I Bet She Called Me Sugarplum

By Joanne Gabbin, English professor
2004, Franklin Street Gallery Productions
ISBN: 0-9760716-0-6

Opal Moore, poet and author of Lot's Daughters, says, "I Bet She Called Me Sugarplum renders, with utter naturalness and confidence, one child's embrace of her own secure place in a world described by love. Joanne Gabbin is not a children's book author, so she has not set out to make a book for children; rather, she has captured the poetry we call mother's love and has given us a story for the mother and child throbbing, always, within each one of us. This story's sweetness comes with no sugar added."

Gabbin, professor of English and director of the 1994 and 2004 Furious Flower Conferences, says her book is "autobiographical in the sense that these are stories that my mother told me. And, so I wanted to give these stories back to my family and to the public. I Bet She Called Me Sugarplum comes out of a story that my daughter and I shared together. … The main story in the book is the closed hand and the dime. My mother taught me about generosity."

At the seven-week countdown to the 2004 Furious Flower Conference, Gabbin says, "Opal Moore said to me, 'You know, the artwork is done, the poem is done; why don't you publish the book?'

"I asked myself, 'why not?' and I got busy working," adds Gabbin. "I got the ISBN number, went to the Library of Congress and got the copyright; and seven weeks later at the conference, we launched this book. This is a very important book, in terms of children who need to know about their roots. Children who need to know where they come from, what were their beginnings. It's really an adoption story."

It was fitting to launch Gabbin's book at the Furious Flower Conference because of its JMU and conference connections. Poet and Furious Flower participant Lucille Clifton wrote the foreward, and the back cover includes quotes from poets Toi Derricotte, Nikki Giovanni, Naomi Long Madgett and Sonia Sanchez. The book also includes illustrations by alumna Margot Bergman ('91M) and was designed by JMU art professor Sang Yoon.

"This poetry thing just stays in me. I love it," says Gabbin.

 

 

 

 

The Bachelorette Party

By Karen McCullah Lutz ('88)
2005, St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 031232619X

Karen McCullah Lutz ('88) is best known for co-writing the blockbuster hit Legally Blonde starring Reese Witherspoon and 10 Things I Hate About You starring Julia Stiles. Lutz's debut novel about a bachelorette party starts out as a seemingly innocent night out with the girls.

After being left at the altar by her fiancé, Los Angeles high school teacher Zadie Roberts wants nothing more to do with love. With the help of her best buddy, Grey, and several bottles of wine, she just might survive the trauma of the wedding that wasn't. Unexpectedly, Grey gets engaged to Zadie's prim and proper cousin Helen, and suddenly Zadie is dragged back into wedding festivity hell. The coup de grace is Helen's bachelorette party, thrown by her clique of prissy friends. But when the Pinot Grigiot goes down and the sweater sets come off, things get out of control. Helen turns into a girl gone wild and gets herself into a situation that might sink the happy couple.

"I'm a guy. I don't usually like books like this," says actor/director Peter Horton. "But Karen Lutz tells a tale so wonderfully crass and insightful that I found myself engaged and laughing out loud. ... It's a truly fresh take on friendship, women and the pop culture they live in."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sexual Orientation and School Policy

By Ian K. Macgillivray
2004, Rowman & Littlefield Press
ISBN: 0742525082

Education professor Ian Kenneth Macgillivray's book addresses safe spaces and equal treatment for students. Based on his doctoral research, this book helps readers understand and mediate the debates that arise when bisexual, gay, intersex, lesbian, and transgendered students and their families ask for equal treatment from schools and are opposed by conservative parents. Sexual Orientation and School Policy is a case study of one school district's attempt to adopt and implement policies that include sexual orientation. The book describes the work of the Safe Schools Coalition, which advocates and educates for equal rights for bisexual, gay, intersex, lesbian, transgendered, and queer/questioning students. Concerned Citizens, a group of conservative parents, opposed the inclusion of sexual orientation in the policies. Factors that either facilitated or impeded the implementation of the policies are highlighted, as are the strategies employed by the Safe Schools Coalition in educating opponents.