Welcome to Rypma Writes gallery below
Author: Baba Yaga & the Stepmother: A Retelling of Snow White; Mrs. Fleeney's Flowers; In the Shadows w/Catherine the Great
Adult Fairytale Novel
Baba Yaga & the Stepmother: A Retelling of Snow White
Was Snow White actually evil & her stepmother totally innocent? An inspired recasting unfolding in surprising detail. A compelling heroine & lyrical prose transport the reader into a world of magic steeped in history.
http://www.amazon.com/Baba-Yaga-Stepmother-Retelling-White/dp/1736731157/
stand-alone/sequel to "In the Shadows" (see below)
Out of the Shadows
After seizing the throne, Catherine the Great faces mysterious murders, attempted coups, corrupt officials, a sick heir, & a waning romance. Meanwhile,
her lady-in-waiting Maria harbors a dangerous secret: how will she return to the future?
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Shadows-Catherine-Judith-Rypma/dp/1736731165
Prequel to OUT OF THE SHADOWS
IN THE SHADOWS WITH CATHERINE THE GREAT
Summoned to Empress Elizabeth's court as a potential bride, a Prussian princess has no idea that the next 20 years will yield heartache, danger, intrigue, & endless power struggles.
Meanwhile, an American visiting St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum at the turn of the 21st century finds herself inexplicably catapulted back to the mid 1700s. Lost and bewildered, she emerges as a lady-in-waiting to the future Catherine the Great.
As Catherine struggles with an unbearable marriage and fights despair, Maria falls in love while struggling to keep her identity and modern worldview a secret. Neither feels safe in the glittering, treacherous, lust-filled world of imperial Russia. In chapters that alternate their points of view, "In the Shadows" is a meticulously researched tale of romance, friendship, pageantry, spies, and deceit that explores the early years of the world's greatest stateswoman.
"A meticulously researched, accurate account of life at the Imperial Court of Russia in the 18th century that serves as a model of what a historical novel should be." Dr. Edward Cole
http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Catherine-Great-Judith-Rypma/dp/1736731130
OTHER Books see below
Embroideries of book covers & Russian subjects done by artist Raymond Materson.
Representation Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
REVIEWS: Scroll for additional reviews.
COPIES: See links above or order through your local bookstore.
Poetry to Dazzle All Ages
ROCKS IN MY HEAD
http://www.amazon.com/Rocks-My-Head-Minerals-Crystals/dp/0692553568/
Exploring a rock shop can feel “like fingering/all the candies/in a trick-or-trick-treat bag." This collection marries science & poetry by mining metaphoric possibilities in haiku, visual, lyric, & poems. Color photos + designs.
Is the old woman living across the street a witch, a murderess, or just an eccentric neighbor? Although Marigold gets the opportunity to discover the truth, she remains consumed with keeping her own secret about her mother's mental illness. This middle grade novel (enjoyed by readers of all ages) reinforces the idea that sometimes friendships and understanding bloom in unexpected ways and places.
Denver Post Review by Sue McMillin: " . . . This novel reveals the all-too-familiar convoluted path young people often must take in a society that would rather hide the realities of mental illness than discuss them openly. Fortunately for Marigold, understanding and support blossom when the weeds hiding the truth are yanked away."
https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Fleeneys-Flowers-Judith-Rypma/dp/1736731106 OR
Worshipping at Lenin's Mausoleum
Two decades after racing in terror from "the dreaded Commies" during an early 1960s elementary school air raid, the speaker finds herself battling the restrictions of “Soviet-Style Touring.” In poems that provide a lyrical witness to a Russia in flux, from glasnost and perestroika to the embattled 1990s to 21st century pride, Rypma offers not only touching and often humorous observations, but portrays a deep love for a country Churchill once called “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”
Whether exploring Stalin’s bunker, the logistics of Lenin’s preserved corpse, or the witch Baba Yaga, the poems provide delightful & keen glimpses into a place often seen as the Big Bad Wolf on the world stage. Like nested dolls, the nation and these poems slowly reveal themselves the way “colored glass and beads / rearrange themselves / with each twist / of the kaleidoscope’s wheel.” Worshipping at Lenin’s Mausoleum invites you to open each and every one.
Poet Katie Manning, author of Tasty Other and other renowned collections, points out that “these poems not only engage with Lenin, Stalin, and Catherine the Great, but also Raggedy Ann, Dorothy Gale, and Baba Yaga. This short collection is at once historical and immediate, political and spiritual, familiar and surprising.”
Rypma, who has travelled to Russia and the former Soviet Union over 30 times, has published 150+ poems in literary journals, as well as six chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections.
Publisher's site temporarily down. Please check back at a later date.
LOOKING FOR THE AMBER ROOM
COLLECTION ABOUT FAMED RUSSIAN AMBER ROOM MYSTERY
As Prof. Wolfgang Eichwede once put it, “Some people have princesses and fairies. Others have the Amber Room.” Often referred to as the “8th Wonder of the World,” the Amber Room was commissioned by Prussia’s Frederick I in the early 18th century. With over 100,000 pieces of various shades of amber inlaid with mosaics, the room caught the eye of collector & amber aficionado Peter the Great, who would eventually receive it as a gift from Frederick’s son.
In its new Russian home, it fascinated Empresses Elizabeth & Catherine the Great. The latter commissioned artisans to add elaborate mirrors, Romanov crests, gemstones, + 70 objets d’art that dazzled all who saw it in its permanent home in Catherine Palace outside St. Petersburg.
But the story, far from ending here, evolved into one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. It is this tale of the world’s most famous missing treasure that Western Michigan University Associate Professor Judith Rypma explores in her poetry book, Looking for the Amber Room.
“It’s a tale of stolen art, but it’s also a legend that has enthralled—and continues to frustrate—armies of treasure hunters who at this very moment are scouring four countries in search of it,” Prof. Rypma says.
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Amber-Signed-Judith-Rypma/dp/0578112973
As Rypma explains, the room remained in Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo (now Pushkin) until 1941, when the Nazis marched into the area, disassembled and seized the room’s panels, transported them to Prussia, & displayed the Amber Chamber there until 1945. But as the Allies advanced on Könisgsberg (now Kaliningrad), the room “simply vanished.” Since then, endless questions, investigations, & authors have pursued the mystery, which, according to Rypma, “involves possibilities ranging from sunken ships and underground bunkers to hidden salt mines and billionaire collectors. There are even murders associated with the search.”
These mysterious possibilities & theories enter into Rypma's poems, which also trace amber from its prehistoric origins through its medieval popularity (so much so that fishermen who stole a piece were hanged) and its development as a room that played a role in 3 Russian rulers' lives. She also tracks the theft, curators' attempts to hide it, & even Hitler’s fascination with it.
The poems, ranging from lyric free verse to haiku to prose poetry, reflect Rypma’s deep love for her subject in a way that makes the reader forget how much research went into the book. “I’m accustomed to doing research for poetry, but I had never envisioned that I would spend years doing it for this book." She is justifiably proud, therefore, of internationally renowned amber expert Dr. Patty Rice’s “seal of approval” in terms of accuracy, as well as quality. “I loved the book and the way Rypma cleverly manages to work in everything in poetic form,” Rice notes.
Russian diplomat Dr. Vyacheslav Moshkalo agrees: “She has managed not only to penetrate deeply into our culture, but to share her inner world.” The book opens & closes with poems reflecting Rypma’s personal search for and fascination with the room’s restoration, corresponding with the 30-year period during which a team of Russian artisans devoted their lives to painstakingly recreating a facsimile in its original location. The Amber Room’s restoration workshop was closed to the public on Rypma’s first several visits to the USSR and then the Russian Federation. But since its unveiling in 2003, she has traveled to see it multiple times.
One of her other collections, Amber Notes (FutureCycle Press) also features aspects of amber & ways in which it metaphorically connects to our lives. As Elizabeth Kolbert points out in the Los Angeles Times, “The Amber Room is exquisite and precious and lost. Like all great objects of desire, it is unattainable.” Yet if there is a way to bring it back, at least for the time it takes to savor these lyrical, imagistic poems, Rypma’s poetic search has discovered it.
She has traveled to Leningrad State University in Pushkin to present papers, to teach classes, and to lead a Study Abroad Program that brought university students to St. Petersburg.
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Amber-Signed-Judith-Rypma/dp/0578112973
Looking for the Amber Room is also available through Kazoo Books, 2413 Parkview Ave KALAMAZOO, MI 269-553-6506. Contact www.kazoobooks.com for additional information or to order.
AMBER NOTES
Full-length collection of poems (FutureCycle Press). Dan Veach, editor of Atlanta Review and author of Elephant Water plus several other poetry collections, describes the book: "Forbidden Fruit, ancient memory, healing talisman, comforting touch; Judith Rypma's AMBER NOTES is all of these in turn. As she transports us across a lifetime and around the globe, from the domes of the Kremlin to the coral gardens of Fiji, we grow ever more grateful for this mineralogist's gift of 'polished agate for the mind.'"
Publisher's site temporarily down. Please check back at a later date
OR purchase via
https://kazoobooks.com/product/amber-notes/
In this most recent collection of poems, Rypma “recounts a happy childhood, the joys and terrors of sexuality, and a mature woman’s wanderlust,” according to internationally known poet Richard Katrovas. He goes on to observe that “Amber Notes is a world traveler’s homage to the dance of permanence with transience. An insect in amber is the perfect emblem for this dance, and the image recurs throughout the book.” Author of 16 books, including a poetry collection from Carnegie Mellon University, Katrovas is the recipient of numerous grants & awards.
Many of Rypma’s poems reflect her background as a travel journalist & amateur geologist. Others explore the benefits and disappointments of old age, yet by the closing poem, the speaker seems to have found that peace we all covet and “has finally acquired / all the hues of her life.”
Other Reviews of Books
In the Shadows with Catherine the Great, a meticulously researched, accurate account of life at the Imperial Court of Russia in the 18th century, serves as a model of what a historical novel should be. Rypma’s familiarity with Russian life leading up to & including the beginning of the reign of Catherine the Great shines through on every page. This novel is an engaging way to introduce readers to the complicated treacherous history of 18th-century; it also is a mini “refresher course” for experts in the field. Even though I must have taught this very history for over 40 years, I couldn’t wait to turn the page to see what happens next.
Dr. Edward Alan Cole
Professor Emeritus Russian Intellectual History
“Pushkin’s Captain’s Daughter Meets Gabaldon’s Outlander.”
Most attempts to return to the time of Catherine the Great have been either carefully or creatively done. Rypma somehow manages to do both in her well-written historical novel, In the Shadows, the first in an ongoing series. It’s a story of secrets—of a young American who finds love and identity as she is mysteriously transported back into Enlightenment-era Russia, and of the young princess whose loves and ambitions shaped one of the great world empires. Along the way, readers are exposed to the sparkling, precarious court life of prerevolutionary Europe; to celebrated Russian imperial sites; to the enchanting world of royal gems, and to perhaps the thorniest coup of the 18th century. Our two heroines experience the times in full: royal privilege, love, heartache, smallpox, and intrigue. But drawing on a rich resource base, Rypma does more. In the Shadows takes us on a journey of discovery into what made Catherine the remarkable woman and ruler she was, and what it would be like to try and make a life, as well as an impact, as a woman in what was very much a man’s world. Parallels about Russia, power, and gender today suggest themselves throughout the novel. Heartily recommended!
Dr. Scott Van Lingenfelter Author, Russia in the 21st Century
“I cannot wait for the sequel.”
With her latest novel, Judith Rypma lets us time travel with her intrepid heroine back to Imperial Russia as an insider during the early reign of Catherine II as she transforms into “the Great.” Characters come alive on every page as they weave their way through the intrigues, romances, and misadventures while the court travels from palace to palace. In inexperienced hands, the historical details that make up the foundation of the novel could potentially bore readers; on the contrary, Rypma’s well-researched background as a renowned scholar of Russian language and literature; a poet and novelist of note; and a former travel journalist add to the sparkle of prose—not unlike the many jewels that adorn her heroine. Vivid characterization, expert plotting, and accessible writing make this novel a pleasure to read. I cannot wait for the sequel.
Christine A. Rydel
Retired Prof. of Russian Language & Literature
Editor, Ardis Publishers
This fascinating look at 18th-century Russia through the eyes of two charming protagonists is an elegantly written novel that offers a fresh look at two nations. The author’s passion for Russian culture and her careful, thorough research provide a thought-provoking alternative to the destructive tendency to cancel otherness in today’s political climate. Above all, it is a book that takes seriously the history of a country outside Rypma’s own culture. It is a book written with love—and a book meant to be loved.
Prof. Svetlana Shimberg
Leningrad State University
Pushkin, Russian Federation
MRS. FLEENEY'S FLOWERS: "Marigold doesn’t want to talk about her mother’s mental illness. And why would she? The adults in her life and even some of her friends avoid the topic. This novel reveals the all-too-familiar convoluted path young people often must take in a society that would rather hide the realities of mental illness than discuss them openly. Fortunately for Marigold, understanding and support blossom when the weeds hiding the truth are yanked away. Sue McMillin, Denver Post
Other Poetry Collections
Other Poetry Collections
SEWING LESSONS
(FutureCycle Press)
Publisher's site temporarily down. Please check back at a later date.
FORGET-ME-NOT
and
MINERAL TREASURES
(both from Finishing Line Press)
RAPUNZEL'S HAIR
(All Nations Press)
HOLY ROCKS
(Finishing Line Press)
Available for readings, lectures, events
