Forever Valentines: Zelda and Scott

On this day of hearts and flowers, we can’t help but daydream about literary loves. We’re not talking Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy, Odysseus and Penelope, or even Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler. No, we’re swooning over real, in-the-flesh romances, the muses behind such literary geniuses as Shelley, Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (to delve further into famous literary liasons, read Between The Sheets).

The passionate love affair between Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald has been one of the most tragic and storied romances of our time. Broken by mental illness, alcoholism, adulterous relationships, and financial ruin, the devoted pair—soul mates and Jazz Age sweethearts—were fiercely loyal to their love for one another even as their marriage floundered amidst the obstacles that would have sooner torn others apart.

Ever Scott’s muse, Zelda has been reflected in much of Fitzgerald’s writing including the characters Nicole and Daisy in Tender is the Night and The Great Gatsby, respectively. This summer Zelda and Scott’s love story is illuminated in a stunning new novel from R. Clifton Spargo: BEAUTIFUL FOOLS: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald which examines their last meeting on Cuban holiday during the end of the 1930s. In poignant, stunning detail, Spargo richly imagines the golden couple’s final goodbye in a story thrumming with the hope and heartbreak that often accompanies second chances and fractured love.  From the streets of Old City in Havana to the white-sanded beaches on the peninsula of Varadero, we follow Zelda and Scott as they cling desperately to the memories of the twenties in an attempt to renew the romance that long defined them.

“Studying her face, patient and gentle, youthful today as when he first met her, he could remember the possibilities he’d written for them.”

Mark your calendars: AVAILABLE MAY 2!

Happy Valentine’s Day; Breakup Night at KGB

Dateless this V-Day? Don’t sweat it, you’re actually not alone. As last week’s post on the subject of Valentine’s Day explained, even the single can survive February 14^th through the company of the right book. So drop that heart-shaped box of chocolates, cancel those flowers you had sent to yourself, and visit your local library or bookstore. Maybe you’ll even meet the book nerd of your dreams browsing the stacks.

Even if finding true love on Valentine’s Day it isn’t that simple, reading the right book can still help mitigate the loneliness of a partnerless holiday. If this year’s festivities find you celebrating solo, we have the perfect literary antidote to your dateless day of solitude—the new paperback edition of It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Breakup, edited and introduced by Jerry Williams.

Last February Jerry was generous enough to stop by the blog to share an anti-anti-Valentine’s Day poem titled “Bed, Bath, and Beyond,” and this year he returns again (in video form) along with It’s Not You contributors Beth Gylys, Ravi Shankar, and Donna Masini, who all shared the stage during last week’s Breakup Night at KGB. If you skipped the reading you missed a boozy evening of heartrending verse performed by the industry’s most seasoned and humorous veterans of heartache, but thanks to the magic of Youtube, you can still enjoy them here today. Check out the videos below!

Jerry Williams opened the night with a reading of his poem, “Exegisis of a Hard Case”, exploring the grief regimen entailed by the four breakups that nearly killed him. Don’t know what a reverse cuckold is? We recommend you google it (potentially NSFW).

Beth Gylys, who is a professor at Georgia State University and the award winning author of two collections of poetry, as well as two chapbooks shared “Song of an X” and “Through the Glass,” both included in It’s Not You, It’s Me.

Ravi Shankar (no relation) followed up with a series of poems that hued closely to the night’s theme of harrowing breakup, including “Double Rainbow” (related), “Curacao,” and “Surface Tension.”

The night’s final reader, Donna Masini, began her set with a reading of Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” in commemoration of the poet’s birthday, before plunging into her It’s Not You contributions, “Slowly” and “Longing.”