Judy Light Ayyildiz

Judy wins prize at Nazim Hikmet Festival 4/2009

Of 250 entries, 8 share equally the win. Contest judged by Kathryn Stripling Byer, NC Poet Laureate; Jon Thompson, Prof. English NCSU-editor, writer; Greg Dawes, Prof. Foreign Languages and Lit NCSU-editor, writer; Erdag Goknar, Ass. Prof. Turkish,Slavic and Eurasian Studies Duke Univ-translator, writer; Joseph Donahue, Fellow, Dept. English, Duke Univ-poet,writer; Hatice Orun Ozturk, Asso. Prof. Engineering NCSU-poet, translator.

Judy's winning poem was written while she was in Istanbul last year, sitting in her favorite seat in the Ayyildiz flat:


View from the Top Floor

Istanbul, October downpour, 2008

The last light call to prayers shudders space against this dying under
dragon-bellied rain clouds washing rivers into streets below, mooring
ferryboats to their docks, suspending the bridges that span the strait.

The seagulls—hieroglyphics across the sharp edged vista between
high rises and apartment buildings appear to be swarming portents
vaulting up from the sea to this hill like loosely wound tornadoes
breaking apart to dispersion. They fan and glide the thick wet currents,
sweep up between the down drafts, some filtering low onto red tiled roofs.
These sit like hens facing East in oneness, all in rows. Yet, now one comes

head up, fluttering like a frantic angel peering in at me writing about herhim
as one come with a message in all this mess, and then, it’s up over the top,
an indefinite other. Rain thrashes against the panes. A thousand lights glitter,
fixed wingless points, voiceless, nameless. And gulls who care less which
corners they cut continue their phantasms, flamenco folding into the mix
above and gracing the eclectic architecture of our separate noise between.

Judy Light Ayyildiz

“Our great author of Catch 22, Joseph Heller, told of his experience with Guillain Barre in No Laughing Matter. Now Judy Light Ayyildiz equals--and in some way surpasses--his account in her book Nothing But Time.”
“Offering numerous successful efforts that are as clear as they are diverse, Mud River is a quick, memorable read. Often given to outrageous metaphor and delightful humor, this poet is nevertheless capable of telling a horror story with the best of them, especially when plopping the whole thing into a basket of flowers.”
“Easy Ideas for Busy Teachers activities incorporate creativity as well as thinking and reasoning...upbeat language...sensitivity toward the difficulties that face students of this age.”

With a master's degree from the Hollins Writing Program, West Virginian native Judy taught creative writing for over 20 years, developing curriculums for all ages, including the Women’s Center at Hollins, Elderhostel, Roanoke College Continuing Education, Hollinsummer, Writers’ conferences, and many grant programs in public and private schools. She has won honors for her poetry and fiction, and has been widely read in literary publications such as NYQuarterly, the new renaissance, McGuffin, Collage, Sow’s Ear, Mickle Street Review, Black Water Review, Artemis, The Observer Kingston, Jamaica, Hawaii Pacific Review, Passager, Turkish Times, Ana Magazine Turkey, The Women’s Journal, Northeast Journal and Potato Eyes. Work has been anthologized in Pig Iron, the Lonesome Traveler Press, Clique Calm Books. She is a frequent presenter for writing workshops, conferences, and readings and has been heard on CSpan Book TV, radio, and at health and healing centers. Smuggled Seeds, Judy’s first book of poetry won "The Gusto Press Discovery Award" which resulted in publication. The second, Mud River, published in first and second editions by Lintel Press, was critically acclaimed by William Packard, Amanda Cockrell, and Fred Chappell. From her many years of teaching experience grew the co-authored three supplementary creative writing texts with Frank Schaffer Publications, T. S. Denison Instructional Fair, and McGraw Hill: Creative Writing Across the Curriculum, Easy Ideas for Busy Teachers, and the Writer’s Express. Writing and teaching have brought her numerous awards, scholarships, and honors including AIE Study Grants, Virginia Commission for the Arts, VCCA, Roanoker Magazine, Collage Magazine, Wesleyan University Writers Conference, Gertrude Claytor Memorial Prize of American Academy of Poets, The Jim Wayne Miller Prize, Writers Digest, Poetry Society of Virginia, The National League of American Pen Women, and Fellowships at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She was an editor of Artemis for 13 years, a founder of the Blue Ridge Writers Conference, and is liaison for the Roanoke Chapter of GBSFI. Recently, her memoir Nothing but Time was on a required reading list at the University of Virginia Department of the Chaplaincy, was a Virginia College Stores Association Annual Book Award Finalist, and a Library of Virginia Outstanding Book Award Nominee. Judy has recently completed a novel based on the past 100 years in the country of Turkey told through the eyes of a remarkable and progressive woman: Never Forever. Judy lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and is pleased to say that her three grown children are all artistic and humanistic. Her husband of 44 years is a retired surgeon. Judy is available for special writing workshops and for presentations (see "Events" for types. She is the Guillain-Barre Syndrome Roanoke Valley Chapter Liaison.

“Overall, Nothing but Time is a beautiful study of a woman’s psyche as she experiences great trauma and portrays how one can balance her own recovery with her responsibilities to her children and her partner. With wonderful metaphors and a healthy dose of humor, Judy engages the reader and turns a depressing situation into an inspiring story about courage in the face of a huge setback in life. She shows that even her illness itself was a metaphor, a truth from which she could learn more about herself and the unrealized parts of her life.”