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SPOTLIGHT
Berkshire Senior , August-September 2021 Elder Services’
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Berkshire Senior Spotlight A Treasure Among Us, Irene Willis
by Kathleen Cleary
Although I’ve rarely been a poetry reader, over this past year I found myself turning to poetry often, like so many others, to find some comfort, solace and humor while we traveled along this lonely pandemic journey.
I recently discovered a unique gem in Irene Willis’ latest poetry book, Green Dialogue.
Chock full of personal thoughts, memories, reflections, regrets and humor from childhood right through the journey of a long and fulfilling life. Written with such honesty and openness, one feels the losses and joys and ironies as Irene so craft-fully captures thoughts and emotions in her poems. A real delight!
My husband and I first met Irene when we owned The Lamplighter in Great Barrington and she was a frequent customer. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Irene on a personal basis this year and have come to realize she is a true treasure among the many talented Seniors who live in Berkshire County.
Although she began writing poetry at age six, award-winning poet Irene Willis was a published prose writer long before she published a single poem. With her first husband, Richard Willis, she co-authored a children’s book and edited two best-selling textbooks. The latter were among the first in the U.S. that allowed black and brown children to see themselves in stories and pictures as they learned reading skills. Later, with psychoanalyst Arlene Kramer Richards, she published three books for young adults, dealing with topics such
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40 MAPLEWOOD AVENUE • PITTSFIELD, MA 01201 as parents’ divorce, teenage pregnancy and friendship. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that her poems appeared in print. Since then, she has published six collections: They Tell Me You Danced (University Press of Florida, 1995); At the Fortune Café recipient of the Violet Reed Haas Award and nominated for a National Book Award; Those Flames (Bay Oak Publishers, Ltd., 2009); Reminder (Word Poetry, 2014); Rehearsal (IPBooks,2018) and Green Dialogue (IPBooks, 2020). She has also edited two anthologies: Climate of Opinion: Sigmund Freud in Poetry (IPBooks, 2017) and What They Bring: The Poetry of Migration and Immigration, co-edited with Jim Haba (IPBooks, 2020). The latter was featured at a recent fund-raising project for the Immigrant Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Irene Willis’ poems have also appeared in many journals and anthologies, both print and online. Awards for her poetry include a Distinguished Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a residency fellowship from the Millay Colony for the Arts, and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Berkshire/Taconic Foundation.
She attended St. Lawrence University, holds a B.S. in Education from SUNY Fredonia, a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from New York University and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from New England College.
Having taught for many years in high schools, colleges and graduate schools, most recently at Westfield State University and American International College, she is now retired and living in the Berkshires where she works from home as a free-lance writer and editor. Currently, she is finishing a new book: Allow Me: New and Selected Poems, 19752021), forthcoming from IPBooks.
An emeritus member of the Authors’Guild, she is also an Educator Associate of the International Psychoanalytic Association and Poetry Editor of the online publication, International Psychoanalysis (www. internationalpsychoanalysis.net), where she has a monthly column called Poetry Monday.
Irene happily offers poetry readings for groups and delivers her readings with passion, enthusiasm and humor.
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