ABOUT THE EDITOR
She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain. – Louisa May Alcott
PHOTO © by MICHAEL PETRIE
Kathye Fetsko Petrie is a freelance writer, the editor/publisher/founder (2002) of Local LIT, the online publication of literary events and resources in the Philadelphia area, and the Philadelphia Literary Scene Examiner for Examiner.com. She is the author of the children’s picture book, Flying Jack (2003; Boyds Mills Press; ISBN: 1-56397-971-3 ). The book contains a foreword by Reeve Lindbergh, youngest daughter of aviation pioneers and writers Charles A. Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Petrie’s other publication credits include The Philadelphia Inquirer, Main Line Today, The Writer, The Sun, Parents Express, pif, The Compulsive Reader, and the online US Review of Books. Her work has been anthologized in Progressions: Readings for Writers, Betsy Hilbert, ed. (W.W. Norton, 1998). She is a former contributing writer to Writers’ Notes, the literary magazine founded by novelist Christopher Klim. She is a former editor of PSA Journal, the monthly magazine of The Photographic Society of America, and a past recipient of a Dow Jones-Ottoway newspaper internship. She holds a degree in both magazine journalism and English from Syracuse University, where she was features & arts editor of the independent student newspaper, The Daily Orange.
Petrie specializes in writing about books and literary topics, and has published interviews with notable authors including Mary Gordon, Terry Kay and William Styron. Her 2001 talk with William Styron is believed to be his last in-depth interview before his death in 2006. The piece first appeared in Writers Notes #4 (2005), and was anthologized in Best New Writing 2007.
Kathye Fetsko Petrie is married to award-winning Philadelphia Flower Show designer and “garden artist” Michael Petrie, owner of Michael Petrie’s HANDMADE GARDENS. They have three sons.
TO CONTACT KATHYE FETSKO PETRIE
send e-mail to
kpwriting at comcast dot net
An article about Local LIT and Kathye Fetsko Petrie, written by Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Jeff Gammage appeared in the “Currents” section of that paper on January 18, 2004, page M03, and is available, for a fee, in the paper’s archives.
Kathye Fetsko Petrie is available for school talks, signings and writer’s conferences and is a proud participant in the Young Writers’ Day workshops program.
NEW! Kathye is available for one-on-one in-person, by telephone or e-mail writing consultations. E-mail kpwriting at comcast dot net for rates and more information.
P U B L I C A T I O N S
Flying Jack
Children’s Picture Book
Hardcover: All ages
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press (August 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1563979713
ISBN-13: 978-1563979712
by Kathye Fetsko Petrie
by Kathye Fetsko Petrie
“Time of Death”
essay by Kathye Fetsko Petrie featured in Writers’ Notes #5
INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM STYRON by Kathye Fetsko Petrie featured in Writers’ Notes #4
INTERVIEW WITH BEN YAGODA by Kathye Fetsko Petrie Writers’ Notes #2
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Read a selection of online articles by Kathye Fetsko Petrie
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Essay:
STILL LIFE WITH BOOKS: A MEMOIR by Kathye Fetsko Petrie
from Mused: BellaOnline Literary Review, Winter 2008
“There are books which take rank in our life with parents, and lovers and passionate experiences.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Like the footfalls in T. S. Eliot´s “Four Quartets,” books echo in my memory, inextricable parts of my biography: Books read and not read, books given and received-these are the themes of my life. Bonding with my mom may have begun at birth, but the deal was not sealed until six years later when she gave me one of her childhood treasures, a sky-blue Nancy Drew mystery from the 1930s.It was The Quest of the Missing Map, and I was lost in those pages for days. When I discovered this book was part of a series, I embarked on a journey for years. To my mind, at that time, no other birthday or holiday gift could in any way compare to a fresh, new Nancy Drew, the promise of those printed pages remained long after the wrap and ribbon were gone, and I was never disappointed.
Essay:
Grave Stories by Kathye Fetsko Petrie — from pif magazine
Mississippi writer and horticulturist Felder Rushing, who was a friend and neighbor of novelist and short story writer Eudora Welty, wrote me soon after the author’s death, describing how “Miss Welty” was laid to rest in a cemetery just a few hundred yards from where she was born and raised . . .Read the rest of the story.
Book Review:
A Review of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Ann Fadiman by Kathye Fetsko Petrie— from The Compulsive Reader, Sunday, August 17, 2003 (Non-Fiction Reviews)
Anne Fadiman was born with ink in her veins and book/reading/word-loving genes. The daughter of “pathologically literary” parents (her mother was a New York Timescorrespondent; her father was writer/editor Clifton Fadiman of A Lifetime Reading Plan fame), Fadiman grew up in a house full of 7,000 books where family members quoted from the classics for fun and collected sesquipedalians (long words) the way families today might collect CDs or DVDs . . . Read the rest of the story.
Book Review:
A Review of A Slant of Sun by Beth Kephart by Kathye Fetsko Petrie— from The Compulsive Reader, Tuesday, September 30, 2003 (Non-Fiction Reviews)
Sometimes, while browsing a bookstore or library, I have the magical experience where a book I’m walking by calls out to me, compelling me to peruse its words. This happened with Beth Kephart’s exquisite memoir . . . Read the rest of the story.
Book Review:
Review of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby by Kathye Fetsko Petrie— from The Compulsive Reader, Monday, September 15, 2003 (Non-Fiction Reviews)
The first remarkable fact about this slim, 132-page book is that the author, Jean- Dominique Bauby, dictated it letter by letter by blinking his left eye-lid. This was Bauby’s sole means of communication after having suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed from the top of his head down . . . Read the rest of the story.
Book Review:
A Review of Leon’s Story by Leon Walter Tillage by Kathye Fetsko Petrie— from The Compulsive Reader, Monday, September 01, 2003 (Books for Young Adults)
Oh my this is a powerful little book: a 107-page recollection by 54-year old black American Leon Walter Tillage, who grew up in North Carolina, USA, in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, during the Jim Crow,free-roaming Klu Klux Klan days. The realities of Leon’s everyday life–whether you lived it yourself, knew it as history, or never knew it at all–will take your breath away. In the straightforward,innocent voice of the child he once was, Tillage recounts a life where white kids and white adults throw rocks at black kids just for sport. It’s a world where black American parents had to sit on their roofs and keep watch all night in case some Klansmen, for no reason at all, felt like coming to kill their family . . . Read the rest of the story.
Essay:
Track Life by Kathye Fetsko Petrie— from Main Line Today, April 2007, END OF THE LINE essay
You can learn a lot while walking in circles . . . Read the rest of the story.
