Straw Dog Writers Guild

Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader S. Forrest Nomakeo
2019-03-03 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Here’s how it works: The featured writer reads recent work and describes the journey to publication, followed by Q & A. Then the floor opens to other writers, who can read for five minutes each; we also draw two names for 10-minute readings. If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 2:15.

Shirley Forrest Nomakeo received a B.S. in graphic design from Rivier College in Nashua, N.H. She is the owner of a golf marketing business, Western Mass Golf, promoting golf at expos and via radio, podcasts, websites, and print. She has written for her company’s publication, Western Mass Golf Magazine, and writes a daily blog about the process of writing a novel and getting it published. The Summer Palace, a work of historical fiction, is her first published novel.

Literary Rendezvous - Featured Reader Christopher J. Sparks
2019-02-24 14:30 - 16:30 | The Rendezvous, 78 3rd Street, Turners Falls, MA, 01376
Featured Reader:
Christopher J. Sparks grew up in Northampton, MA through the 1980s and 90s. He writes poetry, travel, and history, the latter regarding Northampton State Hospital.

Writers Night Out - Featured reader Chris O'Carroll
2019-02-05 19:00 - 21:00 | MA
Doors open at 7 – with an open mic.

If you’d like a chance to read, place your name in the hat up until 7:10. Ten names will be randomly selected. The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes. Admission is free; participants are encouraged to buy a drink in support of the venue.

Featured Reader Chris O’Carroll
In addition to being a poet, Chris O’Carroll is a stand-up comedian and a member of Actor’s Equity.
His first book, Take These Rhymes . . . Please: Rude Limericks and Other Crimes Against Literature, was a self-published volume he sold after the show at comedy clubs. His second, was a self-published chapbook, Shakespeare’s Marijuana and Other Poems the Authorities Don’t Want You to Read.
The Joke’s on Me, was published in January 2018 by White Violet Press, isn’t exactly his first book, but it kind of is, depending on how you define things.
Many of the journals that have published his poems are identified with so-called New Formalism, a school of poetry about which he has mixed feelings.
In addition to his many print and online magazine appearances, he has poems in The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology, Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle, and New York City Haiku, among other collections.

Writers Read/Hilltowns - Featured reader: Alice Barrett
2019-02-03 14:00 - 16:00 | MA
Bring Your Poetry! Bring Your Prose! Find Your Public! Uplift Our Souls!
Here’s how it works: The featured writer reads recent work and describes the journey to publication, followed by Q & A. Then the floor opens to other writers, who can read for five minutes each; we also draw two names for 10-minute readings. If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 2:15.

FEATURED READER:
Alice Barrett’s book of poetry, The Bridge, was published in 2018 (Human Error Press). She is house manager for her wife’s theater production company, Pauline Productions. In the past, she taught ESL and GED to adults in Holyoke. Her writing also has appeared in the Fourth Estate, Mindfulness Bell, Sojourner, Tricycle, Sufi Journal, and other publications. Alice is a member of Back Porch Writers.

Literary Rendezvous - Featured Poet: Lauren Marie Schmidt
2019-01-27 14:30 - 16:30 | The Rendezvous, 78 3rd Street, Turners Falls, MA, 01376
Lauren Marie Schmidt is the author of three collections of poetry: Two Black Eyes and a Patch of Hair Missing; The Voodoo Doll Parade, selected for the Main Street Rag Author’s Choice Chapbook Series; and Psalms of The Dining Room, a sequence of poems about her volunteer experience at a soup kitchen in Eugene, Oregon. Her work has appeared in journals such as North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Rattle, Nimrod, Painted Bride Quarterly, PANK, New York Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, The Progressive, and others. Her awards include the So to Speak Poetry Prize, the Neil Postman Prize for Metaphor, The Janet B. McCabe Prize for Poetry, and the Bellevue Literary Review’s Vilcek Prize for Poetry. Her fourth collection, Filthy Labors, was released 2017 by Northwestern University Press. Schmidt is currently at work on a Young Adult novel.
Review of Filthy Labors at The Best American Poetry Blog.
Review of Filthy Labors at The Empty Mirror.

A Winter Reading - Belchertown Authors
2019-01-26 16:00 - 18:00 | Parish Hall at BUCC, 18 Park Street, Belchertown, MA
Local authors who are members of the Straw Dog Writers Guild and friends will read from their books and manuscripts. There will be snacks and books available for signing.
Snow day is January 27, 4-6 PM.
Readers include: Mary Warren Bartlett, Justine Dymond, Francesca Forrest, Marianne Gambaro, Ellen Evert Hopman, Melanie S. Lewis, and Jo Watson

Labyrinth Through Fear: A Gift Event
2019-01-13 13:00 - 15:00 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Title of Presentation: Labyrinth Through Fear: A Gift Event ©
Location: NCA
Date/Time: Sunday, Jan.13, 1-3pm
This workshop offers participants the opportunity to explore fear as information. Quest-ions (energy for the journey) include “What am I afraid of?” “What do I want?” and “What can I do to move through fear to the next level of courage?” In an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard that the group creates together, unknown gifts of the Labyrinth will reveal themselves. Through movement meditation, free writing, and open-hearted sharing, participants can offer and receive practical everyday skills that are designed to transform fear and adversity into courage and hope. All are welcome, and there are no pre-requisites for this class.
This fear I face
Is a deeper breath I take
Is the courage I share

(Triple Ripple movement poem)
Janet E. Aalfs, poet laureate of Northampton, MA (2003-2005), 7th degree black belt, and master Taiji/Qigong instructor, has been sharing her poetic movement weavings locally, nationally, and internationally for 40 years. Founder and director of Lotus Peace Arts at Valley Women’s Martial Arts, a non-profit school since 1977, Janet is dedicated to helping create sites for revelation. Recipient of the 2013 Leadership and Advocacy in the Arts Award (UMass/CWC), and prizes for her poetry, Janet practices everyday peace-building through arts activism. In March 2018, she and Ingrid Askew, co-creators, offered Labyrinth as a 3-week intensive in one of Cape Town, South Africa’s townships. Janet has been a Dodge Festival Poet and presenter/performer at numerous events and conferences. Her poetry is widely published, and her books include Of Angels and Survivors (Two Herons Press), Full Open (Orogeny Press), Reach (Perugia Press), Bird of a Thousand Eyes (Levellers Press), and several chapbooks.
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Writers Night Out /Open Mic - Featured Reader: Debra Immergut
2019-01-08 14:00 - 16:00 | The Basement
Writers Night Out
The Basement, 21 Center Street, Northampton, MA
OPEN MIC – 2nd Tuesdays 7-9pm
Hosts Rick Paar & Jacqueline Sheehan
Doors open at 7 – with an open mic. If you’d like a chance to read, place your name in the hat up until 7:10. Ten names will be randomly selected. The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes. Admission is free; participants are encouraged to buy a drink in support of the venue.
Please join us!
Featured Reader – Debra Immergut
Debra Jo Immergut is the author of The Captives, a novel published in the US by Ecco/HarperCollins (2018) and in over a dozen other countries. She is also the author of Private Property, a short-story collection from Random House (1992). She is a MacDowell and Michener fellow and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has worked as a journalist and editor and has taught writing in libraries, military bases, and prisons. Her literary work has been published in American Short Fiction, Narrative, and the Russian-language journal Foreign Literature. Her journalism has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, New York magazine, and other places.

Writers Read/Hilltowns - Featured Reader Michael J. Ponsor
2019-01-06 14:00 - 16:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Michael A. Ponsor graduated from Harvard College in 1969, spent two years at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his J.D from Yale in 1975. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him a United States District Judge.
Ponsor has taught at Yale Law School, Western New England School of Law, and the University of Massachusetts. He has authored articles in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Sentencing Reporter, the American Bar Association Journal, and the Western New England Law Review. In 2013, the New York publisher Open Road Media released his first novel, The Hanging Judge, which went on to be a New York Times bestseller. In 2017, his second novel, The One-Eyed Judge, was published. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts and continues his judicial duties as a senior judge while working on his next novel.
Here’s how it works: The featured writer reads recent work and describes the journey to publication, followed by Q & A. Then the floor opens to other writers, who can read for five minutes each; we also draw two names for 10-minute readings. If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 2:15.

Literary Rendezvous- OPEN MIC
2018-12-30 14:30 - 16:30 | The Rendezvous, 78 3rd Street, Turners Falls, MA, 01376

Poetry Critique Group - Register today!
2018-12-09 08:00 - 10:00, 2018-11-11 13:00 - 15:00, 2018-10-14 01:00 - 03:00, 2018-09-16 01:00 - 03:00 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
Register Here

Writers Night Out - Featured Reader Michael A. Ponsor
2018-12-04 14:00 - 16:00 | The Basement
Doors open at 7 – with an open mic. If you’d like a chance
to read, place your name in the hat up until 7:10.
Ten names will be randomly selected. The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes.
Admission is free; participants are encouraged to buy a drink in support of the venue.
Please join us!

Michael A. Ponsor graduated from Harvard College in 1969, spent two years at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his J.D from Yale in 1975. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him a United States District Judge.
Ponsor has taught at Yale Law School, Western New England School of Law, and the University of Massachusetts. He has authored articles in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Sentencing Reporter, the American Bar Association Journal, and the Western New England Law Review. In 2013, the New York publisher Open Road Media released his first novel, The Hanging Judge, which went on to be a New York Times bestseller. In 2017, his second novel, The One-Eyed Judge, was published. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts and continues his judicial duties as a senior judge while working on his next novel.

Writers Read/Hilltowns - featured reader Frances W. Henry
2018-12-02 03:00 - 17:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Bring Your Poetry! Bring Your Prose! Find Your Public! Uplift Our Souls!
Here’s how it works: A featured writer reads recent work and describes the journey to publication, followed by audience Q & A. Then the floor opens to other writers—published or not—for five minutes each. Hint: If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 3:15!
Frances W. Henry

Frances W. Henry was born and raised in Sag Harbor, New York. She graduated from the New School for Social Research and earned an MBA from Harvard University. An executive and founder of nonprofits, she now devotes herself to the visual and literary arts. She created East Branch Press in 2006, which has issued three volumes of her essays. Henry’s first book of memoir was published by GP Putnam’s Sons in 1983. She lives in the Hilltowns of western Massachusetts with her husband Walter Korzec.

Giving & Receiving Manuscript Feedback - Workshop with Celia Jeffries
2018-12-01 10:30 - 12:00 | Lilly Library, 19 Meadow Street, Florence, MA, United States
Giving and receiving manuscript feedback
No one writes in a void. Although we may sometimes deny it, most of us write to be read. But there are times when having your work read by others can be damaging or even silencing, particularly when you are in the formative stages of a project. Many workshops have parameters for giving feedback, ranging from “do no harm’ to ‘only speak the positive.” These are good approaches, but what if you really want/need to hear what’s not working, and perhaps some ideas on how to improve things?
Join us on Dec 1, for an interactive discussion and overview of some ways to give and receive respectful, useful feedback.
Led by Straw Dogs Steering Committee member, Celia Jeffries, MA, MFA

Literary Rendezvous - Featured Poet: Beth Filson
2018-11-25 15:00 - 17:00 | The Rendezvous, 78 3rd Street, Turners Falls, MA, 01376
Literary Rendezvous @ The Voo! 3rd St, Turners Falls, MA 01376
Straw Dog Writers Guild offers this new Poetry Open Mic & Featured Poet event.
Open to all poets and poetry lovers! Last Sunday of the month 3-5pm.
Sign up by 3:15pm for Open Mic.

Featured Poet: Beth Filson is a writer, educator, and a self-taught artist. She is the author and co/author of numerous academic papers, first-person accounts, and manuals in her field. Beth’s art was selected for the cover of the Florida Review Pulse Nightclub Tribute issue, and her poetry appears in the Straw Dog Writers Guild, Compass Roads, edited by Jane Yolen, as well as in the Gallery of Readers anthology, Celebrating Writers of the Pioneer Valley. Beth won the 2015 Los Angeles Review Wild Light Poetry Award. Her poetry has appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, Amherst Live Magazine, and others. Beth lives in Easthampton, MA.

Compass Roads Reading at The Great Falls Word Festival
2018-11-10 10:00 - 10:30 | Shea Theater, 71 Avenue A,, Turners Falls, MA, 01376

Writers Night Out - Featured Reader Cai Emmons
2018-11-06 19:00 - 21:00 | The Basement
Doors open at 7 – with an open mic. If you’d like a chance to read, place your name in the hat up until 7:10.
Ten names will be randomly selected. The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes.
Admission is free; participants are encouraged to buy a drink in support of the venue.
Please join us!
Cai Emmons is the author of the novels His Mother’s Son and The Stylist and, most recently, Weather Woman, forthcoming in October 2018, about a meteorologist who discovers she has the power to change the weather. Novelist Caroline Leavitt says of Weather Woman, “I love this novel so much I want to marry it.” Formerly a playwright and screenwriter, Cai’s short work has appeared in such publications as TriQuarterly, Narrative, and Arts and Culture, among others. She teaches in the University of Oregon’s Creative Writing Program.

Cancelled - ROUNDTABLE: ALLY V APPROPRIATION
2018-11-04 13:00 - 15:00 | Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States

Literary Rendezvous - Open Mic/ Featured Readers: Stewart & Stewart
2018-10-28 15:00 - 17:00 | MA
Literary Rendezvous @ The Voo! Turners Falls, MA.
Straw Dog Writers Guild offers this new Poetry Open Mic & Featured Poet event.
Open to all poets and poetry lovers! Sign up for open mic by 3:15 pm.
Last Sunday of the month 3-5pm.

Featured Readers – Pamela Stewart & Joshua Michael Stewart
Joshua Michael Stewart has published poems in the Massachusetts Review, Rattle, Salamander, Mudfish, Brilliant Corners, Talking River Review, and many others. His first full-length collection of poems is Break Every String, (Hedgerow Books, 2016.) www.joshuamichaelstewart.com

Pamela Stewart (known as Jody) is a true “boomer” and New England born and bred. She took up writing in grade school because she couldn’t draw. She received a BA from Goddard’s ADP Program and an MFA (sort of) from University of Iowa. She’s taught creative writing at several universities including ASU, University of Arizona, UC Irvine, and University of Houston. In 1982 she received a Guggenheim and traveled to Cornwall in the UK where she returned to live for 7 years. Jody came back to western Massachusetts in 1990 and in 1994 she, and her then husband, moved to a farm at the edge of Hawley. Over the years she’s published in a number of magazines, received 3 Pushcart publications, and is the author of 6 full-length books of poems: The St. Vlas Elegies (L’Epervier press, 1977), Cascades (L’Epervier Press, 1979), Nightblind (Ion Books, 1985), Infrequent Mysteries (Alice James Books, 1991), The Red Window (Univ. of Georgia Press, 1997), and Ghost Farm (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2010.) A chapbook, Just Visiting, was published by Grey Suit Editions, London, 2014. Jody continues to live on the farm with 3 dogs, a number of elderly sheep, a rescued race horse, a pudgy donkey, a couple of goats, and some old pigs and birds. At some point she intends to tackle a “new and selected” if the dogs let her.

Dead Writers Dance - Literary Halloween
2018-10-26 15:00 - 19:00 | 121 Club, Eastworks, Easthampton, MA, Easthampton, MA
Do you write?
Do you read?
Do you wish the NYTimes Book Review would ask
YOU which dead authors you’d like to have dinner with?Forget dinner, come DANCE with them!
Dress up as your favorite author (or character) and Join Straw Dog Writers for our inaugural DEAD WRITERS DANCE Benefit.
DJ
Cash bar
Free snacks
Surprise accolades
Word games
Raffles (of writerly essentials)
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door

WE ARE LOOKING FOR UNDERWRITERS & SPONSORS!
If you would like to be an underwriter for this Straw Dog Writers Benefit, please contact admin@strawdogwriters.org

Writers Read - Featured Reader - Richard Wayne Horton
2018-10-21 15:00 - 17:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
Bring Your Poetry! Bring Your Prose! Find Your Public! Uplift Our Souls!
Here’s how it works: A featured writer reads recent work and describes the journey to publication, followed by audience Q & A. Then the floor opens to other writers—published or not—for five minutes each. Hint: If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 3:15!

Featured Reader – Richard Wayne Horton
Bio coming soon!

The Poetic Dream Workshop
2018-10-13 10:30 - 12:00 | South Hadley Public Library, 2 Canal St, South Hadley, Massachusetts, 01075
The Poetic Dream Workshop with Tzivia Gover
Dreams contain all the elements great poetry including metaphor, symbolism, vivid imagery, humor, and personification. Thus, it is no surprise that classical and contemporary poets from Coleridge to Hughes to Clifton and more have used dreams and visions to craft their works. Dreams can help new writers and experienced scribes alike by providing inspiration, prompts, raw material, and fresh perspective. In this hands-on workshop we will look to our dreams with pen in hand to find ready texts that can be crafted into poems or other creative literary expressions. Participants will write poems or other creative texts inspired by their dream and learn how dreams can benefit the creative writing process.
This workshop is open to everyone, whether they consider themselves a poet or not, and whether or not they remember their dreams. The aim of this workshop is to increase personal self-awareness and emotional growth, and to increase creative and soulful awareness and abilities through exploring dreams and poetry.
Tzivia Gover is the author of The Mindful Way to a Good Night’s Sleep; Joy in Every Moment, Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House, a book about teaching poetry to teen mothers in Holyoke. She is a writer, educator, and certified dreamwork professional and the director of the Institute for Dream Studies. Her poems, stories, essays, and articles have been widely published in journals and anthologies including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Poets & Writers Magazine among others. She holds an MFA in writing from Columbia University. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, and can be found online at tziviagover.com.

Compass Roads Reading at Graham Hall, Smith College
2018-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Graham Hall, Smith College, Smith College, Northampton, MA, 01060
POETS READING
Janet E Aalfs
Alice Barrett
Jean Blakeman
Anna Bozena Bowen
Floyd Cheung
Candace R Curran
Beth Filson
Michael Goldman
Tzivia Gover
Sharon A Harmon
Jane McPhetres Johnson
Mary Ellen Kelly
Patricia Lee Lewis
Richard Michelson
Burleigh Mutén
Jovonna Van Pelt
Christine Anne Pratt
Stephanie B Shafran
Cynthia Suopis
Jane Yolen

Writers Night Out - Featured Reader Jendi Reiter
2018-10-02 19:00 - 21:00 | The Basement
Doors open at 7 – with an open mic. If you’d like a chance to read, place your name in the hat up until 7:10.
Ten names will be randomly selected. The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes.
Admission is free; participants are encouraged to buy a drink in support of the venue.
Please join us!

Jendi Reiter is the author of the novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016), the short story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press, forthcoming 2018), and four poetry books and chapbooks, most recently Bullies in Love (Little Red Tree, 2015). Awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship for Poetry, the New Letters Prize for Fiction, the Wag’s Revue Poetry Prize, the Bayou Magazine Editor’s Prize in Fiction, and two awards from the Poetry Society of America. Two Natures won the Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary Fiction and was a finalist for the Book Excellence Awards and the Lascaux Prize for Fiction. Reiter is the editor of WinningWriters.com, an online resource site with contests and markets for creative writers. For literary news, readings, and reviews, visit JendiReiter.com and follow @JendiReiter on Twitter.

NEW EVENT -Literary Rendezvous - Open Mic/Featured Poet: Nicole M. Young!
2018-09-30 15:00 - 17:00 | The Rendezvous, 78 3rd Street, Turners Falls, MA, 01376
Nicole M. Young – Featured Poet

Nicole M. Young is a performance poet, playwright, theatre instructor and pop culture critic originally from Detroit, MI. Her work has been performed across Western Massachusetts, New York, and Michigan. She self-produced a spoken word album, In/Put: Live from the Valley, which was recorded live and is working on her first memoir. Website

Candace Curran – Open Mic Host

Straw Dog Writers Guild - Annual Meeting 2018
2018-09-29 10:00 - 11:00 | 84 Musante Drive, Northampton, MA 01060, 84 Musante Drive, Northampton, MA, 01060
Straw Dog Writers Guild annual meeting
All members welcome –Come hear about plans and opportunities
Sept 29, 10 am, 84 Musante Drive, Northampton.
Coffee/tea/nibbles
RSVP to info@strawdogwriters.org

Straw Dog Writers Guild Authors Showcase!
2018-09-25 14:00 - 16:00 | South Hadley Public Library, 2 Canal St, South Hadley, Massachusetts, 01075
Tuesday, September 25, at South Hadley Public Library at 6 p.m.
AUTHORS READING
Elizabeth George
Amy Laprade
Susan LaRosa
Ruth Lehrer
Melanie S. Lewis
Ed Orzechowski
Michael Ponsor
Jessica B. Sokol
Joshua Michael Stewart
Melissa Volker
Tom Weiner
Ellen Wittlinger
