[stylist] A New Member

Thu Dec 25 21:23:38 UTC 2008

Judith here.  I never write about my handicap.  I've mentioned my disease, 
MS in several pieces.  I enjoy writing the press releases I do for the 
projects I am working on.  It's that different strokes thing.  Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
To: "'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 3:43 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member


> Donna:
>
> Thanks for the welcome!
>
> Ah, press releases!  I've written too many of them myself and would rather
> avoid doing it if I could.  Perhaps the next time I need one, I'll have 
> you
> do it!
>
> Aw, shucks re: getting paid only twice.  But then again, the point in
> creative writing shouldn't be to get money.  If that was the main goal, 
> one
> would probably not reach one's full creative potential.  Still, it is nice
> to get money.  The trick here is not to get paid directly for publishing
> your work, but to make it pay indirectly.  I've been paid about a total of
> four thousand dollars for publishing pieces or poems in various venues, 
> but
> I have earned more than thirty six thousand dollars from grants and
> fellowships.  My having published many pieces helped me make a strong 
> grant
> or fellowship application, you understand.  And then there are the
> invitations to present at conferences and schools, most of them coming 
> after
> someone read something I wrote and thought I'd be great for them. 
> Honoria,
> you know.  Many writers, though they make no money from royalties,
> nevertheless find it easy to secure teaching posts at colleges and
> universities.  So the thing to do is plumb such auxiliary sources of
> revenue.
>
> I will be the first to confess that my work doesn't warrant the earnings
> I've reaped, for there are many wonderful writers I know who do much 
> better
> work and more of it too, but I've made a study of these indirect methods 
> and
> have fairly mastered them.  But I am glad I never think about this when I 
> am
> creating something, and it's only afterwards that I decide how best to
> profit by it.  Perhaps it is because of the kind of poet that I am that
> gives me not only the opportunity to be so cunning about this but also the
> NECESSITY.  What I mean is that I belong to a certain species of poet who
> can only write a poem once every while, in my case, once every two months.
> Not prolific at all.  An idea has to marinate for this long before it is
> ready to be pinned down on paper.  So, I have the opportunity between one
> poem and another, and because of the low productivity, I NEED to wring 
> every
> last drop of gold out of each one!
>
> One small advantage to my poetic process, by the way, is that when a poem 
> is
> written, it is already the final draft or very near it.
>
> Donna and others, what do you write about?  I am wondering if blind
> characters populate your work.  As for me, my work always has something to
> do with my deafblindness or my community.  I never write mainstream
> material.
>
> Thanks again for giving me a warm welcome!
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Donna Hill
> Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 1:21 PM
> To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
>
> Hi John,
> Welcome to the list.  I am Donna Hill from the Endless Mountains region
> of Pennsylvania.  I was born legally blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa and
> grew up trying to be sighted.  I eventually got my first guide dog after
> graduating from college with a degree in English lit and taught myself
> to read Braille.  I am a songwriter and spent most of my working life
> pursuing my music goals and have three recordings.
>
> All along I have done other types of writing -- poetry, short stories
> and essays.  Currently, I am working on my first novel -- a fantasy -- 
> which is about half done.  Most of my time, however, is spent doing
> writing as an advocate for blind people and more specifically for NFB's
> Performing Arts Division (PAD).
>
> My greatest successes as a writer have been through my work as a
> publicist, first for myself and more recently for PAD.  I always get a
> kick out of it when a newspaper or website prints one of my press
> releases verbatum.  I received a grant many years ago to do a booklet
> called "Unopened Gifts" on inclusion of people with disabilities into
> church communities.  Other than that, I have only been compensated for
> two articles, neither of which was published.  The first was on
> inclusion and was bought by the Lutheran magazine but never published.
> The second is a first-person account of my experiences as a two-time
> breast cancer survivor, which won first prize in a contest this past
> October held by the PR guy Peter Shankman on his Help a Reporter Out
> (HARO) e mail list.  I won a leather computer tote -- so far, I don't
> have a laptop, but I know what I'll be carrying it in when I do get one.
>
> I appreciate the information you gave Judith about grants and the
> importance of fund raising.  PAD has a scholarship for students majoring
> in the performing arts, and it was originally thought that it could be
> funded through sales of the "Sound in Sight" CD, a compilation of 18
> original tracks and covers from different musical genres, all donated by
> blind recording artists.  We are just branching out into trying to raise
> funds through private donations -- not that there wasn't always that
> option,.  I was appointed head of media relations this past July and
> have been trying to generate publicity for the organization with
> profiles of the leadership, press releases about the CD and scholarship
> fund and getting state and federal representatives to give statements
> and allow photos.  So far, our success has been online except a few
> things I've done locally in my own region which is rural.
>
> I'm happy to have you on the list and look forward to your insight.
> Donna Hill
>
> -- 
> For my bio & to hear clips from The Last Straw:
> http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill
>
> Apple I-Tunes
>
> phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374
>
> Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind
> www.padnfb.org
>
>
>
>
>
> John Lee Clark wrote:
>> Hello!
>>
>> I recently subscribed to this list, on the suggestion of Lori Stayer.  I
>> would have liked to lurk for a while before introducing myself, but so 
>> far
>> the list has been awfully quiet, too quiet even for someone who is deaf.
> So
>> I am going to dip my toes in here.
>>
>> To introduce myself briefly: My name is John Lee Clark, and I am a native
> of
>> St. Paul, Minnesota.  I was born deaf to an all-deaf family and so
> American
>> Sign Language is my first language.  I gradually became blind in early
>> adolescence, just as my father did and my younger brother did.  After
>> graduating from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf--on the other
> bank
>> of a former river across from where the Minnesota State Academy for the
>> Blind is--I studied briefly at Gallaudet but jumped up in love, not fell,
>> with Adrean, a deaf girl from North Carolina.  We got married fast and
> moved
>> to Minnesota.  We've been married for ten years now and have three sons.
>> Currently, I am the head of a new service that provides accommodations 
>> for
>> deafblind people using video relay service.
>>
>> As for my literary pursuits, my wife and I ran for six years a small 
>> press
>> devoted to signing community literature both in English and ASL.  But it
>> could not support our family, so we've had to turn to other sources of
>> income.  I've published many essays, but it's through my poetry that I've
>> won the most recognition--awards, grants, fellowships, all that.
> Recently,
>> my chapbook of poems, Suddenly Slow, came out from Handtype Press.  I've
>> also done some independent scholarship on the literature of the deaf and
>> deafblind communities.  In March, Gallaudet University Press will come 
>> out
>> with Deaf American Poetry, which I edited and which is the first
> definitive
>> text of its kind, covering nearly two centuries of poetry by Deaf
> Americans.
>> I am nearly done with anther anthology, this time of writings by 
>> deafblind
>> people all over the world and since 1820.
>>
>> This should suffice for now!  I would love to learn about who's on this
>> list, so please do introduce yourself.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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