Judy Lightfoot
Freelance Writer and Poet
Shortlist of author profiles and reviews
Email: judylightfoot@earthlink.net

• HONORS AND AWARDS:
• "Seattle Artists Program 2000" Award, Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle, Washington, October 2000.
• "Excellence in Journalism 2000" Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, for "Ellison's Second Act," cover story for the SEATTLE WEEKLY, June 3, 1999.
• BOOK:
• Calling the Crow (chapbook of poems), Brooding Heron Press, March 1998. To read four poems from Calling the Crow, click here.

• ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, POEMS:
• "A Book of Verse Spreads Holiday Cheer" (Roundup review: BH Fairchild, WS Merwin, Paul Muldoon, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and 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 sidebar: Richard Russo (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.
• "Lakeside Tsunami: Bill Gates' alma mater erupts in controversy over mandatory use of laptop computers" (news story), SEATTLE WEEKLY, March 22, 2001; posted and archived 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" (brief on 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 WEEKLY, 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.
• "Vital Lessons in Education: Two New Books" (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 the 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" (brief on A General Theory of Love, by Thomas Lewis, et. al.), SEATTLE TIMES, May 21, 2000.
• "Birth of a Joyful Noise" (lead Arts Section interview 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" (roundup 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 a poem collection 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" (roundup review of new novels by Bil Wright, Jervey Tervalon, Shay Youngblood, Diane McKinney-Whetstone, and Percival Everett), SEATTLE WEEKLY, 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, Washington: University of Washington Press, January 2000.
• "Call Me Una" (review, Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund), 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" (brief on Clifford Stoll's 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 Juneteenth), SEATTLE WEEKLY, June 3, 1999.
• Interview: John F. Callahan, editor of Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth, SEATTLE WEEKLY, June 3, 1999.
• "On Love" (brief on a poem collection by Edward Hirsch), SEATTLE WEEKLY, May 27, 1999.
• "House of Days" (brief on a poem collection by Jay Parini), SEATTLE WEEKLY, May 27, 1999.
• "Anatomy Lesson," (brief on The Visible Man, a poem collection by Henri Cole), THE STRANGER, March 11, 1999.
• "Equipoise" (brief on 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" (brief on 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" (news article), SEATTLE WEEKLY, October 8, 1998.
• "Blue Willow"(brief on 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" (brief on 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.

• READINGS AND PUBLIC 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, Washington, January 30, 2000.
• KUOW/FM 'Weekday,' dramatic reading of passages from Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth, Seattle, June 14, 1999.
• Vashon Island Books, reading from Calling the Crow, Vashon Island, Washington, May 20, 1998.
• Rendezvous Reading Series, reading from Calling the Crow, Hugo House, Seattle, May 12, 1998.
• Elliott Bay Books, reading from Calling the Crow, Seattle, May 8, 1998.
• Husky Union Building, reading from an unfinished ms. of poems, University of Washington, Seattle, April 15, 1997.
• Elliott Bay Books, reading from The Poem and the World, Seattle, April 5, 1997.
• Bumbershoot, reading from The Poem and the World, Seattle, September 1996.
• Crossroads Mall, reading from The Poem and the World, Bellevue, Washington, September 1996.
• Borders Books, reading from an unfinished ms. of poems, Seattle, August 7, 1996.
• Lecture, "The Life and Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop," Washington Athletic Club, Seattle, October 1991.

• PUBLIC SERVICE - LITERARY:
• 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.
• Conference Manuscript Consultant, "Write on the Sound" Conference, Edmonds, WA, October 1996.
• Judge, Seattle Public Schools Annual Student Competition in Creative Writing, 1993, 1994.

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Professional résumé
Brief bio
Judy Lightfoot's home page