Straw Dog Writers Guild

Poetry Critique Meet Up in November
2025-11-16 13:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Poetry Critique Meet-up on Zoom is a chance for poets to give and receive immediate constructive feedback on their poems by everyone in attendance. Learn what is working in your poems, and what may need revision. Contribute your observations to other poets. Be fascinated by the breadth of the written word.
Register for Saturday November 15th, 1-3:30 pm OR Sunday, November 16th, 1-3:30 pm. Cost: by donation. Suggested sliding scale $25-40. No one turned away for lack of funds. Limited to five participants. Register early. Please sign up for one session per month. Register HERE. Questions – email: hammerandhorn@gmail.com

These workshops are made possible in part through the Eli Daniel Nemetz Todd Memorial Fund. Please make your donation through the Center for the Arts via Paypal here, via Venmo @Northampton-CenterForTheArts, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061. Please note Poetry/Prose in the memo line. Donations on the upper end of the scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility. If you need financial support, please apply through NCFA’s Community Fund.

Facilitator: Michael Favala Goldman is author of seven poetry collections and translator of nineteen books. His work has appeared in scores of publications such as The New Yorker, The Harvard Review, and Rattle Magazine. https://michaelfavalagoldman.com/

Michael’s blog about the Poetry Critique Meet-up: http://strawdogwriters.org/blog/poetry-meet-up

Straw Dog Writes Weekly Writers Meet Up
2025-11-19 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-26 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-17 19:00 - 21:00 | 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

Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair
2025-11-21 - 2025-11-22, 2025-11-22 - 2025-11-23 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild at the Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair this November to get locally grown books! Straw Dog Writers Guild members will be selling their books at this celebration of books. There will be local presses, antique books, and of course local authors.
For more information click HERE.

CANCELLED - Writers Night Out in December
2025-12-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Writers Night Out on Tuesday December 2nd has been cancelled.
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday December 2nd, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer and Straw Dog Writers Guild Emerging Writer Fellow Darlene Elias, 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.
Hosted by Jacqueline Sheehan, Rick Paar and Beth Filson.
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement.
Darlene Elias (memoir, creative nonfiction) is Straw Dog Writers Guild 2025 Emerging Writer Fellow. Darlene Elias is an emerging writer and poet from Western Mass. She is a Hawaiian Boricua Anti Colonial Feminist who uses literature, poetry, and spoken word to elevate and validate her own experience as a woman who is part of the diaspora in the U.S. Darlene co-founded the Writing Sisters, a community of women who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ, grown to 15 members in the past year. The group meets twice a month and provides a safe space where members can write freely, share with one another, build, and cultivate relationships not only with one another but in the community. As part of her fellowship, Darlene was a 2025 Edith Wharton-Straw Dog Writers Guild resident.

Weekly Wednesday Writing Group
2025-12-03 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-12-10 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-12-17 18:30 - 20:00, 2026-01-07 18:30 - 20:00, 2026-01-14 18:30 - 20:00, 2026-01-21 18:30 - 20:00, 2026-01-28 18:30 - 20:00 | Dalton Free Public Library, 462 Main Street, Dalton, MA, 01226
This Wednesday and every Wednesday: in-person Weekly Wednesday Writing Group at the @daltonfreepubliclibrary

“Curious Writers” will meet at the Dalton Free Public Library on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:00pm for our Weekly Wednesday Writing Group in collaboration with the Dalton Free Public Library.
We will meet for dedicated writing time with a focus on:

getting settled and acquainted
writing goals for the session
one hour of concentrated writing
recap

Bring your laptop, journal, pen, and paper. At this time, the meetings do not include sharing writing for feedback. Feedback will be included if the group decides it would be beneficial (guidelines for feedback will be provided). Spaces limited.

For more information email Emma Carkhuff Emmacarkhuff2@gmail.com

Voices for Resistance: Can (Y)our writing help change the world?
2025-12-06 14:00 - 16:00 | Boutelle-Day Poetry Center, College Lane, Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Voices for Resistance: Can (Y)our writing help change the world? A reading and conversation with Ellen Meeropol and Bill Newman
In times of political and social turmoil, many writers struggle to find effective ways to change minds and hearts with our work. In this Voices for Resistance event, fiction writer Ellen Meeropol and columnist, podcaster and radio host Bill Newman talk about using the power of words to resist, to educate, to inspire, and to empower us all to change our world.

Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Sometimes an Island (forthcoming March 2026), The Lost Women of Azalea Court, Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest, and guest editor for the anthology Dreams for a Broken World. Essay and story publications include Ms. Magazine, Lilith, The Writer Magazine, The Boston Globe, Solstice Magazine, Guernica, LitHub, and Mom Egg Review. Her work has been a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a Great Group Reads. Ellen is a founding mother of Straw Dog Writers Guild. www.ellenmeeropol.com
Bill Newman, a civil rights lawyer in Northampton since 1976, has hosted a weekday talk radio show on WHMP since 2010 (first, the Bill Newman Show and then, Talk the Talk) and has written a regular column for the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Greenfield Recorder for many years. He has published two collections of his expository writing, When the War Came Home and Life on the Co-op Plan and in addition, is the author and voice of Civil Liberties Minute® podcast. He often speaks about civil rights and civil liberties topics with community groups and at high schools and colleges. https://whmp.com/podcasts/shows/bill-newman/

Poetry Critique Meet Up in Decembber
2025-12-07 13:00 - 15:30 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Poetry Critique Meet-up on Zoom is a chance for poets to give and receive immediate constructive feedback on their poems by everyone in attendance. Learn what is working in your poems, and what may need revision. Contribute your observations to other poets. Be fascinated by the breadth of the written word.
Register for Sunday December 7th, 1-3:30 pm. Cost: by donation. Suggested sliding scale $25-40. No one turned away for lack of funds. Limited to five participants. Register early. Please sign up for one session per month. Register HERE. Questions – email: hammerandhorn@gmail.com

These workshops are made possible in part through the Eli Daniel Nemetz Todd Memorial Fund. Please make your donation through the Center for the Arts via Paypal here, via Venmo @Northampton-CenterForTheArts, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061. Please note Poetry/Prose in the memo line. Donations on the upper end of the scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility. If you need financial support, please apply through NCFA’s Community Fund.

Facilitator: Michael Favala Goldman is author of seven poetry collections and translator of nineteen books. His work has appeared in scores of publications such as The New Yorker, The Harvard Review, and Rattle Magazine. https://michaelfavalagoldman.com/

Michael’s blog about the Poetry Critique Meet-up: http://strawdogwriters.org/blog/poetry-meet-up

A Cosmic Poetry Share
2025-12-10 18:30 - 20:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Groovy! Whether you’ve got poems about stars, planets, cosmic adventures, out of this world encounters, or out of body experiences, we want to hear them! (And you don’t have any of your own, find and read someone else’s poetry.) Come read and listen on Wednesday, December 10 from 6:30-8:00pm in the Belding Memorial Library Meeting Room with poet Arianna Alexsandra Collins of Offerings for Community Building. Treats 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.
The Library is located at 344 Main St. in Ashfield, MA.
Sponsored by Belding Memorial Library and Straw Dog Writers Guild

Arianna Alexsandra Collins ~ Naturalist. Writer. Poet. ~ has over 30 years experience in teaching, community engagement, and public ritual. She facilitates quarterly poetry shares at her local library in Ashfield MA and poetry workshops throughout the Hoosic River Watershed. She has a bi-monthly column “Into the Outside” in The Ashfield News and featured articles on wild edible and medicinal flora in MassWildlife, Ecological Landscape Alliance, and Northern Woodlands. Arianna is a contributing author in Nature Portals: Animate Earth Practices and is the author of historical fantasy novel Hearken to Avalon. Read samples of Arianna’s prose and poetry at: https://hearkentoavalon.com

WRITER'S OUT LOUD OPEN MIC NIGHT
2025-12-11 08:00 - 19:00 | The WOW Center, 105 Elm Street, Westfield, MA
WRITER’S OUT LOUD OPEN MIC NIGHT

Thursday December 11 • 7pm Free admission.

The WOW Center, 105 Elm Street Westfield

WRITERS OUT LOUD! – A FREE low-pressure, DecemberFest open mic night welcoming all, who love prose and poetry. Authors, poets and writers of every skill level are invited to share a 3–5-minute piece for WOW’s debut of its newest series celebrating the spoken word, produced with the Straw Dog’s Writers Guild and Whipcity Wordsmiths. This month’s suggested theme is “The Holidays”. Readers sign up on a first-come basis, when the doors open. Be an audience member or perhaps share your favorite fiction/non-fiction or poetry selection. Beverages available. Right on!!!!

Everyone Reads Second Sundays Open Mic
2025-12-14 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!

Co-create and reading and listening experience that is generous, dynamic, and heart-felt.
Read a 3-minute piece
Brief positive responses after readers share
Listeners welcome

Writers Night Out in January
2026-01-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday January 6th, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Corinne Demas, 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.
Hosted by Jacqueline Sheehan, Rick Paar and Beth Filson.
Corinne Demas is the author of 39 books including two collections of short stories, seven novels, a memoir, a collection of poetry, two plays, and numerous books for children. She is a professor emeritus of English at Mount Holyoke College and a fiction editor of the Massachusetts Review.
She grew up in New York City, in Stuyvesant Town, the subject of her memoir, Eleven Stories High, Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948-1968. She attended Hunter College High School, graduated from Tufts University, and completed a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She lived in Pittsburgh for a number of years, teaching at the University of Pittsburgh and at Chatham College.
She divides her time between Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod.
https://www.corinnedemas.com/bio.html

Straw Dog Writes
2026-01-07 19:00 - 20:00, 2026-01-14 19:00 - 20:00, 2026-01-21 19:00 - 20:00, 2026-01-28 19:00 - 20:00 | ZOOM, MA

Start Your New Year off “Write”!
2026-01-10 13:00 - 14:30
Do you want to start writing in 2026? Or do you want to get back to your writing after the busy holiday season?
Join us for this (Zoom) Writing Workshop, Start Your New Year off “Write!”
Saturday, January 10, 2026 1-2:30 PM
Register HERE
Activities and Learning Objectives …

Tips on how to set up and maintain your regular writing schedule
Generative writing prompts—you choose the genre (optional sharing)
Tips and tricks for those days when you have limited time or just don’t want to write

Áine Greaney is an Irish-born author living on Boston’s North Shore. Her nonfiction, fiction and poetry have been published in various outlets, including “The Boston Globe Magazine,” “The New York Times,” “Creative Nonfiction,” “Another Chicago Magazine,” “Pulse: Stories from the Heart of Medicine,” “KevinMD,” “The Journal of Expressive Writing” and many other publications. She’s also the author of 5 books. As a trained teacher and certified wellness-writing instructor (Duke University), she has designed and delivered workshops and retreats in various community, academic and healthcare settings, including Straw Dog Writers Guild.
www.ainegreaney.com.

Second Sundays Virtual Open Mic
2026-01-11 08:00 - 17:00

Poetry Critique Meet Up in January
2026-01-11 13:00 - 15:30 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Poetry Critique Meet-up on Zoom is a chance for poets to give and receive immediate constructive feedback on their poems by everyone in attendance. Learn what is working in your poems, and what may need revision. Contribute your observations to other poets. Be fascinated by the breadth of the written word.
Register for Sunday January 11th, 1-3:30 pm. Cost: by donation. Suggested sliding scale $25-40. No one turned away for lack of funds. Limited to five participants. Register early. Please sign up for one session per month. Register HERE. Questions – email: hammerandhorn@gmail.com

These workshops are made possible in part through the Eli Daniel Nemetz Todd Memorial Fund. Please make your donation through the Center for the Arts via Paypal here, via Venmo @Northampton-CenterForTheArts, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061. Please note Poetry/Prose in the memo line. Donations on the upper end of the scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility. If you need financial support, please apply through NCFA’s Community Fund.
Facilitator: Michael Favala Goldman is author of seven poetry collections and translator of nineteen books. His work has appeared in scores of publications such as The New Yorker, The Harvard Review, and Rattle Magazine. https://michaelfavalagoldman.com/

Michael’s blog about the Poetry Critique Meet-up: http://strawdogwriters.org/blog/poetry-meet-up

12th Annual Author Showcase: A Celebration of Members’ Books
2026-01-31 16:00 - 17:30 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Save the date for the 12th Annual Author showcase!
Twelve readers will have five minutes each to read from their work. Books will be available for purchase at this in-person event.
