| Location |
Time |
Day |
Date |
Program |
Speaker |
Garrison Chapel, Family Life Center, First United Methodist Church
1300 Lavaca St, Austin TX 78701
|
7-9pm |
Thu |
09/13/2012 |
"Turning Grief into Gorgeous Poetry" |
Debra Winegarten |
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Debra L. Winegarten is author of There's Jews in Texas?, the recent winner of Poetica Magazine's Chapbook Contest, her fourth book and first book of poetry. Ed Madden, in his book review said, "How do we know who we are? When you're a minority, everyone else likes to define you. When you're a little Jewish girl in 1960s Dallas, they tell you you're going to hell, your prayers are better, and you have perfect pitch—and you wonder why they put your locker next to the locker of the only black kid in the class. Debra Winegarten's poems are sharp, sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, but always on the mark when it comes to our difficult understanding (and self-understanding) of difference."
Story Circle's own Judith Helburn has this to say about Debra's book:
There's Jews in Texas? is a chapbook, winner of the 2011 Chapbook Contest of Poetica Magazine. Only 36 pages, this book of poetry is funny, introspective and full of observations both of her and by her. She begins with some second grade experiences: one of a man on the street telling her she would be going to Hell because she was Jewish and another of a teacher telling her she had a direct line to God, also because she was Jewish. Other poems tell of her missing her mother, of innocents dying because of their religion, of daring to say prayers in a synagogue in Cairo after being told that praying was not allowed.
Each poem is a short life story, understandable to anyone. Winegarten will make you smile. She will cause you to pause and think.
Debra reports that her mother once advised her as a writer "not to quit her day job." "But Mom," she protested, "I don't have a day job!" "Then get one," her mother said. So she did. Now she works for the Department of Astronomy at UT Austin, where she is the First Undersecretary of the American Astronomical Society. By night, she writes.
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