-- The Poet & CCSU Prof @ New London's Hygienic Gallery Summer 09
JAN. 15, 2010 @ THE HARTFORD CLUB:
CT Young Writers
Triple Knockout Event: Prose, Poetry & Pugilism;
Open Writing Workshops In Poetry & Sportswriting;
Jen Allen Big Band With Vocalists
Mark Twain House & Museum
Photo By
CHION WOLF
Felicity Sheehy, 16, of the Westover School of Middlebury, accepts $1,000 check and other items Sunday [May 31, 2009] at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford as she is proclaimed State Poetry Champion in the 2009 Connecticut Young Writers competition. With Sheehy, L-R: Franz Douskey, poet and board member of the Young Writers Trust; Dr. Louise Feroe, Vice Chancellor, Connecticut State University System; and Co-Masters of Ceremonies Ravi Shankar, the poet and Central Connecticut State University Professor and Rand Richard Cooper, board member, author and travel writer for Bon Appetit. Sheehy, one of eight county champions, won for her poem, "Evening Conversation."
Poets and writers appearing at The Hartford Club Jan. 15, 2010:
* Robert "The Breeze" Leuci-- Treat Williams played Leuci's character in the movie, "The Prince of the City." The former NYPD detective reveals the full range of his career in the memoir, "All The Centurions." Leuci's novels include "Doyle's Disciples," "Odessa Beach" and "Renegades." Leuci teaches at the University of Rhode Island.
* "Merciless" Amy Ma-- Ma is the 2001 State Poetry Champion. She currently teaches for the Hartford Public Schools. Ma earned her undergraduate English degree from Wesleyan and a Masters from Central Connecticut State University. Ma has been a keynote speaker for two annual dinners.
* Binnie "The Demon Barber" Klein-- Klein, a psychotherapist and lecturer at Yale Medical School, is the author of "Blows To The Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind." The book is a memoir including Klein's experiences in the ring and her observations of The Sweet Science. She hosts a weekly music and interview show on WPKN Bridgeport, CT and Montauk, NY.
* Shouhua "Hard Rock" Qi-- Qi, a professor of English at Western Connecticut State University, is the author of "When the Purple Mountain Burns," "Red Guard Fantasies and Other Stories" and a dozen other books. "Red Guard Fantasies" is dedicated to his father, who was a middle school principal during the Cultural Revolution. Like many other so-called elites, Qi's father suffered intense physical degradation. He was forced to kneel on broken glass with a wooden chalkboard hung around his neck while being denounced by angry mobs. The volume has 14 stories about Chinese society transforming after the Cultural Revolution, including the signature Red Guard Fantasies.
* Rich "Six Heads" Esposito- Esposito is the author of "Bomb Squad: A Year Inside The Nation's Most Exclusive Police Unit." Esposito is a winner of the George Polk Award for Television Reporting, is a reporter and producer on ABC News. He is the recipient of the Silurian and Deadline Club Awards, two Associated Press Awards, and shares in a Pulitzer Prize.
* Chandra "Bonecrusher" Prasad-- Prasad is a writer and editor with an established track record in both fiction and nonfiction. Most recently, Prasad completed a novel based on the life of Amelia Earhart. It is called "Breathe the Sky." Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed," writes that "Breathe the Sky" is, "by turns, an adventure story, a love story, and a cautionary tale about the double-edged sword of modern American celebrity. From lift-off to landing, [it] is a novel that soars." Prasad is also the author of "On Borrowed Wings," a novel set in Depression-era Connecticut. On Borrowed Wings is about a quarryman's daughter who attends a prestigious university in 1936 in the guise of a boy. A graduate of Yale, Prasad is the originator and editor of, and a contributor to, "Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience." Her works have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Week, Teen Voices, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. In addition, her short stories have been printed in numerous literary forums, including Faultline, the University of California at Irvine's Pushcart prize-winning journal.
* Kate "La Terrible" Rushin-- Rushin is the author of "The Black Back-Ups" (Firebrand Books). Her "The Bridge Poem" appears in "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color," a ground-breaking feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Recipient of the Rose Low Rome Memorial Poetry Prize and the Grolier Poetry Prize, her work is widely anthologized and has been published in such journals as Callaloo. A Connecticut resident, Kate currently teaches creative writing at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. Previously, she taught at Wesleyan University, where she served as Director of the Center of African-American Studies, Associate Professor and Visiting Writer. She has read at Hill-Stead Museum's Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, the Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival and Smith College Poetry Center, among many other places, and has led workshops for the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies and Cave Canem Foundation. She has served as a judge for the Connecticut Young Writers Award, the Connecticut Poetry Circuit Student Poetry Contest, and the NEA's/Poetry Foundation's Poetry Out Loud. Rushin received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her M.F.A. from Brown University. She is a former Fellow of The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and a graduate fellow of Cave Canem Foundation.
* Franz "Onions Oregenato" Douskey-- Douskey teaches creative writing at Gateway Community College in New Haven. He has been published in more than 150 journals and magazines including the New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Yankee. A featured guest at New Haven's Festival of Arts & Ideas, Douskey's books include "Rowing Across The Dark" and "Indecent Exposure." He is a founding board member of the Connecticut Young Writers Trust and has served as a judge every year of the competition. Douskey is also the author of the forthcoming biography, "The Unknown Sinatra." He currently produces and co-hosts a weekly radio show with musician Bud Finch on 1220 am, WQUN, Quinnipiac University. The show, "Once Upon a Bandstand," is one of the station's most popular programs.
* "Iceman" John Scully-- Scully is a prolific writer and a commentator for ESPN classic fights. Excerpts of Scully's manuscript -- The Iceman Diaries -- draw numerous comments in posts at his website IcemanJohnScully.com and on his Facebook page. Scully won numerous amateur championships including the Ohio State Fair in 1987. He defeated a national amateur champion, Darin Allen. Scully turned professional in 1988, just three years after graduating from Windsor High School. He fought for the International Boxing Federation world light heavyweight championship in Leipzig, Germany, in 1996, losing a 12-round decision to Henry Maske. In a controversial bout, Scully connected regularly against two-time world champion Michael Nunn for the World Boxing Organization - North American Boxing Organization super middleweight title, but lost by a decision that was roundly criticized. He racked up wins against Art Baylis, Billy Bridges and Alphonso Bailey in televised fights before retiring in 2001 with a record of 38-11, including 21 knockouts. Scully has served as a sparring partner with world champions including Vinny Pazienza, Roy Jones Jr. and James "Lights Out" Toney. Pros he has trained include Mike Mike "Machine Gun" Oliver, International Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, Pito Cardona, Scott "The Sandman" Pemberton, former Olympic team captain Lawrence Clay-Bey and Matt Remillard, an undefeated featherweight contender. Iceman also trains Clay Bey's son Jarin.
* Grabrielle "She Be Stinging" Calvocoressi-- Calvocoressi was born in Central Connecticut. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Stegner fellowship in Poetry, a Jones Lectureship in Poetry at Stanford University and a Rona Jaffe Woman Writers' Award. Her poem "Circus Fire, 1944" received The Paris Review' Bernard F. Conners Prize. Her first collection, "The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart," was published by Persea Books in 2005 and won the Connecticut Book Award. It was shortlisted for the Northern California Book Award . Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals and online publications including; The Paris Review, The New England Review, Gulf Coast and Guernica. A new multi-media piece is forthcoming online on The Owls. he lives in Los Angeles and teaches in the MFA program at California College of Arts in San Francisco and in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College. She is serving as a visiting professor at Bennington College in the fall of 2009. Her second collection, "Apocalyptic Swing," is out now from Persea Books. Garrison Keillor read her poem, "Jubilee," on WNPR in October 2009. Calvocoressi's fight poems, including "Blues For Ruby Goldstein," "Boxers In the Key Of M" and "Prayer in the Name of Saint Thomas Hearns," are highly-regarded by boxers, academics and sports writers.
Workshop leaders:
SPORTS
* Paul "Ding-a-Ling" Doyle. Doyle has been a sports reporter and columnist at The Hartford Courant for 20 years. A member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, he has been a baseball beat writer and most recently a general assignment reporter. He has also written for the Boston Globe and The Sporting News.
On the workshop:
As a teenager, sports inspired me to write and led me to a career in journalism. We'll talk about how the imagery and emotions of the games -- the games we watch and play and debate -- provide such an ideal vehicle to teach writing to kids.
POETRY
* David "The Body Snatcher " Cappella-- Cappella is a professor of English at Central Connecticut State University. He has co-authored two books on the teaching of poetry with Baron Wormser: "Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves" (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000) and "A Surge of Language: Teaching Poetry Day to Day" (Heinemann, 2004). He is the winner of the 2004 Bright Hill Press Poetry Chapbook Competition, of which the first poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has published poems in The Connecticut Review, The Bryant Literary Review, Diner and other journals.
CO-MASTERS OF CEREMONIES
Rand "Blood" Cooper - Rand "Blood" Cooper is novelist and travel writer for Bon Appetit.
"Irish" Ravi Shankar - "Irish" Ravi Shankar is a poet andCentral Connecticut State University English professor;
Jeffrey "No Dice" Dressler - Attorney Jeffrey "No Dice" Dressler is a long-time advocate for education and boxing in Hartford and a boxing announcer.
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