On the other hand, we are the closest of friends. She is a treasured, dear friend.
She brought me up-to-date on family matters. There were stories and reminiscences about her mother and father, aunts, grannies and sisters, especially sisters.
We went back to the past with childhood stories, family lore, an emergency visit to a doctor, politics in the family, ear teasing, a picnic by the river and genealogical wondering,
We went to a variety of settings: Cincinnati, Grant’s Lick, Newport, and Phillips Creek. There was a haunting visit to a North Carolina plantation and a wonderful bear story from a campground in California. The cast of characters went beyond family to include people from the VA hospital and old folks’ homes where Roberta is a drum therapist.
The conversation had more profound, spiritual side as she discussed prayer, the nature of God, the nature of nature, John Donne and a sweat lodge gift exchange.
One of my favorites was “Requiem,” a summation of our shared baby boomer generation.
A touchstone is a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized. Roberta’s 24 poems are touchstones that establish a standard of quality that is both familiar and universal.
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Avid reader, Grady Ormsby, had this to say about Outposts on the Border of Longing:
Last year I wrote about Songs from the Shaper’s Harp by Roberta Schultz. I recently received a copy of Outposts on the Border of Longing, her first published volume from Finishing Line Press. I sat down and read it straight through (sixteen poems, 31 pages). I immediately read it through again, this time with my Pilot fine point pen. I underlined and circled. I created a marginalia of comments and questions. It was a friendly conversation for, indeed, Roberta Schultz is a friend.
In this slim volume she touched on a wide range of subjects: National Geographic, a new childhood home,room decoration, recess games, an Asian visitor, shopping lists, The Run of the Ancestors, canine love, a tornado and a haiku-like koan. Despite the nod to Zen there is nothing arcane or mysterious. The predominant and recurring theme is family. One of my favorite pieces is a wonderful sestina that appealed to the literary nerd in me. All is very down-to-earth and vicariously familiar with a marvelous sense of humor and humanity. I grew up five hundred miles away from where Roberta did, but she enlivens the characters in her story poems so that they are just as real as the ones I grew up with."