Academics
 

Writer-in-Residence

Barbara Novack is Writer-in-Residence at Molloy College and also a member of the English department, where she teaches creative writing, advanced creative writing and courses in poetry writing, novel writing and short story writing. A creative presence on campus, she provides class visits, consultation, mentoring and inspiration, reminding all that creativity is a vital part of life.

In addition to her faculty duties, she conducts popular writers’ workshops, presents programs on creative writing, memoir writing and poetry and has given readings of her poetry at various metropolitan area venues. An award-winning writer, she is a member of The Authors Guild and is listed in the Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, Who’s Who and Who’s Who of American Women. Her website is www.barbaranovack.com

                                                                                                          

 Barbara Novack's new book of poetry:
Something Like Life  

Using art as its theme and life as its story,
Novack explores the journey we all take in our search for happiness.
Something Like Life ($14.95, JB Stillwater Publishing Co.)
is available from the publisher, www.jbstillwater.com, Amazon, BN.com
and the author, English Department, Siena Hall, 103. 

Three Poems by Barbara Novack


A RAINBOW IN THE SAND

By the curbside, sand ground fine
stone diminished to its merest particles
gray brown
almost colorless in the city.
And yet, as I step to cross the street,
I see a shimmering rainbow arc
beneath my feet.
I touch it tentatively with my toe.
The sand shimmers and shifts
but holds its magic.
I have been preoccupied this morning
with the day’s troubles
with the mundane
that has ground me fine
like city sand, colorless,
to be trod upon,
and I have trudged,
head down beneath the too-bright light,
lost in dreary thought.
But I have touched my toe, this morning,
in a rainbow.
A reminder, so gentle, so tactfully discreet,
that beauty
and blessings
and even magic
lie at my feet.

SEPTEMBER

The pear tree in the neighbor’s backyard
drops its crop on the driveway
with hard thumps
like baseballs hitting a mitt.
But the pears roll, uncaught.

Once my father climbed to the top of the garage
where the pear tree branches stretch over the peak
and perched there, straddling it, plucking pears
and tossing them down to me. I
caught each neatly,
brown-green balls of sweetness, small and firm,
slapping into my cupped palms
and deposited in a large paper bag at my feet.
The pluck, the toss, the catch, the drop:
we had a good rhythm that sunny September afternoon.
And when the bag was finally full and the game ended,
my father lit his pipe, set it at a jaunty angle,
and sat secure and serene
up high against the bluest sky.

The pear tree in the neighbor’s backyard
drops its crop on the driveway
with hard thumps:
the pears roll, uncaught.

I stand at the kitchen window
and stare out at the branches
so high against
the emptiest sky.

CHEKHOV, FOR BEGINNERS

Chekhov said
throw out the first three pages;
it takes that long
to get to the beginning.

And I may say
put aside the first three decades
sweep away their debris
cast off versions of the self
that should have molted
like early outgrown skins.
Much was misunderstood,
misinterpreted.
The guidebook for those places
has been reprinted,
the new edition totally revised.
History, after all,
is just memory compromised,
smoothed out,
its sags sretched to cover the chasms
of existence.

So put them away
in the safe place
where the fading photos stay
and know
it took all that
to get to
the beginning. 

Poetry Events and Author Afternoons

As Writer-in-Residence, Barbara Novack co-founded with the English department and hosts Poetry Events at Molloy College and Author Afternoons at Molloy College, two reading series that bring contemporary poets and writers to a wider audience. 

Poetry Events at Molloy College Spring 2013 season:


Date: Sunday, February 17 at 3 p.m., featured poets Patti Tana and Charles Fishman, plus an open reading.
Location: Reception Room, Kellenberg Hall. Free. Open to the public. No reservation necessary.

Patti Tana is celebrating the publication of her eighth collection of poems: Any Given Day (Whittier Publications, Inc.). She is Professor Emerita of English at Nassau Community College (SUNY), editor of the Songs of Seasoned Women poetry anthology, and an associate editor of the Long Island Quarterly. The Walt Whitman Birthplace Association selected her as the 2009 Long Island Poet of the Year.

Charles Fishman, the 2012 recipient of the New Millennium Award for Poetry, is poetry editor of Prism: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators. His books include The Death Mazurka (1989), a 1990 Pulitzer Prize nominee; Chopin's Piano (2006) and In the Language of Women (2011), both recipients of the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence; and Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (2007). His selected poems, In the Path of Lightning, was released by Time Being Books in August, 2012.

Date: Sunday, March 3 at 3 p.m., featured poet Ed Stever, original songs by Ken Bornholdt, plus an open reading.
Location: Reception Room, Kellenberg Hall. Free. Open to the public. No reservation necessary

Ed Stever, Suffolk County Poet Laureate, 2011-3013, is a playwright, an actor and a director, with a Pushcart Prize nomination, an Emerging Writers Award from the SoHo Arts Festival, and a Distinguished Graduate Award from Empire State College for poetry performance and writing. He is author of Transparency and Propulsion and is currently working on his third collection of poems.

Ken Bornholdt, is a member of the Molloy College community, is both Mailroom Coordinator and student, with a double major in English and history. A talented writer, long engaged in songwriting and performing, he has written poetry and short stories and is now working on his first novel.  Dave Salmone and Bruce Collura, both of whom have sung with Mr. Bornholdt for many years, will be accompanying him.

Date: Wednesday, April 3  at 12:30 p.m., featured poet Robert Hamblin.
Location: Reception Room, Kellenberg Hall. Free. Open to the public. No reservation necessary.

Robert Hamblin is professor of English and director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. Winner of numerous awards and honors, he is author of four poetry collections: Crossroads: Poems of a Mississippi Childhood, Keeping Score: Sports Poems for Every Season; Mind the Gap: Poems by an American in London, and From the Ground Up, as well as a chapbook, Perpendicular Rain. His poems have also appeared in a variety of literary journals. 

Date: Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m., featured poet Barbara Novack, plus an open reading.
Location: Reception Room, Kellenberg Hall. Free. Open to the public. No reservation necessary.

Barbara Novack, Molloy College's Writer-in-Residence, is introducing her new poetry collection Something Like Life, at this event. Using art as its theme and life as its story, Something Like Life explores the journey we all take in our search for happiness. A portion of the proceeds of book sales will go to Molloy College's Sandy Relief Fund.

Date: Saturday, April 13  at 1 p.m., featured poets of Whispers and Shouts anthology
Location: Reception Room, Kellenberg Hall. Free. Open to the public. No reservation necessary.

Contributors to this unprecedented anthology of poetry by women of Long Island will participate in a group reading. Edited and compiled by Gail Goldstein and J R Turek, Whispers and Shouts features poems by 73 poets and deals with a wide range of women's issues. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a women's shelter.