'Drash: Northwest Mosaic' provides a venue for writers, poets, photographers and artists

| COURTESY PHOTO

• MEET THE AUTHOR
  
  Wendy Marcus
  "Drash: Northwest Mosaic"
  4 p.m. today
  Village Books
  1210 11th St.
  671-2626

In every time and place, there is commentary to help humans understand and archive our experiences — Jewish and non-Jewish, spiritual and secular. I created "Drash: Northwest Mosaic" as a vehicle for writers, poets, photographers and artists to comment on the world, to illuminate and provide connection in our lives, to educate and entertain both Jews and non-Jews, and to have a record — through literary expression — of our special time and place.

What I have learned during my 54 years is that we all have the capacity to be messengers of holiness. Most go about their business in holy anonymity. Writers, poets, artists disseminate their messages in a more public fashion, but if they hadn't written what they wrote or did what they did, life might be different. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner said it well, "Never forget that you, too, yourself, may be a messenger. Perhaps even one whose errand extends over several lifetimes."

The funding and mission of "Drash" requires a tilt towards Northwest and Jewish themes, but we encourage writers and readers of all persuasions and on all topics.

Q: What are your ties to Bellingham?

A: My family moved to Bellingham in 1966 from North Caldwell, N.J. In high school I began searching for my Jewish roots and with help from my violin teacher, Arthur Thal, attended religious school at Beth Israel Synagogue when Rabbi Fred Gartner led the congregation.

Music and writing have bifurcated my life: at age 8, I dictated stories to my mother, Marianne Marcus, and started violin lessons; at age 18 it was the Sehome High School orchestra and writing the Mariner Log for The Bellingham Herald (a student column about Sehome); in my twenties I was lured away by a bluegrass band from stints as a reporter for The Seattle Times and Vancouver Columbian; in my thirties I co-founded The Mazeltones, a klezmer revival band, and wrote for various publications; in my forties, I became music director for Temple Beth Am. Four years ago I tried my hand at fiction, got published and received the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association Adult Short Story Award in 2007. Two years ago at age 52, and moving into the position of a community "elder", I created "Drash: Northwest Mosaic."

Q: What was the submission and selection process for inclusion in "Drash"?

A: The submission and selection process for volumes one and two have been identical, as will, God willing, volume three. We placed calls for submissions in various regional and national publications and through the writing and Jewish communities in the area. Submission period is Sept. 1 through Dec. 15. Review committees for prose, non-fiction and poetry — made up of area writers, real estate agents, high school teachers and college professors, newspaper editors and attorneys whose work I admire or who are knowledgeable about literature, Judaism and/or the Northwest — read everything blind. They give me their ratings from which I pick the top-rated pieces.

I occasionally reach down to scoop something from the slush pile that piques or works well with a theme we are presenting. Volume two is 25 pages bigger than volume one, in part due to the stellar quality of material we received. Photography is by invitation or submission from me or graphic designer Robin Asher. We encourage submissions that embody the redemptive nature of life from Jewish, Northwest and other perspectives.

Q: Who will read today?

A: The following poets and writers have said they will: Elaine Bishop, T.A. Delmore, P. Hurshell, Fredda Jaffe, Donald Kentop, Sandra Larkman Heindsmann, Paul Lichter, Tree McCurdy (from Bellingham), Erika Michael, Akiva Miller, Jerome Richard and me (only if there's enough time).

Q: What's your life like?

A: I work full time as Temple Beth Am's music director, leading an adult choir and a community intergenerational orchestra, KlezKidz. I teach a weekly class in Jewish music to adults and music to the kids in our religious school on Sunday mornings. I cantor for the B'nei Mitzvah on Shabbat, as well as sing and play violin at Friday night services. I live three blocks from shul and walk to work! My fourth and final child had his Bar Mitzvah this past fall at Beth Am (yes, I served as cantor that day).

Q: Music and literature are great connectors for a community. Why is that?

A: Songs and stories create and preserve community. We repeat stories we heard. We sing together. We write down those words and those notes to educate, entertain and enlighten. Sharing our art lets our spirits soar, especially when we are not afraid that we waste our sweetness, our uniqueness upon the void. Likewise, our despair is lessened with music, with words, with community.

Personal example: After a month of spiraling downward, my 85-year-old mother, Marianne, died in Bellingham on April 1, the day I was supposed to have sent "Drash" to the printers. The love and connection I received from every single person who crossed my path during the dreadful days leading up to and following her death were dazzling. The printers graciously scheduled us in eight days later and still got the book back to Seattle to meet the May 18 deadline.

Skilled volunteers showed up to help proof the manuscript. Friends, fellow writers and musicians, and temple members saw that my family and I were never short of food. People regaled me with loving and poignant recollections of my mother. At the shiva minyan (daily prayer services in the mourner's home) at my house, friends and temple members chanted and sang prayers that felt right and soothing. And memorial donations in my mother's honor came pouring into "Drash" coffers.

From my mother's death, came this extraordinary outpouring of life. It is that reflection of the human soul's trajectory toward goodness, our universal songs and stories, that I hope to capture in "Drash." We are all joined in a constant flow of creation.

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