WOW Center and Straw Dog Writers Guild to present author Gail Thomas!
WOW Center and Straw Dog Writers Guild to present author Gail Thomas!
Westfield on Weekends (WOW), in partnership with Straw Dog Writers Guild, presents award?winning poet Gail Thomas as the next featured guest in the Writers Out Loud series. Thomas will read from her newest collection, This World, and discuss her writing, influences, and creative process. A Q&A and book?signing will follow. Admission is free.
Gail Thomas has published seven books, most recently This World. Her poems have been widely published in journals and anthologies. Among her awards are the A.V Christie award from Seven Kitchens Press for Trail of Roots, the Charlotte Mew Prize from Headmistress Press for Odd Mercy, the Narrative Poetry Prize from Naugatuck River Review, the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s “Must Read” for Waving Back, and the Quartet Journal’s Editor’s Choice Prize. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and Ucross, and several poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry with Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshops, visits schools and libraries with her therapy dog, and supports immigrant and refugee families in Western Massachusetts.
The Writers Out Loud series also hosts monthly Open Mike nights on the Third Thursday of each month, offering writers of all levels a welcoming space to share their work.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase. 
This program is funded in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Westfield Cultural Council, supporting accessible literary and cultural programming for the Greater Westfield community.
Westfield on Weekends, a nonprofit organization that helps to define the cultural and creative vitality of the Greater Westfield community through accessible programming that celebrates its many neighbors; Straw Dog Writers Guild is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to the craft and transformative power of writing and serving writers in Hampden and Hampshire Counties; and WhipCity Wordsmiths is a Westfield based writers’ social and support group committed to fostering connection and creativity among local authors.
