Coming Full Circle

New Voices Series

Edited by Susan Bright
Lana Book, Valerie Bridgeman Daivs, Jim Walker, Donna Woodard

". . . a fascinating mosaic of poems and stories, 'Coming Full Circle' gives a substantial amount of each writer's work and a biographical sketch of the writer, which allows us to know the writers as individuals as well as to view the contemporary society that provided the platform for their artistic expression. This kaleidoscope of expressed human relations and conditions, personal yet universal views, touches the inner poet, writer and story teller in each of us. These new voices will not be new for long as they will continue to surface in the hearts and memories of readers everywhere.

"The editor, Susan Bright, a halo poet herself and stalwart editor of Plain View Press, is the author of fourteen books of poetry, three of which have been recipients of the Austin Book Award. She has given scores of writers not only the encouragement and motivation to launch literary careers, but she has provided a highly respected vehicle for their creative expression and has remained mentor, teacher, and friend after publication. Her own works endure and so will those of the writers in 'Coming Full Circle.'"
Marvin G. Kimbrough, Ph.D.
Chair, Division of Humanities, Huston-Tillotson College

116 pgs, $14.95, ISBN: 0-911051-85-6.

Cover photograhp by Daryl Bright Andrews

About the Writers

  Valerie Bridgeman Davis grew up in central Alabama, nourished by the piney woods and storytelling tradition of her family. She moved to Texas in 1981. She earned a B.A. degree from Trinity University in 1986 and M.Div. degree in 1990 from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she won the Charles L. King Preaching Award. Currently, she is completing a Ph.D. in Religion at Baylor University, works as a professor at Huston-Tillotson College, and as a part-time chaplain for Hospice Austin. She also serves Banah Full Community Church as a pastor, is a community activist, and mothers her teen-aged sons Darius and Deon. In 1995, she won the Austin Book Award for her collection, "In Search of Warriors, Dark and Strong, and Other Poems." She is married to her partner and best friend, Don.

Lana Book is a graduate of Angelo State University. She is a registered nurse and currently works in an inpatient Hospice unit. Lana is a member of the Austin Writer's League and a weekly critique group, Quill Merchants. Her children's stories appear in each publication of the Cowboy Country Express. She lives in Kerrville, Texas at the Hill Country Sculpture and Meditation Garden, and has three grown daughters, her "shining stars."

Donna Woodard worked in the fields of public relations as a nationally accredited communicator, has taught at the university level at the University of Denver and now works in the emerging field of work force development in her home state of Texas. Perhaps the most special things in her life, however, are the birth of her daughter Katharine and the sharing of her "voice" through these poems.

Jim Walker grew up in Oregon, received Bachelors degrees in Creative Writing and Computer Science from the Univ. of Redlands before ending up in Austin. He got involved with local poetry open mikes and organizations fairly quickly and is a strong proponent of the spoken and written word as proactive arts. Currently he is a graduate student in Regional Planning at the Univ. of Texas at Austin, focusing on solid waste.

Susan Bright is author of fourteen books of poetry, three of which ("Far Side of the Word," "Tirades And Evidence Of Grace" and "House of the Mother") have been recipients of Austin Book Awards. She is the editor of Plain View Press which for the twenty-one years between 1975 and 1996 has published one-hundred-twenty books.

Daryl Bright Andrews is the sixteen-year-old son of Susan Bright and John C. Andrews. He works part time preparing Texas Barbecue, home schools, draws, swims, cycles, takes pictures, fishes, hunts and drives a turquoise pick-up truck. He lives in Austin, Texas.