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KATE LIGHT is a librettist, lyricist and poet in New York City. She is also a professional violinist and a member of the orchestra of the New York City Opera.
Kate’s works include the libretto of The Life and Love of Joe Coogan, an opera adapted from an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show (composer: Paul Salerni); Once Upon the Wind, a one-act opera based upon the Russian folktale “The Soldier Who Captured Death” (composer: Theo Popov); Metamorphoses, a musical-in-progress based on Ovid’s life and work (composer, Masatora Goya); the texts of Oceanophony and Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses, for narrator and musicians; and four volumes of poetry,Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses,Gravity’s Dream (Donald Justice Award), Open Slowly, and The Laws of Falling Bodies (Nicholas Roerich Prize, Story Line Press). Her lyrics for the song “Here Beside Me” are heard in Disney’s Mulan II. Read more…
Public Radio interview, with photos and more!
For a perusal score or libretto for Once Upon the Wind, contact kate@katelight.com or theo@theopopov.com
Hear American Lyric Theater’s complete studio recording here..
The Laws of Falling Bodies
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| Winner of the Nicholas Roerich Prize “If you have been wondering what happened to enchantment in contemporary poetry, open up Kate Light’s magical debut collection…These diaphanous poems seem more conjured than written!” Molly PeacockThe sonnets are charming, captivating and a delight…They work like spells, and demand to be read again. Liberal Arts Magazine, Penn State University |
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| $11.00 | |||
Gravity’s Dream: New Poems and Sonnets
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| Winner of the Donald Justice Award
“Kate Light has been one of my favorite poets for years and years now. To my eye and ear, she operates as a full master, able to somehow communicate in three lines a depth of heartache and clarity that it might take a novelist three-hundred pages to convey. Her work gives me shivers.” “…To read her work is often to feel a pleasure of one’s own experience–of love, confusion, discovery–named.” |
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| $14.95 | |||
Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses
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| Now in print!
The text of Kate’s popular piece about the two men’s lives and work “…an informed, insightful and heartfelt tribute to two giants of mankind.” |
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| $12.00 | |||
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Open Slowly
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| “…Light’s poems all have solid beating hearts…her voice is quite unlike anyone else’s.” Dark Horse (UK)“Light is back with another collection…with the same wondrous features of her first book.” Harvard Review“It’s hard to think of a poet so aptly named as Kate Light, except, of course, for Wordsworth. The step of her poems is light, and plenty of that luminous stuff is shed here.” Billy Collins |
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| $14.95 | |||
Oceanophony
Oceanophony is no longer available. Watch for an upcoming version of Kate’s text with new music! Contact Kate to request a future email announcement.
songs
Songs
Coming soon…
books
poems & essays
Uncollected:
“One Day at the Opera”
A tribute to the New York City Opera—gone but remembered!
hudsonreview.com
“The Part of Myself That”
www.nycbigcitylit.com
“Interest”
“For the Simpler Things”
http://www.bigcitylit.com/bigcitylit.php?inc=spring08/poetry/light
“More Quiet Than This”
http://matterpress.com/journal/2011/07/06/more-quiet-than-this/#more-454
Essay in Rochester Review, February 2007
A Violinist and Poet Gets Her Arts on the Same Page
From Gravity’s Dream, West Chester University Press, 2006
“You Must Accept”
writersalmanac.publicradio.org
“I Cart a Memory Too Fine”
“The Idea is the Fleeting Ghostly Fish”
“Seeing You Begin to Consider Loving”
“The Self-Taught Man”
www.mezzocammin.com
“Packing”
“Zeug-o-Matic”
“Riddle”, including audio recording
http://drunkenboat.com/db7/light/
“Thirty-five”
http://evansvillereview.evansville.edu/KateLight
“You Must Accept”
www.nycbigcitylit.com
From Open Slowly, Zoo Press, 2003
“I Never Want To Go When It’s Time”
www.nycbigcitylit.com
“We Are”
“Phantom”
“I Conclude a Sonnet Never Changed”
“Maybe Hidden”
“If He Sees Her”
www.poetrycentral.com
From The Writers Almanac (Hear Garrison Keillor read)
“There Comes The Strangest Moment”
“Unknown Neighbor”
“You Must Accept”
From The Laws of Falling Bodies, Story Line Press, 1997
“Reading Someone Else’s Love Poems”
“After the Season”
“San Francisco”
www.poetrycentral.com
“After the Season”
“And Then There is That Incredible Moment”
“Care/Care II”
“Daybook”
“Reading Someone Else’s Love Poems”
“Six Urban Love Songs”
www.poemtree.com
“After the Season”
“San Francisco”
“Care”
“Greg’s Legs”
http://www.poetrynet.org/month/archive/light/index.htm
From Six Urban Love Songs
“Can One Think”
“San Francisco”
“Portrait of David As/Not As A Refrigerator Magnet: Universal”
“Safe-T-Man”
www.poetz.com