Publisher LaVonne Taylor has had a long and eclectic career in publishing. She filled many roles early in her profession in the newspaper industry, after which she worked as project editor for the educational arm of McGraw-Hill with specialties in health, art, and music. Following that, she did a nine-year stint as a writer of news articles, copy chief, and associate managing editor for Shape magazine. Concurrently she taught at UCLA in the journalism program.
“I want to give people the opportunity to publish their work,” she says, “and I realize there are hundreds of poetry publications in existence, but I’m not in a competition. I simply enjoy putting together a periodical that writers and readers will love. My destiny seems to be to provide a forum for others and that’s fine with me.”
Taylor operates a small publishing company, Excellence Enterprises, which has published LA My Way, a poetry and short story anthology; On the Wings of Song, a biography; and is starting up The Taylor Trust: Poetry & Prose, with the premier issue to debut in January of 2009. As is often the case with many creative people, however, she not only enjoys working with words, she also expresses herself through the visual arts, as evidenced through her charcoal renderings in the recently published chapbook of poet Wanda Weiskopf, entitled My Song, and on the cover of Wings. Providing the print version of The Taylor Trust is yet another mode of expression for her. Selected works from each issue of the journal will be posted on this blog. In the meantime, she’ll post work from friends who have kindly offered to let her publish their creations.
In addition to thetaylortrust, Taylor also hosts the Web sites lavonneland.com and nwala.org, as well as the blogs nwalablog.org and vonnieshealthspot.com.
A strong believer in caring for Planet Earth, she is an animal rights advocate and hopes in the not-too-distant future to open an animal sanctuary. She believes in protecting flora and the environment at large as well. Taylor nurtures three cats, three desert turtles, a sulcata tortoise and many, many plants on the high desert of Southern California.
I have read your bio and aims—-you are one busy lady
Syd
Yes, Syd, I am. But I love it. Just sent my health book excerpted from vonnieshealthspot.com off to the printer. Excited to see how it will turn out, which will probably happen around the 15th. Thanks for visiting The Taylor Trust!
We share a common directory with Louie Crew. Nice web setup you have. Come by sometime and sit on the porch at “The Penpoint View”.
Regards,
Phil Davis
Nice of you to stop by, Phil. Come back and see us from time to time as we will be adding to the site with each quarterly print publication, starting in mid-January. I visited your beautiful site! What a treat! So beautiful and uplifting. The combination of poetry and photography is stunning!
Cordially,
LaVonne Taylor
Hi LaVonne,
Thanks for sharing – you sparkle and have tickled my imagination – what a wonderful place to visit and see your work! I am intrigued by the Bookish Community link, and am happy to see all you have going for you,
Lynn *-)
Great to have you visit Lynnie! Check back from time to time. We will be adding to and updating the blog. Thank you for your kind words! I love what I’m doing! just finished designing the January 2009 newsletter, Views. I’ll post it online soon at nwalablog.org.
I was pleased to receive the complimentary issue of THE TAYLOR TRUST especially after discovering two of my poems within its pages. I intend on subscribing but before I do, I would like to know whether a copy of the Volume 2/April-June 2009 issue would be included in that subscription. And whether included or not, how much should I enclose if I ordered a few extra copies of this same issue along with my subscription.
Regards,
Tom
Hello, Sounds great. Do you know of ISLE an environmental literary mag. published by Oxford University Press? I am looking forward to the copy of “The Taylor Trust” with me in it. When does it come out? My suggestion would be to send a copy also to Poets House. Thanks for your good work and have a good spring. Susan Maurer
Volume 5 will be distributed around the middle of June. Thank you for your kind words. I have not hear of ISLE, but it sounds like a wonderful publication. You have a nice spring and summer as well.
hi lavonne, have been eagerly checking the mail for vol.5. hope all is well. I haven’t seen it yet. ?? susan maurer
Hi, Susan,
Volume 5 of TTT is still in production. Sorry to make you wait, but we’ve had some glitches that we are slowly working through.
Best wishes, LaVonne
The Taylor Trust: Poetry & Prose Poetry by the People, for the People
http://hubpages.com/hub/Poetry-and-book-reviews http://www.thetaylortrust.wordpress.com http://issuu.com/the-taylor-trust/docs/ttt_summer_2009_vol_3a http://www.nwala.org http://www.lavonneland.com http://www.vonnieshealthspot.com TOP BLOG WITH 26,335 HITS IN A MONTH!www.everydayhealth.com/blogs/healthy-aging-and-me http://www.examiner.com/x-35227-Palmdale-Healthy-Living-Examiner