The Bear River Review hopes to capture some of the work done and discussed at the Bear River Writers' Conference. Since it is clear to us that writers are involved in the swirl of their moment in history, that we are all citizens of some part of the world, and that much of the discussion recently has been about the current war in Iraq, it seemed only right to respond positively to the suggestion from Anne-Marie Oomen that we put together this special issue. Chris Lord has done a wonderful job running to ground work she heard quickly in the participant's reading, or even work she only heard people mention in passing. What follows is a snapshot of some of the ways this small community of writers is thinking about the current war or about the other wars that have shaped us. ~Keith Taylor, Director
The idea for this special edition of the Bear River Review, Bear River Writers Respond to War, was born during the June 2006 Bear River Writers’ Conference when Tracy Rosewarne first read aloud her poem, “To Steven, from Fallujah.” The poem triggered the suggestion from the BR inaugural review’s featured writer, Anne-Marie Oomen, to do this issue, and we are grateful to her for the idea. We are also fortunate to have had powerful works submitted to us by a number of faculty and attendees. Their honesty and vision allow us to experience war-time events through new eyes, taking us places we have never been. We thank you - writer, reader, visitor—for being part of this important issue. We encourage your feedback in the form of “Letters to the Editor” to BearRiver-ChrisLord for our next issue. ~Chris Lord, Editor
Tracy Rosewarne – Featured Writer for this special Bear River Writers Respond to War issue of the Bear River Review.
Tracy has been teaching high school English for ten years—for the past seven years at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has her M.A. in Secondary Curriculum. She has two books published with Heinemann: They Still Can't Spell? and Purposeful Writing.Tracy was not sure what to put in her biography and said, “I am just really starting to think about creative writing, as I have spent years focusing on teacher research and nonfiction. I use my high school class as a source of inspiration and my students are incredible. Their enthusiasm and ideas make me want to work on writing more, and I am going to do so.” We thank her again and again for her insightful work, and for leading off this issue with her thought-provoking poem, “To Steven, from Fallujah.” We are also honored to include Tracy’s new poem, “Waiting at the Dinner Table,” responding to the question, "Why is Night relevant today?" (Night is the book about the Holocaust by Elie Wiesel.) Tracy wrote this poem for her students because she wanted them to see that poetry can dive into the world of nonfiction.
Note: The work on this site is used with the permission of the authors, who retain all copyright to their own material.
