Dale Bell: Linny

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

After meeting *Linny*, Dale Bell became a storyteller—an actor/singer in high school, the president/producer/director of Princeton’s undergraduate Theatre Intime, a stage manager/actor/director/producer of twenty-four summer stock plays over three years at the University Players, including a performance of *Ages of Man* with Sir John Gielgud. In 1969, he was a producer of the movie, *Woodstock.* As producer/director/writer/cinematographer, he has spent more than a half century on globally-screened documentary and dramatic films. His productions have earned the Academy Award, the Peabody, two Emmys, four BAFTAs, and two Christophers. As cofounder of the Media Policy Center in Santa Monica, California, he produces social justice films that have been honored by the global Ashoka Fellowship of Social Entrepreneurs. Dale, who has six grandchildren, lives in Santa Monica with his wife, Liz.

A high school blind date sets this filmmaker on his life path.

Rick Black: Beauty and Violence in Israel

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Rick Black - head shot 2 x 3.jpg — Rick Black is the author of *Peace and War: A Collection of Haiku from Israel* and shares his haiku on the website, www.israelhaiku.com. A poet, book artist, and publisher (turtlelightpress.com), he has won numerous haiku awards and recently completed *The Amichai Windows*, an artist book of Yehuda Amichai poems. All poems in his essay without a byline are his own. An early version of his essay for this collection appeared in *Blithe Spirit* (2019, Vol. 29, #2), a British haiku journal.

A New York Times journalist covering the war in Israel finds peace while writing haiku.

Lynn Z. Bloom: Without a Map—The Rough Road to Beauty

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Lynn Z. Bloom, University of Connecticut Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Emerita, held the Aetna Chair of Writing from 1988 to 2015. She learned the essentials of writing from Dr. Seuss, fun; Dr. Strunk and E.B. White, elegant simplicity; and Benjamin Spock, precision. As Spock told her in an interview for *Doctor Spock: Biography of a Conservative Radical* (1972), “if you don’t write clearly, someone could die.” Recent books include *Seven Deadly Virtues and Other Lively Essays*, and *Writers Without Borders*. Her 175- plus essays address topics including “The Essay Canon,” auto/biography, feminist issues, pedagogy, rhetoric, food and travel writing, disability studies, and human rights. “(Im)Patient” was a Notable American Essay of 2005.

Lynn delivers an honest, moving account of her husband’s illness and how they not only coped but actually thrived when he was seriously ill.

Richard Adams Carey: The Muskoxen in Summer

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Rick%2BCarey.jpg — Richard Adams Carey grew up in Connecticut. He is the author of four books of literary narrative nonfiction, most recently *In the Evil Day*, which has been optioned for film by London-based Island Pictures. *Against the Tide* won the New Hampshire Literary Prize for Nonfiction, and *Raven’s Children* was a New York Public Library Book to Remember. His essays, reviews, and short fiction have appeared in the *Wall Street Journal*, *Yankee Magazine*, *Harvard Magazine*, the *Alaska Quarterly Review*, the *Massachusetts Review*, *Hunger Mountain*, *Assignment*, and the *Beloit Fiction Journal*.

Living in Alaska for ten years, Rick learns what beauty is to people who inhabit the region.

Nancy Naomi Carlson: Growing into Myself

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Nancy Naomi Carlson is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor who has authored eleven titles (seven translated). She has received two Literature Translation Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as grants from the Maryland Council for the Arts, and Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and was a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award, as well as the CLMP Firecracker Poetry Award. Her co-edited anthology, 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium (Ashland Poetry Press) and her translation of Kahl Torabully's Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude (Seagull) appeared in 2021. An Infusion of Violets was released by Seagull Books in 2019, and was featured in the New York Book Review (“New & Noteworthy”). Nancy’s work has appeared in such journals as the American Poetry Review, the Georgia Review, the Paris Review, and Poetry. To learn more about her work, visit www.nancynaomicarlson.com.

Nancy’s adolescent views of beauty shift as she confronts serious illness later in life.

Sandra Bain Cushman: Momiji

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Sandra Bain Cushman.jpg — Sandra Bain Cushman’s passion for unlocking creative potential began with her theater studies at Cornell University in 1977. She has been a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique since 1990. Sandra is the founder of Orchestral Maneuvers (OM), an approach to group learning based on her decades of experience with Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft and Guitar Circles. OM is based on the premise that the group informs the individual: As our presence within the group develops, our capacity as individuals improves also. Sandra teaches for the McIntire Department of Music and the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia.

While on a trip to Japan, Sandra sees her father and aging with new eyes.

Hayes Davis: Pedestal

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

HD Author Photo 2.jpg — Hayes Davis’ first volume, *Let Our Eyes Linger*, was published by Poetry Mutual Press. His work has appeared in *New England Review* and other journals, and many anthologies. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016 and 2017, and was a member of Cave Canem’s first cohort of fellows. He teaches high-school English in Washington, DC, and lives in Maryland with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, and their children. Their website is www.poetsandparents.com.

A husband and wife reflect on racial perceptions of beauty and how they affect young girls.

Teri Ellen Cross Davis: Pedestal

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of *a more perfect Union* (Mad Creek Books), winner of the 2019 Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize, and *Haint* (Gival Press), winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. A Cave Canem fellow and a member of the Black Ladies Brunch Collective, she lives in Maryland with her husband, poet Hayes Davis, and their two children. Their website is www.poetsandparents.com.

A husband and wife reflect on racial perceptions of beauty and how they affect young girls.

Moira Egan: Any Given Sunday in Rome

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Egan author photo.jpg — Moira Egan’s most recent books are *Synæsthesium (*The New Criterion Poetry Prize, 2017) and *Olfactorium* (Italic Pequod, 2018). Her poems and prose have appeared in journals and anthologies on four continents. With her husband, Damiano Abeni, she has published volumes in translation in Italy by authors including Ashbery, Barth, Bender, Ferlinghetti, Hecht, Simic, Strand, and Charles Wright. She lives in Rome and teaches creative writing at St. Stephen’s School.

Moira contrasts the weekday urban noise of Rome with the calm beauty of Sundays.

Ann Fisher-Wirth: But What If We Started Listening?

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Ann, Italy.JPG — Ann Fisher-Wirth’s sixth book of poems is *The Bones of Winter Birds*, chosen by Terrapin Press for their open reading competition and published in February 2019. Her fifth book, *Mississippi*, is a poetry/photography collaboration with Maude Schuyler Clay (Wings Press 2018). Ann is also co-editor of *The Ecopoetry Anthology* (Trinity UP 2013). A senior fellow of the Black Earth Institute, she has had residencies to Djerassi, Hedgebrook, The Mesa Refuge, and CAMAC/France, and was 2017 Poet in Residence at Randolph College. She teaches and directs the Environmental Studies program at the University of Mississippi, and she teaches yoga in Oxford.

Ann sorts through how to respond to current political and environmental crises.

Yael Flusberg: Beyond Aesthetics: What Connects Us

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

When she was 16, Yael Flusberg’s creative writing teacher, Frank McCourt, suggested she had the makings of a memoir within. She thought him daft but appreciated how he let her sit on the wide window ledge rather than be confined to an ancient wooden desk; she never cut his class. A decade later, Yael found poetry, which helped her exteriorize the legacy of being the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Now in her 50s, she feels ready to heed elders’ advice. Yael teaches yoga and writing. Her work has appeared in Lilith, Beltway Poetry Journal, and NPR’s Latino USA. For more information, visit www.yaelflusberg.com.

A child of Holocaust survivors comes to terms with her past and learns to love herself.

Laura Garrison: Misfit Joys—Ugly Socks and Other Small Things

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

lgarrison (1).jpg — Laura Garrison earned a Ph.D. in English from The Catholic University of America in 2016. Her research explored spider and web imagery in American literature. Laura is the editor of *Jersey Devil Press,* an online magazine of speculative fiction and poetry, and she teaches creative writing at Roanoke College as an adjunct lecturer. She lives in Virginia with her husband, son, daughter, and cat.

Laura finds beauty in the ordinary things we tend to ignore in our daily lives.

Gayle George: Mastering the Pieces

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Gayle George is a creative economist, a professor of personal development, and the founder of Gayleforce Publishing, a boutique media agency established to amplify authoritative voices on wealth, women, and wisdom of the diaspora. She curates the living legacy of John and Arabella Weems, and helps reluctant writers and latent bloomers actualize the power of their uniqueness.

While navigating a divorce, Gayle finds beauty in imperfection.

Corinna German: Gallatin Winter Premonition

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Corinna German writes creative nonfiction and poetry with the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness over her shoulder. Her work has appeared in anthologies and numerous literary journals including *Blood, Water, Wind, and Stone: An Anthology of Wyoming Writers* (Sastrugi Press)*, Manifest West: Women of the West* (Western Press Books), *High Plains Register*, *Nature Writing Magazine*, *Haiku Journal*, and *Oakwood*. Corinna is a recipient of the 2018 Wyoming Writers, Inc. Western Horizon Award. Find her @corinnawriter on Twitter, or deep in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem backcountry.

Corinna’s camping trip in Montana sparks wonder at the beauty of winter and gives her courage to face a dilemma.

Jessica Gigot: Birth

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

jessica-gigot-deep-beauty-book — Jessica Gigot is a poet, farmer, teacher, and musician. She has a small farm in Bow, WA, called Harmony Fields that makes artisan sheep cheese and grows organic herbs. Her first book of poems, *Flood Patterns*, was published by Antrim House Books in 2015 and her writing appears in several publications, including *Orion*, *Gastronomica*, *Taproot*, *The Hopper*, and *Poetry Northwest*.

Jessica weaves the experiences of giving birth to her children with assisting the birthing of lambs on her farm.

JoAnne Growney: When I'm Quiet Enough to See

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

As JoAnne Growney looks back on her childhood, growing up on a farm, she sees the varied stimuli of that outdoor environment as a key component of her interpretation of beauty. Although she has loved poetry since childhood, her college scholarship opportunities were in mathematics and that became her field. As time permitted, poetry again became part of her life and many of her poems share her support for women’s issues and climate concerns. In the spring of 2019, “Give HER Your Support,” a collection of her feminist math poems, appeared in *Math Horizons*, a publication of the Mathematical Association of America. Her most recent poetry activity has been online, integrating the arts and scientific studies—enlarging STEM to STEAM—and found in her blog, *Intersections—Poetry with Mathematics* at https://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.com.

A mathematician discovers beauty in phases of her life as she looks back while writing her essay.

Janis Haswell: After Evil

September 20, 2019 Catherine Lee

Janis Haswell is Professor Emerita at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses in modern and contemporary British literature for the English department and composition in the university’s First-Year Program and Honors Program. She has published seven monographs and some thirty-five articles and book chapters in both literature and composition. She received numerous college and university teaching awards, and was recognized by the A&M System for teaching excellence. She was also a faculty fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She and her husband, Richard, share seven children and twelve grandchildren.

A professor hosts a Holocaust survivor in her classes to exemplify for students courage, fortitude, and forgiveness.

Sonya Huber: Magpies of Industry

September 19, 2019 Catherine Lee

A midwesterner laments and cherishes the industrial landscape of her childhood.

Asna Husin: God Is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: A Muslim Reflection

September 19, 2019 Catherine Lee

Asna Husin teaches Philosophy of Education and Islamic Civilization at the Ar-Raniry State Islamic University Darussalam in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. She currently serves as a senior researcher at Nonviolence International in Washington, DC, working on cultural resources for Islamic Peace Building and History of Indonesian Muslim Communities in America. She gained a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and her doctorate in Religious Studies from Columbia University. She participates in academic conferences worldwide and writes on Islamic peace, human rights and gender equity, Ulama institutions, and civilizational heritage.

An Indonesian philosophy professor reflects on beauty in the practice of Islam.

Sally Im: An Alien Sanctuary

September 19, 2019 Catherine Lee

A transplant from the Republic of Korea to Sao Paulo, Brazil, then to Los Angeles, Sally earned a BA from Occidental College and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, she is tucked away in a remote nook in the Colorado Rockies, enjoying solitude, quiet, contemplation.

A writer recounts how the loss of South Korea’s beauty plunged her into grief after arriving in her new home in California.