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In her book Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, Linda Dahl writes: “Researching many of the women’s contributions to jazz is like what I imagine collecting butterflies to be—you go out with your net to many a remote, even secretive spot to track your shy and elusive quarry.”
Dahl is interviewed at length in the Summer 2022 issue of Brilliant Corners, where she discusses Stormy Weather as well as her two other jazz-related books: Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams (selected by the New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year 2000) and Haunted Heart: A Biography of Susannah McCorkle.
As usual, the conversation was conducted by the journal’s founding editor, Sascha Feinstein, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of English at Lycoming College. “In the last 30 years, there has been an increasing, vital presence of women jazz scholars,” Feinstein said, “but Linda Dahl was something of a lone voice when she started publishing her work in the 1980s.”
In addition to the three jazz-related books, Dahl has published four novels, with a fifth currently in the works. She lives in New York City.
The issue also features poetry by several writers, including Betsy Sholl, the former Poet Laureate of Maine, and Stephen Cramer, a Lyco alum whose six books include Shiva’s Drum (selected for the National Poetry Series) and Bone Music (winner of the Louise Bogan Award). In addition to a short story and two essays, the issue presents a special feature on the novelist John Clellon Holmes, with essays by his long-time friend, Tim Hunt, and the founding Associate Editor of Brilliant Corners, David Rife. The riveting cover image of Miles Davis is a mosaic by Gregory Sipp.
Brilliant Corners is a biannual journal that highlights an exceptional collection of literature and art pertaining to jazz. Founded in 1996, the journal bears strong ties to Lycoming College, with contributors such as Feinstein, who serves as the managing editor, and Gary R. Hafer, Ph.D., John P. Graham Teaching Professor of English at Lycoming College, who serves as the production design editor. The publication is funded in part by the College, the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, and private endowments.
A subscription costs $12 per year ($18 for international orders), and checks or money can be sent to Brilliant Corners, Lycoming College, 1 College Place, Williamsport, PA 17701. More information can be found at www.lycoming.edu/BrilliantCorners or on Brilliant Corners’ Facebook page.