April 30th Jessica Handler at Opal Gallery in Atlanta, Ga.

Author Jennifer Handler will be reading and signing her memoir "Invisible Sisters" at Opal Gallery in Atlanta, Ga. April 30th at 7pm. The book, based on her Pushcart Prize-nominated essay, focuses on her sisters, both dead (blood disease/leukemia) and growing up Jewish in the South.

Opal is next to Acapella Books a wonderful independent bookstore in Little Five Points that makes a habit of frequently hosting authors (Irving Welsh, author of Trainspotting, visited last year).

While you're in L5P be sure to check out Charis Books, one of the oldest independent bookstores in the South. Charis also holds several readings and writers' groups per month.

Rita Dove and Sonata Mullatica

April, being National Poetry month, is really the best time to release a book of poetry isn't it? One collection that I definitely recommend is Sonata Mullatica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play by Rita Dove. The poetry reads as an lyrical autobiography, weaving through George Polgreen Bridgetower's rise as a violin prodigy to his death, forgotten and in poverty. Sonata also serves as a glimpse into class and racial politics in the late 18th century; through Bridgetower, born to a black Caribbean father and a Polish mother, colonialism and privilege race through each other, hinder each other and fleetingly intersect.

An excerpt from "Haydn Serenades the Napoleonic Honour Guard"

I have starved in these streets with nothing/but a splintered voice/and the angels inside my head/found Paradise while dozing before sparse embers/in an only friends grate/the warm milk on my tongue/even now it is the grandest taste I have known.

I found a single copy at Barnes and Noble when I went to check this out, I came back a day later and it was gone. If you find yourself in similar straits and can't wait to get your eager little hands on some of the poetry found therein, the latest issue of The Oxford American and Callaloo have a few poems each.

"Diabetes Isn't the End of the World" Uploaded

My article "Diabetes Isn't the End of the World" is available for viewing.

A Word to the Wise About Writing for Pay Sites

I've run into several people who are interested in writing for online pay sites , such as suite101.com (where I write). As a freelance writer, launching new projects to generate more income is a given, but I must give a word of hesitation first. This is not a get rich quick type of operation folks. The sites pay you per preview (suite101/$10 per 1,000 views of your articles). For example, as part of their contract, suite 101 ask you to write 10 articles of at least 400 words every three months. The more you write, the more you make. Think of it as a down payment on a writing conference for next year.