Straw Dog Writers Guild

Darling You’re Making a Scene
2021-10-16 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | zoom
Straw Dog Writers Guild presents: “Darling, You’re Making a Scene” with Áine Greaney on Saturday, October 16, 2021 10:30 – 12:00. This workshop will be on Zoom. Registration required. Register HERE.
Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, learn how to craft lively, memorable scenes that draw the reader in and make them care about your story and your real or imagined characters.
In this workshop, participants will learn:

Macro and micro issues of scene building
Those opening and closing scenes
Show don’t tell; but when you *must* tell, learn how to balance “live” scenes and narrative paragraphs
Achieving vividness.
Making your readers care
Dialog in your scene

Bio: Áine Greaney is an Irish-born author who never published anything until she emigrated from Ireland to America, alone, at age 24. Since then (1986), she has published four books and a chapbook collection of short stories. Her features, essays and stories have been published and broadcast in the U.S., Ireland, the U.K. and Canada in publications such as Creative Nonfiction, NPR/WBUR, PBS The World, The Boston Globe Magazine, The New York Times, Litro, Salon and The Drum. She is also the author of the popular instructional book, Writer with a Day Job (Writers Digest Books). Her awards and shortlists include a citation in Best American Essays and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her second novel, Dance Lessons, was one of 20 chosen by the National Women’s Book Association for National Reading Group Month and a runner up in the Rubery International Awards. In addition to writing, she has facilitated creative writing workshops and presented or co-presented at national and regional conferences, including the Writers Digest Conference in New York City, the Cape Cod Writers Conference, the International Women’s Writing Guild and the Examined Life Conference at U. Iowa School of Medicine.

Writers Night Out/In October
2021-10-05 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night Out/In Open Mic on Tuesday, October 5, 7:00pm. Registration required. Register HERE. Our featured writer is María Luisa Arroyo.
Changes to registration have been made for security purposes. You will now receive your link after your registration has been approved within 24 to 48 hours. On the day of the event, your link will be re-sent for ease of access. Contact strawdogevents@gmail.com for questions. See you soon!
Bio: Educated at Colby, Tufts and Harvard in German, her third language, María Luisa Arroyo will share poems from her 2018 chapbook, Destierro Means Means More than Exile. There, she pays tribute to 32 women poets who inspire her as a multilingual Boricua poet and intersectional feminist educator. Her poems appear in many journals such as One, The Common, and Multiplicity, and anthologies, including Boricua en la Luna. As Assistant Professor of Writing & First-Year Studies at Bay Path University, María Luisa joyfully teaches undergraduate students to claim their creative voices as they write academic research papers.

Writers Read Hilltowns October 2021
2021-10-03 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns on Sunday, October 3 from 2-4pm. Our featured reader is Michael Favala Goldman. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the Zoom meeting.
Bio: Michael Favala Goldman (b.1966) is a poet, jazz clarinetist and widely-published translator of Danish literature. Among his sixteen translated books are The Water Farm Trilogy by Cecil Bødker and Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen (a Penguin Classic). His first book of original poetry, Who has time for this? was published in 2020. He lives in Northampton, MA, where he has been running bi-monthly poetry critique groups since 2018. www.hammerandhorn.net

Writing Residency Applications Due November 1, 2021
2021-10-01 08:00 - 2021-11-01 17:00
The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home is collaborating with Straw Dog Writers Guild to offer a unique residency experience for nine emerging writers. Residencies will be for one week and include lodging at Seven Hills Inn in Lenox, a workspace at The Mount, breakfast, lunch, and a $500 stipend. The residencies run weekly from March 6 – March 26 and three writers will be selected for each week.
How to apply: Applications open on October 1 and close on November 1. The $25 application fee will be waived for financial hardship and for Mount and Straw Dog members. Submissions are reviewed anonymously and ranked based on the following criteria: quality of writing, originality of voice, the potential for growth as a writer, and strength of the statement of purpose. For more information and to apply visit EdithWharton.org. For additional information, please contact Patricia Pin at PPin@edithwharton.org.
More information on our Writing Residency page.

Writers Read Hilltowns September 2021
2021-09-12 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns on Sunday, September 12th from 2-4pm. Our featured reader is David Wyman. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the Zoom meeting.
David Wyman’s second poetry collection, Violet Ideologies, was published in 2020 by Kelsay Books. His first book Proletariat Sunrise, also published by Kelsay Books, came out in 2017. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Dissident Voice, Blazing Stadium, BlazeVOX, Clockwise Cat, Picaroon Poetry, Squawk Back, Tuck Magazine, Zombie Logic Review, S/WORD and Genre: Urban Arts among other publications. He’s a fan of Noam Chomsky, jazz guitar and the visionary poetry of William Blake. He lives in Massachusetts where he teaches American Literature and writing at Mount Wachusett Community College.

7th Annual Author Showcase
2021-09-08 18:30 - 20:30 | zoom
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild and Forbes Library for an online Author Showcase on Wednesday, September 8 at 6:30pm
Brief readings from new books by members of Straw Dog Writers Guild: Dusty J. Miller, Eileen P. Kennedy, Howie Faerstein, Kathryn Holzman, Meg Thacher, Jane McPhetres Johnson, Celia Jeffries, Rebecca Hart Olander., J.A. McIntosh, Lesléa Newman, Ellen Meeropol, Stephanie Shafran.
Registration required. To register, click HERE.
This event is co-sponsored by SDWG and Forbes Library.

Meet the Authors
Dusty J. Miller is an internationally published author and speaker. After publishing five nonfiction books, including Women Who Hurt Themselves, she wrote the Alice Ott mystery series, now in its second edition. She has recently published her fifth Alice Ott mystery, Danger Within. Dusty is a member of the Raging Grannies in MA and Central Florida. She is a pickleball instructor and volunteers with hospice. For information on her books, go to: https://www.dustyjmiller.com
Eileen P. Kennedy is the author of two collections of poetry: Banshees (Flutter Press, 2015), which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won Second Prize in Poetry from the Wordwrite Book Awards, and Touch My Head Softly (Finishing Line Press, 2021.) Her poetry has appeared in more than 25 literary journals and anthologies. She has published nonfiction widely. More at EileenPKennedy.com.
Links to Touch My Head Softly: at Finishing Line Press, Amazon, Goodreads.
Howie Faerstein’s latest collection is Out of Order (Main Street Press). His previous books, Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklyn and Googootz are available from Press 53. His poetry can be found in On the Seawall, Nine Mile, Nixes Mate, Banyan Review, Rattle, upstreet, Verse Daily and Connotation. Howie is co-poetry editor of CutThroat, and lives in Florence, Massachusetts. https://howiefaerstein.com The 2 full-length books can be purchased from www.press53.com/poetry-collections/ and mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/out-of-order-howard-faerstein/, or contact Howie directly at hfaerstein@aol.com
Kathryn Holzman’s short fiction has appeared in over twenty online literary magazines and print anthologies. She is the author of a collection of short fiction, FLATLANDERS, Shire Press 2019. Her first novel REAL ESTATE was published by Propertius Press in Fall, 2020. She received the Grand Prize in the 2020 Eyelands International Short Story Contest. Links to her work can be found at kathrynholzman.com. Link for purchase info: https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore
Meg Thacher teaches astronomy at Smith College, where she has also taught physics and writing. In 2012, inspired by a half-formed picture book idea, she joined SCBWI (the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). Since then, she has published 30 articles in children’s magazines like Highlights, Muse, Ask, and Cricket. Meg loves to share the wonders of the night sky with kids and their grown-ups. She lives in West Springfield in a newly empty nest. Sky Gazing is her first book. Go to the Book Shop to purchase.
Jane McPhetres Johnson: War Baby. Boulder CO principal’s daughter. English teacher. Married a C.O. musician. Quaker. Arrested at W’s White House. Humanities programmer for libraries. Got hearing aids when one son started talking. Got my Goddard MFA the day my second son was born. Moved into Amherst cohousing after Transition Town awakening. Raging Granny. Got twin grandchildren 2017. Published my first book during a pandemic: Maven Reaches Mars! Finally. BUY: www.levellerspress.com (Both e-book and paper).
NOT AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. EVER!
Celia Jeffries’s work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines including Westview, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Puerto del Sol, as well as the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. She has received grants from Turkey Land Cove Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and La Muse. BLUE DESERT is her first novel. For more information see her website: www.celiajeffries.com
Rebecca Hart Olander’s poetry has appeared recently in Jet Fuel Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Tinderbox, and her collaborative work has been published in multiple print and online venues. She has a chapbook, Dressing the Wounds (dancing girl press, 2019), and a full-length collection, Uncertain Acrobats (CavanKerry Press, 2021). Rebecca teaches writing at Westfield State University and is editor/director of Perugia Press. https://www.cavankerrypress.org/product/uncertain-acrobats/
J. A. McIntosh, author and recovering attorney, writes the Meredith, Massachusetts novels, about imperfect people seeking justice. The second book in the series, Judge Hartwell, was published in March 2020 and the third installment, Grampa Leary, is due in the fall of 2021. Crimes happen in her novels, but the emphasis is on how people define and dispense justice. You can purchase her work on Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and from Stillwater Press.
Lesléa Newman has created 78 books for readers of all ages including the double memoir-in-verse, I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father; and the children’s books, Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale With A Tail; Sparkle Boy; and Heather Has Two Mommies. She has received poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and is a past poet laureate of Northampton. https://lesleanewman.com/books-for-adults/poetry/i-wish-my-father/
Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, House Arrest, and The Lost Women of Azalea Court (forthcoming in 2022) and recent essays in Lilith, Ms. Magazine, and Lit Hub. Her work has been honored by the Sarton Women’s Prize, Women’s National Book Association, and the Massachusetts Center for the Book. To purchase Elli’s books: https://www.broadsidebooks.com/book/9781597098441
Stephanie Shafran lives in Western MA. Her writing has appeared in several anthologies and journals. An active member and officer of Straw Dog Writers Guild, Stephanie is also a Florence Poets Society member. She published Awakening in 2020. “After ‘Story’ by Richard Blanco” was recently published in the anthology “A 21st Century Plague: Poetry from a Pandemic,” edited by Elayne Clift. Stephanie’s chapbook is available from Broadside Books. Her website is stephanieshafran.wordpress.com.

Writers Night Out/In September 2021
2021-09-07 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night Out/In Open Mic on Tuesday, September, 7:00pm. Registration required. Register HERE. Our featured writer is Lanette Sweeney. If you have any trouble registering, contact Beth at: strawdogevents@gmail.com
Lanette Sweeney’s debut collection, What I Should Have Said: A Poetry Memoir About Losing A Child to Addiction, is being published by Kentucky-based Finishing Line Press in August of 2021. The book is divided into the stages of grief and features alongside her own poems 20 poems by Sweeney’s late son, Kyle Fisher-Hertz, who died of an overdose five years ago at the age of 26. Sweeney has two messages she hopes to share with the collection: first, that medication-assisted treatment saves addicts lives and should not be stigmatized, and second, that all of us can go on to have lives rich with joy and peace, even after surviving the most tragic losses. Sweeney’s work has been featured in many publications, including Rattle, Blue Collar Review, Please See Me, Amethyst Review, Silkworm (the annual publication of the Florence Poets Society, of which she is a member), and in several editions of McGraw Hill’s popular Women’s Studies anthology Women: Images and Reality. Sweeney has worked as a college teacher of writing and Women’s Studies at SUNY New Paltz, where she earned her degrees in Women’s Studies and English Literature, and as a college fund-raiser for Hampshire College. She also cocktail waitressed, sold real estate, and served as a United Way vice president. She is now a full-time writer thanks to her wife’s support.

Writers Night Out/In August
2021-08-03 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, August 3, 7:00pm. Registration required. Click HERE to register. Our featured writer is Adam Grabowski.
Adam Grabowski is the author of the chapbook Go on Bewilderment (Attack Bear Press, 2020) and his poems have appeared in such journals as Sixth Finch, Rust + Moth, Hobart, jubilat, and elsewhere. A two-time 2021 Pushcart nominee and the recipient of a 2020 Parent-Writer Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Adam is Associate Managing Editor for The Maine Review and lives with his wife and two children in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

August 3 Deadline for Author Showcase Submissions
2021-08-03 00:00
Straw Dog Writers Guild and Forbes Library invite Straw Dog Writers Guild members with a book published in 2020 or 2021 to read as part of the annual Author Showcase on September 8. If you are interested in being part of the Showcase, please indicate your interest by emailing strawdogsubmission@gmail.com.
The deadline to express interest is midnight Tuesday, August 3rd. We will let authors know by August 10th. Twelve authors will be selected at random by drawing names from a hat.
Each reader will have five minutes to read from their work. If we meet in person, authors will have the opportunity to sell their books. If we are on Zoom, links to your books can be posted in the chat.
Once chosen, you will then need to provide a brief bio and photograph for our publicity and Showcase program.
Mark your calendars…
7th Annual Author Showcase: A Celebration of Members’ Books
6:30 – 8:30 p.m., September 8, 2021
Forbes Library and/or Zoom
(20 West Street, Northampton, MA)

Writers Read Hilltowns August
2021-08-01 14:00 - 16:00
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, August 1 from 2-4 pm. Our featured reader is Nicole M. Young. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting.
Bio: Originally from Detroit, Nicole M. Young considers her creative practice to be inter+multi+disciplinary where theatre, music, poetry, and live performance intersect informing a unique repertoire of work. Trained as a musician and actor, Nicole’s gift for writing was discovered as an adult making sense of life and belonging in rural New England. Autobiographical in nature, Nicole’s writing seeks to fill the spaces for women of color whose fair representations are absent in mainstream media.
As a content creator and events producer, she seeks to uplift and empower those from marginalized communities such as the many she belongs to including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+/Queer, femme and gender expansive, first generation college educated, and plus size/curvy, She is the recipient of several grants including from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts & Assets4Artists, Easthampton City Arts, and Northampton Open Media. Nicole is the editor of the recently released chapbook anthology, Locating Me, and serves as producer and host of the web series, Black Writers Read. Her award-winning play, get (t)his!, has been produced in Michigan, New York City and Western Massachusetts. Nicole’s self-produced spoken word album, In/Put: Live from the Valley, was released in 2019. She has performed her poetry in over 20 venues across the Northeast and Midwest including for colleges, festivals, and opening for musicians.
Nicole lives in Windsor, CT and works in Western Massachusetts.
Visit her at: https://www.nicolemyoung.com/
Follow Nicole on Facebook.

Writers Read Hilltowns July
2021-07-11 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, July 11 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Dr. Jim Brosnan. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting.
Reader Bio: Dr. Jim Brosnan holds the rank of full professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. Jim is the author of Nameless Roads (2019), a volume of poetry depicting New England and accompanied by original color photographs. His poems have appeared in the Aurorean (US), Crossways Literary Magazine (Ireland), Eunoia Review (Singapore), Nine Muses (Wales,) Lakeview International Journal of Literature & Arts (India), Scarlet Leaf Review (Canada), Strand (India), and Voices of the Poppies (United Kingdom). He has won several awards in the National Federation of Poetry Society’s yearly contests. This past year I won first prize in the Rhoda Wheeler Sheehan Poetry Contest. In 2012, he placed second in the Poet of the Year competition sponsored by the New England Teachers of English.
Visit him at: https://www.drjimbrosnan.com/

Writers Night Out/In July
2021-07-06 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, July 6, 7:00pm. Registration required. Click HERE to register. Our featured writer is JoAnne Silver Jones.
Writer Bio: In her first book, a memoir, Headstrong: Surviving a traumatic brain injury, JoAnne Silver Jones tells of her journey from suffering an act of random violence that left her with a severe traumatic brain injury, to the publication of her memoir, at age 73, and entry into the world of writing. She is Professor Emeritus at Springfield College, an avid sports fan, news junky, ocean lover and dog worshiper. She and her wife divide their time between Santa Cruz, California and Northampton, MA. She continues to write and is waiting on her muse to guide her into her next book.
Visit her at: https://joannejonesauthor.com/

Black Writers Read: Juneteenth, One Year Later
2021-06-19 18:00 - 19:00 | Facebook
On Friday, June 19, 2020, Valley Society hosted an over 3-hour virtual event, convening 16 Black writers from across the country to share their work. Seeing the need to sustain this platform, we launched the series, Black Writers Read. Join us, one year later in celebration of Juneteenth, to hear from members of Valley Society and past Black Writers Read guests reflect on the year in Black culture, literary arts, and existence. Members of Valley Society will read excerpts from work written over the past year.
WATCH LIVE on Saturday, June 19 @ 6 p.m. ET
www.facebook.com/valleysociety413
www.facebook.com/writerscocopenexplore
via YouTube: Nicole M. Young’s channel
About Black Writers Read
Hosted and Produced by performance poet, playwright, pop culture critic, and philanthropy professional, Nicole M. Young, Valley Society’s Black Writers Read showcases, celebrates, and honors the words, work and traditions of Black writers from across the country, across genres, across experiences and across the African Diaspora.

An Exploration of Flash Fiction & Flash Memoir
2021-06-16 18:30 - 20:00 | zoom
Join us online on June 16 from 6:30 – 8:00pm for An Exploration of Flash Fiction & Flash Memoir.
Flash takes everything we love about compelling stories – the complexity, nuance, characters, emotion, tension, stakes – and delivers it all in an impossibly short high-wire act that leaves us deeply affected and that resonates long after. But how do we go about writing, crafting, and editing down our stories into these sparkling fictional (or memoiristic) gems? In this short workshop, we’ll attempt to answer that question. Through a short craft lecture, exploration and discussion of two example texts, and several in-class exercises, we’ll pry open the door to this exciting form that rewards the playful experimenters and the meticulous crafters and challenges the rest of us to become more like them. Writers will leave with a better understanding of the flash form, how it differs from longer fiction, and the beginnings of two new pieces.
Registration required. Click HERE to register.
Bio: Joy Baglio is a fiction writer, editor, and founder of Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop, a Northampton MA-based (now virtual) writing center, offering a wide-array of one-day and multi-week workshops in all genres. Her short stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Tin House, Gulf Coast, The Iowa Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. She’s received fellowships/awards from Yaddo, Bread Loaf, The Elizabeth George Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Ploughshares Emerging Writers Contest (Runner-Up), among others. Joy holds an MFA from The New School and lives in Florence MA. F ind her at: joybaglio.com.

Poetry Ritual 2021
2021-06-10 18:00 - 19:30 | zoom
On the three-year anniversary of the Poetry Critique Meet-up, co-sponsored by Straw Dog Writers and the Northampton Center for the Arts, twenty poets who have participated in the meet-ups this past year will give short readings. Join us for this gala event by writing for the zoom link at poetryritual2021@gmail.com.

Writers Read / Hilltowns June
2021-06-06 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, June 6 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Howie Faerstein. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting.
Bio: Howie Faerstein is the author of two chapbooks: Play a Song on the Drums, he said and Out of Order (Main Street Rag) and two full-length collections: Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklynand Googootz and Other Poems, both published by Press 53. His poetry and reviews can be found in Great River Review, Nimrod, CutThroat, Off the Coast, Rattle, upstreet, Nine Mile and on-line in Verse Daily, Nixes Mate, Gris-Gris, Peacock Journal, and Connotation. A five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he volunteers as a mentor at the Center for New Americans, is co-poetry editor of CutThroat, A Journal of the Arts, and lives in Florence, MA.

Writers Night Out/In June
2021-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, June 1, 7:00pm.
Registration required. Click HERE to register.
Our featured writer is Shanta Lee Gander.
Bio: Shanta Lee Gander’s work has been featured in many publications and is the 2020 recipient of the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts and 2020 and named as Diode Editions full-length book contest winner for her debut poetry compilation, GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak in Woke Tongues forthcoming in June 2021. Shanta Lee gives lectures on the life of Lucy Terry Prince as a member of the Vermont Humanities Council Speakers Bureau and is the 2020 gubernatorial appointee to their board of directors. To learn more, visit, Shantaleegander.com.

Writing About Politics and Current Events: Opportunities and Obstacles
2021-05-22 10:00 - 12:00 | zoom
Politics often seems like a faraway, abstract subject that has little to do with our everyday lives. Current events have always been complex and difficult but, in recent years, seem even more divisive and frustrating than ever. So how can we write about important issues in ways that won’t drive us apart? This workshop will focus on writing that bridges the gaps between our personal values and the larger world in ways that empower our voices as agents for connection and change. We’ll explore how we can bring politics into our favorite forms of writing and explore some unlikely publishing methods that can take us from the written word to activism. (For best results, come to the workshop with a few notes on what you consider your most important personal values and/or a list of important political issues that you care about.)
Register in advance of this event HERE.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Author Bio: John Sheirer (pronounced “shy-er”) lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with his wonderful wife Betsy and happy dog Libby. He has taught writing and communications for 28 years at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut, where he also serves as editor and faculty advisor for Freshwater Literary Journal (submissions welcome). He writes a monthly column on current events for his hometown newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and his books include memoir, fiction, poetry, essays, political satire, and photography. His most recent book is Positively Toward the Negative: Surviving the Trump-Led Attack on American Values and Basic Human Decency. Find him at JohnSheirer.com.

Voices for Resistance
2021-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
Straw Dog Writers Guild presents Voices for Resistance on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:00pm.
Featured writers reading include: Amina Jordan-Mendez, Andrea Hairston, Andrea Lawlor, Charles Coe, Desmond Peeples, and Shanta Lee Gander.
This event is sponsored by SDWG Social Justice Committee and Forbes Library.
Register through co-sponsor Forbes library at: forbeslibrary.libcal.com/event/7501886

Here is the video recording of the event: https://youtu.be/9efNkAhBXk0

Writers Night In May 2021
2021-05-04 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, May 4, 7:00pm.
Registration required. Register HERE.
Our featured writer is Celia Jeffries.
Celia Jeffries is a writer, editor, and teacher whose work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines including Westview, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Puerto del Sol, as well as the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. She has received grants from Turkey Land Cove Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and La Muse. 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 on the steering committee of Straw Dog Writers Guild, and where she offers workshops at Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop. Blue Desert is her first novel.

Writers Read / Hilltowns, May 2021
2021-05-02 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, May 2 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Suzanne Rancourt. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting.
Bio: Sundress Best of the Net Nominee, Suzanne S. Rancourt, is of Abenaki/Huron descent. Author of Billboard in the Clouds, Northwestern UP, received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award, and murmurs at the gate, Unsolicited Press, released in 2019. Old Stones, New Roads, Main Street Rag Publishing, is forthcoming Spring 2021. She is a USMC and Army Veteran who holds degrees in psychology, writing and expressive arts therapy. She continues to serve as a Mentor for the Saratoga County Veterans’ Peer to Peer program.
Suzanne is widely published. Please visit her website for a complete publication list: https://www.expressive-arts.com/Artists–Page.html
“My workshops, artist salons, and readings are known for humor, and authenticity.” Ms. Rancourt states. Her metaphors are rich with sensuality and honesty, reaffirming her connectedness to nature and the power of place. Inspired by the multiracial poetess, Ai, Ms. Rancourt remarks, “poetry isn’t always pastoral fantasy, sometimes it is the skill of finding the beauty in a single moment, a single gesture, and the courage to write about that truth no matter where you are or what is happening around you. Artists have a responsibility.”

Black Writers Read with Shannon Luders-Manuel
2021-04-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Facebook
RESCHEDULED: Saturday, April 17, 6:00pm
Please join us for the next episode of Black Writers Read featuring memoirist and essayist, Shannon Luders-Manuel. Shannon will read from her essay, “Rediscovering My Father”, which was published in the New York Times. Shannon will also share insight into her memoir and her other work. Go to the Valley Society Facebook event to participate.
Bio: Shannon Luders-Manuel is a West Coast writer, editor, and sensitivity reader. She received her master’s in English literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Real Simple, among others. She is currently represented by Chase Literary Agency for her memoir about growing up mixed race, coming in and out of conservative Christianity, and her complicated relationship with her absent, alcoholic father.
To learn more about Valley Society’s programs and events like us on Facebook.

Writers Read Hilltowns, April 2021
2021-04-11 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, April 11 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Ann Averill. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting.
Bio: Ann C. Averill is the author of Teacher Dropout, Finding Grace in an Unjust School based on her true story of teaching in an urban school. Excerpts appeared in a Writer’s Digest’s best of short short stories collection. Her flash memoir has appeared in WriteAngles Journal and on her blog @anncaverill.com. Ann is passionate about finding the narrative arc in her real-life experiences and selecting the details that bring them alive for others.
NOTE the Sunday’s change. April’s Writers Read will be on the 2nd Sunday instead of the 1st Sunday this month.

How To Injure Your Characters
2021-04-10 10:00 - 12:00 | zoom
Dr. David Page will cover how, when, what, where in a story to place a trauma scene, as well as how to construct the scene with appropriate details. Specifics of head and neck, chest, abdomen and extremity injuries will be briefly covered. Also, the U.S. trauma system will be described to permit the writer to accurately determine what level of care is available and warranted, as well as the health care personnel who participate.
Register in advance for this meeting by clicking HERE.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Bio: Dr. Page is a retired Professor of Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine, who has accumulated 30 plus teaching and mentoring awards over a four-decade career, including two national recognition awards as a surgical educator. He has published two reference books for writers, a 2017 book on the laparoscopic surgery revolution and its implications for patients, and over 20 peer reviewed journal papers.

Writers Night In: April 2021
2021-04-06 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, April 6, 7:00pm. To Register, email wno@strawdogwriters.org to request the Zoom link. Include your first and last name and zip code.
Our featured writer is Sharon Tracey.
Bio: Sharon Tracey is a poet and editor and author of two full-length poetry collections: Chroma: Five Centuries of Women Artists (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2020) and What I Remember Most is Everything (All Caps Publishing, 2017). In her newest book, Chroma, she takes the reader through a series of galleries inspired by the work of forty-seven women artists painting across five centuries as she explores what it means to be human, a woman, a creator. Her poems have also appeared in Terrain.org, The Worcester Review, Mom Egg Review, Tule Review, The Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere. She lives and writes in Amherst, Massachusetts. sharontracey.com

Jump-Start a Story: A Sisters in Crime Workshop
2021-03-13 10:30 - 12:30 | zoom
The Surrealists used to pool their money and buy a one-way ticket to the furthest destination they could afford. They’d send one person off on an adventure and they’d have to make their way back somehow, and tell the others all about it when they returned. Along the way, they’d collect talismans that helped them navigate the dark places they encountered.
In this workshop, we’ll be sending each of you off on an adventure and when you get back, you’ll have the outline of a short story. We’ll begin by randomly selecting your destination. You’ll choose a souvenir and explore its significance to your character. Then we’ll do a brief tarot card reading to guide you along your way from the opening conflict to the resolution of your story.
Here’s how it works:

Introduction to the exercise
A screen share at the beginning for all participants that will allow them to select from among various situations (as depicted in movie stills), locations, and souvenir objects.
Ten minutes of free writing in response to the question: who are you, where are you, and what does the object you brought back mean to you?
Sending participants into one of three breakout rooms, each hosted by one of of the workshop leaders, where they will get a short tarot card reading to give them the essential aspects of their story arc.
Reconvening as a group to share results.

Spaces are limited to 21 participants. Registration is required. To register email strawdogreg@gmail.com. You will receive a confirmation reply with a Zoom link.
Presenter bios:
Lisa Lieberman writes the Cara Walden series of historical mysteries based on old movies and featuring blacklisted Hollywood people on the lam in dangerous international locales. She is President of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Carolyn Marie Wilkins is an author, a musician and a psychic medium. She is the author of
three mystery novels: Death at a Séance, Melody for Murder and Mojo for Murder.
To find out more about Carolyn: www.carolynwilkins.com
Sharon Healy Yang is passionate about mysteries from the golden age, whether in a book or on the screen. Her series of Jessica Minton Mysteries include Bait and Switch and Letter from a Dead Man. The third entry, Always Play the Dark Horse, is forthcoming in 2021

Writers Read Hilltowns March 2021
2021-03-07 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, March 7th from 2-4pm our featured reader is Stephanie Shafran. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting. You can sign up for Zoom video conferencing for free HERE.
Bio: Stephanie Shafran lives in Western MA. Her poetry and prose have appeared in anthologies such as Straw Dog’s Compass Roads and Ophelia’s Mom, edited by Nina Shandler. And in journals such as Earth’s Daughters, Whirlwind Review, Slant and Silkworm. Her poem Pears received an honorable mention in Writers’ Digest’s 2001 non-rhyming poetry competition. Last year, Stephanie’s poem After “Since Unfinished” by Richard Blanco won 3rd place in the Robert P. Collén Poetry Competition; recently she was a semi-finalist in River Styx’s Microfiction Contest. Stephanie published a chapbook entitled Awakening this spring.

Writers Night Out/In March 2021
2021-03-02 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic! March’s featured reader is Sally Bellerose.
To Register, email wno@strawdogwriters.org to request the Zoom link. Include your first and last name and zip code.
Bio: In her writing, Sally Bellerose (she/her) loves to mess with rhythm, rhyme, and awkward emotion.
Bellerose writes about caste, sex, illness, absurdity, and lately, growing old. Her novel
Fishwives with Bywater Books comes out this month! This novel features old women behaving badly. Fishwives is also available on Amazon.
Her novel The Girls Club won many awards including an NEA Fellowship. Her poetry is featured in Lady Business, Sibling Rivalry Press.

Writers Read/Hilltowns on Zoom with Featured Reader Dr. Jane Fleishman
2021-02-07 14:00 - 16:00 | zoom
Writers Read will meet in the Virtual Hilltowns via Zoom on Feb 7, 2-4 p.m.
Featured Reader – Dr. Jane Fleishman
Jane Fleishman, PhD, MEd, MS, AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator, is an award-winning educator, writer, program developer, and sexuality researcher. She co-hosts a regular podcast on sex in the second half of life at www.ourbetterhalf.net and recently completed a TEDx talk, Is It OK for Grandma to Have Sex? She holds a PhD and MEd in Human Sexuality from Widener University, Center for Human Sexuality Studies. Her curious nature has led her to research sexual satisfaction in older adults. Her latest accomplishment, The Stonewall Generation: LGBTQ Elders on Sex, Activism, and Aging is a collection of contributions from a wide diversity of LGBTQ elders. She is a proud Jewish mother of two amazing twenty-somethings and lives in Northampton, MA. You can reach her at www.janefleishman.com.
We hope you will consider donating any amount here to this and other programs offered by Straw Dog Writers Guild: http://strawdogwriters.org/fund-drive
Here’s how it works: To attend, email Jane Roy Brown for a link to the meeting: brownjaneroy@gmail.com. You can sign up for Zoom video conferencing for free HERE.

Writers Night Out - Featured Reader Lesléa Newman
2021-02-02 19:00 - 21:00 | zoom
OPEN MIC & FEATURED READER
Writers Night Out In!
Thursday, Feb 2, 2021 @ 7:00pm ONLINE.
We’re live and online! Join us Tuesday on Zoom at 7:00 pm for Writers Night In.
RSVP wno@strawdogwriters.org to receive the Zoom link to the event.
Only those who RSVP will be able to attend.
Ten names will be randomly selected.
The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes. General donations greatly appreciated for this event at http://strawdogwriters.org/fund-drive

Please join us!
Lesléa Newman has created 75 books for readers of all ages including the poetry collections “October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard” (novel-in-verse) and “I Carry My Mother” and “I Wish My Father” (both memoirs-in-verse). She has received poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. From 2008 – 2010 she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA.
