Mr. Steven Pelcman

Steven Pelcman is a writer of poetry and short stories who has been published in a number of magazines including: The Windsor Review, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Fourth River magazine, River Oak Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, the Tulane Review, The Baltimore Review, The Warwick Review, The Greensboro Review, the Iodine Journal and many others. Awarded Adelaide Literary Award Contest Short List Winner Nominee 2017. He was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. Steven has spent the last 20+ years residing in Germany where he teaches in academia and is a language communications trainer and consultant. In addition, Steven has been nominated for two additional Pushcart Prize awards.

Steven’s poetry books are: “like water to STONE” by Adelaide Books and “American Voices 2022” SPC Books, 2022. “Where the Leaves Darken” was released in spring 2018 by Adelaide Books. And now, the novel, RIVERBED, Mirador Publishers 2020. Since 2020, Mr. Pelcman has published The Confessions of a Dying Man, Special Delivery and A Poet's View.

Mr. Pelcman has lived and worked in Los Angeles where he was a script analyst and producer of the Yesterdays Television project. He has also edited the Wings literary magazine where he published poets such as Alan Dugan, Diane Wakoski, Dan Masterson, Miller Williams and others. Mr. Pelcman attended workshops with poet, Anne Sexton and was mentored by poet, Dan Masterson. He lives and teaches in Germany where he teaches at three universities including the university of education.

As you may know I am an American expat residing in Germany. I have traveled the world these last 20+ years and I have integrated my life experiences, continued educational and emotional development and growth into my writing and even into my teaching In other words, my travels have contributed to my cultural and communication knowledge and all of it has contributed to my literary writing experiences and much of the work I have published. Throughout this course of time, I have made friends far and near and I am very happy to have added this component to my previous Americanized life.

I continue to write and now and then, I have been lucky to get material published. Some of you may know while others probably do not, but my roots stem from parents who came from Poland and were in the camps of WW2. They emigrated to the USA and I was the first born in America. My sister passed away in her 30s due to cancer, so the family history is a troubled one full of challenges, successes and failures. There is far greater depth to all of that, but the key is to share that the writing I have done and am continuing to do has a connection to the above history. The poetry will take you to emotions, moments in time, physical hardships, joy found mostly in hope, the smallest of details that become universal as they share a common human experience easily relatable for each person to see, feel and think about. These poems are full of people and contain beautiful, sad, ugly, realistic and wondrous reflections and moments frozen in time about the human condition with all of its glory and frailties. Good and serious work should be vulnerable, full of images and open a window to the soul. They are about nature, people, animals, hardships, tragedy, and joy, about places and philosophy and much more.

This novel is about a three generational family and focuses on a grandfather, a son and a grandson all living together on a ranch in Montana, USA. These are all troubled individuals confronting their relationships from old age to father to son conflict due to their values and vision of what love and life should be about. And there is a young boy coming of age and full of internal complications because of divorce and the inability to relate to his father. A reflection of family issues, communication and love issues and understanding one’s place in life is what this story shares. It touches upon history and the land, a lifestyle and how evolution plays a role in all of their lives. A hunting trip into the Montana mountains in late fall evolves into a life and death experience. These are characters you can relate to and emotions and psychological issues we may all experience in our lives at one time or another.

Interestingly enough, my mother, father and grandfather on my mother’s side were the only people to survive the Holocaust and their conflicts, adjustments to life in America, the generational complications and the coming to manhood experiences I lived are elements that partially make up the characters in RIVERBED.

“Capturing the voices of humor or pain, making the small moments epic and witnessing the trials and tribulations of the human experience which captures the heart and mind is what drives the work.”

http://stevenpelcman.blogspot.de