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"Sometimes described as
a blending of perceptions, synesthesia occurs when one of
the five senses is aroused, yet two respond."
BLUE CATS
b
and
CHARTREUSE KITTENS
How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds
By Patricia Lynne Duffy
Foreword by Dr. Peter
Grossenbacher, National Institute of Mental Health
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"Nature,
so endlessly creative, has managed things so that each of
us, hosts of synesthesia or not, perceives a slightly
different world... a world colored by our one-of-a-kind
pattern of neurons and experiences" -- Patricia
Lynne Duffy
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PATRICIA LYNNE DUFFY
is
the author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their Worlds (Henry Holt &
Company), which has been reviewed in both the popular press
as well as in academic journals, Cerebrum and the APA Review of
Books. She has
taught English at New York University, the City University
of New York, and the UN Language Programme and has written
articles for numerous publications including New
York Newsday, the San
Francisco Chronicle
(All the
Colors of the Rainbow),
the Boston Globe,
and the Village Voice.
Ms. Duffy wrote two award-winning
essays, Taipei Tales and
Dining in French for literary newspaper, Literal
Latte. Her work is included in the anthologies
They Only
Laughed Later: Tales of Women on the Move (Europublic Press) and
Soulful Living (HCI).
She is also the author of "Images of Synesthetes in
Fiction".
She has worked and traveled extensively throughout Europe,
Africa, and
Asia and lived and worked in China for a year and a half.Her
special interest is in what she terms "personal
coding", the unique way in which each person codes
information and makes a one-of-a-kind "inner map"
of the world around them. She has been interviewed
about her research and her synesthesia by a number of
publications including, the
New York Daily News, the
New
York Times, the Washington Post,
the Wall Street Journal,
Smithsonian
Magazine,
Discover
Magazine, and
Newsweek,
as well as on TV and radio programs such as
National Public
Radio, the
BBC,
Public Radio International, the Discovery
Channel, Tokyo Television and Asahi TV. Her web site, which links to many articles and
programs on synesthesia, is www.bluecats.info.
Her two-part article,
Personal Coding: the Varieties
of Linguistic Experience, was published in August
2005 and January 2006 issues of
Folio Journal of the
Materials Development Association. For her
research into synesthesia and work organizing events to
promote literacy (such as "Authors-for-Literacy"), Patricia
Lynne Duffy won the
2009 Distinguished Alumni Award from
Teachers College,
Columbia University.
Patricia
Lynne Duffy has been invited to give presentations on synesthesia at
McMaster University, University of South Florida,
Universidad de Almería (in Spain),
the University of Hannover,
the University of Texas at Houston, the San Francisco Art Institute, the
Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, the University of
California at Berkeley, Rockefeller University, the
University of Virginia, the University of California at San
Diego, Princeton University, Yale University and others.
She is a co-founder of and consultant to the
American Synesthesia Association.
Contact:
plduffy@gmail.com
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