Our Stories: Straw Dog Writers Guild Founders Look Back
First installment: a conversation between Patricia Lee Lewis and
Elli: I have such strong memories of you inviting Jacqueline Sheehan, Celia Jeffries, Joan Barberich, and me to Patchwork Farm in early January 2010 to talk about starting a writers’ collective in western MA. What were your initial hopes for an organization of writers?
Patricia: Good question, Elli. My hopes for an organization came out of a practical need. At the time, I had been offering workshops and retreats in various places since 1992 and knew many local writerly people. Inadvertently, I became an informal hub of information and connection for writers new to our area and people new to writing. I loved getting to know new folks and introducing them to other writers and groups offering workshops, such as Writers in Progress, Amherst Writers and Artists, and Berkshire Women Writers. As my work expanded, I was often away leading the international retreats, and I could see that we needed to create a service or organization to do much better than what I and others had been doing for a while.
My vision was limited to such things as being a hub of information and connection for writers, providing administrative support to existing writing “schools,” perhaps a newsletter connecting all of us and a place where we could gather, have coffee, work, visit with other writers, foment revolution, those sorts of things—familiar to me as an old grass-roots organizer. It was you, Elli, who could see that whatever we did, it must offer programs for writers. And you were so right. How did you know for sure?
Elli: Like you, my initial hopes for the organization came from my needs. In 2010, I had a contract for my first novel, but it wasn’t yet published. I was a baby writer, and I yearned for more knowledge about the craft and connecting with the writing community. So, your invitation and your idea were deeply exciting for me. Looking back, for me, the issue most important was how to write stories that offer ways to understand what it means to be human in our broken world by illuminating injustice and dreaming of better futures. That’s part of what I wanted our writing guild to do: build a community of engaged writers. Early on, I knew, I wanted us to offer both craft programs and salons. I imagined us sitting in a colorful and art-filled circle like Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and talking about the profound issues facing us as writers.
I remember conversations about not wanting our new organization to undermine the writing workshops that our colleagues in our community were already doing, not to compete with them. We decided early on to offer one-time craft programs and conversations but stay away from weekly writing workshops for that reason. And, if I recall correctly, you were particularly interested in offering a place for other workshop leaders and teachers to connect, share databases and referrals, and help each other out.
Those were heady days, weren’t they? We believed we had such a good idea and were so excited. And then, one year after that first meeting, we held our first literary salon. It was a conversation between Jane Yolen and Corinne Demas, titled Writing Despite Life’s Interruptions. We expected about 30 people, set up 40 chairs in the A.P.E. Gallery, and 90 writers showed up! That was when I knew our idea was going to work.
What do you remember being most satisfying about those early years?
Patricia: I loved the excitement of starting something new, something we needed, something that was built on community for a burgeoning community of writers.
I remember having a great time with you and Jacqueline Sheehan, Celia Jeffries, and Kathy Dunn, looking for space, when we thought a gathering place and administrative hub was our direction. I loved our meetings at Carol Bevan Bogart’s home, where she used her skills in organizational development to help us better define where we wanted to go. Especially, the day we were trying to find the right name for whatever “it” was to be, and Carol told us about how she used a “straw dog” as a draft of an idea in discussion—and we looked at each other, laughing, and said, “that’s it, that’s the name.”
I loved the early workshops at Lilly Library in Florence, which cemented our commitment to offering events for free or donation, and to paying the presenter a stipend, even if it had to be small and come out of our own pockets. I guess I loved the process of inventing things that met our own needs as writers and that we were willing to try.
After that enormously successful first salon that you mentioned, we decided to make our Guild officially a non-profit. I’ll never forget how Doris Atkinson stepped up the do the complicated work to make that happen. We had to have officers, as required by law, and Becky Jones was willing to be the treasurer of the new corporation (and still is); Macci Schmidt signed on as clerk (and remains in office), and I agreed to be the president. But oh, the discussions we had before we could clearly state for the official papers, the Guild’s mission. Beginning anything that comes from needs inside oneself is both scary and wonderfully exciting.
Back in 1996, I returned to Austin TX, my hometown, for a few months. To my great delight, I found the Austin Writers League (which I believe is statewide these days) and was amazed to learn about their workshops, lectures, editing services, and so on. I was impressed that they served much of central Texas, and the whole idea of regional organization appealed to me. Jacqueline and others knew a lot about the Boston-based writers’ organization, Grub Street, with its focus primarily on eastern Massachusetts. So, as we developed the vision for what became the Straw Dog Writers Guild, we agreed that we should serve the four counties of western Massachusetts.
To answer your question, at last—my greatest satisfaction came from how, gradually, many dedicated writers, willing to give their time and expertise, and a great deal of joyful hard work, created the bones of what our Guild has become.
Now, Elli, you have given so very much of yourself to the Guild: coordinating the Write Angles Conference, helping to invent and support the Emerging Black Writers Award, countless workshops, and even more steering committee meetings. What have you loved most about the work, and what have you learned that you did not expect?
Elli: What I’ve loved most is the community we’ve created, and how open our community has been to the ideas and needs of our members. That’s how most of our programs have been birthed: someone has a suggestion and we embrace it and off we go!
I didn’t expect such enthusiasm and generosity. And now we are looking towards our 15th year together, in these difficult times for writers and books, I’m hopeful that this beloved project of ours will continue to thrive and grow, to support writers and creative work, and to surprise us.
2011 Patchwork Retreat
Top row from left to right:
Doris Atkinson, Macci Schmidt, Missy Wick, Mary Ann Scognamiglio, Kathy Dunn, Patricia Lee Lewis
Bottom row from left to right:
Ellen Meeropol, Becky Jones, Jacqueline Sheehan, Terry Johnson