Genre: Articles, Children’s, Essays, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Poetry, Stageplays
Website: https://www.kolorwacks.com
Blogs: Medium.com/@bjgenovese
- Artistic License — a commentary blog about this & that.
- How I Built this Book — an informational blog about the genesis & construction of George Leaves the Lights ON: the importance of being earnest about conservation.
Amazon Page: George Leaves the Lights ON
Other Contact Information:
- bjgenovese@msn.com
- kolorwacks@msn.com
Bio
Writer
Most of the literary lighters of my way published under their own steam: William Blake, Willa Cather, Stephen Crane, e.e. cummings, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman. Whenever I encounter a good story, one that pulls me up and inside out, I ask: How did the writer do that? Answer? That writer asked: “What is it that I cannot say?” And then – held nothing back.
Master Crayon Maker
My artisan Kolorwacks™ crayon was born in Arizona’s Painted Desert. Not only did I try to rival the colors of the stone, but my spirit asked that I recapture the childhood where – when I created art in my mother’s house – she ordered me to walk it to the trash.
I live in the company of eight rivers, where the trees are magnificent communicators, and the Weather Gods of the Oregon Cascades teach the finer points of ark building.
My Once & Future BIO – to:
• cast more spells
• change my name
• dance in the lightning fields of Quemado New Mexico
• drink strange brews
• have my fortune told by a true blood gypsy
• join the Commonwealth of Sentient Beings
• explore the Atlas Obscura
• make the door to the invisible visible
• paint my body with dayglo and light up the dark
• ride a giraffe
• sing backup for the Music of the Spheres
• slip notes to God
• sound my barbaric yawp
• swim with dolphins and whales
• zip line across the Grand Canyon.
• and last but not least — to transport magic back to my world.
♦ 2023 Winner 2023 Bronze Moonbeam Award for Children’s Books / Environment
Title: George Leaves the Lights ON [or the importance of being earnest about conservation]
Genre: Middle Grade Chapter Book ♦ Fantasy / Poetry / Nature & Conservation
Book Link to Amazon: George Leaves the Lights ON
A middle grade reader energy conservation chapter book in anapestic tetrameter. George leaves lights on wherever he goes. His parents worry that he’ll blow power grids up and down both Coasts. Maybe to even Madrid and Bombay and far Timbuktu! As the electric bills rise, George’s Mom begins to have terrible dreams. From nightmares of what life would be like without light, she comes up with ideas for conservation. As do her other children. But George keeps leaving the lights on. Until the day he turns 12. On that day George finally figures out which light is important to leave ON.
Fiction & Non-Fiction Nominations & Awards
♦ 2023 Winner 2023 Bronze Moonbeam Award for Children’s Books / Environment
“George Leaves the Lights On”
♦ 2015 NON-FICTION WINNER | Perceptions Literary Magazine
“My Father’s Ghosts”
♦ 2012 FICTION WINNER | Perceptions Literary Magazine | Pushcart Prize Nominee
“Far Memory”
♦ 2009 FICTION WINNER | Perceptions Literary Magazine
“Requiem for a Fish Tank”
♦ 1997 FINALIST | Journal of GIM Creative Medical Writing Award
“Ave Regina”
♦ 1994 NOMINEE | Science Fiction Poetry Association Rhysling Award
“Gravediggers Don’t Farewell Lowering Children”
NOTE: Author lost to Ray Bradbury
Articles & Essays
“A Forest of Owls: Reflections on healing dreams and their attendant, and rewarding, lexicons” ♦ IJODR/Vol 13, No2, October 2020 [on-line]
“Ancestor Dreaming: A portal for inner and outer world peace when dreaming for and with the ancestors” ♦ IJODR/Vol 10, No1, April 2017
“Thinking Inside the Box: The art of telephone interviewing” ♦ Field Methods/Vol 16, No2, May 2004
“If You Came This Way” ♦ BMJ/314:451, Feb 1997
“And God Will Fill the Bullet Holes with Candy” ♦ BMJ/313:1585, Dec 1996
Scientific Media
Contributing author on 22 journal and peer-reviewed RAND publications (full CV upon request)
Radio Plays
The Sudden Radio Project | KBOO Radio/90.7 FM | Portland OR (2005-2010)
Television Plays
The Duck Who Came in from the Cold
Aired on MetroEast Community Media’s Part Time Playhouse | Gresham OR | (January 8, 2012)
White Papers
- U.S. Cultural Exchange in the Middle East: How well do the State Department’s cultural exchange efforts map to U.S. foreign policy goals? | Briefed to the U.S. State Department | (2004)
- Jihad, and the Conscription of Children as Soldiers – Uneducated Foot Soldiers or Educated Believers? (2002)
- Unresolved Trauma, Forgiveness, and the Criminal Component (2002)
