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MCCC's
Kelsey Review '09 Celebrates
Local Literary and Artistic Talent
Free Copies Available at Public Libraries
10/9/09
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West
Windsor, N.J. - Readers, take note. The vibrant, creative rhythms
of Mercer County are on display in the newly published Kelsey
Review 2009. This mosaic of poems, short fiction and drawings
features submissions by 17 writers and artists who live, work or
study in Mercer County. Published annually by Mercer County Community
College, Kelsey Review is distributed to all branches of
the county's public libraries, and is placed in public areas of
MCCC's West Windsor and James Kerney campuses.
According
to co-editors and MCCC faculty members Dr. Edward Carmien and Holly-Katharine
Mathews, there are many new voices in this year's edition, including
Rohini Sengupta, who, at 14, is the youngest contributor ever, as
well as numerous returning authors and artists.
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English professors Holly-Katharine Mathews and Ed Carmien are co-editors
of Kelsey Review. |
Among
the works, selected from more than 100 submissions, are poems of loss
and gain, stories that focus on family and seasons, and artwork that captures
faces and places. The cover art features four wise owls of literature
and art, created by artist and poet Ruth Olinsky of Lawrenceville.
In addition to Carmien and Mathews, the editorial team includes poetry
editors Luray Gross, a "Poet in the Schools" for the Geraldine
R. Dodge Foundation, and Ellen Jacko, an English teacher at Allentown
High School. Fiction editor is Dr. Robbie Clipper Sethi, an English professor
at Rider University, novelist, poet and short story writer.
This year a special section called "Kelsey Style" includes observations
from these five gifted and experienced editors about what they look for
as they recommend submissions for inclusion. From Carmien comes the notion
that good writing has a voice, not the writer's voice, but the voice of
its characters, while Mathews asserts that a good story should be well
researched or, if drawn from personal experience, be told from an unusual
perspective. Sethi likes a short story that "surprises me without
undermining my ability to believe it, that comes to an inevitable yet
unpredictable solution." In poetry, Gross seeks "…to be
moved, …to be stopped, …to be astounded," while Jacko looks
for "a first line that pulls me into the poem…a powerful last
line" and, in between, "a logical, beautiful declaration in
a clear, unique voice." She adds that poets should have a strong
command of punctuation and use it judiciously.
Authors include Linda Arntzenius of Princeton, Katie Burdris, an MCCC
English instructor, Vida Chu of Princeton, Lisa Cugasi of Hamilton, Deda
Kavanagh of Bucks County, Pa., Janet Kirk of Princeton, Mark Mazzenga
of Princeton, Carolina Morales of Trenton, Kathleen Rehn of Lawrenceville,
Rohini Sengupta of South Brunswick, V.L. Sheridan, Doris Spears of Trenton,
D.E. Steward, and Shirley Wright. In addition to Olinsky's cover art,
contributors of artwork include Bill Plank of Lawrenceville and Amy Runyon
of Hamilton.
Funding for Kelsey Review has been made possible in part by the
Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the
Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the New Jersey State Council
for the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment
of the Arts.
For
more information about Kelsey Review, click here
or email Kelsey.review@mccc.edu.
The deadline for submissions for the 2010 edition is May 9, 2010.
Directions
to MCCC
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