 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| Cathy Drinkwater Better Cathy Drinkwater Better (married name: Cathy L. Walker)) is a longtime professional journalist and columnist, author, and editor, and a widely published poet in many genres and forms. Since 1976, her poetry and other work has been seen in literary journals, magazines, newspapers, and anthologies in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Romania, and Japan; as well as in online literary journals, newspapers, and other publications. She has also published numerous photographs as a photojournalist, as well as illustrations and other artwork. Cathy has received numerous awards, for both poetry and journalism, including those from: the Society of Professional Journalists, Maryland Professional Chapter; LCNI, Inc.; The Catholic Press Association; and the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association (MDDC). Her most recent journalism awards include: First Place, Local Column (Humor/Feature), 2009 MDDC Editorial Contest; First Place, Local Column (Humor/Feature), 2008 MDDC Editorial Contest; First Place First Place, Local Column (Humor/Feature), 2007 MDDC Editorial Contest; First Place, Local Column (Humor/Feature), 2006 MDDC Editorial Contest; and First Place, Local Column and “Best in Show" for circulation division, 2005 MDDC Editorial Contest, for her newspaper column in The Westminster Eagle, The Eldersburg Eagle, and The Carroll Eagle (www.explorecarroll. com), published by the Patuxent Publishing Company. Cathy is the author of numerous books for children and adults, including three collections of poetry: the moon tonight (Los Hombres Press, 1996); and the sky is all there is (Astute Platypus Press, 1999); and the chapbook set cat and human (Black Cat Press, 2002). Her first trade book, Don't Hit Your Brother With Your Mouth Full (Acme Press, 1995) is a collection of 44 pieces taken from the first 10 years of her newspaper column (1984– 1994), during her tenure with LCNI, Inc., weekly and daily newspapers. Her book Test Your Bible I.Q. (Random House Value Publishing, 1999) contains more than 1,200 bits of Bible trivia in Q&A and puzzle formats. Her children’s books include hardcover picture books written in rhyme—e. g., Excuse Me!: A Book All About Manners, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001; and In His Footsteps, Concordia Publishing House, 2000—as well as scores of early-learning, board-book, pop-up, and activity sets, including several series of Cuddly Beasties™ early-learning pop-up books (Paradise Press, 1999; Better Than Broccoli Books, 2004); large-sized storybook-coloring books for Sesame Street (Color All About, 2006); and, most recently, two large-size trade pop-ups, A Day on Safari and A Day on the Farm, and four storybooks in board book format in a set called "God's Little Zoo," both for Flying Frog Publishing (2007). Cathy’s diverse professional career included many years as a newspaper reporter, photographer, and weekly humor columnist for a variety of daily and weekly newspapers in Maryland and Kentucky; a three-year stint as a labor union communications specialist/writer/photographer; editorial director, editor, project manager and in-house author for an international book producer, working on projects ranging from children’s books and combination products to books on health and healing modalities, religion and New Age philosophy, history, modern-day culture, historical reprints, and more; and production editor for the world’s largest producer of medical, technical, and scientific journals. Cathy edited The Medical Bulletin newspaper from 2002 until 2010, the year she moved on to accept the position of editor with the Medical Real Estate Quarterly. In 2010 Cathy marked 26 years as an award-winning newspaper and magazine humor columnist. She has been writing her column for The Eldersburg Eagle and The Westminster Eagle, two weekly newspapers in the Central Maryland region owned by Patuxent Publishing Company, since 2004; and is a frequent humor ontributor to Carroll Magazine.Better continues to freelance as an editor, features writer, book author, and photographer for print, digital, and online media projects in the U.S. and abroad. She is also a regular humor columnist with the Northern News since it began a few years ago. Also a weekly community newspaper, the Northern News is a publication of Ad-Pro-Mark, Inc. Cathy's poetry and commentary on Asian poetry forms has appeared in the journals Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Yellow Moon, Gusts, Ribbons, Wisteria, Hermitage, Eucalypt, Acorn, Simply Haiku, Modern English Tanka, Heron's Nest and others since 1989. Writing in other poetic forms, she has been published since 1969. With her husband, Doug Walker, Cathy co-owns Black Cat Press, publishing and producing limited-edition collections of poetry and anthologies— including haiku, tanka, haibun, and senryu—by individual poets and national and regional poetry organizations. Cathy has taught creative writing for children and adults through private arts organizations, local schools, government agencies, and the continuing education division of Baltimore County (Maryland) Public Schools and the Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland). She also has served as a guest speaker and presenter on a wide variety of writing and editorial topics for groups and organization. A second-degree black belt in a shorinji- ryu style of karate, and an instructor in Yang Style t’ai chi ch’uan, she has spent many years as a martial arts instructor, both for local recreation council programs and private organizations. A member of U.S., Canadian, Irish, and Australian poetry organizations, in 2004 she co-founded of the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland (HPCM) and helped to establish the annual Anita Sadler Weiss Memorial Haiku Awards, an international poetry competition sponsored by HPCM. Cathy is a staunch supporter of the serial comma. |
Cathy Drinkwater Better
| Visitors |
| BLACK CAT PRESS ANNOUNCES THE MARCH 2011 RELEASE OF: Sting and Tell: Thirty-one Tanka by Lisa Alexander Baron “I was intrigued and excited by this small but diverse collection from emerging tankaist, Lisa Alexander Baron. In the best tanka tradition she shows that ‘less is more’….” Amelia Fielden, Australian translator and poet. “With lithe facility for poetic phrasing and delicate humor, Lisa Alexander Baron explores the web of family, love, loss, fear and perseverance. Sting and Tell is wonderful proof of the value in seeing, hearing and reflecting deeply, and the usefulness of asking questions to arrive at revelation.” Marilyn Hazelton, editor of red lights. “Baron’s Sting and Tell is a tanka collection that is sensitive, imaginative and creative. Some of its poems bridge our everyday world with that of magic realism. Baron’s work invites us to join her on this captivating journey and we are happy that we did!” Stanford M. Forrester, editor of bottle rockets. Lisa Alexander Baron (Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA) has been writing and publishing lyric poetry for the past decade, but began trying her hand at tanka relatively recently. Drawn to the form’s brevity and emotional intensity, she uses it to explore nature, human relationships, and the interrelation of all beings. Sting and Tell: Thirty-one Tanka (Black Cat Press, Eldersburg, MD; March 2011. ISBN 978-0-9834197-0-9. $10.) is available exclusively through the poet. Contact Lisa at baronlis@verizon.net for ordering information. |
| NEW FROM EMPTY SKY: HIBIKI by Cathy Drinkwater Better & Geert Verbeke “From the stunning picture of a hummingbird poised in flight on the cover of HIBIKI to the final poem, the reader discovers the theme of “hibiki,” throughout this fine collection by Cathy Drinkwater Better and Geert Verbeke. “The title is found in Geert’s first haiku: the clear echo/of a distant bamboo flute/reverberations. The moods of the poems are varied, such as Geert’s on the bookshelves/Japanese death poems/often hilarious and the clatter/of bamboo shoes in the morning/old monastery. “Cathy’s poems are full of motion, such as airless church/the hymn’s final note/melts away, water trickles/beneath a skin of ice/February dusk, and late winter/deadfall rides/the swollen stream. “The variety of topics and moods…make HIBIKI stimulating and rich with discovery for the reader. This book, written by two well known and talented poets, is one I will revisit often.” Elizabeth Fanto, haiku poet, co-founder of the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland. “What a wonderful book! Each of [the] haiku is beautiful. Thank you so much!” Makiko Murai; Nagoya, Japan. “Thank you for the wonderful haiku book….” Eduard Tara, ROMANIA “Thank you for HIBIKI. Its title is a wonderful choice from Japanese words [Trans: “echo”; “sound”; “reverberation.”]. The book touched me; in other words ,the book “hibiki” my heart. Murasaki Sagano, haiku poet; Kyoto, Japan. HIBIKI (Empty Sky; Flanders, Belgium. December 2010. No ISBN.) is available exclusively through the poets. For ordering information email Cathy at cbetter@juno.com or visit Geert’s Web site at http://www.haikugeert.net. |
| CLICK HPCM, ABOVE, FOR THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE HAIKU POETS OF CENTRAL MARYLAND |
