NEWS
Bright Hill Holding Veterans and Community Day Event Nov 11th
On Saturday, November 11, Bright Hill Press and Literary Center of the Catskills will present its second Annual Veterans and Communities Day in recognition and celebration of those who have served the United States of America armed forces. The event will begin at noon with a free buffet lunch and conclude, after readings, workshops, and discussions of war, peace, and country, at 5:00 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Southern Tier veterans are especially welcome to participate in all events.
Readers and workshop and discussion leaders are poet- and writer-veterans Richard Levine, Schoharie and Brooklyn; Karen Skolfield, Amherst, MA; and Suzanne Rancourt, Saratoga Springs.
Richard Levine is the author of That Country's Soul, (Finishing Line Press, 2010), A Language Full of Wars and Songs (Pollack Press, 2004), and Snapshots from a Battle (Headwaters Press/BigCityLit 2001). An as yet unpublished manuscript has been finalist or semi-finalist for Ohio State Press/The Journal Poetry Book Award, and the University of Arkansas Press Miller Williams Poetry Prize. In 2002, a group of his Vietnam poems were finalists in the Winning Writers, 2002 War Poetry Contest. Other individual poems have been finalist for the James Hearst Poetry Prize, sponsored by North American Review. A recently retired public school teacher, he is learning to steward a forest and dirt.
Karen Skolfield's book Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press) won the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry. She is the winner of the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review and has received awards and fellowships from the Poetry Society of America, New England Public Radio, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Split This Rock, and elsewhere. She's an Army veteran and teaches writing to engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Suzanne Rancourt is of Abenaki / Huron descent and a veteran of both the USMC and US Army and continues to serve through the Saratoga County (NY) Veterans Peer to Peer Mentoring program. Her book, Billboard in the Clouds, Curbstone Press, was the 2001 recipient of the Native Writers First Book Award. Her writing has been published, anthologized, and translated extensively: Dawnland Voices 2.0 #4, Northern New England Review, Bear Review, Three Drops Press, Snapdragon Journal, mgversion2>datura, Sirsee, Slipstream, Muddy River Poetry Review, Ginosko, Journal of Military Experience, Cimarron Review, Callaloo. As a presenter and workshop facilitator, Ms. Rancourt's unique skills have taken her to Songwriting with Soldiers, Princeton University's Moral Injury and Collective Healing Advanced Training, and to the International Expressive Arts Therapy Annual Conference: Indigenous Roots of Expressive Arts Therapy. Using all of her tools to inform, educate, and alleviate the experiences of trauma, Ms. Rancourt is a multi model artist. For more info: www.expressive-arts.com
The day's schedule is as follows:
Noon - Free Buffet lunch -BHLC's Kitchen Bookstore & The Word & Image Gallery
* 1 pm - Richard Levine Writing About War Workshop - Bright Hill Community Library
* 2 pm - Welcome to Bright Hill - Bertha Rogers, BHLC Founding Director & Beatrice Georgalidis, Executive Director
Readings & Discussions of War, Peace, & County - Bright Hill Community Library
* 2:15 pm - Suzanne Rancourt
* 3:00 pm - Karen Skolfield
* 3:45 pm - Richard Levine
* 4:15 pm Open Mic - All attending welcome to read for 7 minutes
Bright Hill's 2017, 25th-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 Education Fund; the Delaware Youth Bureau, through the auspices of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services; the Delaware County Office of Economic Opportunity; the 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/hom. 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.
Readers and workshop and discussion leaders are poet- and writer-veterans Richard Levine, Schoharie and Brooklyn; Karen Skolfield, Amherst, MA; and Suzanne Rancourt, Saratoga Springs.
Richard Levine is the author of That Country's Soul, (Finishing Line Press, 2010), A Language Full of Wars and Songs (Pollack Press, 2004), and Snapshots from a Battle (Headwaters Press/BigCityLit 2001). An as yet unpublished manuscript has been finalist or semi-finalist for Ohio State Press/The Journal Poetry Book Award, and the University of Arkansas Press Miller Williams Poetry Prize. In 2002, a group of his Vietnam poems were finalists in the Winning Writers, 2002 War Poetry Contest. Other individual poems have been finalist for the James Hearst Poetry Prize, sponsored by North American Review. A recently retired public school teacher, he is learning to steward a forest and dirt.
Karen Skolfield's book Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press) won the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry. She is the winner of the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review and has received awards and fellowships from the Poetry Society of America, New England Public Radio, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Split This Rock, and elsewhere. She's an Army veteran and teaches writing to engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Suzanne Rancourt is of Abenaki / Huron descent and a veteran of both the USMC and US Army and continues to serve through the Saratoga County (NY) Veterans Peer to Peer Mentoring program. Her book, Billboard in the Clouds, Curbstone Press, was the 2001 recipient of the Native Writers First Book Award. Her writing has been published, anthologized, and translated extensively: Dawnland Voices 2.0 #4, Northern New England Review, Bear Review, Three Drops Press, Snapdragon Journal, mgversion2>datura, Sirsee, Slipstream, Muddy River Poetry Review, Ginosko, Journal of Military Experience, Cimarron Review, Callaloo. As a presenter and workshop facilitator, Ms. Rancourt's unique skills have taken her to Songwriting with Soldiers, Princeton University's Moral Injury and Collective Healing Advanced Training, and to the International Expressive Arts Therapy Annual Conference: Indigenous Roots of Expressive Arts Therapy. Using all of her tools to inform, educate, and alleviate the experiences of trauma, Ms. Rancourt is a multi model artist. For more info: www.expressive-arts.com
The day's schedule is as follows:
Noon - Free Buffet lunch -BHLC's Kitchen Bookstore & The Word & Image Gallery
* 1 pm - Richard Levine Writing About War Workshop - Bright Hill Community Library
* 2 pm - Welcome to Bright Hill - Bertha Rogers, BHLC Founding Director & Beatrice Georgalidis, Executive Director
Readings & Discussions of War, Peace, & County - Bright Hill Community Library
* 2:15 pm - Suzanne Rancourt
* 3:00 pm - Karen Skolfield
* 3:45 pm - Richard Levine
* 4:15 pm Open Mic - All attending welcome to read for 7 minutes
Bright Hill's 2017, 25th-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 Education Fund; the Delaware Youth Bureau, through the auspices of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services; the Delaware County Office of Economic Opportunity; the 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/hom. 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.