9th Annual Author Showcase: A Celebration of Members’ Books

9th Annual Author Showcase: A Celebration of Members’ Books

Join us on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 via Zoom from 6:30-8:00pm. Register HERE for this online event.

Brief readings from new books by members of Straw Dog Writers Guild: Steven D. Brewer, Audrey Child, Roxanne E. Bogart, Martha McCollough, Rick Paar, Bela Breslau, Sharon Tracey, Cheryl J. Fish, Heather Kamins, Joshua Michael Stewart.

Co-sponsored by Straw Dog Writers Guild and The Forbes Library.

Authors Reading:

Steven D. Brewer teaches scientific writing and scientific instrument creation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His series “Better Angels” and “Revin’s Heart” are being published by Water Dragon Publishing. As an author, Brewer identifies diverse obsessions that underlie his writing: deep interests in natural history, life science, and environmentalism; an abiding passion for languages; a fascination with Japanese culture; and a mania for information technology and the Internet. Brewer lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his extended family.

After being a full-time mom and wife for many years and a small business owner and photographer in Ireland, Audrey Child returned to the US and started Loose Ends, doing “Business Housekeeping for Elders.” In her later years she also began to write: stories of her childhood, her family and the small town where she grew up. Those stories, and a lot of therapy, helped her come to terms with her early years. Over Home is the result of that process.

Roxanne E. Bogart is a wildlife biologist and writer, whose poems have appeared in The Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Burlington Poetry Journal, The Silkworm, and Poetry Quarterly. Her first full-length book of poetry is entitled All That Sustains, published by Off the Common Books. She is a member of the International League of Conservation Writers, the Academy of American Poets, Straw Dog Writers Guild, and the Florence Poets Society, and lives in Amherst, MA with her family.

Martha McCollough lives in Amherst, MA. She is the author of Wolf Hat Iron Shoes (Lily Poetry Review Books 2022). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Qwerty, The Bear Review, Radar Poetry, and Tampa Review, among others. She lives in Amherst, MA

Rick Paar is a psychologist who writes novels, short stories, essays, and creative nonfiction. He lives in Western Massachusetts. He has two grown children, Nick and Chelsea, and a grandson, Wyatt.

Bela Breslau is part of a writing team with her husband, Stephen Billias. Theirs is a “literary marriage!” They recently published Pilgrim Maya, a novel about a young woman who, after suffering a devastating loss, transcends her grief and embarks on a life of recovery and healing. They are currently working on a fantasy novel together. Stephen has been a published creative writer for more than 40 years. Bela is working on short stories and continuing with a non-fiction project about her father, inspired by interviews and family stories.

Sharon Tracey lives and writes in Amherst, Massachusetts and is the author of three poetry collections: Land Marks (Shanti Arts 2022), Chroma: Five Centuries of Women Artists (Shanti Arts 2020), and What I Remember Most is Everything (All Caps Publishing 2017). Her poems have appeared in Radar Poetry, Lily Poetry Review, Aji, Terrain.org, The Banyan Review, The Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere. She previously served as a director of research communications and environmental programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Cheryl J. Fish’s debut novel Off the Yoga Mat, the story of three characters coming-of-middle age, was published by Livingston Press/UWA. She is the author of The Sauna is Full of Maids, poems and photographs celebrating Finnish sauna culture, the natural world, and friendships, and Crater & Tower, poems reflecting on trauma and ecology after the Mount St. Helens Volcanic eruption and the terrorist attack of 9/11. Fish has been a Fulbright professor and is a co-editor of A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Literature.

Heather Kamins is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her short fiction has appeared in Guernica and elsewhere. The Moth Girl is her first novel. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, two cats, and the variety of woodland creatures who stroll through her yard.

Joshua Michael Stewart is the author of three poetry collections: Break Every String, The Bastard Children of Dharma Bums, and Love Something. His poems have appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Salamander, Plainsongs, Brilliant Corners, South Dakota Review, Permafrost, and many others. He lives in Ware, Massachusetts.

Read these authors’ books!