Straw Dog Writers Guild

Straw Dog Writes Weekly Writers Meet Up
2024-09-25 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-09-18 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-09-11 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-09-04 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-08-28 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-08-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-08-14 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-08-07 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) and 8 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

A Writer's Night
2024-09-19 18:45 - 19:30 | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
On Thursday, September 19 from 6:45-7:30pm Straw Dog Writers Guild and The Longmeadow Adult Center present A Writer’s Night with Chris O’Carroll.
Chris O’Carroll is the author of three books of poems – The Joke’s on Me, Abracadabratude, and Quantum Creed. He has been a Light magazine featured poet and his work appears in New York City Haiku, Extreme Sonnets, Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle, and The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology, among other collections. In addition to being a poet, Chris is also an actor and a stand-up comedian, so he has multiple ways of not earning a living.
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

2024 Residency Writers Read
2024-09-14 16:00 - 17:15 | zoom
Straw Dog Writers Guild and Edith Wharton’s The Mount present a virtual reading of the 2024 Writers-in-Residency on Saturday, September 14, 4:00-5:15pm.
Our 9 writers are: Camila Sanmiguel Anaya, Stevie Billow, Eleanor Fuller, Jason Prokowiew, Mariah Rigg, Whitney Scharer, Mistinguette Smith, Julia Thacker, Jen Alandy Trahan.
Register for this free Zoom presentation HERE.
To read the writers’ bios visit The Mount’s Virtual Reading event listing.

Special Celebration of Straw Dog Members
2024-09-10 17:00 - 19:00 | Michelson Gallery, 132 Main St, Northampton, 01060, United States
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on September 10, 5-7pm at the beautiful Michelson Gallery on Main Street in Northampton for a special event for members!
This is a time to celebrate Straw Dog Writers Guild Members (it’s never too late to become a member) with drinks and appetizers. Our Advisors and community sponsors will be there too. SDWG members, watch your email for your invitation.

Everyone Reads Second Sundays Open Mic
2024-09-08 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-08-11 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-07-14 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-06-09 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

Hosted by Straw Dog Writers Guild.

Writers Night Out
2024-09-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday September 3, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer D. Dina Friedman 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.
D. Dina Friedman’s recent work includes a short-story collection, Immigrants, (Creators Press, 2023) and a poetry chapbook Here in Sanctuary—Whirling (Querencia Press, 2024). She is also the author of the chapbook Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press) and two young adult novels: Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar Straus Giroux). Dina has published widely in literary journals including Rattle, Salamander, The Sun, Mass Poetry, Chautauqua Journal, Crab Orchard Review, Cider Press Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Cold Mountain Review, Lilith, Negative Capability and Rhino and received four Pushcart Prize nominations.

2025 Emerging Writer Fellowship Virtual Launch Event
2024-08-20 18:00 - 19:30 | zoom
2025 Emerging Writer Fellowship Virtual Launch Event
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
6 p.m. ET
Virtual via Zoom. Register Here
Join Nicole Young-Martin (program founder) and Regine Jackson (2022 Fellow) to hear about this year’s Emerging Writer Fellowship Program. Attendees will learn about this year’s application and selection process as well as details about the program year and associated benefits. This year’s genre is MEMOIR/CREATIVE NONFICTION and will be open to women of color and BIPOC gender expansive writers based in Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire Counties. We will be accepting applications from August 15, 2024 through October 1, 2024 and announcing the fellow by November 15. This year’s fellowship will take place January through December 2025.
To learn more about the program and applicant criteria, please visit https://www.ewfellowship.org/

Writers Night Out
2024-08-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday August 6, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Linda Bratcher Wlodyka 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.
Linda Bratcher Wlodyka is the current Massachusetts Beat Poet Laureate, 2023-2025. In the summer of 2023, Linda was chosen as a contributor to WordxWord a summer poetry festival in the Berkshires where she collaborated with a team of poets creating a very large poem that was read aloud for the audience at The Mount. She also has held the position as a docent at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s summer home in Lenox, MA from 2002 -2006. She retired as an educator from Mt. Greylock Regional School District in Williamstown in 2020. Linda’s poem, “Secret Cottage,”was voted Best in the Berkshires in 2012 and she was invited to the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, MA to read that poem. Linda has 3 chapbooks previously self-published, Her Spirited Cameo, Voices from the Blue Room and Tick Tock. If Brambles Were Bookends Collected Poems, is Linda’s first full length poetry collection released in late 2023. Her poems have been widely anthologized. She is a member of the Florence Poet’s Society and has recently been involved in reading and choosing poems for publication in the anthologies, Silkworm and Naugatuck River Review.

Writers Night Out
2024-07-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday July 2, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Cherryl Jensen 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.
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.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Lovin' Poetry Share
2024-06-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
“Summer lovin’ happened so fast,” sang the Firefly. “And so the drama ensues,” teased Puck. Come, sit for a spell. Drink the fairies’ sweet wine, let the tales spin and tangle, and share poems of dream lovers, night weavers, fantastical moments, and stands for the pursuit of freedom and happiness. And if you don’t have your own poems, read someone else’s. We always have a selection available.
Come read on Moonday, June 24, 6:30-8:00pm, in the Belding Memorial Library Meeting Room, 344 Main St., Ashfield, MA. 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.
Facilitated by writer and poet Arianna Alexsandra Collins of Offerings for Community Building 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 Writers Night
2024-06-20 18:45 - 19:30 | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
On Thursday, June 20, 6:45-7:30pm Straw Dog Writers Guild and The Longmeadow Adult Center present A Writer’s Night with Linda Bratcher Wlodyka.
Linda Bratcher Wlodyka is the Massachusetts Beat Poet Laureate, 2023-2025. In the summer of 2023, Linda was chosen as a contributor to WordxWord a summer poetry festival in the Berkshires where she collaborated with a team of poets creating a very large poem that was read aloud for the audience at The Mount. She also has held the position as a docent at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s summer home in Lenox, MA from 2002 -2006. She retired as an educator from Mt. Greylock Regional School District in Williamstown in 2020. Linda’s poem, Secret Cottage, was voted Best in the Berkshires in 2012. Linda has 3 chapbooks previously self-published, Her Spirited Cameo, Voices from the Blue Room and Tick Tock. If Brambles Were Bookends Collected Poems, is Linda’s first full length poetry collection released September 2023. Linda is a member of the Florence Poet’s Society.
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

Promoting Your Work as an Indie Author
2024-06-15 13:00 - 14:30 | zoom
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Saturday, June 15 from 1:00-2:30pm on Zoom with J. Scott Coatsworth as he shares his experience as an indie author. In this craft workshop he will present some of the tips and tricks he has learned in how to promote ones work and field questions. Scott stares, “I recently released Suck a Little Happy Juice, a guide for indie authors, and have been writing about being one on my blog since 2014.”
This workshop will be online via Zoom. Register for this free workshop.
Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were. He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends. A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, Liminal Fiction and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and was the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). He is also the author of Suck a Little Happy Juice, a guide for indie authors.
