Poets in Residence

Cora Schwartz / USA

April 2013

Cora Schwartz is a photo journalist and behavioral psychologist who lives and writes in South Fallsburg, New York. Her essays, poetry and short stories have been published in journals and periodicals. Her book, Gypsy Tears, Loving a Holocaust Survivor has met with great success (see www.coraschwartz.com)

The Forgotten Few was written and photographed to fulfill a promise she made to her husband, Rudy Koenig, to bring humanitarian aid to the remaining survivors in Mogelov. The Forgotten Few has been described as a small book with a huge impact. With only a few pages of text, the book presents photographs of holocaust survivors. They are images that will haunt the reader forever. The Forgotten Few is currently used in classrooms around the world. Ms. Schwartz also owns and ope rates a retreat in upstate New York for writers and artists of life. It was founded in the spirit of a Ukrainian writer, Olga Kobylianska, who is considered one of the first feminists in Eastern Europe. Ms. Schwartz discovered the work of Olga Kobylianska on a trip with Rudy to his hometown, Chernivitsy where she continues to come for inspiration.

Ms. Schwartz is currently working on the sequel to Gypsy Tears. She is expanding on Olga Kobylianska’s philosophy, revolutionary at the time, that “we are all God’s children, whites and Gypsies alike.”