Straw Dog Writes Weekly Writers Meet Up
2024-03-27 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-13 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-06 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-28 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-14 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-07 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) and 5 more dates | zoom
Straw Dog Writers Guild members who would like to spend some time writing together can join a Zoom session. We will spend 15 minutes on introductions, a 45 minute writing session, have a 15 minute discussion, then write for a second 45 minute period of time. Afterwards, the Zoom room will remain open for a half hour for discussion and chat.
To register and receive the zoom link, contact Steven D. Brewer at sdbrewer@stevendbrewer.com

March Madness Poetry Share
2024-03-27 18:30 - 20:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Why are March Hares mad? To ponder this and other questions about life and Spring, join writer and poet Arianna Alexsandra Collins of Offerings for Community Building for an evening of speaking your truth through poetry. This March Madness challenge we toast to our frisky, cabin-fever, crazed, momentary-lapses-of-reason, mad-world poems. (And you don’t have any, find and read someone else’s.) Come read on Wednesday, March 27, 6:30-8:00pm, in the Belding Memorial Library Meeting Room, 344 Main St., Ashfield, MA. Wine and chocolate will be served.
This program is free and open to the public. Please register by contacting Belding Memorial Library at bmlashfield@gmail.com or 413-628-4414.
Sponsored by Belding Memorial Library and Straw Dog Writers Guild.
Arianna Alexsandra Collins: Naturalist. Writer. Poet. Wiccan High Priestess. Wild Edibles Enthusiast. Arianna holds an M.S. in Environmental Administration and has over thirty years of experience in teaching, community engagement, and public ritual. She is a writer and poet and has a bi-monthly column “Into the Outside” in The Ashfield News, She has featured articles on learning wild edible and medicinal flora in MassWildlife, Ecological Landscape Alliance, and Northern Woodlands. Arianna is a contributing author in the 2023 Nature Portals: Animate Earth Practices. You can find examples of her poetry and articles on her blog Hearken to Avalon. She is also the author of the historical fantasy novel Hearken to Avalon. Through her business Offerings for Community Building she offers a variety of services in community engagement activities, outdoor immersion experiences, and administrative support.

A Writer's Night in March
2024-03-21 18:45 - 19:30
On Thursday, March 21, 6:45-7:30pm Straw Dog Writers Guild and The Longmeadow Adult Center present A Writer’s Night with Richard Michelson.
RICHARD MICHELSON’s most recent poetry collection is Sleeping as Fast as I Can (Slant Books, 2023). Previous collections include More Money than God (U of Pittsburgh Press), Battles and Lullabies (U of Illinois), Tap Dancing for the Relatives (U of Central Florida), and two fine-press collaborations, Masks, and Semblant with the artist Leonard Baskin’s Gehenna Press.
Michelson’s books have been named among the 10 Best of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker, and among the Best Dozen of the Decade by Amazon.com He has received a National Jewish Book Award, two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals from the Association of Jewish Libraries, and two Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships. His work was chosen to represent the Commonwealth at the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Michelson served two terms as Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, where he hosts Northampton Poetry Radio and owns R. Michelson Galleries.
You may register by calling 413-565-4150, option 1. You may also come without registering.
The Longmeadow Adult Center is located at 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA.

Everyone Reads Second Sundays Open Mic
2024-03-10 18:00 - 20:00 | zoom
Come create community on second Sundays of every month 6-8pm EST with a virtual open mic on zoom.
Please contact Lindsay Rockwell for zoom link if interested: emonrock@mac.com
Format Focus: EVERYONE READS!

Read a 3-minute piece
Co-create a reading and listening experience with your fellow writers that is generous, dynamic and heart-felt
Brief positive responses after readers share

Hosted by Straw Dog Writers Guild.

Writers Night Out
2024-03-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join us on Tuesday March 5, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Chaya Grossberg at Forbes Library.
No registration required. If you want to participate in Open Mic and read, please sign up by 5:50pm. Ten names will be randomly selected. Each reader will have five minutes. The second half of the evening showcases our Featured Reader.
Masks are not currently required for indoor events. Please wear a mask if you would like to exercise caution.
Hosted by Jacqueline Sheehan, Rick Paar and Beth Filson.
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement.
Chaya Grossberg is a life-long poet, non-fiction writer and an advocate for those harmed by psychiatry. She has been writing and sharing poetry for three decades, participating and hosting open mics from coast to coast, NYC to San Francisco, Portland, OR, Olympia WA, and here in the Valley. She is passionate about poetry and spoken word, opening space for expression for those who have been silenced by psychiatry. Her popular book Freedom From Psychiatric Drugs has great reviews on Amazon. She recently published a poetry book, “Reborn: Poetic Codes for Psychiatric Survivors”.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing a Query Letter
2024-03-02 10:00 - 11:30 | zoom
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild with literary agent Cherise Fisher for an informative workshop about the often daunting task of writing a query letter. When you are ready to search for an agent, learn how to write the best query letter possible. Experienced agents like Cherise have received thousands of query letters and she has a lot to say about the art of a good query letter. Saturday, March 2 via zoom from 10:00 – 11:30am. Please register HERE for this free online workshop.
Cherise Fisher began her career in publishing more than twenty-five years ago, spending many years editing and publishing several national bestselling and award winning authors at Simon & Schuster and Plume (an imprint of Penguin Random House), where she was Editor-in-Chief.

A Writers Night in February
2024-02-15 18:45 - 19:45 | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
Straw Dog Writers Guild and the Longmeadow Adult Center present A Writer’s Night with Cherryl Jensen, Thursday, February 15, 2024, 6:45 – 7:30pm.
Cherryl Jensen grew up among the cornfields of Eastern Iowa, and has lived across the country from Washington on the West Coast to New Hampshire and Massachusetts in Northeastern U.S. She received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2022. Her mentor was Sue William Silverman. Cherryl’s writing has appeared in Past Ten, Persimmon Tree, Concrete Wolf, Northern New England Review, Psychiatric Services, and more. Her memoir, Crazy Like My Mother, was published last year. She lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
You may register by calling 413-565-4150, option 1. You may also come without registering.
The Longmeadow Adult Center is located at 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA.

Chapbooks: Crafting a Collection
2024-02-11 15:00 - 17:00
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild with presenter Adrie Rose on Sunday, February 11 via zoom from 3-5pm for this craft workshop. We will come together to work on pulling together poems into a chapbook collection. We’ll talk about what chapbooks are (and are not) and some strategies for arranging the poems in them. Participants are encouraged to bring 8-12 pages of poems. We’ll work in small groups to look at the poems participants brought and create a draft arrangement, then discuss how to send chapbook manuscripts out into the world.
Please register HERE for this free workshop.
Adrie Rose lives next to an orchard in western MA and is the editor of Nine Syllables Press at Smith College. Her chapbook Rupture is forthcoming with Gold Line Press in 2023, and she has a micro chap forthcoming in 2023 with Porkbelly Press. She is a Poetry MFA student at Warren Wilson College. Her work has previously appeared in Nimrod, The Night Heron Barks, Underblong, Witness, and more. She won the Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize, the Ethel Olin Corbin Prize, and the Gertrude Posner Spencer Prize in 2021, and the Anne Bradstreet Prize, the Eleanor Cederstrom Prize, and the Mary Augusta Jordan Prize in 2022.

Writers Night Out in February
2024-02-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join us on Tuesday February 6, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Alexis Johnson at Forbes Library. In addition to reading from Playing With A Full Deck, she’ll also read from her new books Dancing with Words and I Wanted to Write a Book but Forgot What I Wanted to Say.
No registration required. If you want to participate in Open Mic and read, please sign up by 5:50pm. Ten names will be randomly selected. Each reader will have five minutes. The second half of the evening showcases our Featured Reader.
Masks are not currently required for indoor events. Please wear a mask if you would like to exercise caution.
Hosted by Jacqueline Sheehan, Rick Paar and Beth Filson.
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement.
Alexis Johnson is co-founder and was Executive Director of International Language Institute for 31 years. Before that, she lived and taught in Barcelona for 9 years. Playing With A Full Deck is a wry look at her experiences. Her two new books are Dancing with Words and I Wanted to Write a Book but Forgot What I Wanted to Say.

Author Showcase
2024-01-20 16:00 - 17:30 | zoom
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild for our annual Author Showcase on January 20th, 4-5:30 on Zoom. Register for this event HERE.
Our readers with new books in 2023 will be:
Adrie Rose
Anne Pinkerton
Cherryl Jensen
Deb Gorlin
Dina Friedman
Howie Faerstein
Joan Livingston
John Sheirer
Jordan Hall
Lindsay Rockwell
Suzanne Rancourt
Tzivia Gover

Comfort Food Poetry Share
2024-01-20 13:30 - 15:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Grab your comfy blanket and join writer and poet Arianna Alexsandra Collins of Offerings for Community Building for a “Comfort Food” Poetry Share on Saturday, January 20th from 1:30-3pm.
January’s Poetry Share challenge is to find and read your poems that are carbohydrate rich, warming, uplifting, full of compassion and understanding, and/or consoling. (And you don’t have any poems, read someone else’s.)
Tea will be served.
Held in the Belding Memorial Library Meeting Room.
344 Main St., Ashfield, MA
This program is free and open to the public. Please register by contacting Belding Memorial Library at bmlashfield@gmail.com or 413-628-4414.
Sponsored by Belding Memorial Library and Straw Dog Writers Guild.

A Writer's Night in January
2024-01-18 18:45 - 19:45 | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
Join Longmeadow Adult Center and Straw Dog Writers Guild on Thursday, January 18, 6:45-7:45pm for A Writer’s Night with featured reader Celia Jeffries.
Celia Jeffries, author of Blue Desert—winner of the May Sarton award— has had her work published in numerous newspapers and literary magazines including Westview, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Puerto del Sol, as well as the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. Jeffries holds an MA from Brandeis and worked in news and educational publishing before earning an MFA from Lesley University. She has worked with writers at all levels, from elementary school to university both here and abroad, and in many different communities, including incarcerated, literacy, and ESL programs. Her own writing has been nurtured in the community of writers in Western Massachusetts, where she is a founding member and served on the steering committee of Straw Dog Writers Guild, and where she offers workshops at Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop.
You may register by calling 413-565-4150, option 1. You may also come without registering.
The Longmeadow Adult Center is located at 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA.

Writers Night Out in January
2024-01-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
WNO CANCELLED! Due to inclement weather SDWG is cancelling Writers Night Out for this evening. Stay home. Stay safe.
We will reschedule Cherryl Jensen for another month.
Cherryl Jensen grew up among the cornfields of Eastern Iowa, and has lived across the country from Washington on the West Coast to New Hampshire and Massachusetts in Northeastern U.S. She received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2022. Her mentor was Sue William Silverman. Cherryl’s writing has appeared in Past Ten, Persimmon Tree, Concrete Wolf, Northern New England Review, Psychiatric Services, and more. She lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
No registration required. If you want to participate in Open Mic and read, please sign up by 5:50pm. Ten names will be randomly selected. Each reader will have five minutes. The second half of the evening showcases our Featured Reader.
Masks are not currently required for indoor events. Please wear a mask if you would like to exercise caution.
Hosted by Jacqueline Sheehan, Rick Paar and Beth Filson.
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement.

A Writer's Night in December
2023-12-21 18:45 - 19:45 | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
Join Longmeadow Adult Center and Straw Dog Writers Guild on Thursday, December 21, 6:45-7:45pm for A Writer’s Night with featured reader Jovonna Van Pelt.
Bio: Jovonna Van Pelt, poet and essayist, is the author of a gorgeous book of poetry Unrelated Questions (published in 2019) and an endearing book of Christmas Stories (published last fall). Her holiday tales and poems are a wonderful mix of smart, funny, and touching; just what we all need. Please come and get the Holiday Spirit! (And there might be elves.)
You may register by calling 413-565-4150, option 1. You may also come without registering.
The Longmeadow Adult Center is located at 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA.

Straw Dog Writes Online Weekly Meetup
2023-12-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-12-13 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-12-06 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Each Wednesday at 7pm, whenever there is not another scheduled Straw Dog event, any Straw Dog Writers Guild members who would like to spend some time writing together can join a Zoom session. We will spend 15 minutes on introductions, a 45 minute writing session, have a 15 minute discussion, then write for a second 45 minute period of time. Afterwards, the Zoom room will remain open for a half hour for discussion and chat.
To register and receive the zoom link, contact Steven D. Brewer at sdbrewer@stevendbrewer.com
This weekly meeting is on a trial basis and will run from Wednesdays, September 27 – December 20.

Roundtable Discussion - Your Writing Practice: Pitfalls and Solutions
2023-12-16 10:30 - 12:00 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild for a community-based roundtable discussion to share your best ideas and most stubborn blocks with fellow writers to gain insight into your writing process and community resources. This craft workshop with Michael Favala Goldman and Lindsay Rockwell will take place on Saturday, December 16, from 10:30am-12pm at Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St. Northampton, MA
During this roundtable we will explore such questions as:

How do I create time to write?
Are there resources to help organize my writing?
Where should I send my work?
Do I need an editor/mentor/agent?
What do I do with my manuscript?

Bring your own questions, too. No registration is required for this in-person event.
Michael Favala Goldman is an award-winning poet, jazz clarinetist, and translator of Danish literature. Michael’s seven books of original poetry include Small Sovereign, which took first place at the 2022 Los Angeles Book Festival. He has been running poetry critique groups since 2018.
Lindsay Rockwell is poet-in-residence for the Episcopal Church of Connecticut and hosts their Poetry and Social Justice Dialogue series. She’s published, or forthcoming, in Calyx, Carve, Gargoyle, Radar, The Dewdrop, among others. Her first collection, GHOST FIRES, was published by Main Street Rag, April 2023. Lindsay is also an oncologist.
