An Afternoon of Poetry with Julie Paine Fritz & Betsy Holleman Burke

517 Union Avenue,Knoxville TN 37902

24 May, 2023

Description

Union Ave Books is proud to present an afternoon of poetry featuring Betsy Holleman Burke and Julie Paine Fritz! The reading will take place on Saturday, May 24, 2023 @ 6 PM at Union Ave Books. While this is a free event, we ask that you reserve your spot. We hope to see you there! About Julie & Twinings Julie Paine Fritz grew up on a small farm in Knoxville, Tennessee in the Fifties. She has lived in many spectacular landscapes across the country but spent the most time on the banks of the James River in Virginia. Professionally she managed special events installations including the Honda Golf Classic, Gold Meadow Steeplechase, US Indoor Tennis, US Open Tennis, 2 presidential inaugurations. She had her own marketing firm and was well known for creating many fund raising events to support nonprofit programs. Julie is now an abstract landscape artist and poet, capturing her subjects where she lives, in her backyard. But what a backyard! The Rocky Mountains, the Finger Lakes, the Blue Ridge and the Tidewaters of Virginia. Both her landscapes and her poetry evolve from a life well-lived, full of memories, confrontations and revelations. On the canvas and the page the stories are simple, but the viewer/reader has to go deeper to confront what is being represented. And this is where the fun begins. Twinings is a book of poems written by an eighty year old woman who has lived through the Eisenhower simplicity, the Vietnam protests, civil rights movements, childbirth, divorce, entrepreneurship, stewardship, and come out the other end.   Much of the focus of the book is on childhood memories brought to the present to be re-examined; happenings outdoors, in nature, that shed light on life indoors; and finally, reflections about old age that seem to not answer questions about life but to accept that questions are our life. The poems are mostly narrative, short, with simple structure and clear voice. Each gives the reader the opportunity to make choices not only about the poet’s meaning, but how that meaning might be applied to the reader’s own life.  Some are grounded in East Tennessee where she grew up and Colorado where she retired and became an artist and writer. Others take place in Richmond, Virginia, along the James, where she raised her family and then returned to for her “golden years.”  About Betsy & Reclamation Poet Betsy Holleman Burke, (Betsy Christenberry) the author of Reclamation (2022), All That Remains (2020), and Searching for Hummingbirds (2014), was born and raised in Knoxville on the Tennessee River. Her Kingston Pike home was the gracious center of life for her family and friends for over sixty years. Betsy began writing poetry after the untimely death of her husband two decades ago and the daily visit of a hummingbird. She is passionate about learning the craft and enjoys a thirteen year association with Professor David Keplinger and the Surrey Street Poets in Washington, DC. She work has appeared in numerous journals and two anthologies, Such Friends As These (2019) and Sixty Years of the Moose (2022). In Reclamation, her most recent book, Betsy’s poems go to the heart of pain and loss. She teaches us to process suffering as she looks back and reclaims the love and joy of every relationship. As poet Judith Bowles notes, “These poems are light-filled talismans.” After attending West High School, Betsy graduated from National Cathedral School in Washington and Hollins University in Virginia. She lives in suburban Washington with her husband and is a floral designer at the Washington National Cathedral and Hillwood Museum. Her website is searchingforhummingbirds.com.