Fairfield Festival of the Arts Authors

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Fairfield Festival of the Arts
Authors Background

Saturday, June 21 at the Burr Homestead

Edward Happ^1,2,3,4 is the founder and publisher of The Fairfield Review, Connecticut's first on-line literary journal, published on the World Wide Web at www.fairfieldreview.org. Mr. Happ resides in Southport, CT, and publishes under the non de plume Gordon Edwards.

Halsted^1,2,3 is a poet and writer from Fairfield, Connecticut and past contributor to The Fairfield Review. Ms. Halsted has been writing poetry for the past twenty five years and has published work for the National Council of Churches, in college literary magazines, and Randolph- Macon Literary Magazine, where she was poetry editor. She is a member of the Writers Workshop, Westport Poetry Workshop, and the Fairfield Area Poets.

Janet Granger^2,3,4 is a manager in direct marketing from Fairfield, Connecticut and co-editor of The Fairfield Review. She has been writing since she was a teenager, but began to concentrate more seriously on poetry during the past two years. She has previously published poetry in The Fairfield Review, the Women of Amherst anthology, and Appalachian Mountain Club. She is a member of the Fairfield Poets group. Ms. Granger writes, "I am a writer of emotion, trying to catch the moment by the tail." (notes 2,3,4)

Jamela Green² is a Marketing and Sales Coordinator from West Haven, Connecticut. She has been writing for the past eleven years and is making her publication debut in the Spring 1997 issue of The Fairfield Review. Ms. Green began writing as a result of studying a black poet in school and "was hooked on poetry."

Curtis Johnson^2,3 is a senior planner from Naugatuck, Connecticut. Mr. Johnson has been writing since the age of sixteen and has published in the Connecticut Post, Conscious Living, and VMOJA News. He recently won the Black Artist Award, Kwanza Productions. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Fairfield Poets.

Josephine Dixon Banks^2,3 is a Communications Specialist from Bridgeport, Connecticut. She has been writing for the past twenty four years and has been published in numerous local publications. She is a member of the Fairfield Area Poets. Ms. Banks writes, "[I write] to vent pent-up trauma, to purge myself of the past and to allow my present every opportunity to be all that it is."

John Jennings^1,2 is a financial analyst from Bedford, Texas and past contributor to The Fairfield Review. Mr. Jennings has been writing essays and stories for the past six years and has published in Image Magazine and Power for Today. He is a member of the Writer's Voice in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Reggie Marra² is a teacher from Yonkers, New York. Mr. Marra has been writing for the past twenty two years, and is currently teaching a program for "promising young poets" in the New Milford, CT elementary schools. Mr. Marra has published a work of non-fiction, titled The Quality Effort, from The Heart Press. He is a member of the Hudson Valley Writer's Center, the Saugatuck Poets of Fairfield, CT, and the American Academy of Poets.

Fran Levin² is a nurse, hospital clown, storyteller, and writer from Westport, Connecticut. Her poem Windows provides a poignant answer to "what do you do?" Ms. Levin began writing poetry about her patients' feelings "to express what I sensed was their view of things." She has published poems previously in local papers and is also an author of essays and stories.

Jeanne Fuller² is a dancer, choreographer and teacher from Darien, Connecticut. She has been writing poetry since she was a child, and has published in a number of journals and magazines. Ms. Fuller is also an elected member of the International Poetry Society. The impetus for her writing is "always in the woods or by water or meadow-- a nature child wondering and needing to say it, to share my wonder."

Melissa Heaphy²^,3 is a Funeral Director from Fairfield, Connecticut. She has been writing since grade school, most seriously for the past ten years. She has published poetry in The Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum and is a member of the Fairfield Area Poets. Ms. Heaphy writes, "for me [writing] was liking speaking to someone who knew where I was when I didn't."

Kelli Willingham^1,2 is a "writer in waiting" from Fairfield, Connecticut. Ms. Willingham has been writing for the past twenty years and is making her publication debut in the Spring 1997 issue of The Fairfield Review. She is a member of the Writer's Voice of Fairfield, CT. Kelli writes, "Writing, the process opposed to the result, makes all of who I am sit in the same chair. It is the only thing I can do to feel complete."

Pax Riddle¹ is a novelist from Huntington, Connecticut. Mr. Riddle is a member of the Writer's Voice of Fairfield, CT.

Gordon Edwards^1,2,3 is a businessman from Stamford, Connecticut and past contributor to The Fairfield Review. Mr. Edwards has been writing poetry for the past thirty years, and was most recently a runner up in both the 1994 Poet magazine's annual American Chapbook contest, and the 1996 Stamford Ferguson Library Literary Competition. He began writing poetry in the eighth grade, at the encouragement of a junior high school English teacher. Mr. Edwards writes, "It is the incarnation of grace in the simplicity of ordinary language and experience, the 'Word ... dwelt among us,' that drives my writing."

Notes
1. Member of The Writer's Voice, Fairfield YMCA.
2. Published in The Fairfield Review, an on-line literary magazine at www.fairfieldreview.org
3. Member of the Fairfield Area Poets, local chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society.
4. Editor of The Fairfield Review.

Other CT Authors to Consider

Jean Aloe is an Office Manager from Greenwich, Connecticut. She has been writing for the past four years and has published in the Christian Science Monitor. Ms. Aloe writes, "I try to be succinct. I like sparse writing with unusual metaphors and imagery." She quotes William Herrick, who wrote, "What are you carving? / Myself."

Rose Drew is a college student, and former sales representative, from Norwalk, Connecticut. Ms. Drew has been writing short stories and poetry since High School and has published in the Hartford Courant and The Voice, a local college publication. She is a member of the Sono Poetry Society, Fairfield Poets, Connecticut Poetry Society and "Art Above All" performance group. Ms. Drew writes: "Writers don't "live" life, they collect experiences."

Carolyn Fredericks is a High School junior from New Canaan, Connecticut. Ms. Fredericks has been writing stories since the first grade, and more recently began writing poetry. She had published poetry in her High School's literary magazine, Spectator. Ms. Fredericks writes, "I started writing poetry when I found myself looking at my experiences and sensing in them overall patterns. I found that prose simply couldn't convey those pervasive ideas as well as poetry."

Nick Kapetan is an urban farmer, poet and essayist from Fairfield, Connecticut. Mr. Kapetan has been writing for the past twenty seven years and has published in Wings Magazine, the Fairfield Citizen, New York Post and Connecticut Post. He is a member of Connecticut Poets. Mr. Kapetan attributes the motivation for his writing as "the desire to describe a deep feeling."

Cynthia Mellott is an administrator from Fairfield, Connecticut. Ms. Mellott has been writing for the past thirty years and has published in local secondary and college magazines. She is a member of Fairfield Poets. Ms. Mellott writes, "Like most writers, I write because I have something that should be communicated, [be it] experience or emotion."