West Windsor Library has something for everyone at Author’s Day on Saturday, April 19. “In addition to seeing writers from different disciplines, it may be eye-opening for those thinking about writing as a career to see what a variety of ways writers can earn a living,” says Jamie McCulloch, pictured at right, a language arts teacher at High School North, who coordinates the afternoon readings.##M:[more]##
Children’s book author Christine Kaputa, author of “Bad Kitty” and founder of New Jersey’s Read to Succeed program, visits with young readers at 10:30 a.m. “An author visit can inspire students to read and love books and write their own stories,” says Kaputa in a press release.
Faiz Kermani, a West Windsor resident and author of “My Alien Pen Friend,” presents a story about intergalactic friendship for ages 7 to 11 at 11:15 a.m. Kermani, who has a doctorate in immunology and has published on medical and health issues, is new to children’s fiction. He recently co-edited a medical textbook, “Patient Compliance: Sweetening the Pill,” a look at how patients take their medicines. He is part of an educational charity called One Life for Education, an organization that sets up partnerships between disadvantaged schools in developing countries and more fortunate schools in Europe.
“The idea for a reading came up one day when I was at the West Windsor Public Library,” McCulloch says. “I was talking with one of the librarians whose daughter I taught a few years ago, and she and I started talking about my writing. One thing led to another and I offered to do a reading but thought it would be more exciting to have more than just one writer reading his stuff, so I suggested that I contact some of my writer friends.”
Other readers include West Windsor residents Donna Clovis, a teacher at Village School; and Liz Madden-Zibman, author of novella, “Meet Me for Martinis” and novel, “Nine Lives,” and a fellow student at FDU. Authors also include Drew Fader, author of the chapbook “Taking Stock;” Lynn Beighley, who writes technical books for money and fiction for pleasure; and Joy Okoye, a Princeton resident, a nanny for her children who now tends to write in middle of the night on scraps of paper.
McCulloch, who has been teaching in the WW-P district for nine years, was raised in New York City. He attended private schools in Manhattan, St. Bernard’s and York Preparatory. Yes, he knew Robert Chambers, aka “The Preppie Murderer,” who was one year ahead of him in school. “We played soccer together and grew up six blocks away from one another,” McCulloch says.
He graduated from Skidmore College, Class of 1989, with a degree in English; and received a master’s in English and education from Hunter College in 1999. He is one course shy of receiving his master’s in fine arts degree from Fairleigh Dickinson.
McCulloch’s work has appeared in the “Kelsey Review,” the “Redbridge Review,” “Storyglossia, Best Writing 2007,” and the “International Fiction Review.” His wife, Jennifer Bazin, is a kindergarten teacher, at home this year with their daughters, Finny, nine months; and Lucy, 3.
McCullough, who usually writes fiction or works on his novel, may read poems at the event. He also has a dream of teaching overseas someday. “Like many people, I fantasize about the grass being greener,” he writes in an E-mail interview.
“I would love to teach overseas in Europe at an American school — there are a number of them in Europe. I fancy myself strolling on the left bank in the Latin Quarter clutching a fresh loaf of Paris’ finest bread, warm brie getting warmer in my pocket — for some reason I’ve taken to carrying it in my trousers pocket so it will be warm by the time I get home; dog-eared copy of Baudelaire folded hastily in my back pocket. There is the London version of this, of course, involving other equally worn cliches (snooker, tea at 4, scones, singing in pubs with the locals, the sought after foreigner — despite being American).”
— Lynn Miller
Author Day, West Windsor Library, 333 North Post Road, 609-799-0462. Free. Saturday, April 19.
