West Windsor Community Farmers Market is presenting a new series highlighting published works. One author will be on site at the farmers market each week through the end of October. There will be author readings at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. and signed books will be available for purchase. Two of the authors, Jeffrey S. Markowitz and Nishan Patel, live in West Windsor.
Markowitz wrote the book “Pigskin Crossroads: The Epidemiology of Concussions in the National Football League, 2010-2012,” with his daughter, Ariana. A graduate of High School South, Class of 2003, she graduated from McGill University with a degree in political science in 2007. She has studied in the Middle East and worked on national security in Washington, D.C. She lives in El Salvador and will not be at the September 21 event.
Markowitz born in New York City, received his Ph.D. from the Columbia University School of Public Health in 1988. He has written close to 70 scholarship journal articles and book chapters. His wife, Elane Gutterman, is a Ph.D. epidemiologist. The family has lived in the West Windsor area since 1989.
Patel will be reading from his books October 19. An art teacher in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district, his two children’s books, “Sammy’s New Home” and “Evelyn Sylvan,” explore the concepts of the importance of family and friendship. He has created and edited three art anthologies: two with high school students from the WW-P school district, and one anthology with recent visual art graduates from Syracuse University’s Visual and Performing Arts College.
“The aims of these art anthologies is to shine a spotlight on the importance of the visual arts: why they are important to practice within our public schools (for students to get to know more about themselves by thinking critically and creatively) as well as to provide a glimpse of the many avenues one may travel upon with a visual arts degree,” says Patel. “Funding for the visual arts is quite low country wide (as compared to other subjects), and is usually one of the first subjects to get chopped in schools if funds are scarce.” All proceeds from these anthologies go to the art departments of the schools that the books were made with.
Born in Glen Rock, Patel and his family moved to West Windsor in 1992. After attending Dutch Neck, Village, Upper Elementary, and Grover Middle School, and High School South (Class of 2005), he received a bachelor degree in fine arts from Syracuse University. He has since completed his master’s degree in education and served as a student teacher at South.
Patel’s love of art began when he was visiting India at the age of four. His uncle’s friend taught him the basics and he remembers drawing a turtle shortly after the first lesson. “I’ve been drawing ever since,” he says. (The News, October 5, 2012). He continued drawing and painting, some serious, some political, some humorous through college. Although he entered college as a business major, he switched first to graphics and then to illustrations during his freshman year.
Patel’s first book, “Sammy’s New Home,” was self-published. Sammy is a sasquatch, a hairy creature often referred to as Bigfoot. The book’s heroine, Mallory, is based on Patel’s sister, Pooja, also a graduate of High School South. “I did not tell her that the character was based on her — but the minute Pooja looked at the character design, she knew right away and was very excited,” says Patel.
Their mother, Sangita Patel, an interior decorator, owns Kalakar Interiors. Their father, Kiran Patel, owns several hotels in northern and central New Jersey.
“The process of art-making allows and requires us to delve within to uncover lost treasures and share; to find a voice and an understanding of who we are as individuals and how we can inspire the world around us,” says Patel.
West Windsor Community Farmers’ Market, Vaughn Drive Parking Lot, Princeton Junction Train Station. Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. 609-933-4452 or www.westwindsorfarmersmarket.org.
Saturday, September 21. Jeff Markowitz, co-author of “Pigskin Crossroads: The Epidemiology of Concussions in the National Football League, 2010-2012.”
Saturday, September 28. Nicole LaBrocca, author of “Eat Your Vegetables,” a picture book for young children and families.
Saturday, October 5. Maria Liberati, author of “The Basic Art of Italian Cooking.”
Saturday, October 12. Paul H. Magid, author of “Lifting the Wheel of Kharma.”
Saturday, October 19. Nishan Patel, author of “The Art of Growth: Art Anthology,” featuring students from High Schools North and South; and Eveylyn Sylvan, author of “Sammy’s New Home.”
Saturday, October 26. Lynn Sirota, author of “Don’t Run, Don’t Hide,” an animal series.
