AMHERST — When journalist James Foley was killed by Islamic State terrorists in Syria in August of 2014, it became one of the most prominent news events since 9/11, with a video of his beheading going viral.
The shock was felt locally by his friends and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Foley had completed the master of fine arts program for poets and writers.
After memorials and political machinations in response to Foley’s killing, his friends and colleagues continue to find ways of responding to his loss and his legacy.
In March of 2015, poet and librarian Yago Cura, of Los Angeles, a friend of Foley’s from UMass, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to publish “Ghazals for Foley,” a book of poems written in Foley’s honor. The ghazal, a form that originated in Arabic poetry, was once routinely taught to UMass poetry students by the late poet and UMass professor Agha Shahid Ali.
On Wednesday April 27, in a reading hosted by UMass professor and award-winning poet Martin Espada, who was one of Foley’s professors, a close group of Foley’s friends gathered at Amherst Books for a reading. Writers Daniel Johnson, Brian Jordan, of Roslindale, Daniel Mahoney, of Bar Harbor, Maine, Connolly Ryan, of Florence and Andrew Varnon, of Greenfield read poems and told stories about their friendships and work with Foley.
The evening was a fundraiser for the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which supports journalists in war zones, hostages and disadvantaged children.
All of the proceeds from the sale of the book are donated to the foundation. The book is available at Amherst Books and online at:
https://squareup.com/store/hinchas-press/item/ghazals-for-foley
The Daily Hampshire Gazette sponsored the reading.