Straw Dog Writers Guild

A Writer's Night in September
2025-09-11 18:45 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
Straw Dog Writers’ Guild and Longmeadow Adult Center present writer Suzanne Strempek Shea on Thursday, September 11th, from 6:45-7:30pm at the Longmeadow Adult Center.

Suzanne Strempek Shea grew up in a small Polish-American Western Massachusetts village, dreaming of becoming a horse trainer or an artist. Her first published writing was a newspaper she handwrote and drew for her parents every Saturday night when they went polka dancing and she stayed overnight downstairs at the home of her maternal grandparents. The Nutty News had only a circulation of one copy, but it was a start. She fell into writing in high school, when she went down to the office of The Palmer Journal and Monson Register, her town’s newspaper, to complain that it never wrote a story about the high school’s hockey team, which contained both a sport and a couple of boys she loved. The editor told her there were no reporters free to go to the games, and if she went, as she did to every game, she and her pal Barbara Sekula being the statisticians, why didn’t she just write up a story each week and hand it in for publication. She learned to write and shoot and develop on deadline. She also learned that it paid to complain.
You may register by calling 413-565-4150, option 1. Or you can just show up. The Longmeadow Adult Center is located at 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow.

Straw Dog Writes Weekly Writers Meet Up
2025-09-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-09-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-08-27 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-08-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-08-13 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-08-06 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-07-30 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-07-23 19:00 - 21:00 and 4 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

Poetry Critique Meet Up in September
2025-09-07 08:00 - 17:00, 2025-09-06 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 Saturday or Sunday September 6th and 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

Writers Night Out in September
2025-09-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday September 2nd, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Joshua Michael Steward 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.
Joshua Michael Stewart is the author of Break Every String, The Bastard Children of Dharma Bums, and Love Something. His work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Massachusetts Review, Brilliant Corners, New Flash Fiction Review, and Best Small Fictions 2025. His latest book is Welcome Home, Russell Edson—a graphic novel & prose poem hybrid created in collaboration with illustrators Bret M. Herholz and Aaron J. Krolikowski. https://joshuamichaelstewartauthor.com
“There’s a fearlessness in Joshua Michael Stewart’s poetry—tough, tightly written narratives and monologues about living poor with broken people (some of whom are your closest relatives) in hard times. This heartfelt gritty work reminds me of the hardscrabble accounts of humanity in some of our best poets—the work of Ai, Bruce Weigel, and Linda McCarriston’s landmark book, Eva-Marie. Stewart exercises the courage of truth telling and takes the revenge of real poetic craft. As Bruce Weigel says “Say it clearly and you make it beautiful, no matter what.”; Or as Stewart says, “Poets are the battered spouses of hope.”; You can’t help but respect the maker of these streamlined vehicles, for his guts and his unsentimental, vivid poems.”
-Tony Hoagland

Poetry Critique Meet Up in August
2025-08-16 13:00 - 15:30, 2025-08-10 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 August 10, 1-3:30 pm OR Saturday, August 16, 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

Everyone Reads Second Sundays Open Mic
2025-08-10 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-07-13 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 August
2025-08-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday August 5th, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Bill Mailler 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.
Mailler began writing in 6th grade, earned an MFA in Poetry in ’74, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology in ’92. His entire work is contained in his recently published book, “Trauma, Truth, and Outrage.” His poetry attempts to honor James Baldwin’s observation: “What you are doing, as a writer, or any kind of artist, what your role is…is to bear witness to what life is, does, and to speak for those who cannot speak.”

Inaugural Open Mic in partnership with The Mount and the Dean's Beans Coffee Truck
2025-08-03 11:00 - 12:30 | The Mount | Edith Wharton’s Home, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, MA, 01240, United States
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild Sunday, August 3, at 11 a.m. for our inaugural Open Mic in partnership with The Mount and the Dean‘s Beans Coffee Truck. Darlene Elias, SDWG Emerging Writing Fellow, will be our fabulous MC!
The Guild is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, and we invite fifteen writers to read. If you want to participate, writers may sign up onsite by 10:45 a.m. Randomly selected writers will share their poetry, prose, or fiction for three minutes. Let your writing ring out to the historic grounds of Edith Wharton’s Mount, or come to listen and support writers.

Poetry Critique Meet Up in July
2025-07-20 13:00 - 15:30, 2025-07-19 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 Saturday July 19th or Sunday July 20th, 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

Potluck Poetry Share
2025-07-16 18:30 - 20:00 | Belding Memorial Library, 344 Main Street, Ashfield, 01330, United States
What do you bring to the table? Whether food or skill, speak to what you bring to the banquet of life. Come share your poems about community and activities you enjoy doing in a group or anything else that speaks to your heart – this is a potluck after all. (And you don’t have any of your own, find and read someone else’s poetry.) Come read and listen on Wednesday, July 16, 6:30-8:00pm in the Belding Memorial Library Meeting Room with poet Arianna Alexsandra Collins of Offerings for Community Building. Wine, tea, and 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

Writers Night Out in July
2025-07-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Forbes Library, Coolidge Museum, 20 West Street, Northampton, 01060
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild on Tuesday July 1st, 6:00-8:00pm for Writers Night Out with featured writer Janet MacFayden 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.

Janet MacFadyen is the author of three full-length collections, most recently State of Grass (Salmon Poetry 2024), with a new collection, Love Letters to the Wild, forthcoming from Dos Madres Press. Honors include a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, a residency in Cill Rialaig, Ireland, and a 7-month Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellowship. Her poetry appears widely. She is the managing editor of Slate Roof Press, a poetry chapbook collaborative: www.slateroofpress.com

Poetry Critique Meet Up in June
2025-06-29 13:00 - 15:30, 2025-06-28 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 June 29, 1-3:30 pm OR Saturday, June 28, 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 Writer's Night in June
2025-06-26 18:45 - 19:30 | The Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA, United States
Straw Dog Writers’ Guild and Longmeadow Adult Center present writer Astrid Lindstrom on Thursday, June 26th, from 6:45-7:30pm at the Longmeadow Adult Center.

Astrid Lindstrom is a retired public school English teacher, who advised middle and high school literary magazines, took students to a writers’ conference in Middlebury, Vermont, coordinated shared memoir writing between seventh graders and senior citizens, and loved writing with all her students.
She has played violin in the Five College Early Music program in western Massachusetts, contra dances, works with comfort dog Jonah in the Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and has also volunteered with Jonah as reading buddies in an elementary school.
She grew up in Gambier, Ohio, where her parents were a mathematics professor and a librarian at Kenyon College, and has degrees in English from Mount Holyoke College and the University of Virginia.
She and her wife Cece, a psychotherapist who specialized in supporting lesbians coming out from straight marriage, lived in Northampton, where Astrid still resides. They have four adult children and four grandchildren.
Astrid’s book Cecelia: A Memoir of Lesbian Love and Loss is available HERE.
You may register by calling 413-565-4150, option 1. Or you can just show up. The Longmeadow Adult Center is located at 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow.

Book Cover Design For Writers
2025-06-22 15:00 - 16:30 | ZOOM, MA
Your book cover is your most powerful marketing tool for your writing. Discover how great covers get made, and why you should judge a book by its cover. Focused on indie and small press authors, this workshop will cover which questions to ask, which design pitfalls to avoid, and how your cover can bring your story to life. Attendees will have the option to submit a cover concept for their manuscript, along with a 250 word description of their writing, for personalized critique.
Location: Zoom
Register HERE
Date/Time: Sunday June 22nd, 3 pm
Rachel A. Rosen is an activist, graphic designer, and for her sins, a high school teacher. In a previous life, she published two long running anarchist ‘zines and designed the uniform for the Christie Pits Hardball League.
She is the author of Cascade, Blight, and, with Zilla Novikov, the co-author of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don’t Die. More of her writing can be found in Beyond Human: Tales of the New Us, Instant Classic (That No One Will Read), and The Dance. Rachel co-hosts the Wizards & Spaceships podcast with David L. Clink (www.wizardsandspaceships.ca), and freelances as a book cover designer.
She lives in Tkaronto (Toronto), where she is the harried personal assistant to two cats. Her website is www.rachelrosen.ca.
