pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Tribal Colleges and STEM
by Thomas Davis
I thought some of the readers of Four Windows Press might enjoy this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XyqwWR3_d4, which describes the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math work being done in tribal colleges across the United States.
This is obviously not about poetry, art, or photography, but I have worked in American Indian Education from 1972 up to the present time. I helped establish the National Science Foundation’s Tribal College and University’s Program (TCUP), working closely with Carrie Billy, then the Director of President Bill Clinton’s White Initiative of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), that this video explores. My role was not that important really, but I am proud of the work I did throughout my career in the tribal college movement nevertheless. Carty Monette and Carol Davis, both featured in the video, are not only good friends, but played a major role in helping establish the TCUs nationwide.
What the TCUs are achieving throughout the United States is, at least in my opinion, some of the most important educational work being done in the world today. This video just gives a small glimpse of that work and might introduce to at least some of you the TCUs.
Filed under Essays, Thomas Davis
Untitledtown Today!
I’ll be at the Untitled Two Book and Author Festival today and tomorrow. Today at 11:00 a.m. I’ll be working the book fair with my daughter, Mary Wood, at the Broadway Center at Old Fort Square in downtown Green Bay.
At 5:00 p.m. I am giving a reading at the Aardvark Wine Lounge at 204 South Pine Street.
Then, tomorrow, at 2:00 p.m. Kat Abbot, a writer and television producer from Madison, and I will be doing a workshop: Beyond the Game of Thrones Worldbuilding in SF and Fantasy. Want to know how to write a SF or fantasy novel, play, television, or movie script? Kat Abbot and I can give you some really practical advice.
Featured Presenters at the festival? Roxane Gay * R.L. Stine * Kristen Radtke * Danez Smith * Christopher Moore * Michael Perry * José Orduña * Hillary Jordan *Peter Geye *Dan Chaon
I hope everyone that is interested in building a book culture in Northeastern Wisconsin floods downtown Green Bay!
Filed under Uncategorized
Reading from The Weirding Storm
Thomas Davis will be reading from The Weirding Storm at the Aardvark Wine Lounge at 304 S. Pine St. in Green Bay for the Untitled Town Book and Author Festival (https://2018.untitledtown.org/about-the-festival) this Saturday at 5:00 p.m. I am hoping, hoping some of my regional friends will be there!
On Sunday at 2:00 p.m. I’ll be doing a workshop on Beyond the Game of Thrones Worldbuilding in SF and Fantasy with Kat Abbott at the
Green Bay Community Theatre 122 N Chestnut Ave, Green Bay, WI 54303. Do you want to become a master of SF and fantasy writing?
On Saturday I’ll be selling books at the Book Fair: The 2018 UntitledTown Book Fair will take place from 11 am- 5 pm on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22, at the Broadway Center (Old Fort Square).
Filed under Published Books, The Dragon Epic, Thomas Davis
A Wizard’s Spell
by Thomas Davis
from a new play that I am writing:
Reality dips, swirls, a dance,
a pirouette, a song, a trance,
and as the mist of being drifts
a chord is struck, and what is shifts,
and fate becomes a puzzle box
secured by puzzles that are locks—
And so reality becomes
a whisper, shadow that benumbs
the heart and changes what will be
into a storm-tossed, dicey sea.
Filed under poems, Poetry, Thomas Davis
Flowering Magnolia
We woke up to 20 inches of snow this morning, April 14, and it’s still snowing. We’re supposed to get snow the rest of the day into tomorrow.
Photo by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Photography
Conversations with Gadot
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
“Why did you pick those two?
People who didn’t like girls,
didn’t want any nohow.
“But, you know, when I have girls
I’m going to love them and hold them
and tell them they are something.
“Speak with them on a summer night
when the sweet perfume
from wild honeysuckle fills the air.
“Talk to them about the wild things—
things that are important, you know, God’s things.
“Cause when I was born and grew up,
all the love I had came from the wild things—
the wind, the sky, the earth,
and the animals—not from people.
People just spoiled everything.
You know, they killed things.
“But, you know, had they been more right people,
it could have been paradise.”
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
Western Colorado Photos II
photographs by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Blue Mesa Reflection
Cliff Near Ouray
Outside the Cabin Where We Stayed
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Photography
Anne Brontë: A Fine and Subtle Spirit
Guest blog by DM Denton
In the mid-1990s, while organizing bookshelves, I happened upon my miniature copy of Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë’s debut novel. Flipping through it I stopped at Chapter 24, The Sands, set in Scarborough on the north-east Yorkshire coast. I was reminded of my visit there in March 1974, which took me up to the town’s medieval castle and into the yard of St. Mary’s church where Anne was buried. I was intrigued to find her interred apart from her family, away from Haworth village and the beautifully brutish moors of West Yorkshire that she and her sisters were associated with.
Even when all I had to go on was a hunch, I recognized Anne as something of a rebel—not in defiance but for discovery. My curiosity is always piqued more by the neglected than the celebrated, so I wanted to explore the connection I felt with…
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In praise of independent publishing
This is a small essay by Deborah Bennison, who is the proprietor of Bennison Books that published my epic poem, The Weirding Storm. I am deeply grateful to Deborah who is an absolutely outstanding editor. The Weirding Storm would not be as good as it is without her superior skills. I really value this essay, which originally appeared in The Wagon Magazine.
This article by Deborah Bennison, the founder of Bennison Books, first appeared in The Wagon Magazine.
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