Judy Neri is the author of
a new book of poems (New Academia Publishing, 2008) entitled Always
the Trains. Grace Cavalieri — the producer/host of “The Poet and
the Poem” from the Library of Congress — calls her work a “source of
poetic pleasure,” and notes that the poems “pay attention to the
collaboration of intellect and heart.”
Her book has been selected for
The Monserrat Review’s “Best Summer Reading 2008” list
and was praised in a review by ArmchairInterviews.com that said in part: “Her poems are a delight to read … she finds a way to make a description of the ordinary into a universal truth.”
This approach to the power of writing is very close to ReadTheSpirit’s own founding principles, so we are pleased to publish Judy’s story on this important national observance. She is sharing from her own life a story that begins to tell the story of so many of us.
Judy has placed in The Formalist
(1998) and Passager (2002 and 2006) contests, and has had poems
in The Lyric, Poet Lore, Potomac Review, Innisfree
Poetry Journal and other journals, in four anthologies and on a
bench in Bethesda.
One of her poems was read by Garrison Keillor
on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac. In December, 2008 her poem “Peace Tents”
was featured on the website www.peacexpeace.org. She has a Ph.D. in
Comparative Literature from the University of Maryland. She writes
essays as well, most recently on the arts, and has worked as a college
teacher and labor editor
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