Like us on FacebookFind us on PinterestFind us on YelpView our profile on LinkedInFollow us on TwitterFind us on Google+
Bright Hill Press & Literary Center Newsletter
Volume V, No. 19
October 17, 2014
Fox Frazier-Foley, Pasadena, CA, Chosen Winner of Bright Hill's Book Competition
by Poet Chard deNiord  
Chard deNiord, awards juror for Bright Hill Press's 21st annual poetry book competition, has selected Pasadena, CA, poet
Poetry Book Competition Winner Fox Frazier-Foley
Fox Frazier-Foley's
The Hydromatic Histories as winner.  
Frazier-Foley's book will be published in the late spring of 2015; and her book launch will be at Bright Hill in June; she will be introduced by DeNiord, who will also read from his poetry.
    Fox Frazier-Foley, who hails from upstate New York and northern Virginia, is an initiate of Haitian Vodou.
     Her chapbook,
Awards Judge Chard DeNiord
Exodus in X Minor, won the 2014 Sundress Publications Chapbook Contest. She is a Founding Editor and Managing Editor of the small press Ricochet Editions, and Editor-Curator of TheThe Infoxicated Corner at TheThePoetry Blog. She is co-editing an anthology of contemporary American political poetry (Sundress Publications, 2016) and Among Margins (Ricochet Editions, 2016), an anthology of critical writing on aesthetics. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Binghamton University, received her MFA from Columbia University, and is currently a Provost's Fellow and PhD candidate in the Literature & Creative Writing Department at the University of Southern California.
     Mr. deNiord had this to say about Frazier-Foley's winning manuscript: 

"Fox Frazier-Foley casts a spell in her stunning first book of poetry, The Hydromantic Histories. Divining both broken music and memorable speech from the waters of her grief and desire, her initiation into Haitian Vodou, and her remarkably innovative language, Frazier-Foley writes with a sacerdotal eloquence that arcs luminously, hauntingly, between the conceits of her Vodou and Christian hagiography and her gripping witness to scenes of loss and abuse. Frazier-Foley has been hurt into a poetry in which her "harmonies weave after/ mourn/ identify/ find the elusive thicket in which the every-/ where of this/ ceases." Although one hears echoes of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Sylvia Plath in her poems, they are all hers, devotional and profane, elaborate and plain, scattered and linear, erotic and prayerful, fleeting and permanent. The Hydromantic Histories is a paradoxical wilderness comprised of duende and chaos within the confines of masterful artifice. "The language of loss is ultimately elusive," repeats the voice between the lines of these poems. This awareness instills Fox Frazier-Foley with the gift bestowed to strong poets, namely the talent to renew and shape language with an abandon that is also exquisitely crafted. I welcome The Hydromantic Histories as a rare first book with the lyrical efficacy and poetic vision to, as Ralph Waldo Emerson commented about the vatic role of poetry in general in his essay "The American Scholar, "revive and lead in a new age."   

    Honorable Mentions were awarded to The Red Hijab by Bonnie Bolling, Long Beach, CA and Why I Won't Take My Jane Austen Action Figure Out of Her Packaging by Carolyn Moore, Tigard, OR.
     Awards Juror Chard deNiord is the author of five books of poetry, Interstate (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), The Double Truth (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), which was cited as one of the top ten books of poetry by the Boston Globe in 2011, Night Mowing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005), Sharp Golden Thorn (Marsh Hawk Press, 2003) and Asleep in the Fire (University of Alabama Press, 1990). His new book of poems, Interstate, will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2015. His book of essays and interviews with seven senior American poets (Galway Kinnell, Donald Hall. Maxine Kumin, Jack Gilbert, Ruth Stone, Lucille Clifton, Robert Bly) titled Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs, Conversations and Reflections on 20th Century American Poets was published by Marick Press in 2012. His poems have appeared in The Pushcart Prize, The Best Poems from Thirty Years of the Pushcart Prize, Best American Poetry, The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, AGNI, Salmagundi, The New Republic, Plume, Harvard Review, and Ploughshares. In 2002 he co-founded the New England College MFA Program in Poetry, which he directed until 2007.He is a Professor of English at Providence College and lives in Putney, Vermont with his wife Liz.
     The deadline for Bright Hill's 22nd Annual Poetry Book Competition is November 30. For more information contact wordthur@stny.rr.com or call 607-829-5055. .
Julie Leonard Exhibit "Erosions: Artist Book Works" Closes October 24
The artist with her "Erosions" Quilt-Book at the Opening
"Erosions Dreams (Landscape) : Artist Book Works" by Iowa City, IA artist Julie Leonard will close on October 24.
The exhibit, a unique installation of artist books, explores the impact of erosion,
"Dreams"  
both in a positiveand negative way, by addressing the cliffs at Martha's Vineyard and the various landscapes -- seashore, mountains, and prairie -- in which theartist has lived and worked.
    The exhibit will remain at the Word & Image Gallery through October 24. Hours are Mon. - Tues., 10 am - 4 pm; Wed. & Sat., 9 am - noon; during Word Thursdays October 23; and by appointment. Call 607-829-5055 or email wordthur@stny.rr.com for more information.
     The final exhibit of the season, Oneonta artist Terry Fox's "Magic Surrealism Paintings," will open November 2 and remain through November 28.
Julie Leonard Discusses Her Work



Bright Hill Community Library

Bright Hill Community Library is here for you! The library, which connects to the main BHLC building, is replete with books and literary journals. It also has a very-well stocked children and youth selection. The collection is being cataloged and shelved by librarians Dianne Benko, Linda Morgan, and Karen Detert, and is open Mon. - Tues., 9 am - 4 pm, Wed. & Sat., 10 am - noon, during Word Thursdays evenings, and by appointments. We belong to the NYS South Central Regional Library Conference, and our catalog may be accessed online.  Library cards are free, and books may be checked out. We have a large collection of art books, unusual for a small library, as well as poetry and literary prose. For more information call 607-829-5055 or email wordthur@stny.rr.com.
ABOUT BRIGHT HILL PRESS & LITERARY CENTER  
      Bright Hill's 2014, 22nd-year programs are made possible by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Otis A. Thomson; A. Lindsay and Olive B. O'Connor; A. C. Molinari; Dewar, and Tianaderrah Foundations; Stewart's Shops; the Abraham Kellogg Fund; Delaware Youth Bureau, through the auspices of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services; Delaware County Office of Economic Development; Delaware National Bank of Delhi, and with the support of Bright Hill's members and friends.
      Bright Hill's facilities include the Bright Hill Community Library, home to more than 12,000 books and literary and art periodicals that may be borrowed by local residents; the complete catalog is online at http://bhc.scoolaid.net/bin/home. The library is a member of the South Central Regional Library Council of New York. The organization and library are located at 94 Church Street, Treadwell, NY 13846. Contact 607-829-5055 or wordthur@stny.rr.com for more information.      

   Bright Hill was founded in 1992 by Bertha Rogers and Ernest M. Fishman. We began with the reading series, Word Thursdays, in our home, where the organization continued to grow until 2002, when we moved to 94 Church Street in Treadwell, and where we built our Library Addition and renovated the garage, making it into an education wing.  

Bright hill is dedicated to literature in its many forms, including readings, publishing,and workshops. Among the services we offer are mini-residencies to the artists who show in the Word & Image Gallery and to the poets and writers who read at Bright Hill; they get a chance to breathe the fresh and invigorating air of Treadwell, spend time reading or writing in the library, or grabbing a great cup of coffee and pastry from Barlow's, our community general store.

     We're especially proud of our beautiful library and its shelves of poetry, fiction, literary criticism, art, theater arts, reference, and children and youth sections

 

In This Issue
Winner of BHP Poetry Book Competition!
Julie Leonard Exhibit
Bright Hill Community Library
About Bright Hill Press & Literary Center
Word Thursdays Features Oct. 23
Last Word Thursdays of the Season
New York State Literary Website
Like what we're doing?
Word Thursdays Features Two Regional Poets October 23

On Thursday, October 23, Word Thursdays at Bright Hill Literary Center will feature Norwich poet Richard Bernstein & Delhi poet Sharon Ruetenik. They will read from and sign copies of their books after the open mic, during which all those present are invited to read from their own poetry or fiction or that of others for up to five mi
Norwich Poet Richard Bernstein
nutes, and after the intermission, when refreshments are served. The readings will take place in the Word & Image Gallery at Bright Hill, 94 Church Street,Treadwell, NY, now hosting "Erosion: Artist Book Works" by Iowa City, IA Book Artist Julie Leonard. There is
To the Occupant of Apartment 6X
an admission fee of $3 (18
and under, free).     
    Richard Bernstein, Norwich, received his BA in in English from Muhlenberg College and his MA in English at Binghamton University. An 11-time recipient of the BHP Share the Words Poetry Teacher of the Year award, as well as the recipient of many other awards, grants, and distinctions for teaching and writing, Bernstein is in his 28th year as a HS English and drama teacher in Norwich; he also is an adjunct instructor of English at SUNY Morrisville. His poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, San Diego Poetry Press, and Arcade, as well as in Alternatives to Surrender, an anthology of poems dealing with cancer, loss and recovery. He has read and performed his work at hundreds of venues throughout the country, including the 2006 National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. He will be reading from his new chapbo
Delhi Poet Sharon Ruetenik 
ok, To the Occupant of Apartment 6X(Finishing Line Press).
   Sharon Ruetenik, Delhi, has published her work in several literary journals, most recently The Green Door. Her chapbook, The Wooden Bowl, published by Bright Hill, explores the role of womenfrom Eve to Dorothy. Ruetenik has been awarded residency fellowships to the Cats
kill Center for Conservation and Development's Platte Clove site and to the Constance Saltonstall Colony for the Arts. She serves as Coordinator of the Writing Center center, English Language Learner program, and international
The Wooden Bowl 
student adviser at SUNY Delhi. In addition, she teaches courses in composition and literature. This past August, she led a discussion on Dorothy Parker during BHLC's Great American Poets Celebration.  Among the poems she will read are a collection of sevenlings.

Last Word Thursdays of the 2014 Season Coming Up!

Thursday, November 13
Features Puma Perl, Manhattan Performance Poet
Annie Sauter, Oneonta Performance Poet 
 
New York State Literary Website & Map
The New York State Literary website and map is where you will find all things literary in our beautiful state, including biographies of writers, literary sites, organizations, curators, working poets and writers, and calendars of events throughout New York. The site, developed and administered by Bright Hill Press in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts, is well worth repeated visits!
Like what we're doing and have been doing for 22 years? Care about literature? You can be part of Bright Hill: Donate via PayPal or Credit Card by pushing this secure button! 
   
undefined

 
Join Our Mailing List