Joyce Lott

Official Website for the Writer, Joyce Lott

Books

A Teacher's Stories: Reflections on High School Writers Joyce Lott Foreword by Carolyn Foote Edelmann ISBN-13: 978-0-86709-331-5 1994, 168 pages Paperback, Boynton/Cook

A Teacher's Stories is an outgrowth of Joyce Lott's journal, in which she scrutinized challenging classroom problems—cultural clashes, disparity in skill levels, gender issues, and fluctuations in growth rate—problems that inhibited student productivity. Replaying critical classroom incidents, the author invites teachers to ask the questions: "How well did I handle this situation?" "What happened, and why did it happen?" "How could I have improved my performance or my students' performance?" "What can I learn from this experience that will enter into my decision-making in the future" Readers will begin to question sacrosanct methods. They will learn more about the importance of journal writing, the pros and cons of cooperative grouping, integrating portfolios effectively, establishing a classroom environment where students and teachers have time to reflect, play with language, make many starts, and accomplish work that matters to them.

Those thinking about becoming teachers and those already studying to become teachers will read about Joyce's dilemmas, analyze her solutions, and perhaps, transform their work. Longtime teachers looking for a role model will read about Joyce's willingness to risk a different approach and insist themselves upon the right, the courage to begin again.

Dear Mrs. Dalloway Joyce Greenberg Lott ISBN-13: 978-1932755411 2004 Paperback, Finishing Line Press

At once unflinching and tender, the poems of Joyce Greenberg Lott register the whole range of poetry’s changes - from the sensual to the meditative, from the in-love-with-life to the blue stain of mortality. This book records a life and reminds the reader how much a poem can do in its seemingly small ambit. Over and over these poems do a great deal as they register true feelings in perfectly apt words.

- Baron Wormser, Maine's Poet Laureate and the author of 6 collections of poetry. His most recent book is Teaching the Art of Poetry the Moves, with David Cappella.

These poems are heart-felt, heart-aching meditations on love and inevitable loss. In the face of grief the poet's fine attention is still turned to the things of life, to what is cherished and mysterious. This is a book of sorrow that somehow also celebrates the spirit's great renewal.

- Cynthia Huntington, New Hampshire Poet Laureate; professor of English and Director of the Program of Creative Writing at Dartmouth College.

An Unexpected World Joyce Greenberg Lott ISBN 1-59924-325-3 ISBN 978-1-59924-325-2 2008 Paperback, Finishing Line Press

Joyce Lott's new poems begin in the shock of loss, but they do not ask us to grieve. Vivid and understated, poignant and exact, they muse with faintly pained wonder on a world suddenly made clear. "Do you understand how living / in the present requires empty space?" she asks, letting the past go. And there she is, without expectations, unexpectedly poised, and just herself.

- James Richardson, Professor of English and Creative Writing; Acting Director, Program in Creative Writing, Princeton University

Joyce Greenberg Lott writes poignantly about her husband’s death and the time following, describing the process of living through grief and emerging into "another autumn." In "What It Would Take To Make Your Husband Happy," Lott displays her wry wit: "To cheer you up,/he turns on a ballgame/in the TV room he planned to finish last year./ You sit on a ladder; your feet on a paint can...You know/ The names of all the players and cheer on your team/ which happens to be his." And in "That Room," a spare, elegant poem of regret, she writes, "I wish/ I’d loved you/ in that room/ instead of thinking I didn’t." These are clear, accessible poems that address the experience of love, loss, and "The Unexpected World" that is always presenting itself to us.

- Ellen Bass, Co-editor of the groundbreaking book, No More Masks! :  An Anthology of Poems by Women and five other volumes of poetry

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