Two weeks after the tsunami hit South Asia, taking more than a quarter of a million lives, three Pittsburgh poets - Judith Robinson, Sankar Roy and Joan Bauer issued an international appeal for poetry addressing the tragic event. The poets became editors, reviewed hundreds of poems and published a collection of works of 80 poets called Only the Sea Keeps. The poems deal with shock, loss, and grief and survivorship. The belief is that poetry can deepen understanding and provide a measure of healing. Royalties from the sale of the book will be distributed to the Library Disaster Relief Fund, affiliated with the American Library Association, and Mercy Corps, an international humanitarian organization that has been active in tsunami-related relief and rebuilding. With the tragedy in the United States of Hurricane Katrina, the editors have added Hurricane 2005 Relief, through the American Red Cross, as a beneficiary of funds.
About the editors:
Judith R. Robinson is an editor, teacher, fiction writer and award-winning poet from Pittsburgh. She was editor of Living Inland, 1989, Bennington Press and author of The Beautiful Wife and Other Stories, 1996, Aegina Press. She is poetry editor and contributor to Signatures, Volumes 1, 2 and 3, 2001, 2003, 2005, Academy for Lifelong Learning at Carnegie Mellon University and Ring Road Press. She is editor of Only the Sea Keeps.
Joan E. Bauer, of Pittsburgh and Laguna Beach, CA, grew up in Los Angeles. She was educated at UCLA and UC Berkeley. For some years she taught high school English and journalism in public and independent schools. Her poetry has appeared in The Comstock Review, 5 AM, Janus Head and other journals. She serves as associate editor of Only the Sea Keeps.
Sankar Roy is an engineer, MBA, web artist, poet, translator and an immigrant from India. Mr. Roy is honored to live and work in Pittsburgh, PA.
