Saturday, February 28, 2015

"Secondhand" live on 100 Words

If you're up for a challenge, consider a story in 100 words (not including title).  This form is demanding and addictive.  Love writing nugget stories.
Hope you enjoy my story "Secondhand."
 
http://www.100wordstory.org/4214/secondhand/

Blue Heron Review Winter Issue 2015


Please check out the winter issue of Blue Heron Review, edited by Cristina Norcross.

I am so thrilled to be included here, in the company of so many poets that I admire.

http://blueheronreview.com/blue-heron-review-issue-3-winter2015/

The Festival of Ten-IX SUNY Brockport


We have our tickets to Sunday March 1st Show!!!!

Check this out if you love plays!!!

 

SUNY Brockport

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE


and MUSIC STUDIES



The Department of Theatre and Music Studies is pleased to announce the ten finalists to be performed as part of The Festival of Ten-IX.


A Date with Destiny by Jeffrey Neuman
Beatrix Potter Must Die by Patrick Gabridge
Girl with Algorithm by Ellen Davis Sullivan
Horizons by Robert Fletcher
Interview with a Cat by Jim Geoghan
Just Desserts by David MacGregor
Raghead by Tom Coash
Reston by L. Robert Westeen
That's Amore by Arnold Kane
Transferring Kyle by Jonathan Cook

Festival 2013
Scenes from the 2013 Festival of Ten - VIII
For this ninth biennial program of ten 10-minute plays, a record number of nearly 600 plays were submitted, including entries from as far away as New Zealand. It’s not only playwrights who are drawn to the format; audiences are, too, as they can see fully realized productions that typically run the gamut from tense drama to laugh-out-loud funny. The Festival opens February 27th.
Festival 2013
Scenes from the 2013 Festival of Ten - VIII

Box Office: 395-ARTS
$16, $11 (Seniors, Alumni, Faculty and Staff), or $8.50 (Students)

Last Day of February.

It's been twenty days since my last entry. In Western NY, we made history, enduring the bitter and snow.  We made history, our power didn't fail.   We watched the weather reports faithfully. We worried about all the others who were getting pummeled by the constant storms up and down the Eastern coast. We carried on.

I found myself studying the stacks of seed catalogs, imagining what this year's gardens will hold.  This early morning the sun is shining.  Like yesterday, it's cold but the sun is everywhere. Yesterday, I drove to Warsaw NY to work with a group of children, primarily 2nd and 3rd graders, with a sprinkle of first graders.  The drive, which is over an hour away, was a getaway for me.  Roads were clear, giving me the opportunity to take in the winter countryside.  I love the way the flatness of Route 19 becomes hills and valleys and a winding road.  I love the Maple Sugar signs.  The high banks of snow match ours.  The whispers of snow
rising from the middle of fields.  It felt good to be going to Warsaw.  The children were wonderful and full of personality.

Here's a snippet of conversation:

M.J.  I have a cat named photon and a dog named neutron.

Someone must love science in your house, I said.

Yes, she said seriously, my father is an astrologer.


This week St. John Fisher is on Spring recess.  Students and faculty alike had that look: ' We gotta get out of this place.'  So many were heading out to a warmer climate. I'm heading to a quiet place to get some work done.

When we return  to resume the semester, the weeks will march at a steady clip.  So much to do in the upcoming weeks, it's a staggering thought; and before you know it, Spring will be in our laps. The semester will be over.  I'm getting ready, are you?






Sunday, February 8, 2015

First Week of Frigid Februuuuuary!

Once again, it's cold and snowy and we're all trying our best to keep busy and warm.

Things accomplished this week:

* Annual Work Reports:  Two down, one more to go.

**Grading first batch of papers.  Nearly done.  Editing other people's work.  Nearly done.
NB: I have handed back papers (critical and creative) last week, but once the work cycle commences, it's constant until the end of the semester. I'm blessed to be working with a student who is working on a novella.
She is  a teacher's dream and no doubt is going to be a writer with a brilliant career.  Already, she has several publications.  And, she listens to me. I'm so proud of her.


Getting ready for a poetry reading at St. John Fisher College, February 19th, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. in Wilson Formal Lounge.
Kitty Jospe will be reading from her just-released poetry collection Golden Smoke (Foothills Publishing,2015). This reading is free and open to the public.
Poet’s Statement:
I have always been intrigued by the power of paradox to sharpen our awareness and bring us to imagine the unimaginable.   The title of this collection of poems is inspired by the plant Golden Smoke (Corydalis aurea). Its yellow blossoms also give it the epithet of Scrambled Eggs. Known for its medicinal qualities when brewed in tea for various aches and pains, it is also poisonous if ingested. The long-lived seeds may lie dormant until stimulated by such disturbance as fire.
Golden is a word attached to mathematics, myth, and perhaps what lies beyond any metaphorical smoke. The opening and closing sections of this book derive from words in the title poem:
 “Wordless charcoal” combines a fire’s destruction with creation of charcoal as medium to trace and transcribe memory of experience. “Half-cadences”, also known as “incomplete” or “cadences imparfaites”, fool us into thinking the music we hear has reached an end. The poems in the section “Scrambled” and “Color for burnt land” celebrate the power of emotion, art and imagination.
 In Praise of Golden Smoke:

“Kitty JospĂ©’s poems powerfully engage the world in their range and depth of observation.  The reader has the additional pleasure of wandering through museums with an eloquent docent and insightful poet at our side.  //If some poems embrace commitment to family and community, others meditate on heart-wrenching loneliness and loss.  As she writes, “Hang on/ we need to/hang    on/tight.”
She does.”  Grant Holcomb, Director Emeritus of the Memorial Art Gallery


Took my Encounters Class to Memorial Art Gallery  on Thursday, 2/5/2015.My students loved it.  

The current exhibit: 

 Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby
January 25–March 29, 2015 in the Grand Gallery


                                                Photo from Memorial Art Gallery Website

                                

is not to be missed.  It's just breath-taking.  I love how its cumulative effect shows Higby's passion and process.  




Today, February 8th, 2015  I plan on venturing out to hear the Cordancia SINGS at Christ Church at 3 p.m.
Tickets 15/Regular,  STUDENTS AND SENIORS $10.00.