Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors a Plant City resident and sixth grade teacher at Tomlin Middle School in Plant City is running for a seat on the Hillsborough County School Board in District 7 Bendorf is married to a community pastor and is a mother to six boys who range in age from 10-23 years old Bendorf received her bachelor’s degree from Alabama State University She has been a teacher in Hillsborough County for 13 years “It is time to stand up and do better for our children,” said Bendorf who wants to bring her experience as a teacher her knowledge and her out-of-the-box thinking to the Hillsborough County School Board to help reform the county’s schools Bendorf articulated several issues that propelled her to run for the school board Bendorf wants to reform the ways in which we teach our children to read “We are not teaching our students how to read More than 50 percent of students are below the third grade proficiency level.” Bendorf added we have not been teaching them the basic skills.” there are discipline issues in schools that are not being addressed “The school board needs to set a high standard for student conduct in the classroom,” said Bendorf and parents do not know what is happening in the classroom due to behavior issues,” she added the Hillsborough County School Board needs to be more responsible with the budget and not request additional money through taxes or referendums “There has not been an audit of the school budget When you try to find information about cost of programs We need to know where the dollars are going and how it impacts students in the classroom.” “I am proud of the fact that I have raised boys to love the Lord I want to see a generation of children who can read and make our community what it can be.” For more information, please visit www.electkarenbendorf.com I would like to receive emails from Osprey Observer Bendorf Elementary School visits City National Arena and Lee's Family Forum to learn about STEM throughout both arenas Game 6 | Jack Eichel & Shea Theodore Postgame and Mark Stone each scored as the Golden Knights skate to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round Thursday evening at Xcel Energy Center VGK@MIN: Stone scores goal against Filip Gustavsson VGK@MIN: Eichel scores goal against Filip Gustavsson VGK@MIN: Hill with a great save against Marcus Foligno VGK@MIN: Theodore scores PPG against Filip Gustavsson LosVGK Hosts Youth Hockey Players from Colombia💛🏒 Game 5 | Mark Stone & Brett Howden Postgame 2024 at 11:41 pm ET.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Incumbent Lynn Gray had a slim lead Tuesday night over challenger Karen Bendorf in the Hillsborough County School Board District 7 run-off race (Courtesy of Hillsborough County School Board)Updated: Tuesday FL — The District 7 Hillsborough County School Board run-off race was close after votes were tallied Tuesday night With all precincts reporting as of 11 p.m. incumbent Lynn Gray won 50.82 percent of the votes according to unofficial results from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office while some counties in the Panhandle are open until 8 p.m EST because they are in the Central time zone For full coverage of the election in Florida, go here The candidates are not running with political parties This story will be updated as results come into the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office Primary voters rejected two Moms for Liberty candidates backed by Gov Incumbent Nadia Combs earned more than 14,500 votes defeating challengers Layla Collins (more than 10,000 votes) and Julie Magill (about 2,700 votes) in the District 1 race incumbent Jessica Vaughn earned nearly 20,000 votes compared to opponent Myosha Powell Florida Politics reported Combs and Vaughn were targeted for defeat by DeSantis and Moms for Liberty Vaughn told Florida Politics their wins send a message — residents want School Board races to be about schools District 5 incumbent Henry Washington received about 11,800 votes Challenger Kenneth Gay received 4,750 votes Elvis Piggott nearly 2,700 votes and write-in candidates took home more than 270 votes Bendorf was her closest challenger with nearly 46,800 votes while Johnny Bush received more than 38,000 votes and Jen Flebotte took home about 15,400 votes automatically advanced to a run-off in the general election Bendorf, a middle-school teacher, told the Tampa Beacon that her top three issues as a school board candidate are: “1 Empowering parents by ensuring they are aware of what their children are learning and exposed to in the classroom and by ensuring accountability for student behavior and expectations Improving literacy by instructing children using scientifically based reading disciplines and practices Accountability in and wise stewardship of the over $4 billion-dollar budget.” told the Beacon that her top priorities for the district are “the safety and mental well-being for all students the financial stability of our school district and education which matches our diverse population.” Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Democratic Party’s battle over nonpartisan school boards will play out during Tuesday’s Primary including Hillsborough County Districts 1 and 3 Hillsborough was one of 10 counties to resist DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education Act dubbed “Don’t Say Gay,” in 2022 — making its more liberal board members and candidates a target this election His parental rights movement fizzled this year but GOP-backed candidates are looking to reignite it while a registered Republican and believer in DeSantis’ parental rights platform a former teacher who owns a tutoring center is one of two board members on the Hillsborough School Board DeSantis and the conservative group Moms For Liberty targeted for defeat this year She supports the property tax and stands by the closing of six under-enrolled schools in the district last year She initiated an early learning task force last year and wants to expand technical and vocational training Combs isn’t intimidated by Collins’ fundraising. She crushed highly-funded Republican incumbent Steve Cona in 2020 “I’ll just have to let the voters remember who I am and do a grass-roots effort. I’ll never be able to match their spending,” she told the Times about Collins last year Democrats have endorsed incumbent Jessica Vaughn after DeSantis backed her challenger Vaughn is the other Hillsborough School Board member DeSantis and Moms For Liberty have targeted this year where she’s described as a “contractor.” She moved to Tampa from New York in 2005 Her main priorities are addressing low literacy rates and keeping books deemed explicit off school shelves “I’ve often worried that the activism happening in the New York school systems would happen here in Tampa,” she wrote on her campaign website “I don’t want that for my future family or any other After attending several school board meetings and seeing the disregard and condescension parents were met with by school board members it was clear that parents had few allies on the board.” State Democrats and Republicans didn’t weigh in on Districts 5 and 7 but party issues are evident in the latter is also defending her seat against Johnny Bush a former principal at Robinson and Plant High Schools She’s raised more money than her challengers incumbent Henry “Shake” Washington faces Kenneth Gay a retired Hillsborough County teacher and assistant principal focused on teacher retention Write-in candidate Tamara Shamburger wants to take her former seat back. After Washington beat her in 2020, she challenged his win in court Washington has raised more than his competitors at more than $37,500 but Gay isn’t far behind with around $30,400 This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL © Copyright by Extensive-Enterprises 2025. All rights reserved. STAFF LOGIN all candidates for Hillsborough County School Board during the Aug answer questions at a Tampa Tiger Bay Club forum Gray and Bendorf face each other in the Nov [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]This article represents the opinion of the Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board.Published Sept 2024The Hillsborough County School Board is the governing body of America’s seventh-largest school system The seven-member board faces a host of pressing issues in the coming years from improving academics at struggling schools to retaining teachers and building new campuses in the fast-growing suburbs Board members are elected to four-year terms and paid $50,492 annually Board elections are nonpartisan and open to all registered voters Lynn Gray is running for re-election to the Hillsborough County School Board in District 7. [ Handout ]Incumbent Lynn Gray placed first in the four-way primary Aug. 20, and she remains the clear choice for her experience, hard work and fundamental commitment to fair play. Gray, 72, is a former public and private school teacher who was first elected to the board in 2016. Her decades of teaching experience and civic involvement give Gray a solid understanding of what enables students to succeed in the classroom. Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter You’re all signed up!Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started. In the Nov. 5 general election for Hillsborough County School Board District 7, the Tampa Bay Times recommends Lynn Gray. Before making a recommendation, the Times Editorial Board asks candidates to fill out questionnaires and sit for an interview. The process can also include running criminal and civil background checks, interviewing candidates’ colleagues and employers, reviewing voting records and financial disclosures and examining their past and current positions on relevant issues. Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty, Opinion Editor Graham Brink and columnist John Hill. Laurie Nowatzke says she is grieving her life as a civil servant after being terminated from her position at the Midwest Climate Hub as part of the Trump administration’s massive cuts to the federal workforce led by the Department of Government Efficiency “My entire life has been about public service, even before I could have a job,” Nowatzke told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” pointing to her father’s 30-year career in the U.S Air Force and two grandfathers who spent their careers in the Navy “It has always meant a lot to me to do work that supports public missions,” she said The Midwest Climate Hub was established by the U.S in 2014 to provide scientific research and practical support to farmers in the region “We work so hard to deliver climate and weather information to farmers and producers around the Midwest in the face of some really extreme and unpredictable weather patterns,” Nowatzke said After serving for four years in a coordinator role Nowatzke was promoted to the position of associate director of the Midwest Climate Hub in January Nowatzke received a termination letter by email from the USDA’s human resources department leaving her with only one day to fill out offboarding paperwork and finish her employment with the USDA Nowatzke believes her new position with the agency is what marked her as a probationary employee and triggered the termination notice In a similar pattern reported by other terminated federal workers Nowatzke said that the letter cited performance issues as the reason for her termination despite years of excellent performance reviews and merit awards within the agency Because of this, she has filed an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board and is hoping for a resolution. Earlier this week, six federal workers got their jobs back through the same appeals process Nowatzke said she feels lucky that her spouse has a job to bring in income while she looks for work which is not the case for all terminated federal workers.  And she worries about the long-term ripple effects of mass cuts to agencies like the USDA that support early-career scientists like Josh Bendorf and Tracy Campbell two recruits she brought to the Midwest Climate Hub from Wisconsin “There’s a lot of work being done by public servants that really can’t be filled by the private sector,” Nowatzke said Josh Bendorf grew up on a dairy farm near Platteville in southwest Wisconsin He went on to study atmospheric sciences and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison which got him interested in looking at the connections between weather and agriculture — a skill set he brought with him when he started working at the Midwest Climate Hub as a research fellow in 2023 Bendorf told “Wisconsin Today” that the kind of meteorology work he does with the agriculture industry is not generally well understood.  or they get their forecast from the National Weather Service,” Bendorf said “They maybe don’t realize how wide-reaching climate services can be We’re bringing together both meteorological and agronomic expertise.” Bendorf came to the Midwest Climate Hub with a master’s degree in agriculture and meteorology from the University of Iowa and with experience working with a Wisconsin chapter of Pheasants Forever a nonprofit organization that focuses on wildlife habitat conservation When a research fellow position opened up at the Midwest Climate Hub During Bendorf’s time with the agency, he launched the Wisconsin Ag Climate Outlook a weekly newsletter with statewide data and forecasting on things like temperature soil moisture and wildfire risk to help farmers make informed decisions about managing their herds and crops After nearly two years as a research fellow Bendorf was promoted to a full-time position as an ag climatologist in January of this year he and his colleagues were called into an emergency meeting to announce that all probationary employees would be receiving termination notices “I knew that was me because I had just started my fully federal position on Jan so I had not met my one year yet,” Bendorf said.  Bendorf received an official termination letter stating that due to his performance it would no longer be in the public interest for him to remain with the agency “This was rather interesting because I’d only been on for three weeks and I had not had a performance review yet,” he said noting that his supervisors at USDA had always indicated that he was “doing a fantastic job.” Bendorf said it was a “badge of honor” to work in the public sector and provide “usable information to farmers in Wisconsin and the broader Midwest.” that was a really beautiful thing — the information was freely available to the public for them to use,” he said he hopes to get back into the ag climate world but for now his first priority is to find work to support himself financially He hopes that Wisconsin communities will rally around federal workers who have lost their jobs “It’s important for people to know that these are their friends and neighbors who are being affected by this,” he said Tracy Campbell has envisioned a career as a civil servant ever since starting a graduate program in agroecology at UW-Madison in 2016 Campbell’s graduate work was hands-on and focused on Wisconsin She researched water quality in the Yahara watershed and partnered with farmers in the Central Sands region to better understand nitrate in irrigation water “I fell in love with the research I was doing,” she said Campbell said that she had kept her eye on the Midwest Climate Hub for a while She was brought on as a research fellow focused on agroforestry or the integration of trees and shrubs on farmland “My research really focused on how we can use trees use agroforestry to help farmers better prepare for the extreme weather events and unpredictable rainfall we’re seeing as a result of climate change,” she said Campbell had just started drafting up a report related to grazing management that had been directly requested by someone in the farming industry.“Unfortunately I am no longer working on that,” she told “Wisconsin Today.” As a probationary employee with less than a year of service Campbell received a termination notice on Feb “It’s been pretty chaotic ever since,” she said both for terminated employees who haven’t received clear guidance on next steps and for the “skeleton crews” left behind to manage major projects without full staffing it’s unclear if the Wisconsin Ag Climate Outlook will continue the federal job cuts represent a huge loss not only for the workers and their research but for the general public.  “People [in the civil service] choose to be paid less money for the stability and it seems like a lot of that is on the line right now,” she said When your federal government isn’t able to provide stability Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board Ron DeSantis lost their bid for school board seats around the state Although school board races are nonpartisan DeSantis' opponents claim it was a sign that voters are tired of culture war issues playing out in classrooms The Republican governor's preferred challengers championed conservative ideals such as parental rights RESULTS: How the greater Tampa Bay region voted in local, state and federal races 11 of the 23 candidates backed by DeSantis lost while six won and six were headed to runoffs Those runoffs could still go in DeSantis' favor On Wednesday, DeSantis acknowledged that efforts to make school boards more conservative were more successful two years ago that’s going to be something they can build on for future election cycles,” DeSantis said “If you look at where we were four or five years ago versus where we are now there’s much more interest on these school boards in protecting the rights of parents.” 83% of DeSantis’ preferred candidates advanced helping reinforce the state’s rightward turn in education That’s compared to a 52% success rate for this election Board Chair Karen Rose was narrowly defeated by newcomer Liz Barker a former school psychologist and mother of four children in public schools who promised to take politics out of the process Rose had poured more than $90,000 of her own money into her campaign in the final days compared to Barker whose coffer was built mainly by small Despite decades of experience as a teacher and principal Rose was seen as an increasingly political force on the board on decisions that proved costly to the district like removing a superintendent in 2022 and redrawing district lines ahead of this election “I am deeply honored and humbled to have been elected to serve on the Sarasota school board,” Barker said in a statement “I am committed to working collaboratively with parents administrators and community members to ensure that our schools provide a safe nurturing and academically rigorous environment for every student.” Barker's victory shifts the balance slightly bringing two Democrats to the five-member board Three conservatives who were not up for reelection Incumbent Tom Edwards won easily against two contenders who appeared to split the Republican vote Edwards is a moderate who has advocated for improving schools' career readiness programs and regularly appears at school events District 2Liz Barker — 51.38%Karen Rose (incumbent) — 48.62% District 3Thomas Babicz — 22.52%Tom Edwards (incumbent) — 55.76%Greg Wood — 21.72% The makeup of the board will largely stay the same with most incumbents holding onto their seats and the at-large race heading to a runoff The Tampa Bay Region’s largest school district was a target of DeSantis who aimed to flip the board into a conservative majority But the seven-member body will hold its Democratic slant who was endorsed by the Florida Democratic Party bested Layla Collins with about 53% of the vote was backed by DeSantis and outraised every other Hillsborough candidate with $130,000 in campaign funds She ended up garnering about 37% of the vote also backed by the state’s Democratic Party held onto her District 3 seat with nearly 59% defended his District 5 post against three challengers including former board member Tamara Shamburger the winner must take more than 50% of the votes cast District 3Jessica Vaughn (incumbent) — 58.94%Myosha Powell (DeSantis endorsement) — 41.06% Incumbents held onto their posts despite DeSantis backing challenges in each of the three races Current board chair Laura Hine won with nearly 70% of the vote against challenger Danielle Marolf who was also backed by the Republican governor “We have got to stay focused on that work at hand and not be subject to the social political winds And it has to be stable," Hine told the Associated Press ahead of the election "I think we really have succeeded with that so far here in Pinellas County.” Geier was endorsed by DeSantis and the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, while Blaxberg has argued parental rights activists have gone too far, with some equating books with pornography and labeling teachers as “groomers." “The misinformation that has been spread by this group of people and the intent to … place mistrust in our teachers,” Blaxberg told the Associated Press District 1 At LargeLaura Hine — 69.38%Danielle Marolf — 30.62% District 4Eileen Long — 54.49%Erika Picard — 45.51% District 5Katie Blaxberg — 34.67%Brad DeCorte — 28.13%Stacy Geier — 37.2% a former teacher in the district and Florida Virtual School instructor a longtime board member backed by DeSantis No one took more than 50 percent in either three-person race That means the two with the most votes face off in a November runoff Charlie Kennedy will meet Jon Lynch for District 3 and Heather Felton goes against Mark Stanoch for District 1 District 1Heather Felton — 39.13%Alex Garner — 29.32%Mark Stanoch — 31.55% District 3Charlie Kennedy— 47.45%Jon Lynch — 30.04%Perri Ann Parkman — 22.51% Sara Beth Reynolds Wyatt earned a fourth term turning back a challenge from Rebekah Ricks a former leader of the state Moms for America group Travis Keys knocked off Marcus "MJ" Wright Jr The seat was vacated when five-term board member Lori Cunningham decided not to seek reelection easily bested Bernnie Brandt in District 1 District 1William Allen — 67.38%Bernnie Brandt — 32.62% District 2Travis Keyes — 59.74%Marcus "MJ" Wright Jr — 40.26% District 4Rebekah Ricks — 38.58%Sara Beth Reynolds Wyatt — 61.42% Information from the Associated Press was used in this report Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP saw their hopes dashed Tuesday night after two of their endorsed Hillsborough County School Board candidates lost their Primaries Two Democrats kept their seats with backing from the Florida Democratic Party after DeSantis endorsed their challengers both incumbents targeted for defeat by DeSantis and Moms for Liberty told Florida Politics their wins send a message — residents want School Board races to be about schools “People are burnt out on those regurgitated talking points,” Vaughn said “I feel hopeful for the first time in a long time …There were a lot of people who ran pro-education It seems like overwhelmingly that’s what our state is valuing.” She and Combs are both against the November amendment to make School Board races partisan My students never knew if I was a Republican or a Democrat because my job was to teach critical thinking,” Combs said “It’s not always going to be about money and power and influence.” Here is a rundown of how all the races shook out Tuesday Combs will hold onto her job after earning 53% of the vote over DeSantis-endorsed Layla Collins (36%) and openly conservative Julie Magill (10%) A former teacher who owns a tutoring center Combs outspent by Collins but had her own support from the Florida Democratic Party The win is reminiscent of her triumph over highly-funded Republican incumbent Steve Cona in 2020 Combs initiated an early learning task force last year Vaughn defeated her DeSantis-backed challenger Myosha Powell with 59% of the vote A former teacher and the School Board’s Vice Chair, she supports the property tax and voted against the school closings. She wants to expand North Hillsborough’s access to Montessori, IB magnets and community schools as well as middle school sports, she told Patch a group pushing back against conservative efforts to take over School Boards “I am incredibly proud of the success our endorsed candidates have achieved,” said Jennifer Jenkins “In a time where our public education system faces immense challenges from well-funded far-right efforts to impose conservative ideology on our schools these victories affirm the public’s support for leaders committed to diversity of thought Our mission to protect and empower our students with the knowledge they need to lead informed successful lives remains more important than ever.” Washington defended his seat from retired county teacher and assistant principal Kenneth Gay activist and preacher Elvis Piggott and write-in candidate Tamara Shamburger Shamburger, who previously held the seat, lost to Washington in 2020. She challenged his win in court and openly conservative challenger Karen Bendorf head into a runoff because no candidate exceeded the 50% threshold needed to win outright Gray earned 35% of the vote and Bendorf took a little over 30% are out of the race with less than 25% and less than 10% of the vote respectively Desantis is the official mayor of Republican Crazytown Please use a modern browser to view these results If you are viewing this page on our mobile app, click here. which incorporates photographs in its documentation of endangered languages Poetic expansions off the page in the service of multilingual and accessible poetics take effective shape in Antrobus’ continued bilingual integration of British Sign Language and The Cyborg Jillian Weise’s video sonnets, accessed fully through QR codes on the pages of Pills and Jacksonvilles And for those of you seeking out original and alive books in the expanse of current  ecopoetry a wide net can perhaps encompass new standouts from Louise Mathias and debut poets Nathan Xavier Osorio and Kinsale Drake Raymond Antrobus, Signs, Music Raymond Antrobus’ intimate third collection offers a sincere examination of new fatherhood “Towards Naming,” the first of the two long poems comprising Signs The anticipation of fatherhood is gripped by fear both real—avoiding a motel with a violent scene out front when driving in winter ice with his pregnant spouse considering the consequences of a name (“My mother rings to apologize/ about my middle name and how many lines/ it has had me pulled out of….”)—and psychological in the wake of intergenerational trauma: “What will you be any better?” the speaker imagines a passing baby saying to him In the second poem “The New Father,” the poetic address to the now-born baby continues: “Your eyes swallow the sound that my ears can’t.” The trajectory of the book leads us not only to the revelation of the name in English and British Sign Language (BSL)—no spoiler of that one here!—but to the more intimate revelation his first word: “The first word my son signed / was music; both hands fingers conducting / music for everything—even hunger….” This book moves with deceptive directness and ease giving way to a significant record of lyric inquiry Oliver Baez Bendorf, Consider the Rooster Oliver Baez Bendorf’s surety of voice and formal control guides this rich third collection In a narrative of a noise dispute among neighbors “Consider the Rooster” begins in anaphora comically echoing the sound “Who” with lines unfolding from “Who did not ask to join this world any more than I did” to the later punchline return: “Who sleeps in a cardboard box in the garage because the philosopher called the police The love poem “T4T” (trans for trans for those unfamiliar) begins in truncated medias res “And I think he must be drunk from the sweet way he.” The fragmentation expands: “I think there’s something happy and right about us mating There is beauty and flight within these poems even as they stay in the earthly and bodily world “Will and Testament” concludes: “Already/ abandoned/ my body once–look what happened after.” Kinsale Drake, The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket National Poetry Series winner Kinsale Drake’s debut collection opens “enough about you: airwaves / in bloom I must sing the hum of the yucca….” But the speaker must also sing “Our grandparents’ blues” and “O like Jimi’s guitar I must sing— / dirty sing blister let the sound rip the sky.” the diversities and “contradictions” that shape these poems are caught in the myriad of sounds on the local home radio station in “Put on that KTNN,” where “All contradictions / find a home in the body,” for “How else to know/you enter a land of monuments Drake is a Diné poet young enough to have been the Library of Congress’s 2017-2018 National Student poet and to have garnered attention and awards as a young poet and performer and here she demonstrates the music she can bring alive in the formal boundaries of the page; this is a poet who we will hear much more from in years to come the  poet shapes her own songs; “Prickly Pear Blues” opens “& the church is quiet/  in the plum dusk/ all my youth/ sunsets tinged with want.” Nathan Xavier Osorio, Querida delivers imagery that burns innately earthly grounded in the habitats and histories of California where water takes the form of “the chance arroyo/ that after a sudden rain becomes a mudslide” with “contents of the channel the knotted crowns of zip ties and desert.” and displacement surge within this collection; in “Welcome to the Show,” we witness disruption of Mexican-American homes through the construction of Dodger Stadium the work and lives of the speaker’s parents set the stage amidst the steadfast landscape Osorio’s sonnets sing from the control of his abundance as he threads the sonnet crown “The Last Town Before the Mohave,” through the book a stamp of skill and presence that leads readers toward the closing series of “Ritual” poems themselves interrupted by the weaving of another even tighter sequence Osorio delves into the borders between human and nature between form and its curated and organic disruptions Louise Mathias, What if the Invader Is Beautiful / My anger he said // looking right in my face / is global.” So ends “Doomsday” from Louise Mathias’ third collection a cluster of poems both volatile and sparse whose Little bloodied skirts” become the orchid’s “Discarded little skirts” in 108 degrees and a darkness of something murkier than wit in these earthy flights that bridge intimate violence and the engulfing natural landscape marked by latitudes and longitudes in the poet’s end notes and California flora: “His hands around my throat // until I blurted cliffrose said every wind born westerly.” “Everything hurts in the half-light./ In the fields I was told I was childish / in a field of fragrant bells.” These are gorgeous poems of knife and bloom of seduction and reclamation: “I’m not saying his eyes were not oceans I am saying these oceans were knives.” Jillian Weise, Pills and Jacksonvilles  “We cyborgs are composed of meat and machine / We have machines inside our body-minds.” So begins “A Very Kind Note to Some Poets,” the opening poem of Pills and Jacksonvilles video artist and activist The Cyborg Jillian Weise (Cy) as the poet identities for audiences such as ours in the four “video sonnets,” which offer images and a QR code for videos created with disabled and Deaf artists while the closing section offers materials around the “video play,” “A Kim Deal Party,” to which readers are invited with a URL in the acknowledgments (Disclosure: I am listed in the “Cast” list in the book having contributed a very brief voice clip to A Kim Deal Party in response to a Facebook call.) There is also a narrative documenting presence here from “As If I Met Their Wife at a Museum,” which builds from “one of the rules/ is that you and I must never / appear to each other/ even though we both love/ the same person” and the wider “Questions for Ray Kurzweil Delivered to Him by a Reporter for Vice News,” which asks “What made you turn away from us?” The Cyborg Jillian Weise’s sense of voice drives this collection of Sappho fragments and hashtag lists and check box poems of “crip love,” of exploration of accessible multi-media poetics collaborations Matthew Zapruder, I Love Hearing Your Dreams  The speaker in Matthew Zapruder’s “Poem for a Suicide,” asks “what would /a perfect elegy do? place the flowers //back in the ground?” In this sixth collection, which follows last year’s Story of a Poem Zapruder’s celebrated memoir about writing and parenting a young son with autism singular musings are imbued with the presence of absence whether of those who have passed—a father or poets ranging from Dean Young to Emily Dickinson and Witold Gombrowicz–or a son who feels present in these poems through the smallest significant actions such as drawing trains in both memory and future plans and there rests the dark generational humanity of these poems: “It seems these days / every poem is a failed elegy / for the world,” and “I cannot/ deny I often feel anger// at the similarities between me /and an oil company,” the speaker shares Relief is delivered with both levity and tenderness in both frankness and the blurring borders of dream and imagination: the speaker promises to “piss” on a tree in honor of Gombrowicz’s birthday “I Love Hearing Your Dreams,” the speaker awakens the “you” crying out in sleep: “gently //shook you/ your eyes/ in the ordinary light” and “before you spoke /your face became/ a son an animal….” Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving His first book, The Spectral Wilderness selected by Mark Doty for the Wick Poetry Prize was reviewed widely and greeted with high acclaim Doty wrote: “It’s a joy to come nearer to a realm of experience little explored in American poetry the lives of those who are engaged in the complex project of transforming their own gender… Oliver Bendorf writes from a paradoxical new-world position: the adult voice of a man who has just appeared in the world alive in the fluid instability of any category.”Stacey Waite described the book which was named a Best Poetry Book of 2014 by Entropy Magazine as “a queer ecology endlessly transformed by possibility and the unruly wanting of our names and bodies.” And Natalie Diaz proclaimed that “Bendorf’s poems give us all we have ever wanted to wake up and feel that the body we are in is ours that the hands on the ends of our wrists—our body’s gates of tenderness—are large enough to hold in them all the things we have desired.” Bendorf himself writes: “I’m interested in poetry that invents or cobbles together a vocabulary for all those little loves and miseries between or outside existing taxonomies We invent when no other kind of structure fits the bill he earned a BA in English from the University of Iowa an MA in Library and Information Science and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin where he was the Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow in Poetry and zine-making.He has presented and taught internationally on topics including visual composition (cartooning A recipient of a Lambda Literary Fellowship in Poetry or are forthcoming from, Alaska Quarterly Review Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics From THE SPECTRAL WILDERNESS (Kent State University Press Celebrate Smith’s 150th anniversary with us! Courtesy PhotoAdam Bendorf wrestles during state finals of his junior year representing Lewis Central High School Adam Bendorf said he was super excited to be named the new head wrestling coach for Harlan Community High School “It’s something that I’ve always kind of joked about that if I had a second life to live I’d be a preschool teacher and a high school wrestling coach,” Bendorf said Bendorf will be taking over for John Murtaugh who coached HCHS wrestling for 20 years “I think coach Murtaugh has done a fantastic job with the program here,” Bendorf added “There’s a sense of excellence within the community and it’s certainly been carried through wrestling since Murtaugh has been here I think some of the challenges I’ll face is learning how to do some of the things that he’s learned to do but as long as he’s been here he’s learned how to do a lot of things more efficiently and so I’m sure I’ll struggle with those smaller details that he didn’t have to think twice about.” Bendorf brings a background of wrestling to the team something he did during his high school days at Lewis Central and during his college days at BYU I graduated from Lewis Central in 1995 and was a 3-time state finalist and a 2-time state champ,” he said “Then I went on and wrestled at BYU and actually started my freshman year and ended up with a record of 12-12.” He credits his college coaches for his success during the time he wrestled I had coach Keith Massey who I think is one of the best wrestling coaches in the country,” he added “I also had coach Mark Schultz at BYU who was an Olympic gold medalist so I feel like I’ve got a pretty good pedigree as far as coaches I’ve learned from.” Bendorf talked about goals he has for the team entering the new season “I’d love to see Harlan have another state champion,” he said “Other goals I have are to play hard and work hard and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun Wrestling is a lot of fun when you’re winning and most importantly above all I think is the life lessons you learn from wrestling.” Bendorf feels that since he got done wrestling society has changed and it’s more of a challenge to bring kids into the program and get excited about it “The challenge is getting young men to dedicate and sacrifice time and energy,” he added “I know there are boys out there that are willing to do it but there may be fewer than there was when I was a kid We didn’t have distractions like video games and social media.” https://www.willyweather.com/ia/shelby-county/harlan.html Tweets by @harlannewspaper (800) 909-6397news2@harlanonline.com - Submit News Form- Letter to the Editor- Place a Classified Ad- Harlan Job Application Alex MartinSenior Zane Bendorf pins his opponent on Senior night at HCHS during the AHSTW With a nickname of “The Human Muscle” it should probably come as no surprise Zane Bendorf has had such a successful high school wrestling career Bendorf wasn’t always enamored with the sport “I was around five when I first started wrestling,” Bendorf said and my dad finally let me quit once I got to middle school I took 6th grade off and started to miss it I joined back in 7th grade and fell in love with it.” Bendorf has a fond memory that sticks out involving his mother “My favorite memory was getting to wrestle my freshman year with my brother being a senior,” he said “We wrestled every match in duals back-to-back because I was 160 and he wrestled 170 My mom came pretty close to a heart attack a few times that year.” Bendorf recalled what he’ll miss most about Murtaugh “Coach Murtaugh has helped to push me both mentally and physically,” he said “He was always there with answers to any questions I had for him technique wise What I will miss most about coach is his passion for the sport and his wrestlers.” Bendorf in his final year of wrestling got the chance to be one of four members of the team to represent HCHS at the state wresting meet in Des Moines he locked up his 100th career pin and according to Murtaugh Bendorf was one of three guys in the bracket who could have won it all “It’s a great feeling to know that I was able to achieve something that most people don’t ever get the chance to achieve,” Bendorf said “It was a great opportunity to wrestle at state my senior year helping them to their 13th and 14th state championship during his junior and senior season Bendorf has fond memories of his time playing football “Definitely winning state my senior year,” he said and it was such a surreal moment when the clock hit zero I also made the victory sealing tackle at the end which was cool.” Head Football Coach Todd Bladt refers to Bendorf as “The Human Muscle” Bendorf credited Bladt for his success in football that led to two titles “Coach Bladt was a great motivational speaker for our games “I learned things like perseverance and how to keep pushing mentally and literally.” Bendorf comes from a strong family background where they support him in his endeavors “My dad is a very passionate wrestler and has always supported and seen potential in me,” Bendorf added “He was a 2x state champ in Iowa and a D1 wrestler for BYU He has played a big role in my wrestling career My older brother was also a great wrestler and helped me get where I am My mom has always been a great supporter too.” With Bendorf’s high school days coming to an end he doesn’t have any plans to wrestle or play football in college but plans to invest time on a mission with his church I don’t have plans to play sports in college,” he said my focus will be serving a 2-year mission for the church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints.” Bendorf will always be grateful for the lessons sports has taught him along the way and prepared him for life moving forward “Playing sports teaches you a lot about life,” he said Wrestling taught me how to learn from my losses and use them to improve It has also taught me about the power of our minds and that we truly are capable of accomplishing anything we put our minds to.” Oliver Baez Bendorf has written two books of poetry: The Spectral Wilderness and Advantages of Being Evergreen The first won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry The second will appear in September and won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s Open Book Poetry Competition Bendorf was born and raised in Iowa and is an assistant professor of poetry and creative writing at Kalamazoo College He took a solo cross-country journey that inspired his new poetry collection “I put all my things in storage and drove around the country towing a teardrop camper,” Bendorf says I wanted to be in landscapes that I thought I might otherwise start to fear Bendorf hit the road thinking he would follow rivers But soon abandoned that idea as he realized that there are rivers everywhere He thought of rivers as a force moves beyond human boundaries could move beyond traditional social boundaries Bendorf finished the poetry manuscript after returning home from that journey “Some of the poems do directly reference places I’d traveled and experiences I had,” he says “Others were less explicitly tied to those experiences but were filtered through them.” Bendorf says he moved beyond his fears during his journey as he discovered that most people were more interested in talking about his camper and his trip than about his being trans Bendorf says he also realized just how big this country really is I encountered my own ideas about safety and danger other people are also just trying to live their lives and are curious.” Bendorf will read from his new collection at the main branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library at 7 p.m He will appear with with fellow Kalamazoo College professor and writer Andy Mozina Listen to WMUK's Art Beat every Friday at 7:50 a.m Jamie Bendorf collecting signatures to put Chris Waddle on recall ballot © 2025 Aurora News-Register Burial will be in the Amana Cemetery with military honors contributions may be made to the Amana Church Society Bendorf was born in the village of High Amana on September 4 the son of Henry and Susanna Wendler Bendorf Benny is survived by his wife Madeline Roemig Bendorf with whom he was united in marriage on June 26 John (Martha) of Iowa City and Carl (Linda) of Solon Marietta Moershel of Middle Amana; and a brother Henry “Hank” (Kathy) Bendorf of Shawnee Mission Additional survivors include niece Marianne Moershel (Bruce Woodrow) and sons Erich and Matthew; niece Rebecca Moershel (Larry Gordon) and daughter Ellie Canada; nephew Scott (Ursula) Williams of Middle Amana and daughter Emilie (Mike) Kaplan; niece Angela (Warner) Jamison of North Carolina; niece Sally Williams of Fairfax IA and daughter Claudia (Adam) Ahrens; and great-nieces Betsy (Brian) Harrison and Katy (Nick) Dohrmann Also stepdaughters Elizabeth Cooper of Charleston He was preceded in death by his parents; his first wife of 43 years Emaline Noe’ Bendorf with whom he was united in marriage on June 19 1949; a brother William “Billy” Bendorf of High Amana; a sister Elizabeth Williams of Fairfax After graduating from Amana High School in 1943 and completing his freshman year at the University of Iowa Bendorf enlisted in the US Navy where he served on two Destroyer Escorts in enemy submarine work in the Atlantic One of Benny’s most memorable experiences while on active duty during WWII occurred while his ship was being prepared in Brooklyn Navy Yard for a voyage into the Pacific and expected invasion of Japan President Truman announced the surrender of Japan whereupon Benny and many of his shipmates as well as thousands of others rushed to Times Square for an indescribable celebration After discharge from military service in 1946 he returned to the University of Iowa and upon graduation in 1949 continued on to complete a year of post-graduate work Benny was a major letter winner in baseball as a second baseman for the Hawkeyes His passion for sports led him to teaching positions and coaching baseball and basketball in the Walford and Blairstown public schools During this time he also played baseball for the town teams of Amana Subsequently he was employed at Amana Refrigeration for six years after which he accepted a position as sales and marketing manager for the Amana Society Furniture Manufacturing Division in 1957 a career from which he retired in 1988 after thirty one years of service Benny was also an avid golfer and a former member of Elmcrest Country Club in Cedar Rapids He was a charter member of the Amana Colonies Golf Course and enjoyed the game throughout his lifetime Always a passionate Hawkeye he supported the Hawks throughout the years Bendorf devoted time and served enthusiastically in community and civic affairs which included the Amana Society Board of Directors and Management Committee; numerous community boards and chairmanships on fund-raising committees for non-profit organizations including the Amana Heritage Society University of Iowa Coaches Versus Cancer; Iowa Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS); and the State of Iowa Small Business Administration (SBA) He served as a volunteer at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Mercy Hospital He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity and the University of Iowa President’s Club Bendorf was a lifelong member of the Amana Church Society and served devotedly in the capacity of Elder from 1962 to 1988 Benny loved visiting with friends and strangers alike He enjoyed sharing his sense of humor and repertoire of jokes both in the planning and planting of hundreds of annuals every year in just the right combination of eye-pleasing colors and patterns Benny often expressed gratitude for the many blessings God had permitted him throughout his lifetime; for a fulfilling and meaningful life filled with loving family and many dear friends by whom he will be greatly missed Online condolences may be extended to the family at www.klosterfuneralhome.com On other issues — including adult-themed books in school libraries and the closing of largely empty schools — the candidates equivocated at times during a forum held by the Tampa Tiger Bay Club. But there was no ambiguity when it came to the proposed tax hike of $1 for every $1,000 in taxable value aimed primarily at supporting teacher pay raises. District 7 incumbent Lynn Gray and candidate Johnny Bush gave strong arguments why the district needs the money. Two other challengers, Karen Bendorf and Jen Flebotte, each gave a resounding “no.” Three of the four are current or former district employees. Flebotte, whose work experience is in architecture and building, is campaigning as an outsider who would demand financial accountability for the school system and its $4 billion budget. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to say ‘transparency’ enough today,” Flebotte told a crowd gathered at the Cuban Club in Tampa. Bush, the former principal of Plant and Robinson high schools, focused on the difficulty in attracting and retaining skilled teachers with pay that lags behind other districts that already have special property taxes. “I have two letters on my desk right now, letters of recommendation for (teachers) who are going to Sarasota and Orange County,” he said. Earlier, he said, “I supervised four interns last year from two local universities and not one of them took a job in Hillsborough County.” Gray said she is alarmed at reports that the state’s new vouchers for homeschooling and private schools will take as much as $80 million out of the district’s budget. “We are looking at, gradually, the defunding of public education,” she said. “How much more can we substract? When you start minus-ing quality teachers because we cannot pay them, then what do we have left?” A crowd at the Cuban Club in Tampa listens as four candidates for the Hillsborough County School Board District 7 seat debate the issues in a forum sponsored by the Tampa Tiger Bay Club on Friday. [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]At the same time, Gray said she does not believe Hillsborough went far enough this year in closing under-enrolled schools. Bush disagreed with her on this point. He said the district should work to make schools more desirable instead of closing them. Flebotte and Bendorf spoke against both the proposed property tax and the county capital improvement tax, which might also support the schools. They said the district needs to become less wasteful before it asks for more money from homeowners and from renters, who would feel the effects of their landlords’ higher property taxes. “You cannot justify this,” Flebotte said. “You cannot put gasoline on this fire.” Bendorf noted the low reading levels of many students, which she sees firsthand when they enter her classroom. She said schools need to narrow their focus to academic skills instead of becoming distracted by other mandates — even mental health, as compelling as that issue is. “I am a teacher and teachers, sure, would love a raise,” she said, referring to the proposed tax. “But we would love other things even more.” She listed, among them: raising expectations for student behavior and supporting teachers when they make decisions concerning students. The candidates were asked about a law awaiting the governor’s signature that would allow religious chaplains on campus. All four said they would move cautiously before allowing any such arrangement in Hillsborough. Two other candidates in the race, Alene Atkins and Ashley Hartfield-Viewins, did not attend. Marlene Sokol is a former education reporter. AboutDonateOnline Exclusives Biannual in PrintSubscribeBroadsidesSubmit GeneralContestsContest ResultsMore 20165 min readThe Spectral Wilderness by Oliver Bendorf Oliver Bendorf writes in the poem “Ghost Dog,” “I miss things sometimes that I cannot locate in the heart.” Art is a form of preservation and relationships through the process of transitioning from female to male Iowa” a speaker asserts: “If you’ve ever doubted the body can transform completely take the highway north from town,” to what used to be a body of water: “The land where I was born was born an ocean and that ocean born of ice.” Scientific proof of change One of the landmarks in the poem are Effigy Mounds “sacred piles of earth we’ve managed to preserve and all that’s buried underneath,” leading to the assertion of the disappearing identity: here’s me twirling in a gauzy blue dress in the afternoon sun Trace these fossils with your tongue and place them in my hands Lay your ear against an iceberg while there’s time and sing to me its trickle “I Promised Her My Hands Wouldn’t Get Any Larger” hangs the tracings of his hands on the wall “they look back at me like busted headlights,” hollow “to make sure they know who’s observing whom,” and gets comfortable with the idea they should also be the kind / that can start a fire with just a deer in the road.” The moment is slightly surreal as the reader can’t be sure if the animal is fuel The poems often use surrealism to explore deconstruction and reconstruction of identity Bendorf’s prose poem “The Manliest Mattress” begins simply enough the speaker goes to the mattress store where “They sell me a wooden box in mattress dimensions.” It seems like a great buy then on the third day the speaker can’t rise everyone I know falls through the sky below me.” Death is present recreation: “I disassemble the wooden box and lay out the pieces in front of me like a miniature lumberyard Science and nature play a large role throughout the book Often the mythos is presented as a journey: an epic tinged with fairytale; acknowledged in “Blue Boy,” – “It’s a classic story shape The hero leaves home….” The twist of a fairy tale interjects turn into a wolf.” Impossible transformation or possible Bendorf’s long poem “Patrón” follows “Blue Boy” in the book The form juxtaposes the fairy tale phrasing; it’s disrupted by heavy enjambment Each line is only a few syllables and the narrative effectively floats down the page Whimsical mementos of daily life fill in the story: “The sidewalk bends / toward darkness / like the shoulder / of a man,” and confronts the nature of identity: Whimsical language continues in “Wagon Jack,” where a doppelganger with the unusual name of a useful farm tool accompanies the speaker through cutting moments of identification: “Larynx,” begins with a pastoral image: “The husk in my voice from the field / belongs to corn still moving / inside my head,” but the poem follows surrealist intentions as one metaphor morphs into another “It echoes a like a bat / in an otherwise empty cave.” and it starts out as a sort of fugue (musical) in its circular dialogue between a you and an I centering around the line “Meet me in the Spectral Wilderness.” They agree to bring paper and a canoe The poems in section III give body to the spectral wilderness: a place of white tundra Speaker and partner armed variously with ice skates and crayons In “The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart,” the speaker’s identity is ambiguous “I was a little skating pond.” You and I are traveling a mile marker is noted: “Road sign says OVID 9 MILES / but you and I never arrive.” Instead the speaker creates new markers: “as we drive across every state line I leave my name on it Montana: Oliver.” The speaker marks every crossing In “Second Winter,” metaphor describes cellular memory: “back among the sawdust there is one particulate burdened with / the memory of how a pine grove smelled I know what the dust / feels for the cone and needle,” and the shape of the poem slopes gently towards the middle and out again With no punctuation the poem slips from one disclosure to another “I was both I was Samson and / Delilah I cut my locks while asleep on my own knee,” also self-destructive impulses [I] have a way of sabotaging my own loveliness I have a girly-boy limnology look at all these sensitive rivers I say while pointing to my veins look at all those vacuums of blood under the skin look at this landscape on the back of our hands dear In “Inventory” the speaker’s heart is “white glue in places.” “In the Barber Shop” the speaker says / make me a better man.” To the speaker is seems the barber “weep[s] billows / across the floor like a bowl of dust,” and “his tears grow cobwebs Spiders / come to rest under his swollen eyes.” Speaker is reminded of childhood and for a moment begs to take the transformation back but realizes that all the spectral debris was “the shattered clay around me.” The final poem “Take Care,” a valediction proclaiming a litany of mistakes for a rubber tire on the shoulder of the road I mistake my hands for belief all the time which I mistake so often for the road itself In psychology a fugue is a state or period of loss of awareness of one’s identity often coupled with flight from one’s usual environment The poems of The Spectral Wilderness weave making with loss Rachel Sahaidachny received her MFA from Butler University She is programs manager for the Indiana Writers Center also awarded first prize in the 2014 Wabash Watershed Indiana Poetry Awards Work is forthcoming from Squaw Valley Review © 2023 The Southeast Review. Site design by Zach Linge.  Harlan Community senior Carter Bendorf stands atop the medal podium along with Glenwood's Mitch Mayberry (left) and Winterset’s Riley Hoven after placing first at 182 pounds in Saturday's Dan Hill Invitational  Carter Bendorf pins Glenwood’s Mitch Mayberry in the 182-pound final  HCHS sophomore Luke Musich goes for the pin against Gretna’s Josh Arend in a consolation semifinal at 126 pounds Musich finished the day 3-1 and placed third  HCHS senior Ethan Lemon (right) goes on the offensive against Jude Ryan of Abraham Lincoln in their 132-pound title match Saturday Lemon lost a 4-2 decision and placed second on the day  Cyclone senior Nathan Henry (right) wrestles Gretna’s Jackson Arend in the championship match at 195 Henry built a 5-0 lead after one period before being pinned in 3:32  HCHS 145-pounder Dalton McKinley looks to turn West Central Valley’s Braiden Beane to his back in a consolation semifinal match 7) -- Senior Carter Bendorf became a Dan Hill Invitational champion on Saturday afternoon winning the 182-pound bracket to lead the Harlan Community wrestlers to third place in their annual season-opening home meet Seniors Ethan Lemon (132) and Nathan Henry (195) both placed second for HCHS and sophomore Luke Musich took third at 126 The Cyclones filled out all 14 weights and placed in 13 of them scoring 178.5 points and finishing behind team champion Winterset (254.5) and Logan-Magnolia (227) Perry (135.5) and Gretna (129.5) rounded out the top five among a nine-team field “We just didn’t do well enough against Winterset and Logan when we went head to head That’s what it kind of came down to,” said HCHS head coach John Murtaugh but there was a lot of mistakes out there as there tends to be in the first meet.” Carter Bendorf who was a runner-up in last year’s Dan Hill Invite opens the season ranked ninth at 170 (Class 2A) by The Predicament He wrestled at 182 on Saturday and pinned both of his opponents Bendorf (41-8 last year) was particularly impressive in the finals vs taking him to the mat with a quick-striking left-hand headlock and winning by fall in 58 seconds Bendorf lost in the finals of last year’s home tourney to a returning state champ from Gretna He was determined to take one more step up the medal podium as a senior “I trained for it and it feels good.” Lemon the Cyclones’ only returning state qualifier has moved up a weight class to 132 this year making the finals with a 9-7 overtime win against West Central Valley’s Justin Garcia He scored a reversal to tie the score in the first period then got taken down again in the third and lost 4-2 Ryan rode Lemon for the entire second period and much of the third and Lemon appeared to run out of gas late in the match Henry pinned his first two opponents at 195 and nearly made it a hat trick against Gretna’s Jackson Arend in the finals with a five-point move in the final moments of the first period Arend started on top in the second period and twice turned Henry to his back - once for a near-fall and later for a pin in 3:32 Musich nearly gave the Cyclones’ a fourth finalist but was defeated 11-9 in OT by Winterset’s Keegan Jensen in the semis He bounced back to win his next two matches and placed third with a 3-1 record Fourth-place Cyclones included Luke Freund at 113 Dalton McKinley at 145 and Zane Bendorf at 160 Thomas Frederick (170) and Jeremiah Davis (220) The National Endowment for the Arts today announced that Oliver Baez Bendorf a Kalamazoo College assistant professor in the Department of English is one of 35 writers who will receive a 2021 Creative Writing Fellowship of $25,000 Baez Bendorf was selected from about 1,600 eligible applicants Fellows are selected through a highly-competitive anonymous process and are judged on the artistic excellence of the work sample they provided The fellowships provide funding for recipients to write “I am honored and still in shock to have received this prestigious grant,” Baez Bendorf said The fellowship will help fund his work on a future collection of poems including research travel when that becomes possible again after the pandemic in which his father’s ancestors took refuge from religious persecution The castle now houses festivals and a falconry center Baez Bendorf is the author of two poetry collections, most recently Advantages of Being Evergreen a professor of English at George Washington University described that book as a “wild queer reimagining of the potential of language to redress our past oppression and imagine new possibilities for gender In 2020, Baez Bendorf received the early career achievement award from The Publishing Triangle His work has also garnered fellowships from CantoMundo Vermont Studio Center and Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing His poems appear in recent or forthcoming issues of American Poetry Review Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment the anthology Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics Since joining the faculty in 2018, Baez Bendorf leads the poetry workshops at Kalamazoo College and teaches introductory creative writing classes he taught a first-year seminar he designed titled “Romance and Revolution: The Life and Times of Pablo Neruda.” Outside the classroom, he has mentored K students in their pursuits of nature writing and literary editing. In 2019, he collaborated with colleagues across the college to host a celebrated writer on campus A faculty research grant from the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership enabled him to participate in the New Orleans Poetry Festival holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Iowa and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry and Master of Arts in Library and Information Studies both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison a poet and beloved Professor Emeritus of English who taught at K from 1962 until 1998 also received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the Arts Endowment in 1984 Since 1967, the Arts Endowment has awarded more than 3,600 Creative Writing Fellowships totaling over $56 million. Many American recipients of the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and Fiction were recipients of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships early in their careers. The full list of 2021 Creative Writing Fellows is available online “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support these 35 talented poets through Creative Writing Fellowships,” said Amy Stolls director of literary arts at the Arts Endowment “These fellowships often provide writers with crucial support and encouragement and in return our nation is enriched by their artistic contributions in the years to come.” Visit arts.gov to browse bios artist statements and writing excerpts from a sample of past Creative Writing Fellows Eric Bendorf has been a general surgeon with Council Bluffs Surgical Associates located on the Jennie Edmundson campus for more than 22 years practicing both general and robotic surgery working on projects around the house and dancing He and his daughter attended Dance to the Beat in 2019 that he became a table sponsor for this year’s event Dance to the Beat is a fundraiser that benefits cardiovascular patients who need additional financial assistance to get them through recovery When asked why he’s a supporter of Dance to the Beat “My dad went to the Mayo Clinic for angioplasty and stents Two weeks later he had a heart attack when a stent occluded Doctors Ayoub and Armbruster worked together to re-open the stent I was not aware of the capabilities of our own cardiologists It’s a well-kept secret which shouldn’t be People of southwest Iowa need to know what is available to them right here.” Come support the Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital Cardiovascular Services and Jennie Edmundson Foundation with a night of dancing to Taxi Driver at Dance to the Beat on Feb at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs For more information or to purchase tickets, please call 712-396-6040 or visit our website at jehfoundation.org Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page So far, five people have filed to challenge incumbent Lynn Gray, now completing her second term. The race and office are non-partisan, but the arguments over issues the board has faced aren’t. Gray is a Democrat, but three of the challengers have previously been listed as Democrats on the county party’s web site — Alene Atkins, Sonja Brookins and Ashley Hartfield-Viewins. None of those three responded to repeated phone calls and emails to the numbers and addresses listed on their filing papers for comment, but at least two, Brookins and Hartfield-Viewins, are Black. Gray acknowledges they may have been motivated in part by the board’s difficult, divisive debate over converting under-used Just Elementary School into an early learning center, a move opposed by some residents of its heavily minority neighborhood. Gray was one of four members who voted in favor of the move, but because she had previously said she was undecided, she said she “was perceived as the swing vote.” Her seat is the only countywide seat up for election in 2024, and hence the only one available to some of the candidates. One of the other two challengers, Karen Bendorf, is a Plant City Republican who said she was motivated to run partly because she opposes the board’s advocacy of tax increase proposals and stances it has taken in proclamations, including one celebrating Pride Month. The fifth challenger, Jen Flebotte, didn’t list a phone number or home address on filing papers and didn’t respond by deadline to emails seeking comment. Her campaign treasurer, Nancy Watkins, normally works only with Republicans. Asked why she thinks so many candidates have filed against her, Gray cited Gov. Ron DeSantis’s controversial moves on education policy and the conservative “Moms for Liberty” movement opposing some books and curriculum on topics including race and gender. “Education is the front and center of every newspaper, every news show,” said Gray, formerly a long-time teacher at several levels. “The governor has made it a top issue and I think there’s reaction to that among both Democrats and Republicans. I think it’s a lot of reactive behavior.” The turmoil in public education, she said, means “You need someone with a strong background in teaching and learning.” Bendorf is a first-time candidate for office who teaches social studies at Tomlin Middle School and called herself “a mom who has kids in the school district.” She said she believes the district should eliminate bureaucratic waste before raising taxes but wasn’t yet ready to give specifics — “We have plenty of funds to pay teachers well, but mismanage money.” She said she isn’t certain but might favor making school board races partisan. William March is a Times correspondent who writes about politics. MenuIn Oliver Bendorf's 'Top Surgery' zine a trans man uses humor to recover — and to educate ImpactBy Mathew RodriguezSep 2016Before his top surgery — the term many trans people use to describe bilateral mastectomy — Oliver Baez Bendorf didn't have a proper means of describing transgender men's experiences before and after the procedure.. In his new zine, Top Surgery, which he is now selling on Etsy images and even musical notes to describe his experiences "One of the best parts of zines is you can include whatever you want and you can use whatever you have around," Bendorf said in an interview "Combining image and text is one of my favorite things Something new can happen that is more than the sum of the parts."  Oliver Baez BendorfBendorf suffuses the book with lots of humor: When he first wakes up from surgery in a stupor he asks if the name of the operating room is "Dumbledore."  was essential before and during recovery from his surgery "The reasons that we laugh are so spread out across the emotional spectrum with only one slice of our laughter being in response to things that we conventionally think of as 'funny' — puns Whether it's the slapstick hilarity involved in his partner dressing him in compression socks or his new slogan — "boobless and fuckless" — Bendorf said that levity has been central to his transition — and it's central to the tone of his zine the zine evolved from his own diary entries In the weeks following his top surgery in July Bendorf was unable to do any heavy lifting but was able to cut and glue smaller pieces of paper together to construct the zine "I love how zines open up more possibilities for circulating one's work and how handmade the process is," Bendorf said "My master copy is very heavy from all the glue and collaging!"  Oliver Baez BendorfThough Bendorf's story details a transgender man's journey the zine is for more than just transgender people Bendorf includes pages for people who are friends and loved ones of transgender people He lists guidelines for people who are caring for a trans person recovering from surgery and includes a blank page to use as a shopping list when you shop for a recovering trans friend you think the guide will be a helpful resource It's the kind of guide he would've wanted before his own surgery "I hope the zine gives people another way of thinking/feeling about their own body or another angle through which to relate to top surgery whether they themselves are considering it or just had it or are close to someone who is," he said "I don't mean for it to be comprehensive and it's far from it "I tried to make the zine that I would have wanted Hear from Hillsborough School Board District 7 incumbent Lynn Gray and challengers Jen Flebotte On Tuesday Cafe we heard from four 2024 candidates for Hillsborough County School Board District 7 The District 7 incumbent is Lynn Gray and she is being challenged by Jen Flebotte we didn’t hear the full responses by all candidates to the final question so here is the question about school millage rates and the responses by Flebotte You can hear from the District 1 and 3 candidates here Tuesday Café airs weekly on WMNF beginning at 10:06 a.m You can listen live on 88.5 FM in Tampa Bay, on wmnf.org or on the WMNF Community Radio app You can watch replays on TBAE Network Channels at 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Tuesdays on Spectrum 636, Frontier 34 and watch.tbae.net. Or on demand You can listen anytime on demand on wmnf.org or by subscribing to the Tuesday Café podcast on your favorite podcast platform XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value" Tuesday Café with Seán Kinane – 10:06 a.m plus national and international perspectives Hosted by WMNF News & Public Affairs Director Seán Kinane Follow WMNF News on X / Twitter — Like WMNF News on Facebook Listen: Environmentalists in Pinellas County are calling for a renewed.. Roundup of news headlines produced for WMNF Community Radio: Trump,.. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin' Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_4" ).setAttribute( "value" Proud member of Project Galileo and protected by Cloudflare WMNF is a registered 501(с)3 charitable organization - The Nathan B. Stubblefield Foundation, Inc. | Online Public File Or if you just wanna let our DJ know you’re enjoying their show Signup below to get The Scoop delivered every weekday to your email inbox Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" WMNF advises you to check with the individual venues or event planners listed before heading to anything posted here There is a high likelihood that many events have been or will be canceled or postponed Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value"