First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work First Draft celebrates creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in In this episode, Mitzi talks to Lynn Steger Strong about her new novel, The Float Test Subscribe and download the episode Mitzi Rapkin: Something present in this book is the interaction between fact and fiction and how what we write in fiction might be pieces of our real lives and how do we fictionalize some of that what are we doing in the world that influences us what interaction did you have at CVS this morning that will stick with you in ways that you’re conscious and unconscious of that come out in your next book about being a writer and being in the world and that interaction Lynn Steger Strong: I think it’s kind of excruciating to be alive I think it’s part of our job as writers to be pretty porous to the world I am really grateful to have friends and community and children It’s like the Flannery O’Connor idea that fiction is made in the dust and if you’re not willing to get dusty then you’re not willing to write great fiction I find it very hard and scary a lot of the time to move through the actual world and also it feels completely essential to me to touch and feel the realities of the world consistently so that when I go back to my fiction I sort of posit this binary to students in class like there’s the idea of the thing and the thing itself I think some writers are really interested in the idea of the thing but I’m very interested in the thing itself I want you to feel in my fiction that you can sort of touch and taste the world as the character is moving through it And I do think it all kind of sticks with you like a woman at drop-off who touches her hair in a certain way And then I and then I think probably I’m wrong probably that 20 minutes I spent worrying about this woman who doesn’t need me to be worried about her like her gesture is going to stick with me and then her gesture is going to be in my book One of our main jobs as writers every day when we’re in the world is to pay very close and careful attention And then I do think it kind of appears in that moment where a character is forming and she’s feeling a thing Lynn Steger Strong is the author of the novels Hold Still Her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times She has taught writing at The Pratt Institute and Columbia University and will be the Visiting Fiction Writer at Bates College for the 2022-2023 school year 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 Golf Alums Steger and Wiseman Carry Ball State Flag in Upcoming PGA Championship May 02 Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker We have the address for the funeral home & the family on file If you're not happy with your card we'll send a replacement or refund your money Elizabeth Sutton Steger was born on July 7, 1933, in Molena, Georgia. She was the fourth of five children born to Frank Benjamin Sutton, Sr. and Hattie Knight Sutton. In 1941, the family moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she completed her... View Obituary & Service Information The family of Elizabeth Steger created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories Elizabeth Sutton Steger was born on July 7 Available by phone 24/7 (423) 622-8152 Copyright © 2025 Taylor Funeral Home of Chattanooga Giovanni’s legacy lives on through the student poets she inspired This year’s Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize marked the first since its namesake Nikki Giovanni passed away late last year echoing through her poetry and the poetry of the students she inspired she didn't just shape literature,” Laura Belmonte dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences an award-winning writer and University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English It is open to undergraduate students of all majors and offers one of the largest monetary awards of any university-sponsored poetry prize in the Western Hemisphere a sophomore majoring in English literature and professional and technical writing won first place and $1,500 for her poem “How to Get a Happy Life” during the competition at the Lyric Theatre When Blom heard her name announced from the podium “I was just really happy to be picked in general and to be able to read here today said she navigates the world through poetry “Poetry is as close as I can think to something truly honest,” Blom said The $800 second-place prize was awarded to Isabella Korobow-Velez said inspiration for her poem “A Pinning Board on the Floor” struck during a biology class where she spent 15 weeks pinning bugs for a collection “My goal in writing is to touch people and connect with people and I did that – and that’s what I’m really happy about – that someone else enjoyed something I wrote,” she said “We get the same experience and same joy.” a junior English literature and professional writing major won third place and $500 for her poem “Garlic Knife.”    “While the poem was inspired by my relationship with food it's also about Asian women and their identity and their relationship with the Asian community and the American community and the beauty standards of both,” she said The competition was the first time she shared her poetry in a public setting She said Giovanni’s work is an inspiration for her I’ve always read her poetry and analyzed it and become so fond of it,” she said “So being able to be here in her honor is such an amazing opportunity that I’m going to forever hold with me.” associate chair of the Department of English presented this year’s awards with Aileen Murphy senior instructor in the department and director of the competition The top three finalists also received The Steger trophy a piece of art crafted by students at the Virginia Tech Foundry Several faculty members recited Giovanni’s poems throughout the evening weaving them in between the student poetry readers Giovanni’s wife and retired English professor The evening concluded with a toast to poetry – one of Giovanni’s annual traditions Virginia Tech demonstrates impact as a global land grant – progressing sustainability in our community Get Directions  See All Locations  Contact Virginia Tech  © 2025 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application of Kewaskum went to her heavenly home on Tuesday 2025 at Serenity Villa in Campbellsport with her beloved family gathered with her She was born in Brownsville on December 18 the daughter of Joseph and Marie (nee Hunke) Eggers  Elaine worked at Regal Ware in Kewaskum for 26 years before retiring She and Don also enjoyed playing bingo and their casino trips but her greatest joy was her grandchildren and great grandchildren Elaine always remembered their birthdays with special gifts always increasing as they got older  Those left behind to cherish Elaine’s memory include her husband of 65 years Don  Elaine was preceded in death by her parents Joseph and Marie  A Mass of Christian Burial will be Monday Mark Jones will officiate and burial will follow in the parish cemetery February 24th from 12:00 Noon until time of Mass at St  The Steger family extends a special thank you to the nurses and staff of Serenity Villa and Caring Hand Home Healthcare especially Dawn  The Twohig Funeral Home is assisting the Steger family with arrangements with guestbook and condolences at www.twohigfunerals.com Add to Calendar Add to Calendar This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors There are currently no upcoming/recent events Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here 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 Thomas Bernhard’s biographer claimed that he masturbated in front of the mirror feel like the same thing over and over—what might be referred to as autofiction—misanthropic ranting men Most have lung diseases; Bernhard almost died of a lung disease he supposedly said that he survived to spite the doctors But the content of a Bernhard novel is never the point his are about the experience you have when you’re of inside them: the way the sentences build on one another repeat and circle through and churn inside ideas Like the music he studied when he still had the lungs be an opera singer like an Ad Reinhardt or Agnes Martin painting only to rebuff your need to climb out of it with a concrete idea of what exactly has been done to you while you were there Bernhard wrote a five-volume auto?biography that is beautiful but not particularly revealing the further from the person you can sometimes feel Think of googling a first date just before you meet them: so much information moved from Atlanta to LA when they were fourteen and their breath smells inexplicably like meat I feel that much surer that the facts don’t come close to telling me the particularities of who this person was it’s story that does it—and the best biographers know this Neither the art nor the facts tell us who the person was exactly—I’m not sure that’s possible—but the art gives us clearer more thrilling access to the truths—the feelings and the ideas that churned most constantly inside them Imaginative truth is a term I use a lot in teaching and what I mean is the ineffable and miasmic that does not (could not) ever fit inside of any individual biographical fact Even that image of Bernhard masturbating: it might not be true it might have been a joke he told that someone passed along to someone else and then someone else decided to declare as fact The word imagination comes from the word image and in so doing the ideas we want them to move through stick in a more affecting and engaging way inside their heads Whether or not Bernhard ever stood and pleasured himself in front of a mirror is not relevant to the work that image might do to evoke a feeling: to make an idea legible is so much of how fiction works “Art is not what you see but what you make others see.” Baldwin said “All I know is you have to make the reader see it”; from Cheever “We walk through a world continually disappearing from view One thing fiction does is restore the hidden and vanishing world that we have neither seen nor perceived nor said anything real or of any importance yet Is it possible that we have had thousands of years to look and that we have let those thousands of years pass like a break at school when one eats a sandwich and an apple?” And Lorrie Moore and patch together from remnants) or the thing will not come alive as art.” we move through life bombarded by facts but wholly incapable of knowing how or why they add up to what we think or feel about a given situation and too easily (mis)presented become straightforward and clear while also letting it be messier and more complex Fiction writers snatch at and invent image Sometimes we snatch at life and sometimes we invent it the goal is not to tell the reader the facts as they happened bring a bunch of sentences and paragraphs to imagistic life A fun exercise when you’re starting (or in the middle of) a novel: Pick a premise that is generally accepted that you both basically understand why people buy it but also fundamentally believe is bullshit build out some objects to complicate this idea but you might need to install a character who is also a writer) Then what if you took the reins away from her What if—because you think writing fiction is dangerous and also Think about a question that you’re fascinated by but can’t quite get hold of: what is imagination and why does it suddenly feel so valuable to you Force imagination to then be an act not just on your novel but inside of it: All novels are constructions there is no such thing as a reliable narrator Embed that fact in the novel by letting your narrator acknowledge she’s making it all up That she is wantonly and recklessly imagining her way into other people Because that is what all fiction writing is Give the characters more siblings to remind the reader that every act of memory is also inherently constructed and imaginative and failings that few of us will ever wholly comprehend in watching people conjure different versions of the exact same stretch of time we might see not only their points of disagreement and the tensions between them but also the moments of overlap that might bring them back to loving one another after all in other words (and this is from Ted Chiang) all the various ideas you’re most interested in “storyable.” Again the conjuring and enacting of image both from little bits of life but also from thin air a sense of time and place in which the reader might be fully immersed try to flip and switch and complicate their sense not only of fiction The Float Test by Lynn Steger Strong is available from Mariner Books Add to Calendar Add to Calendar daughter of the late Stanley and Susan Bialaszewski She grew up on a farm and was the youngest of nine children she and others who lived on the farms walked to and from St Hyacinth’s School on Lake Shore Drive in Dunkirk they were bused to school but still had to walk from Farmingdale Road to Middle Road to catch the school bus After school there was always work to attend to on the farm first tending to all the animals or harvesting the crops who also helped with many chores on the farm Roger and Sally married and began a family of their own They were blessed with 10 grandchildren Tara McCoy Sally was employed by the Faculty Student Association at SUNY Fredonia for twenty years,working in the college’s bookstore Sally was predeceased by her husband Roger (January 5 Sally is also survived bysister Jane Mikula and many nieces and nephews memorials can be made to the Chautauqua County Humane Society Visitation will be Wednesday 4-7pm at the LARSON-TIMKO Funeral Home where prayers will be offered Thursday morning at 10:30 am followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at St On-linecondolences may be made at larson timkofuneralhome.com Copyright © 2025 Ogden Newspapers of New York | https://www.post-journal.com | PO Box 3386 the Carroll County Board of Supervisors formally appointed Curt Steger who had been serving as interim county attorney following the death of County Attorney John Werden last month to finish out the remainder of Werden’s term Chair Scott Johnson presented the resolution to the board Steger graduated with a history and fine arts degree from Briar Cliff University in 2000 and taught overseas before returning to Iowa to earn his law degree from the Drake University Law School in Des Moines He has practiced law for the past 15 years more than 10 of them as the assistant county attorney under Werden The supervisors voted unanimously to appoint Steger as county attorney and Iowa Appellate Judge Gina Badding administered the oath of office Steger says he is glad to finish the appointment’s formalities so he can focus fully on the county attorney’s duties Steger adds he is familiar with much of the county attorney’s responsibilities thanks to working closely with Werden for the past decade Steger noted he was fortunate to work with somebody so knowledgeable about criminal law and he says he has no intention now to change how the Carroll County Attorney’s Office runs During this (Monday) morning’s meeting the board also formally approved the appointment of Aaron Ahrendsen Be the first to know latest important news & events directly to your inbox There are no statistics available for this player Thanks for visiting A Brooklyn woman who was drunk when she drove the wrong way on Interstate 87 in Yonkers and crashed into a car killing the other driver and injuring a passenger was given the sentence she was promised by state Supreme Court Justice James McCarty when she pleaded guilty in November to aggravated vehicular homicide and second-degree vehicular assault when she drove south in the northbound lanes of the highway near Exit 1 Her Acura MDX struck Steger's northbound Honda Civic a 23-year-old Elmsford woman who was a passenger in Steger's car Willis had been drinking at a Queens nightclub and got lost after dropping off friends ending up in Westchester instead of heading home to Brooklyn Isabel Steger's father shares memories of 'my everything'Isabel’s father called his daughter “my everything” in a victim impact statement he read in court He recounted the knitted pink sweater and beanie she wore as an infant when he brought her home from the hospital; the dinner he always made for her teriyaki chicken breast with a side of rice; the advising through relationship and boyfriend problems with reminders these were parts of growing up; and the 16-hour drive they made to the University of Alabama for her freshman year “No parent should have the constant daily burden of outliving their children,” he wrote “I will shed some light on what it feels like Imagine someone taking a double-barreled shotgun and blowing a hole through your heart and then the wind blows and you feel it flow through your body and the hole never heals.” He wrote that he did not believe the promised sentence was adequate He did not mention Willis by name or address her directly but wrote that she had “crossed the line into destroying other people’s hopes children on a level that is incomprehensible.” Ring also spoke in court at the sentencing “I’m thankful that I had such amazing family members and friends by my side through it all and that by the grace of God I am standing here today," Ring told Willis during her victim impact statement according to the Westchester District Attorney's Office “Dragged Up” for the final time on Monday Private graveside services will be at the Rock Island National Cemetery where military honors will be conducted by the Milan American Legion Post No Memorials may be made online at HDSA.org in Mike’s honor a son of Valentine and Dorothy (Gibbons) Steger Mike and his siblings never shied away from mischief Instead of school they visited the local pool hall and they even hosted their own backyard demolition derby Mike and Pat raised their ‘Brady Bunch’ with laughter and adventure leaving their kids with a lifetime of memories Mike was proud to be an Ironworker of the Local 111 brotherhood the better.” He enjoyed adventures such as drag racing and Holli (Kodjovi) Ebizo; 10 grandchildren; eight great grandchildren; a sister Michael was preceded in death by his parents; wife There are no off seasons for the Steger Center for International Scholarship the university’s academic center in southern Switzerland hosted more than 80 faculty members from Virginia Tech and from institutions across Europe and around the world — all keen to engage in intensive workshops aimed at igniting joint research initiatives and strengthening scholarly partnerships Researchers traveled from as far as Thailand and Ecuador to attend three very different workshops: the International Workshop on Pandemic Science the Coding Theory and Cryptography Summer School and Collaboration Workshop and the Hanbury Architecture Design Retreat “This year was like a proof of concept for these types of collaborations at the Steger Center,” said Sara Steinert Borella, executive director of the center, part of Outreach and International Affairs “I wanted to see if we opened our space to faculty when we didn’t have students — not just would the faculty be interested but would the center be conducive to gathering T.M. Murali, professor of computer science and director of the Pandemic Prediction and Prevention Destination Area chose the center as the venue for the group’s inaugural International Workshop on Pandemic Science He found the setting ideal for fostering collaboration you’re in this beautiful region and you’re away from your day-to-day responsibilities It allows you to relax and just start thinking about science,” he said “One of the key aspects of science is its social nature The workshop’s goal was to establish a forward-looking agenda for the destination area, one of the transdisciplinary communities at Virginia Tech tackling complex issues impacting humanity But within the Steger Center’s intensely collaborative environment participants also outlined a white paper they plan to publish within the year “To say it was exhilarating seems too simple,” Murali said “But it was exhilarating and also inspiring because we were sharing new ideas and now we have a specific shared purpose for the Pandemic Prediction and Prevention Destination Area and our growing number of collaborators.” a UNICEF representative in Nicaragua with extensive experience in pandemic preparedness and response was invited to share his expertise on community engagement “The purpose of the conference was to facilitate a strategic dialogue among the interdisciplinary teams involved in the project and provide practical inputs for its implementation,” Obregon said “The Steger Center was a wonderful place for these types of focused discussions we also made important recommendations to ensure that the project can become a crucial part of public policymaking discussions and decisions and that it reaches a broader audience Murali and his collaborators in the destination area, in conjunction with the newly formed COMPASS Center have already begun planning for future activities at the Steger Center If the International Workshop on Pandemic Science served as a proof of concept, the Coding Theory and Cryptography Summer School tested the center’s capacity to host larger gatherings Mathematics Professor Gretchen Matthews and Assistant Professor Hiram López along with seven collaborators from institutions across Switzerland and the U.S hosted more than 60 attendees from 20 countries at a unique conference designed to foster collaborative research in quantum coding the conference was also a space for mentorship and networking “The location is just exceptional for the type of work we do,” Matthews said “There are large networks of institutions across Europe working in this field For them to be able to convene with us at the Steger Center makes collaboration possible and brings Virginia Tech to the table on a different scale.” The organizers invited 10 senior researchers to define and lead 10 projects then assigned groups of junior researchers to each project “There’s a definite need for junior people to meet and begin collaborations with others in the community and grow their research portfolios everyone is contributing something regardless of where they’re coming from or what they’ve done up to that point,” Matthews said Some of the participants said this was the best conference they had ever attended “People are already asking when the next one will be,” she said “It’s clear the environment of the Steger Center which really facilitates people naturally meeting one another saying that the conference was great but that it doesn’t hurt that the excursions and environment at the Steger Center are all top-notch as well.” A third gathering this summer at the Steger Center revealed a previously unexplored opportunity with an entirely different audience: alumni Although the Hanbury architecture firm’s annual design retreat is not technically a gathering of Virginia Tech alumni these architects’ professional development workshop had a distinctly Hokie feel this year Twenty-two Hanbury architects — roughly half of them Virginia Tech alumni — spent three nights at the center CEO David Keith ’87 said his colleagues who developed the retreat were inspired by their undergraduate study abroad experiences a lot of the energy of school and academia is sucked out of the profession You miss those unique interactions — people talking about what’s possible We created the design retreat as a way to get that energy of academia back,” Keith said Helping to capture that energy, the professional development curriculum for the design retreat was created by Heinrich Schnoedt, associate professor of architecture. Schnoedt drew on his 23 years of experience leading study abroad programs at the center and leveraged the School of Architecture's long-standing connections in southern Switzerland Beyond the retreat, the firm has a strong tint of maroon and orange at its core. Not only has Hanbury hired many alumni over the years, but the firm regularly engages with the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design and has even designed some of the buildings around the Blacksburg campus Jane Cady Rathbone ’80 is a Hanbury design principal and one of the original organizers of the retreats “I did my study abroad 45 years ago close by the Steger Center in Lugano,” she said “When I got to return there with my firm for the first time in 2004 and Professors Donna and Bob Dunay led our retreats and set this precedent for continuous learning and collaboration.” During subsequent retreats, Lucy Ferrari, who was named director emerita of the Steger Center in 2023 are both key figures in Rathbone’s own study abroad experience in 1979 and contributing founders of the center joined the retreats twice while he was university president the Steger Center and town surrounding it have become so deeply a part of the company’s culture that one of the conference rooms in Hanbury’s Norfolk office was named Riva San Vitale removed from the hustle and bustle of your typical setting in this quiet town we have an absolutely delightful place for dialogue The center creates an environment that allows us to reflect and talk about what matters to us — good design — to be inspired Steinert Borella added that the Steger Center is always delighted to welcome back alumni such as Rathbone and Keith “Their return visits strengthen our community and provide inspiring examples for our current students of the lifelong impact of international education.”  and other attendees of the 2009 Hanbury retreat enjoy a picnic in the Alps When you meet Josh Steger at Icon the fiber arts studio and yarn shop he owns in De Pere it’s hard to visualize him in his previous career as a banker With the creative style and flair he exhibits he is quick to point out that he shied away from creative pursuits when earning a degree at St In addition to having an affinity for fiber arts I decided there wasn’t going to be money in music that would afford me the lifestyle I wanted to live; my career choice came down to money,” Steger said it would not have brought in the same salary I didn’t know how I’d be able to pay them off.” He worked for several local banks and was promoted to management positions he went into the health care industry where he also held a management position As he proved his proficiency in those areas Shortly after graduating with a degree in landscape horticulture Karcz landed his first jobs and started a landscaping business “I remember him getting a check made out to the business and he asked me to deposit it I told him that we needed to have a business account to put the check in That was the seed that started it all,” Steger said so did the requests for additional services Karcz had clients requesting wedding flowers and other floral design If a client asked if Karcz could do something “My husband’s first dream had been to have his own florist shop; he had worked at numerous others throughout the years There aren’t many florists that are independently owned and that’s the space we wanted to fill Buds ‘n Blooms was launched in 2007 while the pair also worked at other full-time careers It wasn’t long before the shop had taken off and Karcz left his other job and together they did everything from small orders to very large events “We became the closest thing in the area to being a dedicated wedding florist.” The front has matured over the last 18 years We opened with some of the things we have now but it is much bigger and more varied today,” Steger said “Icon occupied a small section in the building for the first nine years.” while many businesses struggled during the pandemic They had ecommerce sites on their websites and were able to quickly pivot to things that were already on their platforms People were mostly confined and shopped from home They sent floral arrangements to friends and relatives to cheer them up; it was also a time when many turned to crafting and fiber arts The boom in business meant that Icon needed more space Steger was busy teaching and had a growing inventory of fine yarns Even though he remains active in the floral business he is able to spend more time on a passion he has had since his was a youngster “I began my journey as a fiber artist at a young age when I learned to knit I was always inspired by yarn and what you can make with it.” Her legacy and accomplishments are the reason for naming the business,” Steger said The business goes beyond what would be expected Steger is committed to offering in-person learning in the studio and helping others develop skills that he has perfected where people can drop in and find help and support with their projects and hand spinning where people learn to make their own yarn The thoughtful and repetitious motions transport you to a different state of mind You can learn the fundamentals of preparing fiber The Community Nights are also social and a good chance to gather with like-minded artisans are members of Traveling Treadlers Fiber Arts Guild a local group founded in the 1970s to educate and also to innovate traditional fiber arts in the Green Bay area That fits in perfectly with Steger’s goal to promote floral and fiber arts He says that he and Karcrz strive to inspire others to lead more creative lives Their shops are proving their success in doing so Growth between the two shops has been exceptional and in addition to the long hours they work they have managers at both stores and a part-time staff of between 15 and 20 people depending on the season They continue to grow the retail part of the business with a wide array of interior design items Selecting inventory is a dual responsibility and they routinely take trips to big-city markets “We have our fingerprints on almost everything In terms of being a driving force between the look and design of the shops and giving customers what they want We have built everything – nothing we have was inherited – it has been taxing and incredibly hard but when you have accomplished something like this it becomes part of your soul,” Steger said Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE