as Why shop at an independent bookstore? as When you shop at an independently owned business, your entire community benefits: The Economy • Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43. • Local businesses create higher-paying Read More
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February 3, 2013
as Literary Heat on a Cold New England Eve: Quotes to Spark Your Muse Beauty is not loveliness, grace, or pleasurable sights, though any of those might certainly be part of it. For the writer out to evoke the texture of experience, beauty is simply accuracy, to come as close as we can to Read More
January 21, 2013
as From a writer who does not do blogs… as As someone new to writing, I can’t imagine a better place to live than western Massachusetts. You can’t walk two blocks without tripping over a novelist or a poet. How amazing to meet writers who are warm, welcoming, and quite generous. In a time when Read More
January 1, 2013
Happy New Year to all! As you think about how you want to change the world in 2013, consider the connection between art and your purse. — Missy Wick as When you buy from an independent artist, you are buying more than a painting or a novel or a song. You are buying hundreds of Read More
December 27, 2012
To celebrate the first six months of Writers Night Out, we asked guest reader Beth Filson if we could share the piece she read at our December gathering. Beth graciously agreed to share this excerpt from her memoir, which is a work in progress. It is a fine sample of the work we are privileged Read More
December 12, 2013
In Praise of Writing Communitiesas Guest Blogger: Ellen Meeropol I’ve been thinking about how we writers spend our time. When we’re not writing, that is. Of course, there are all the regular things that people do: jobs and raising families and taking care of elderly parents and taking pets to the vet and mowing the Read More
November 25, 2012
The Necessity of Summer Words Near Winter (a.k.a. another reason to write) Guest Blogger: Missy Wick, Straw Dog Founding Member as November in Northampton, MA 2012 Each day the sun sets a few minutes earlier now. Frost is no longer a warning – it is a given – and neither my body nor mind is Read More
November 8, 2012
Why I Write, Sometimes…. Guest Blogger: Missy Wick, Straw Dog Founding Member as I grew up in the wake of the Holocaust. The walls of my friend’s split-level homes were covered with sepia toned photographs. Men in dark suits and ties, white shirts, and beards stared with authority from their wooden chairs. Women in long dresses, Read More
October 18, 2012
as Comments on the Writing Life … Part 3 Making life a little bit better, a little more often Guest Blogger: Kathy Dunn, Straw Dog Founding Member as In the weekly workshops, I try to carve out 5 or 6 minutes for Comments on the Writing Life. These conversations often center around the writing practice: Read More
October 4, 2012
as Comments on the Writing Life … Part 2 Practicing Trust Guest Blogger: Kathy Dunn, Straw Dog Founding Member as This is Part 2 of a Three-Part posting on the Writing Life. If you haven’t read Part 1, you can find it below. When you’re done, come on back and have a look at this Read More