Judy Lightfoot, PhD
Writer, Volunteer, Education
Consultant
Brief
biography
EDUCATION
- Ph.D.
in English, University of Washington. Diss: "Marlowe's
and Chapman's Hero and Leander and the Poetry of the 1590s"
- M.A.
in English, SUNY Albany
- B.A.
in English magna cum laude, SUNY Albany
WORK EXPERIENCE
- Writer,
Crosscut, March
2009-present
- Interim
Director, National Alliance on
Mental Illness (NAMI) Greater Seattle, Seattle, WA, Summer 2007
- Founding
Head, Eastside Preparatory School, Kirkland, WA. Head of School 2002-2004
- Visiting
Lecturer, Department
of English, University of Washington, Seattle WA, 2000-2001
- Teacher,
Department of English, Lakeside
School, Seattle WA (Dept. Chair 1997-99), 1974-2000
- Adjunct
Professor, Seattle-Pacific University, Seattle WA 1981-84, 1990-92
- Instructor,
University of Puget Sound,
orientation in college writing, Tacoma WA, Fall 1987
- Visiting
Professor, Department of
English, University of Washington, Seattle WA, Summer 1987
- Visiting
Lecturer, Department of English,
University of Washington, Seattle WA, 1986-87
- Teaching
Assistant, Department of
English, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1969-71
- Instructor
of English, Sweet Briar College, Sweet
Briar VA, 1965-69
COMMUNITY SERVICE
- Trustee,
Board of Trustees, Plymouth Healing
Communities, Seattle, 2009-present
- Tutor,
Seattle Education Access,
2007-2009
- Founder
and CEO, Freestyle
Volunteer, Seattle, 2008-present.
- Trustee,
Board of Trustees, University
District Ecumenical Campus Coalition, Seattle, 2007-present
- Teacher,
Family
to Family courses, NAMI
Greater Seattle, 2007-2009
- Mentor, Community Mentor Project, WA DSHS, Mental Health
Division (with Harborview Mental Health Services Supported Employment
Program and NAMI Greater Seattle),
Summer 2008-present
- Tutor,
Literacy Source, 2007-2009.
- Speaker,
“A Family Perspective,” Thurston
County Mental Health Court Training, Olympia, WA, May 16, 2008
- Fundraiser,
Hofmann House for
Women, National Alliance on
Mental Illness (NAMI) Greater Seattle, 2007-2008
- Director,
Board of Directors, National
Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Greater Seattle, 2007
- Keynote
speaker, “A Family Perspective,” Criminal Justice and Mental Illness in King County: A Commitment to Change, Burien, WA, September 28, 2007
- Organizer
and moderator: "Reading
Matters: Seattle Voices for Rohinton Mistry," Town Hall Seattle, November
11, 2002
- Organizer,
Public
Marathon Readaround of Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth, Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center, Seattle, June 19, 1999
- Panelist-Reviewer,
National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington D.C., November 1987, March 1988, June 1992, February
1994, May 1997
BOOK
ARTICLES, REVIEWS, POEMS
- “A small step for the
generation that inhaled,” Crosscut, November 20, 2009
- “Saying Yes,”
Crosscut, November
19, 2009
- “Crosscut’s eye on the invisible,” Crosscut, November 4, 2009
- “Is God violent?”
Crosscut, November 3, 2009
- “Ending
homelessness: How are we doing?”
Crosscut, October 29,
2009
- “A
Transit-Loving, Car-Hating, Bike-Riding Progressive Environmentalist Casts
Her Vote for Mayor,” Seattle
Weekly, October 27, 2009
- “Seattle, toward
a ‘MetroNation’,” Crosscut, October 15,
2009
- “Shiga’s
Garden: Fittingly, a story of sunshine and cooperation,” Crosscut, October 13,
2009
- “Homes, not
handcuffs,”
Crosscut, September
29, 2009
- “Death by 1033 cuts,”
Crosscut, September
22, 2009
- “How a popular Seattle
writer was labeled an anti-white racist,” Crosscut, September
21, 2009
- “Back to school homeless,”
Crosscut, September
9, 2009
- “Inside a tent
city near Microsoft,” Crosscut, August
10, 2009
- “A Seattle daughter learns
a California Way,” Crosscut, July 20,
2009
- “News from Nickelsville,” Crosscut, August 3,
2009
- “Vonnegut’s village,
and mine,” Crosscut, July 20,
2009
- “Dignity and pity in a tent
city,” Crosscut, July 8,
2009
- “A narcissist goes
volunteering,” Crosscut, July 2, 2009
- “At the Beach of the King:
A Father’s Day story,” Crosscut, June 21,
2009
- “’How I
wonder how they are,’” Crosscut, June 9, 2009
- “Two brothers, and a
lifetime’s quarrel,” Crosscut, May 31,
2009
- “Gerald keeps his job,”
Crosscut, May 19,
2009
- “The Soloist: An extraordinary duet,” Crosscut, May 12, 2009
- “Alfred gets to tell his
story,” Crosscut, May 2,
2009
- “How about we talk, once a
week?” Crosscut, April 7,
2009
- “A Nickelsville
saga with a happy ending,” Crosscut, March 31,
2009
- “Get to
know the real people in tents,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 11, 2008
- "A Book of
Verse Spreads Holiday Cheer" (Roundup review: Fairchild, Merwin, Muldoon, Voigt, Poems of the American West),
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December
20, 2002
- "Shocking:
How Thomas Edison Helped Develop the Electric Chair" (Review of
Richard Moran's Electrocutioner's
Current), Seattle Weekly, December
18, 2002
- "Mistry Cancels Tour" (Rohinton
Mistry, author of Family Matters), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 6,
2002
- "Tragical Mistry Tour,"
SEATTLE WEEKLY November 6, 2002
- Interview:
Jeffrey Eugenides (author of Middlesex),
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 25,
2002
- "Talk
of Sea-Town: What a literary magazine can do that a novel can't"
(Review of StringTown #5) Seattle Weekly, October 16,
2002
- Interview:
Jim Lehrer (author of No Certain Rest), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 27, 2002
- "The
People’s Poet: Does poetry have to be dumb to be popular?"
(review of Billy Collins's Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and
Selected Poems), SEATTLE WEEKLY September 18, 2002; posted at Arts & Letters Daily September
19, 2002
- Interview:
Eric Scigliano (author of Love, War, and
Circuses: The Age-Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 16,
2002
- Interview:
Michael Crummey (author of River Thieves)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 4, 2002
- Interview:
Judy Blunt (author of Breaking Clean) Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March
22, 2002 (reprinted in the Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel)
- Interview: Indu Sundaresan (author
of The Twentieth Wife) Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, February 22, 2002
- "Bring
on the Bards" (article on Seattle's 2002 Poetry Series: Cornelius
Eady, Robert Creeley,
Heather McHugh, Jorie Graham) Seattle Weekly, February 21,
2002
- "To
Tell the Truth" (review of Duong Thu Huong's
Beyond Illusions) Los Angeles
Times, February 3, 2002
- Interview:
Alexandra Fuller (author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 1,
2002
- Interview:
Gregory Martin (author of Mountain City), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 4, 2002
- Interview:
Jimmy Carter (author of Christmas In Plains), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 7,
2001
- Interview:
Kitty Harmon (editor of The Pacific Northwest Landscape: a Painted
History, intro. Jonathan Raban), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 9,
2001
- Interview:
Linda Bierds (author of The Seconds), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 12,
2001
- Interview:
Gary Pomerantz (author of Nine Minutes,
Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy & Triumph of ASA Flight 529), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 7,
2001
- "Skin-Crossed
Lovers" (review of Heidi Ardizzone's
and Earl Lewis's Love On Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White),
Seattle Weekly, August 15,
2001
- Interview:
Ethan Canin (author of Carry Me Across
the Water), Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, August 3, 2001
- Interview:
William Wong (author of Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian
America), Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, July 27, 2001
- "Brain
Drain: World-Class Profs Leave U.W." (news story), Seattle Weekly, June 7, 2001
- Interview:
Sam Wineburg (author of Historical
Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 1, 2001
- Interview:
Richard Russo (sidebar), author of Empire Falls, Seattle Weekly, May 31, 2001
- "Fiction
About Slavery Finds Humanity Amid Injustice" (review of Charles
Johnson's Soulcatcher), Seattle Times,March 25, 2001. Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism
vol 163, Gale Publications, 2002.
- "Lakeside
Tsunami: Bill Gates' alma mater erupts in controversy over mandatory use
of laptop computers" (news story), Seattle Weekly, March 22, 2001; posted at Arts & Letters Daily March 25,
2001
- "Tressed Out" (review of Tenderheaded:
a Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories, ed. Juliette
Harris and Pamela Johnson), Seattle
Weekly, March 1, 2001
- "Family
Drama Full of Fight" (review of Terry McMillan's A Day Late
and a Dollar Short) Seattle Times,February 16, 2001
- "An
Impressive Array of Poets Coming to Town" (article on Seattle's
2001 poetry series: C. K. Williams, Adam Zagajewski,
Claudia Rankine, Matthew Rohrer, Louise Gluck), Seattle
Weekly, January 25, 2001
- "Loss
of Love, Faith in Mexico Portrait" (review of Carlos Fuentes' The
Years with Laura Diaz), Seattle Times,December 24, 2000
- "Crossroads
of Destiny" (review of Madison Smartt
Bell's Master of the Crossroads), Seattle Times,November 12, 2000
- "Busch
Collection Shows Genius for Storytelling" (review of Frederick
Busch's Don't Tell Anyone), Seattle
Times,October 15, 2000.
- "How
the Dead Live:
With Much Ill Will" (review of Will Self's novel), Seattle Times,October 15, 2000
- "Life
Lessons for a Country Girl" (review of Treasures in Heaven,
by Kathleen Alcalá), Seattle Times,October 8, 2000
- "Rhymes
and Reasons: Books by a Trio of Established Poets" (review of
William Merwin's The River Sound, John
Hollander's Figurehead and Other Poems, Eavan
Boland's The Lost Land), Seattle
Times,October
5, 2000
- Butterfly
Burning (review of the novel
by Zimbabwean writer Yvonne Vera), Seattle
Weekly, October 5, 2000
- "Courageous
Heroine of Sugar Island" (review of Ivonne Lamazares' novel), Seattle Times,September 24, 2000
- "Two
New Books Give Vital Lessons in Education" (review of Diane Ravitch's Left Back: A Century of Failed School
Reforms and David T. Kearns' and James Harvey's A Legacy of
Learning: Your Stake in Standards and New Kinds of Public Schools), Seattle Times,September 10, 2000
- Seattle
Poets Take You On a Journey of Words," (review of Alan Chong Lau's Blues and Greens, Susan Rich's The
Cartographer's Tongue, Edward Harkness's Saying
the Necessary, Molly Tenenbaum's By a
Thread), Seattle Times,August
27, 2000
- "Blackwater Lightship
- Rich, Vital" (review of Colm Tóibín's novel), Seattle
Times,August 27, 2000
- "Engagement
Character's Hypersensitive" (review of Catherine Bush's Rules
of Engagement), Seattle Times,August 20, 2000
- "Black
Rose
- Inspirational Story" (review of novel by Tananarive
Due), Seattle Times,August 14, 2000
- "Conditions
of Faith
Tackles Provocative Subjects" (review of novel by Alex Miller), Seattle Times,August 6, 2000
- “Blackberry
Wine Fine Follow-up to Chocolat"
(review of novel by Joanne Harris), Seattle
Times,August 4, 2000
- "Reflections
Reflects African-American Life" (review of Deborah Willis's Reflections
in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present), Seattle Times,July 30, 2000
- "Tree
of Life" (review of Raphaël Confiant's Mamzelle
Dragonfly), Seattle Weekly, July 27,
2000
- "Saying
the Necessary" (review, book of poetry by Edward Harkness), Seattle
Weekly, July 20,2000
- "Masculine
Mystique: Are Boys the Losers in the Gender War?" (review,
Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys:
How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men, and William S.
Pollack, Real Boys' Voices), Seattle
Weekly, June 15, 2000
- "Characters
Lonesome but Not Deep" (review, Stanley Crouch, Don't
the Moon Look Lonesome), Seattle
Times, June 4, 2000
- "Dame
and Demon: Becoming Madame Mao" (review of the novel by Anchee Min), Seattle
Weekly, June 1, 2000
- "Love
Book Overwrought but Well Worth Reading" (review, Thomas Lewis,
et. al., A General Theory of Love), Seattle Times, May 21, 2000
- "Birth of a
Joyful Noise" (lead Arts section article on Andrew Ward, his book
Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers, and
his PBS documentary on the Jubilees), Seattle Times, Apr 30, 2000
- "Spring
Rain" (review: Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours; Jane
Cooper, Flashboat; Giacomo
Leopardi, Selected Poems, tr. Eamon Grennan; and J. D.
McClatchy, 10 Commandments), Seattle
Weekly, Apr 20, 2000
- "By a
Thread" (brief on poems by Molly Tenenbaum),
Seattle Weekly, Mar 2, 2000
- "Rhymes
and Reasons: Seattle Hosts Poetry's All-Stars" (on Philip Levine,
The Mercy; Frank Bidart, Desire;
and Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red), SEATTLE WEEKLY Feb 24, 2000
- African
American Writers - a Diversity of Themes, Voices" (review of new
novels by Bil Wright, Jervey
Tervalon, Shay Youngblood, Diane
McKinney-Whetstone, and Percival Everett), Seattle Times,Feb
13, 2000
- "Rails
Follows the Tracks of Two Families" (review, Jeffery Renard Allen, Rails Under My Back), Seattle Times,Feb 6, 2000.
- "Abuzz
With Words" (review, Swarm, by Jorie
Graham), Seattle Weekly, Jan 20, 2000
- "Autumnal"
(poem), Seattle Poets and Photographers: A Millennium Reflection. Seattle,
WA: University of Washington Press, January 2000
- "Call
Me Una" (review, Sena
Jeter Naslund, Ahab's Wife), Seattle Weekly, Dec 2, 1999
- "Troubled
Lovers in History" (brief on poems by Albert Goldbarth), Seattle
Weekly, Dec 2, 1999
- "On the
Bus With Rosa Parks" (brief on poems by Rita Dove), Seattle Weekly, Nov 25,
1999
- "Heretical
Case Against Computers in Schools" (review, Clifford Stoll, High-Tech
Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom), Seattle Times, Nov 7, 1999
- "Tense
Novel Probes Killings in Atlanta" (review of Toni Cade Bambara's Those
Bones Are Not My Child), SEATTLE TIMES October 24, 1999
- "Pam I Am"
(review of Pam Houston's A Little More About Me), Seattle Weekly, October 7,
1999
- "On
the Road Again" (review of The Essential Basho,
tr. Sam Hamill), Seattle Weekly, July 22, 1999
- "Ellison's
Second Act: Visible At Last" (cover article - review of the novel
Juneteenth), Seattle Weekly, June 3, 1999
- Interview:
John F. Callahan, editor of Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth,
Seattle Weekly, June 3, 1999
- "On
Love" – scroll down the page (review of a poem
collection by Edward Hirsch), Seattle
Weekly, May 27, 1999
- "House
of Days" – scroll down the page (review of a poem
collection by Jay Parini Seattle Weekly, May 27, 1999
- "Anatomy
Lesson," (review of The Visible Man, a poem collection by
Henri Cole), The Stranger
(Seattle) March 11, 1999
- "Equipoise"
(review of a poem collection by Kathleen Halme),
Seattle Weekly, March 4, 1999
- "Emerging
From the Wreck" (review of poet Adrienne Rich's Midnight
Salvage), Seattle Weekly,
February 4, 1999
- "Storm"
(review of a poem collection by Judith Skillman), Seattle Weekly, January 28,
1999
- "Like
Watching Water" (poem), Echoing Eyes, Visible Tongues: Art Fusion
at Habitude (exhibition of paintings and poems), Ballard, Washington, November
1998 - January 1999
- "Still
Life in Milford" (review of a poem collection by Thomas Lynch),
Seattle Weekly, November 5,
1998
- "Richard
Hugo House Opens With a Bang" (article), Seattle Weekly, October 8, 1998
- "Blue
Willow" (review of a poem collection by Molly Tenenbaum),
Seattle Weekly, August 27,
1998
- "Poetry
by a Big Fool" (review of Sam Hamill's
book Gratitude Seattle
Weekly, August 20, 1998
- "Picnic,
Lightning" (review of a poem collection by Billy Collins), Seattle Weekly, July 30,
1998
- "When
I've Been Thinking the World Is Coming to an End" (poem), Green Lake Newsletter Spring 1997
- "Like
Watching Water" (poem), The Poem and the World, III (Seattle,
Washington: The Literary Center, 1994)
- "Minutiae"
(poem), Fine Madness Winter 1994
- "Aquarian,"
"Long Distance," and "New Year's Day" (poems), Portland Review, Spring 1994
- "Incident"
and "Talking in the Wild" (poems), Poetry Northwest, Fall 1992
- "Absolutes"
(poem), Crab Creek Review, 1991
- "Husbandry"
(poem), Bellingham Review, 1990
- "Anima"
(poem), Spindrift 1990
- "Two
New Books: Vertebrae and Sourlands"
(review of poetry collections by, respectively, Sam Green and Jana
Harris), Literary Center Quarterly,
Seattle, 1989
- "Thanksgiving"
(poem), Christian Science Monitor,
November 17, 1985
- "In
Tent" (poem), Christian Science
Monitor, October 4, 1985
- "La
Push, Ocean Park" (poem), Puget
Soundings, 1982
- "Saskatchewan
Stalemate" (play review), Seattle
Weekly, 1980
- "Climbing
Mt. Rainier" (personal essay), Seattle
Weekly, 1979
- "Learning
to Run 10K" (personal essay), Seattle
Weekly, 1978
- "The
Hard Rules of the Beach" (personal essay), Seattle Weekly,1977
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS, CONSULTATIONS,
WORKSHOPS
- “Hofmann
House for Women: Making a Home, Remaking Their Lives,” Washington State
Psychiatric Association Newsletter,
Vol XLIV No. 4, Summer
2007, pp. 5-6.
- Overlake School
(Bellevue, WA), audit of the 5-12 English program, November 3-4,
2004
- Bainbridge
Island High School (Bainbridge Island, WA), all-day session leading an
English department redesign of the 9-10 program, June 15, 2004
- "Moral Education: Not an Add-On," King County Journal,
October 21, 2003, p. 6
- Seattle Institute of Psychoanalysis
(Seattle, WA), six-week seminar, "Language in Literature and in the
Therapeutic Situation: Analyzing Elizabeth Bishop," April-May 2003
- "Thinking
Outside the Edtech Box: Using the
Computer-Technology Debate to Help Teachers Analyze Pedagogy," Independent
School (NAIS magazine), Spring 2003
- International
School of Naples (Italy), workshop with all faculty K-12,
"Critical Thinking and Writing Across the Curriculum,” May 2002
- "Caught
in the Web: Developing Best Practices in English Edtech,"
Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools(PNAIS), Portland OR, October 12,
2001
- Lakeside School
(Seattle, WA), "Teaching Literature and Writing in the LEEP
Program," June 18-19, 2001
- International
School of Prague (Czech Republic), 2-day session, "From
Novices to Expert Learners: Designing a Student-Centered Curriculum,"
March 2001
- Weekday,
National Public Radio (KUOW/FM Seattle), "Computers in
the Classroom," July 19, 2000
- "White Teacher, Black Literature" and "Turning
Writing Into Thinking," PNAIS Conference, Portland, OR, October 1997
- "An
American-Centered Paradigm for a Global Literary Curriculum," Teaching World History,
ed. Heidi Roupp (M.E. Sharpe) 1996
- "Inventing Courses in Global Literatures," Pacific Basin
Conference, Honolulu, HI, July 1996
- Edmonds School District #15 (Edmonds, WA), half-day session for
English teachers, "Turning Writing into Thinking," August 1995
- Bainbridge Island
High School (Bainbridge Island, WA), full-day session for the English
department, "Thinking Writing," August 1994
- "Inventing a Course in Japanese Literature," National
Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference, Seattle, WA, November
1992
- "A Short
Course of Independent Study for Secondary Teachers of Modern Poetry,"
English Journal, January 1992
- "Whitman from the Inside Out," Vital Signs 2:
Bringing Together Reading and Writing, ed. James L. Collins
(Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann-Boynton/Cook, 1991)
- Bainbridge Island School District #303 (B.I., WA), 5-day
"Summer Writing Institute" for teachers K-12, June 18-22, 1990,
with three follow-ups in 1991
- "Studying the Harlem Renaissance and Their
Eyes Were Watching God," Vital Signs 1, ed. James L.
Collins (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann-Boynton/Cook, 1990)
- "Teaching Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior and
"Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God,"
Washington State Council of Teachers of English (WSCTE) Conference,
Bellevue, WA, November 1989
- American Heart Association (Seattle, WA), 1-day staff consultation
on writing for the AHA, April 1987
- Holland Hall School, (Tulsa, OK), 2-day institute on teaching
writing, Spring 1983
- The Bush School (Seattle, WA), weekly seminar in English teaching
and curriculum, September 1981 - June 1982
LITERARY READINGS AND APPEARANCES
- Kane Hall, University of Washington, reading from Seattle Poets
& Photographers: A Millennium Reflection, Seattle, February
8, 2000
- Third Place Books, reading from Seattle Poets &
Photographers: A Millennium Reflection, Lake Forest Park, WA, January
30, 2000
- KUOW/FM 'Weekday,' reading of passages from Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth, Seattle, WA, June 14,
1999
- Vashon Island Books, reading from Calling the Crow, Vashon
Island, WA, May 20, 1998
- Rendezvous Reading Series, reading from Calling the Crow, Hugo
House, Seattle, WA, May 12, 1998
- Elliott Bay Books, reading from Calling the Crow, Seattle,
WA, May 8, 1998
- Elliott Bay Books, reading from The Poem and the World,
Seattle, WA, April 5, 1997
- Bumbershoot, reading from The Poem and the World, Seattle,
WA, September 1996
- Lecture, "The Life and Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop,"
Women’s University Club, Seattle, WA, October 1991
HONORS AND AWARDS
- "Seattle
Artists Program 2001" Award, Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle, WA,
October 2000
- "Excellence
in Journalism 2000" Award from the Society of Professional
Journalists for "Ellison's
Second Act," cover story, Seattle Weekly Books Quarterly, June 3, 1999
- Distinguished
Teacher, White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, 1993
- National
Endowment for the Humanities Teacher-Scholar Award (“Modern American
Poetry” fellowship) Sept 1989 - June 1990
- National
Endowment for the Humanities Independent Study Award (“Shakespeare's
Theater” fellowship) Summer 1984
- Distinguished
Secondary School Teacher, University of Chicago, 1983
Top of page
Lightfoot's home page
e-mail: judylightfoot@earthlink.net