Writers Night Out – Featured Reader Howard Faerstein

The Basement

Featured reader - Howie Faerstein Howard Faerstein’s first book of poetry, Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklyn, was published in 2013 by Press 53. A second collection, Googootz, and Other Poems came out in September 2018. His work can be found in numerous journals including Great River Review, Nimrod, CutThroat, Off the Coast, Rattle, upstreet, Read More

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader Christian McEwen

The Basement

July 7 Writers Read/Hilltowns Christian McEwen is a freelance writer, workshop leader, and cultural activist, originally from the UK. She is the author of several books, including World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down, now in its sixth printing. Her new book, Legal Tender: Women & the Secret Life of Money, appeared in April 2019. Read More

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader Amy Laprade

The Basement

Featured Reader - Amy Laprade An MFA Graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Amy Laprade’s work has appeared inSilkworm, Canyon Voices, Plum Literary Journal and Meat for Tea: the Valley Review. Her debut novel, “So Nice to Finally Meet You,” 2016, and “Behind the Magic 8 Ball,”2018, have been published through human Error Press. “Silence is Read More

Writers Night Out – Featured Reader Joan Livingston

The Basement

Joan Livingston is the author of novels for adult and young readers. The first two books in her Isabel Long mystery series are Chasing the Case and Redneck’s Revenge (Crooked Cat Books). Checking the Traps has a 2019 release. Her other books include The Sweet Spot and Peace, Love & You Know What. A journalist Read More

Writers Night Out – Featured Reader James Arthur

The Basement

Canadian-American poet James Arthur is the author of The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012.) His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, and The London Review of Books. He has received the Read More

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader Trish Crapo

The Basement

Trish Crapo - Poet, writer, collage artist, and photographer Trish Crapo was educated at Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Author of the recently republished chapbookWalk through Paradise Backwards from Slate Roof Press (2004 and 2018), she has had work featured in former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s syndicated newspaper column, “American Life Read More

Writers Night Out – Featured Reader Andrea Hairston

The Basement

Andrea Hairston is a playwright and novelist. She is author of Will Do Magic For Small Change, a finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Tiptree Awards, a Massachusetts Must Read, and a New York Times Editor’s pick. Her other novels include: Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Tiptree and Carl Brandon Awards, and Mindscape, winner Read More

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader D. Dina Friedman

Ashfield Community Hall , 521 Main Street, Ashfield, MA

D. Dina Friedman has received two Pushcart Prize nominations and published in many literary journals including Lilith, Negative Capability, The Sun, Common Ground Review, San Pedro River Review, Steam Ticket, New Plains Review, Blue Stem, Red Booth Review, Bloodroot, Anderbo, and Rhino. Dina is also the author of two award-winning young adult novels, Escaping Into the Read More

Annual Meeting 2019

Lilly Library 19 Meadow Street, Florence, MA, United States

Come join us for our annual meeting. This is a time to have the community come together and discuss ways in which Straw Dog can further support the writing community in Western MA.  

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader Janet MacFayden

Janet MacFadyen is the author of four poetry collections, including Waiting to Be Born (Dos Madres Press 2017), In the Provincelands (Slate Roof 2012), and A Newfoundland Journal (Killick Press 2009). Her work has been nominated for the Forward Prize (UK) and two Pushcarts. It also has been anthologized in 50/50: Poems and Translations by Women over 50, and has appeared in The Atlanta Read More

Writers Night Out – Featured Reader Mary A Koncel

The Basement

Mary A. Koncel has published three books of prose poetry – Closer to Day (Quale Press), You Can Tell the Horse Anything (Tupelo Press), and The Last Blonde (Hedgerow Books). She was a recipient of a poetry fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. Her Read More

“Mastering Beginnings and Endings in Your Writing” Workshop with Kate Senecal

Northampton Center for the Arts 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, United States

"Ann Hood once wrote that Beginnings "put into motion the events that will drive the story to its resolution. And the resolution is often the inverse of the opening. " Come join Kate Senecal on Sunday, November 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Northampton Center for the Arts for this writing workshop. She'll investigate Read More

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader: Alexis Johnson

Belding Memorial Library 344 Main Street, Ashfield, United States

Alexis Johnson is co-founder and was Executive Director of International Language Institute for 31 years.  Her undergraduate degree in in languages and linguistics. Her double masters is in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Teaching Spanish. Before that she lived and taught in Barcelona for 9 years.  Her first book,Playing With A Full Deck, is a Read More

Writers Night Out – Featured Reader Karen Skolfield

The Basement

Karen Skolfield’s book Battle Dress (W. W. Norton, 2019) won the Barnard Women Poets Prize. Her book Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press) won the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry, and she is the winner of the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review. Skolfield is Read More

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader Libby Maxey

Belding Memorial Library 344 Main Street, Ashfield, United States

Libby Maxey, of Conway, MA, is a senior editor at the online journal Literary Mama; she also edits for Amherst College and as a freelancer. She reviews poetry for The Mom Egg Review and Solstice, and her own poems have appeared in Crannóg, Kestrel, Naugatuck River Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Emrys and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, Kairos, won Finishing Line Press’s 2018 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Read More

Straw Dog Writers Guild