Special Announcement: Artist-in-Residence Named by MockingOwl Roost

The MockingOwl Roost Literary Magazine and Creatives announce they have chosen Sue Cook to be their first Artist-in-Residence. Her areas of expertise will be in the fields of poetry and photography.

Sue’s interest in poetry began at a young age, from the time her mother first gave her a book of poetry. Her mother read that book of poems over and over until Sue had them memorized. It was the one book she brought with her when she had heart surgery at the age of five.

Among many other works, our new artist-in-residence, Sue Cook, has shared a poem: Death Ward, about her time at Children’s Memorial; the Doctors gave little hope, Sue had other plans.

It was poetry that first taught her to read and, later, to go on to win multiple trophies in Poetry during her time on the Freeport High School Speech Tournament circuit, from 1975-1978.

Sue remained competitive on the Speech Team circuit in college, and took home the Bronze Trophy in Poetry at The National Speech Tournament in 1978-1979. She would later become a Speech Tournament Judge for Highland Community College Speech Tournaments in the areas of Poetry, Prose, Dramatic Interpretation, and Dramatic Duet.

Her dream was to one day see her poems published, and possibly have them used by students for competitive purposes. This dream came to fruition recently when her poems were published by the MockingOwl Roost Literary Magazine.

Our new artist-in-residence wants her poems to bring a calm and understanding perspective to difficult situations (her little book of poems had brought her such peace, after all, at a time when peace was hard to find). Sue’s mother never realized the power that book would one day hold, nor the creativity it would inspire. Beauty and meter do ease pain. Sue developed an acute awareness of this through experience.

Together with her love of photography, Sue plans to create works for the MockingOwl Creatives, the umbrella group over the MockingOwl Roost. She is passionate about the new ‘Artist-in-Residency’ program and is working with the MockingOwls to further develop this initiative, as well as their Mentorship Program.

These programs will give creative individuals an outlet that is both nurturing to the artist learning from experienced mentors in various fields, and accessible via the internet internationally.

Keep watching this space. Amazing things are about to happen, and we want artists of all kinds to consider applying when the program becomes available to new applicants. Until that time, we wish Sue luck with her new endeavor.