Cougar Cry
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Mark Vincent Fabrizio, Writer
Mark Vincent Fabrizio is a third generation writer. As an adolescent growing up in Darien,
Conn., he was heavily influenced by his grandmother’s publication of children’s book, ‘Iowa
Farm Stories,’ and his mother’s success as a scriptwriter for WEDD Wake Forest Public Radio
in the late sixties.
On his father’s side, he was drawn to music (his father was a voice
major at Julliard) and thus played in several bands culminating
with two years on the road with the Halsey-Taylor Band. But writ
ing was always his passion.
He wrote his first short story when he was twelve that was loosely
based on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” But it wasn’t until he
read Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in
the Rye” that the writing bug really took hold. “Those two books
were pretty much an epiphany of sorts,” he says, “From that mo
ment on I knew I had to write. And getting published, in a way,
validates all those years I spent alone honing my craft.”
Some of Fabrizio’s publications include: Main Street Rag, Iodine Poetry Journal, Parnassus
Lit. Journal and Ibettson Street Press. His new chapter book, “Poems From An Abandoned
House” is available at the WCC Bookstore, R-20, and Wilkes Art Supply. Iodine Poetry Jour
nal out of Charlotte, NC, recently published his poem “Wilkes County, Late Fall.”
Mark Vincent Fabrizio’s books will soon be on sale at the WCC Bookstore.
Hooray For Grandmothers!
Evolutionary biologists and cultural anthropologists are reaching a new consensus on
the important role grandmothers have played and continue to play in our durability as a species.
Postmenopausal women apparently are an underreported and underrated source of power in our
heritage and can spell the difference between life or death for children in traditional subsistence
cultures.
Studies have found that in South Asia a young woman’s overall fertility increases dra
matically if a grandmother is present. In African families, the presence of a maternal grand
mother cuts a child’s chances of dying before the age of 6 in half.
It’s suggested that women who don’t have to use their bodies for child bearing any
more, redirect their considerable energies to other things like encouraging family cohesion and
stifling extreme sibling rivalry. The positive effects of having a grandmother around have also
been documented in Western cultures. For example, a German study has shown that grand
mothers give substantial monetary support to their grandchildren, giving their kin access to bet
ter food, education, etc. Whatever the reason, research is showing that having a grandmother
around improves a child’s prospects.
—adapted from The New York Times