AWARDS, ARCHIVES, APPRECIATION
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Stockbridge Library Poetry
Gunilla was the featured reader at Stockbridge Library Poetry, Tuesday, November 29, 2022. Enjoy the recorded event here.
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Gunilla Kester and Maestro Mir Ali perform Johann Sebastian Bach: Kleine Prelude in E Minor
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Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives Interview
ONLINE POETRY, February 23, 2022
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Awards and Prizes
Longlist Fish Poetry Prize 2015
"Ode to Two Cigarette Butts"
Teaching awards:
America’s Best Teachers Award, 2000, 2002, 2004. 2006
Who’s Who Among America’s Women, 2004, 2006
List of Most Influential Teachers, Daemen College, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006
Time of Sand and Teeth was published by Finishing Line Press as part of its New Women Series and was nominated for both a Pushcart Prize and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award.
Shiri’s Piano was a Finalist for the May Swenson Poetry Award 2009 as was The Mountain: Grieving for Harmony, a Finalist for the Colorado Prize in poetry in 2005. “Shiri’s Piano” also won an International Publishers Prize from Atlanta Review and was published in its International Issue, October 2008, distributed in over 120 countries.
“I Came to Your Country: Eva’s Song” was nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize from the editors of Not Just Air.
“In My Home Town Martin Luther is Still King” was a Finalist in New Millennium Writing, 2008.
In 2006, “Day Dream” won “Special Recognition” from In Other Words.
“Time of Sand and Teeth” won the Gival Press Tri-Language English Competition in 2001, and was a Finalist in The Glimmer Train Open.
Gunilla’s poems have appeared in: Not Just Air; Oberon; Radiance; and The Buffalo News. She has poems in: Waging Words for Peace; Buffalo Poets Against War (ed. by Chuck Culhane); Poetic Voices Without Borders, I; and Poetic Voices Without Borders, II (both ed. by Robert L. Giron), winner of the 2009 National Best Book Award for Fiction & Literature: Anthologies, sponsored by USA Book News.
Gunilla’s poem, “The Mistake”, was included in Nickel City Nights (ed. by Gary Earl Ross).
Gunilla forward notes appear in Gary Earl Ross’ novel “Blackbird Rising: A Novel of the American Spirit”, released in 2009.
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Past Readings, Poetry Events
May 16, 2019
An event of poetry and music to honor victims of Flight 3407 and Cantor Susan Wehle
October 8th, 2018
Circleformance Guitar Performance & Poetry Reading
August 13th, 2018
Circleformance with Celeste Lawson
June 12th, 2018
Reading from new Memoir at The Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo Book & Arts Fair
March 12th, 2018
Poetry reading at Circleformance
Spring 2018
Lecture on Judaism at Buffalo State College
November 13th, 2017
Poetry reading at Circleformance
October 3rd, 2017
"Memory & Hope: Practicing Poetry to Recall and Respond" at The Anne Frank Project
Fall 2017
Lecture on Judaism at Buffalo State College
June, 2017
JCC of Greater Buffalo, Book & Arts Fair, featuring: "If I Were More Like Myself" with Shiri Kester
April, 2015
"Poetry & Atrocity" at The Anne Frank Project
March, 2015
Classical Guitar Music
Book Launch
November 12, 2014
The Write Thing Series at Medaille College
February 2014
Reading from "A Celebration of WNY Poets"
Analytical Psychology Society of Western New York
December 2013
Circleformance Series
Featured Poets: Gunilla Kester & Judy Slater
April 2009
Earth's Daughters presents: The Gray Hair Reading Series
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
September 2009
Honoring Cantor Susan Wehle at The Anne Frank Project
September 2009
Literary Café: Kester, Ross, and Kessel
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Past Music Events
May 19, 2019
Amherst School of Guitar Spring Recital
March 11, 2019
Circleformance Guitar Performance
February 9, 2019
10 year memorial concert for Susan Wehle at Congregation Shir Shalom
October 8, 2018
Circleformance Guitar Performance & Poetry Reading
August 31, 2018
Classical Guitar Performance at the Daily Planet
August 13, 2018
Circleformance with Celeste Lawson
May 24, 2018
Guitar performance at Yad B'Yad Reception
May 17, 2018
Guitar performance at Key Bank Center
March 31, 2017
Guitar performance Daily Planet
October 26, 2016
Guitar Performance at Circleformance
March 25, 2015
Book Launch
Classical Guitar Concert
As a poet or guitarist, or both, Dr. Kester has been invited to participate in/at:
Haddassah of Greater Buffalo
VOICE – Buffalo
Passion in Progress Festival
Canisius College
Daemen College
University of Buffalo
SUNY College at Buffalo
Temple Beth Am
Yom HaShoah Community Events
The Holocaust Resource Center
Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo
Buffalo Jewish Federation
Mill Middle School
Frontier High School International Club
Hardware Café Reading Series
Gray Hair Reading Series
The Screening Room Reading Series
The RIC Series at Daemen
The Center for Inquiry
The Anne Frank Project, Buffalo State College
Hudson Valley Writers’ Center
Flight 3407 Memorial Service (2011)
Weinberg Campus Annual Memorial Service
Congregation Shir Shalom
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2/21/14 Wheels of Transformation at The Analytical Psychology Society of Western New York [The C.G.Jung Center]
2/21/14 Wheels of Transformation at The Analytical Psychology Society of Western New York [The C.G.Jung Center]
Poets Ann Goldsmith, Karen Lee Lewis, Gunilla Kester, Celeste Lawson, Susan Marie, Kathy Tussing, Jane Sadowsky and Geoffrey Gatza read from a new anthology, A Celebration of WNY Poets, edited by Patricia Tansey. Each poet shares how words, images, and metaphors of poetry contribute to a transforming of consciousness and experience, and lead to personal and collective discovery.
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Appreciation
Thank you to the many wonderful friends and colleagues who have collaborated and worked with me.
Photo Credits:
Diane Bianchi
Enid Bloch
Soo-Young Chang: Wild Mountain Thyme video
Shiri Kester
Dr. Sten Theander
Poetry recordings:
Gunilla’s hand built guitar:
Luthier Frederich Holtier
