The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) is seeking submissions for its 5th Annual ACW Literary Awards. Begun in 2006, the Adirondack Literary Awards are one of the most popular events of the ACW schedule. The deadline for submissions is March 8, 2010. What follows is the submission guidelines from ACW. Those wishing to submit a book published in 2009 to be considered for an award should send two copies of the book to Director Nathalie Thill, at the ACW office with a brief cover letter including author’s contact information and description of the book’s “qualifications.” Is the author from the Adirondack region, or is the book about or influenced by the Adirondacks in some way? The cover letter should also name which category the author would like the book to be judged under: fiction, poetry, children’s literature, memoir, nonfiction, or photography. There is no entry fee. Do not include a SASE; books cannot be returned but will become part of reading rooms or libraries. The mailing address is: Adirondack Center for Writing, Paul Smith’s College, PO Box 265, Paul Smiths, New York 12970. Questions may be directed to Nathalie Thill at ACW at 518-327-6278 or info@adirondackcenterforwriting.org.
Winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony to be held in June (date TBA via ACW website) at the Blue Mountain Center, which donates space and resources for the event. In addition to awards in each category mentioned above, there is a People’s Choice Award as part of this festive program. For a complete list of 2009 award winners, please check out the ACW Newsletter/Annual Report at our web site, www.adirondackcenterforwriting.org. Most of the books considered for awards are made available for purchase at the ceremony by the authors, and they are happy to sign their books.
The Adirondack Center for Writing is a resource and educational organization that provides support to writers and enhances literary activity and communication throughout the Adirondacks. ACW benefits both emerging and established writers and develops literary audiences by encouraging partnerships among existing regional organizations to promote diverse programs. ACW is based at Paul Smith’s College and is supported by membership and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Oral Roberts died yesterday. He was one of the founders of televangelism and the principle behind Oral Roberts University. What you may not know is that the Adirondacks had its own radio evangelist, Jack Wyrtzen, the founder of Word Of Life ministries (in 1941) and the Word of Life Bible Institute (in 1971) in Schroon Lake. Unless you’ve spent some time driving around Schroon Lake, you may not realize that there is a two-year bible school here in the Adirondacks that grew out of the same kind of public evangelism made popular by Oral Roberts.
You won’t find fraternities or sororities at the Bible Institute, no late-night poetry readings or parties, and you also won’t find a degree, at least not one recognized as collegiate. But you will find a genuinely cult-like atmosphere to immerse your children, and a highly developed indoctrination program. As the Institute’s “Philosophy Statement” says “We believe that doctrine is the foundation for all of our endeavors.” Word of Life Bible Institute’s mission is to provide students “a rigorous academic atmosphere so that he or she might receive both fully transferable course work and structured discipleship in order to live his or her life with maximum effectiveness for the Lord.” How does today’s Christian youth achieve those goals at the Institute? Through rigid control of their every waking moment, isolation from their peers, parents, and culture, and severe punishment for falling out of line.
It’s all in the student handbook, and it’s quite a read (and quite different from Oral Roberts University). Of course the standard stuff is there: Emotional exclamations such as ‘Oh, my God’ and ‘Oh, my Lord’ are a demonstration of disrespect for the name of the LORD
And sure we’ve got to figure that there is no swearing, gambling, sex, drinking, or drugs – but no physical contact? Physical contact between persons of the opposite sex is not permitted on or off campus.
Physical contact between members of the same sex must be within the bounds of biblically acceptable behavior.
There is one exception: When ice and snow present hazardous conditions, a male student may offer his arm to a female student.
In fact two people of the opposite sex cannot be trusted to be alone, period. The “Third Party Standard” assures they are not:
Two students of the opposite sex must have a third party with them at all times.
You figure it might be tough to walk to class while avoiding encounters with someone of the opposite sex? They got that covered:
Students are exempt from the ‘third-party rule’ only in the central area of the campus.
What if a good Christian couple has secured permission from their parents to marry?
Marriages are not allowed during the school year without prior permission from the Executive Dean.
What about getting engaged?
The Student Life Department must be consulted prior to any engagement during the school year. Parental/guardian permission must be given prior to the engagement.
And just to remind those who have committed the greatest marriage sin:
Divorced or separated students are not allowed to date while enrolled at the Bible Institute.
The world is filled with pesky “culture” according to the leaders of the Bible Institute. They are there to make sure you don’t experience any: Word of Life uses a content filtering and firewall system to prohibit access to Internet content that is contrary to the Word of Life Standard of Conduct. . . . All activity is logged and monitored by the Student Life Department.
Just in case a student finds a way to expose themselves to the outside world: All computer monitors must face the public and must be in clear view of supervisors.
What about music? After students have completed their first semester, have written “their biblical principles for entertainment” and have provided the Institute with a copy, they can listen to approved music, but only in electronic format, and only by headphones:
Radios, televisions, clock radios, etc are not permitted at the Bible Institute. They are to be sent home immediately.
All music played publicly at the Bible Institute [a privilege permitted Institute staff] must be screened and approved.
What about movies?
No movies of any kind (DVD, downloaded, streamed, burned, or otherwise) may be played in the dorm rooms at any time, nor may they be kept in the dorm room.
There is to be no attendance at a movie theater.
What about leaving campus?
Special Permission is needed from the Student Life Deans for any of the following:
To travel home or anywhere that would involve an overnight stay. To drive more than 100 miles away from school, (ie. Canada or New York City).
What about the Second Amendment?
All rifles, handguns, bows & arrows, knives, wrist-rockets, BB/Pellet guns, airsoft guns, etc. are not permitted in the residence rooms, in vehicles or on the person while on campus. If you bring them, you will be required to return them to your home.
The “Code of Honor” provides the general atmosphere and restricts:
The use of traditional playing cards
Participation in oath-bound secret organizations (societies), from social dancing of any type, from attendance at the motion picture theater and commercial stage productions.
Christian discretion and restraint will be exercised in all choices of entertainment, including radio, television, audio and visual recordings, and various forms of literature.
Furthermore, it is expected that associates will actively support a local Bible-believing church through service, giving, and allegiance.
That last one doesn’t always work out so well, readers will remember 20-year-old Caleb Lussier, a student at the Word of Life Bible Institute in 2006 who “actively supported” a local church, the 77-year-old Christ Church, just across the street from the Institute in Pottersville.
Only his idea of active support was to burn it to the ground, though he did remove the bibles for safe keeping before lighting the gas. Caleb also threatened three other houses of worship, plus the one he set to the torch in his hometown.
According to local news reports, “Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said Lussier thought the members of Christ Church were hypocrites who deviated from the teachings of the Bible and the word of God. He allegedly robbed the church twice in May. On one occasion he left behind a message written in a Bible: ‘You’ve been warned.'”
Lussier was arrested in his dorm room after a member of another local church saw him at their services and warned the Warren County sheriff’s office that something wasn’t right.
“He didn’t think they were following the Bible the way he thought they should,” Cleveland told the press at the time, “He holds to the principle, but he said he went about it in the wrong way.”
Sarnac Lake wins for musical events this weekend. I’ll be attend every one of them. I’d also love to get to Potsdam to see Aida on the big screen.
Tonight, October 22nd:
In Saranac Lake at BluSeed Studios, open minded mic night is back. Sign up is at 7 pm and The Dust Bunnies host, starting at 7:30. This is the best open mic I’ve ever regularly attended. Musicians and attendees alike are truly supportive amidst originals, cover songs and poetry. Friday, October 23rd:
In Saranac Lake at the Waterhole Upstairs Music Lounge,Rachel Van Slyke returns. She charmed us all this past spring with her lovely voice, solid guitar playing and haunting lyrics. Another musician I admire was riding by and actually whipped his bike around upon hearing her voice—he never got to where he was going. The song “Where I Want To Be” is a real pretty one, and I like the video that accompanies this version. She filmed most of it herself while biking around the country. According to her myspace page she starts at 6 pm.
Saturday, October 24th:
In Potsdam, the Met Live in HD is being played at the Roxy Theater and begins at 1 pm. The Verdi opera Aida is about an Ethiopian Princess who is captured and brought to Egypt as a slave. The Pharaoh’s military commander falls in love with her and must choose between his love for her and for his leader. As if this wasn’t heavy enough, the Pharaoh’s daughter is in love with him. This is one of the most popular operas in history—only La Boheme has been performed more by the Met. If you check out this link you’ll find details about fantastic meals you can get in conjunction with these performances.
In Glens Falls the band Live Without Annette is playing at the Full Moon Bar and Grill. They are a cover band that’s been voted best party band by the Post-Star for a few years in a row. You can check out some of their covers on youtube. I like their sense of humor. They start at 9:30 pm.
In Saranac Lake , celebrate Devito’s Birthday with two jam bands at the Waterhole in Saranac Lake. Jatoba and Raisinhead! The first is acoustic and the second reminiscent of the Grateful Dead, both are a lot of fun. As usual there will be a special cocktail hour at 9 pm to get everyone in the dancin’ mood, and some of the best bartenders are coming out of retirement for this special occasion.
Sunday, October 25th:
In Potsdam, The Met’s Encore presentation of “Aida” in HD is at the Roxy Theater. It will begin at 1 pm and end at 5 pm, just in time for dinner. Photo: Rachel Van Slyke
The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) has announced its 5th Annual High School Writing Retreat which will be held October 22-23, 2009 at Paul Smith’s College. There is space for a total of 90 students in the retreat program, which is open to students in grades 9-12 from school districts in the Adirondacks and surrounding regions. The program will feature workshops and presentations with three acclaimed performance poets. Here is the rest of the announcement form the ACW:
The event consists of two days of poetry and writing, with workshops conducted by three of the nation’s top performance poets. This year we feature Roger Bonair-Agard, Rachel McKibbens, and Samantha Thornhill. Poets’ bios and photos are attached and available on the ACW website at www.adirondackcenterforwriting.org. All three writers are widely published and their stirring performances are celebrated. In addition, they are highly respected and sought-after educators. The program will include a seminar on how to present and perform one’s writing in front of an audience, concluding in a performance by the three teaching poets. Thanks to generous outside funding, the cost of the entire two days, lunch included both days, is only $50 per student. Register by contacting the Adirondack Center for Writing 518-327-6278 or email info@adirondackcenterforwriting.org
The Adirondack Center for Writing is a resource and educational organization that provides support to writers and enhances literary activity and communication throughout the Adirondacks. ACW benefits both emerging and established writers and develops literary audiences by encouraging partnerships among existing regional organizations to promote diverse programs. ACW is based at Paul Smith’s College and is supported by a strong membership and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) has announced its annual Summer Program Series events which will showcase acclaimed authors and performers from around the Adirondacks and Vermont in a variety of venues throughout the North Country during the month of August. Programs and presenters are listed below.
Tom Lewis Curator’s Tour of Lives of The Hudson Exhibition (from a North Country Perspective) and A Reading from The Hudson: A History Friday, August 14, 7pm at the Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs. Tom Lewis, professor of English at Skidmore College, celebrates publication of his fifth book, The Hudson: A History. Among his previous books are Divided Highways: The Interstate Highway System and the Transformation of American Life and Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, both of which became award-winning documentaries. Lewis also co-curated with Ian Berry, Malloy Curator of the Tang, Lives of the Hudson, at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. The interdisciplinary exhibition celebrating the river’s significance to American art, architecture, history, and culture celebrates the observance of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage of discovery up the river bearing his name. The exhibition remains on view July 18, 2009 through March 14, 2010. Lewis will give a curator’s tour from a “North Country” perspective, including logging tales and history of the acclaimed photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard, followed by excerpts from his most recent book. Joe Bruchac Family Friendly Reading & Performance Including Native American Music, History, and A Reading from March Toward the Thunder Tuesday, August 18, 7pm Hancock House in Ticonderoga Moses Circle, Ticonderoga, NY
Joe Bruchac, with his wife, Carol, is founder and co-director of The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle’s Back and Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award). His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review to National Geographic. He has authored more than 120 books for adults and children and his honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children’s Literature and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background, those Native roots are the ones by which he has been most nourished. He, his younger sister Margaret, and his two grown sons, James and Jesse, continue to work extensively in projects involving the understanding and preservation of the natural world, Abenaki culture, Abenaki language and traditional Native skills. They also perform traditional and contemporary Abenaki music together. He often works with his son James teaching wilderness survival and outdoor awareness at the Ndakinna Education Center, their 90-acre family nature preserve. Paige Ackerson-Kiely & M. Dylan Raskin Poetry & Memoir Reading Thursday, August 20, 7pm The Amos & Julia Ward Theatre Route 9N, On the Village Green, Jay, NY
Paige Ackerson-Kiely is the author of In No One’s Land, judged by DA Powell as winner of the 2006 Sawtooth Poetry Prize. She has also received awards and fellowships from Poets & Writers, Vermont Community Foundation, The Willowell Foundation and The Jentel Artist Residency program, among others. Her second book of poems, The Misery Trail, is forthcoming from Ahsahta Press, and she has a novel, Place No Object Here, nearing completion. Paige lives with her family in rural Vermont, where she works at a Wine Store and edits the poetry magazine A Handsome Journal.
M. Dylan Raskin, called a strikingly original and unforgettable narrative voice by the Library Journal, is author of two memoirs, the celebrated Little New York Bastard and Bandanas And October Supplies. Equal parts road story, elegy, and hallucinatory bildungsroman, Bandanas and October Supplies is a bittersweet love story that is like no other book ever written about death, life, and the complex devotion between a mother and a son. The 31-year old author, said to dissect his generation with cool precision, is from Queens, NY.
Rob Cohen & Mary Kathryn Jablonski Fiction & Poetry Reading Thursday, August 27, 7pm Saratoga Arts Center 320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY
Rob Cohen, author of the recently released Amateur Barbarians, is also the author of three previous novels, Inspired Sleep, The Here and Now, and The Organ Builder, and a collection of short stories, The Varieties of Romantic Experience. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a Lila Wallace Writers’ Award. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Harper’s, the Atlantic, Paris Review, Ploughshares, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and other magazines. Cohen has taught fiction writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop, the University of Houston, Harvard University, and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. He currently teaches at Middlebury College.
Mary Kathryn Jablonski is a visual artist/poet who has served as a gallerist at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY since 2002 and is programs consultant to the Adirondack Center for Writing. Her poems have appeared in the Beloit Poetry Journal, The Healing Muse, and Chronogram Magazine, among others. She is the author of the chapbook To the Husband I Have Not Yet Met, and is completing final edits on her first book-length collection of poems. Her poetry was also recently published in Germany by painter/publisher Christoph Ruckhäberle, as it related to a collection of his portraits, in a book coordinating with a January 2009 Berlin exhibition of his work. Eithne McGuinnes In A One Woman Performance of Typhoid Mary Monday, August 31, 7pm Bluseed Studio 24 Cedar Street, Saranac Lake, NY
Eithne McGuinnes is an Irish writer and actor. Her plays include: Miss Delicious, workshopped at Abbey Theatre, Dublin 2007; Tin Cans, commissioned by Dublin City Council, 2006; Limbo, Dublin Fringe Festival, 2000 and 2001; A Glorious Day, public reading, Abbey Theatre, 2000; and Typhoid Mary, Dublin Fringe Festival, 1997, broadcast on RTE Radio, 1998 and revived in 2004. Published short stories: Feather Bed (Scéalta), Anthology of Irish Women Writers, Telegram Books, 2006. The Boat Train, Something Sensational to Read on the Train, Lemon Soap Press, 2005. Her favorite acting roles include: Mary Mallon, Typhoid Mary, 2004 and 1997; Sr.Clementine, The Magdalene Sisters (Golden Lion 2002), Gracie Tracy, Glenroe (RTE Television). Recent theatre: Meg, The Hostage, Wonderland, Dublin, 2009; Olive, Dirty Dusting, Tivoli Theatre, Dublin; and Earth Mother, Menopause the Musical, 2008. Recent TV: The Roaring Twenties, No Laughing Matter, 2008. Other theatre includes: The House of Bernarda Alba, 2002 and The Marriage of Figaro, 1997, at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Cell, best production, Dublin Theatre Festival 1999 and Dublin Trilogy, Passion Machine – best new play, DTF 1998.
About Typhoid Mary – In 1907, Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant, who had, ‘worked her way up from nothing’, to cook for New York’s finest, was seized from her place of work by the NY Board of Health. Accused of being the carrier of typhoid fever, Mary was imprisoned without a trial on an island in the middle of the East River. Totally isolated, a mere ten minute ferry ride from her former home in the Bronx, Mary became a scapegoat; sacrificed to quell the rising public fear that a typhoid epidemic could spread beyond the poor. She became a pawn in the larger ambitions of George Soper; health official who was desperate to identify the first human typhoid carrier in North America. Was Mary maligned? Could she, as the authorities insisted, have carried typhoid, if she herself had never been ill with the disease? Here is the captivating story of a brave Irish peasant who fought tooth and nail for her freedom and took on the very powerful state of New York.
The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) has announced its 4th Annual Adirondack Literary Award winners. The juried awards program honors books published in or about the Adirondacks in the previous year. The awards ceremony, which took place on Sunday at the Blue Mountain Center, is one of the Adirondack Center for Writing’s most popular events. More than seventy writers, publishers, and readers attended the awards ceremony this year. Adirondack Almanack announced this year’s submissions last week. Here are the winners: FICTION Matt Bondurant, The Wettest County in the World (published by Scribner)
This weekend boasts an interesting mixture of professionals and amateurs. From an All-Star Open Mic to an African drumming and dance troupe, both incorporate experienced and inexperienced performers. Often jams and sessions have that kind of mix too – in this way everyone learns something. Amateurs learn to improve their skills and pros learn to improve their patience.
But first . . . there is nothing amateur about the band Atlantic Crossing, which will be at The Amos and Julia Ward Theater in Jay on Friday at 7 pm. They play a mixture of traditional songs and instrumentals from New England, the Celtic British Isles and French Maritime Canada. Music to get your feet tapping and spirits soaring. On Saturday June 6 you have a choice:
The All-Star Open Mic Night, at BluSeed in Saranac Lake; all the winners and some of the hosts of the past season will be performing, the Dust Bunnies and the Starlights among them. What fun – you get to hear an eclectic mix of poetry and songs. Performers travel from all around the region for these democratic events. Some of the newer performers have a chance to let go of some of their first time stage-fright jitters because this will be their second time in front of an audience – they’re pros now, right? Since this is also a chance to support BluSeed the cover charge will be $6 instead of the usual $3. The performances start at 7:30 pm and will be well worth it.
There is a recital to be given by the students of the accomplished Saranac Lake multi-instrumentalist Sue Grimm – obviously it’s not professional but so cute! It’s being held at BluSeed at 2 pm. You never know, you might see a future star just starting to shine.
In Long Lake at The Quakenbush Long View Lodge on Deerland Road there will be an open jam held from 4 – 6 pm. Call (518) 624-3879 for details.
The 4th Annual Adirondack Center For Writing (ACW) Literary Awards Ceremony will be held this Sunday, June 7, in Blue Mountain Lake, 3-5 pm at the Blue Mountain Center. The Adirondack Literary Awards is a juried awards program that honors books published in or about the Adirondacks in the previous year. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to ACW (phone or email) if you plan to attend.
Juried awards will be given in fiction, poetry, children’s literature, and nonfiction, plus a People’s Choice Award. ACW members are encouraged to send in their votes for their favorite book of the year via email, phone, or mail. A complete list of submissions by category is below. Voting is also permitted at the awards ceremony itself. Most of the books considered for awards are made available for purchase at the ceremony by the authors, and they are happy to sign their books. Questions may be directed to ACW at 518-327-6278, acwevents@gmail.com. Entries of Books Published in 2008 :
Poetry – Reasons to Hate the Sky, Stuart Bartow , WordTech Editions Threat of Pleasure , Philip Memmer, Word Press Lemon Peeled the Moment Before: New and Selected Poems 1967-2008, Roger Mitchell , Ausable Press; The Long Fault: Poems, Jay Rogoff , Louisiana State University;
For 45 years the cornerstone of any Adirondack library has been TheAdirondack Reader, compiled and edited by Paul Jamieson. The anthology, published by Macmillan in 1964, collected pivotal and perceptive accounts of how people have experienced these woods since the arrival of Europeans 400 years ago.
Any true Adirondack geek already has a copy of the Reader, but now you need another. The Adirondack Mountain Club last month published a third edition that adds 30 entries written since the second edition came out in 1982. Another reason to covet this update: pictures! A 32-page color insert of drawings, photographs, engravings and paintings spans Adirondack history, from William James Stillman and Winslow Homer to contemporary painters Laura von Rosk and Lynn Benevento. The original Reader had some black-and-white plates; the second edition had none.
It’s a hefty 544-page tome, but any book that attempts to get at the essence of the Adirondacks is going to be epic. Holdovers from earlier editions (six entries had to be cut to make room) include many “there I was” accounts, starting with Father Isaac Jogues’s 1642 description of having his fingernails bitten off by Mohawk captors (“our wounds — which for not being dressed, became putrid even to the extent of breeding worms”) and becoming the first white man to see the Adirondack interior — the first to live to tell anyway. Hard to top that kind of journey narrative, but almost every piece in the Reader commands attention. Entries weave back and forth between fiction, history, essay and poetry organized into ten subject categories Jamieson established nearly a half century ago.
Mixed in with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Francis Parkman, Robert Louis Stevenson, Theodore Dreiser and Verplanck Colvin are present-day writers Christopher Shaw, Christine Jerome, Sue Halpern, Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Folwell, Amy Godine and Philip Terrie, among others. Neal Burdick contributes an essay on the century-old silence still surrounding the question “Who Shot Orrando P. Dexter?,” a land baron hated by the locals in Santa Clara. Burdick also served as the book’s co-editor, assisting Jamieson, who died in 2006 at age 103.
“It’s still Paul’s book,” Burdick says. “I did the legwork. His name is more prominent on the cover at my request.” Jamieson approved each new writing, and many excerpts and articles were included on recommendations by other writers, Burdick adds. Burdick is editor of the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Adirondac magazine as well as a writer and poet in his own right.
More than any other book, this collection comes closest to defining the Adirondack sense of place we all feel but few can articulate. It’s as much a pleasure to read as an education, and Jamieson’s introductory sections feel prescient. He still seems very much the dean of Adirondack letters (a new edition of his classic Adirondack Canoe Waters: North Flow is also in the pipeline). Jamieson was an author, professor of English at St. Lawrence University, an advocate for Adirondack land preservation and canoe access, and an explorer of this region’s topography as well as literature.
The book is beautiful but alas blemished; sloppy proofreading has allowed typos to creep into the text, in both the older material and new additions. Further printings are planned, perhaps a paperback edition. We hope the copyediting will be brought up to the standards of the writers represented.
The Reader is $39.95 at book and outdoor supply stores, by calling 800-395-8080, or online at www.adk.org.
This press release regarding the upcoming Jay Studio Tour is forwarded for your information:
The village of Jay, with its picturesque New England style village green and quaint covered bridge, transforms itself Saturday, July 26th into a town wide artist’s colony open to the public. Over the years, this very unique community has become a haven for the creative spirit. With it’s astonishing views, good studio spaces, and welcoming and tolerant philosophy, artists and crafts people have found a nurturing and supportive home in this village among the High Peaks. For one day, July 26th from 10 to 6 PM, 12 of Jay’s studios will be open to the public. The tour is organized to follow a map that winds from village to farmland and mountaintop and showcases Jay’s physical beauty as well as the talents of her residents.
At Young’s Gallery, Sue Young will be demonstrating raku at 11 and 3 o’clock. Raku is a Japanese firing technique that was “Americanized” in the 1950s to produce glazes with a lustrous appearance. Terry Young will be making paper using plant materials from his garden and cotton linters. Terry will also be hand binding his book “Twenty Ways to See Whiteface” in the afternoon. There will be ample opportunity to engage both artists in a discussion of their work and technique. The gallery also features work by both Sue (traditional pottery) and Terry (paintings and clay sculpture) as well as many other North Country artists.
The newest addition to the Village Green in Jay is The Amos and Julie Ward Theater. The building will be open; Holly Carey’s quilts will be hanging in the theater space and there will be a gallery of work from the JEMS Saturday Artists’ Series. Holly’s Carey does primarily bed quilts, machine pieced and quilted. Her affinity for color and texture inspires her traditional patterns
Next door to the theater is the Village Green Gallery, a one-day collaborative Gallery effort by photographer Nadine McLaughlin, Philadelphia ceramicist Joan Marie Turbeck and painter Joan Turbek. Nadine’s sensitive photos of local landscapes and animals are currently the featured exhibit in the Amos and Julia Ward Theatre next to the Gallery. She will be showcasing her books of original poetry, cards, and prints in both venues. Joan Turbek’s illustrative watercolors will be shown and Joan Marie Turbek will contribute several pieces of clay sculpture highlighting her whimsical and provocative take on vegetables.
The Jay Craft Center, home, studio and craft shop of Lee Kazanis and Cheri Cross, will introduce guest potter Julia Geronski. Julia will be demonstrating wheel throwing and press molding techniques.
Opening his studio for the second year will be Bill Evans. Located on Rt 9, the building which houses both Bill’s gallery space and living area has been in renovation since 2006. Bill’s landscapes of the Adirondacks are well known and highly respected; he has work hanging at The Birch Store and Skylight Gallery in Keene Valley. Bill will be showing primarily oil landscapes-many of local scenes. This is a unique opportunity for a once a year look into the creative process.
Buttons Buttons is a working design studio producing pillows and decorative items made from vintage and antique textiles and buttons. Designer Barbara Smith will be introducing her line of evening bags created from a special collection of rare and unusual antique materials. This year, the studio tour will feature the grand opening of “Ben Lacy’s Cabin”-a handmade one room 1920’s cabin. Moved from Lacy Road in Keene and reconstructed in Jay, it houses the Buttons Buttons showroom for the Adirondack Collection of pillows.
Grace Pothast at Gallery in the Glen will be demonstrating watercolor and egg tempera in the converted milk house of the dairy farm she shares with her family. Grace will also feature a special children’s studio where the youngsters can create their own work of art.
Nearly at the top of the Jay Mt. Road you will find W.P. ‘Pete’ Jennerjahn’s studio. Pete will discuss and illustrate the differences and similarities between the various mediums: graphite, watercolor, pastels, oils and acrylic. It is a breath-taking location and a chance to see a large body of work representing a lifetime of experience.
Located on the Trumbull’s Corner Road in one of Jay’s most interesting homes is Swallowtail Studio where Wayne Ignatuck designs and builds furniture. Wayne recently completed a collaboration with architect David Childs. The child’s desk they built is being shown at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. Recently, Wayne has been expanding the definition of rustic furniture. Work presently in the studio will include furniture custom designed for the newly rebuilt Lake Placid Lodge.
Paul’s Café at Standard Falls Iris Garden will feature a special day of baker Nancy Garrand’s Chocolate Extravaganza: every and anything chocolate. The café has become the home of the Land of Makebelieve artifacts and mementoes.
Nationally recognized photographer Nathan Farb rounds out the Studio Tour this year. Nathan’s books include “The Adirondacks”, “100 Years of the Adirondacks”, and “Adirondack Wilderness”. He will be previewing another book entitled “Summer of Love’, and showing excerpts from a video project from Arkansas that he has been working on. The studio is handicapped accessible and will be American Sign Language interpreted. Nathan will be available to sign his books and discuss his photography.
The Tour Map is available at all of the tour locations, many businesses in the area and for download at the tour website: Jaystudiotour.com.
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The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) is seeking submissions for its 5th Annual ACW Literary Awards. Begun in 2006, the Adirondack Literary Awards are one of the most popular events of the ACW schedule. The deadline for submissions is March 8, 2010. What follows is the submission guidelines from ACW.
General inquiries about the Adirondack Almanack should be directed to editor 
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