Alexis Johnson is co-founder and former Executive Director of International Language Institute in Northampton, a non-profit school that teaches English, world languages and teacher training. She has a B.S. in Languages & Linguistics and an M.A. in Teaching English and Spanish. She’s written a book called “Playing with a Full Deck.” “It’s Not About Me” Read More
Straw Dog Writers Guild
“If I Could” by Tara Dasso
Tara Dasso is a poet and recent straw dog member who resides in Western Massachusetts. She is co-founder of Write-up Springfield!, a creative writing group that promotes and brings together Springfield area writers to write and share work. Her work has appeared in various journals including Trestle Ties, Dark Ink Magazine, and Silkworm. “If I Read More
THE JOURNEY NOW REQUIRING by Janet E. Aalfs
Janet E. Aalfs, a Hampshire County resident and member of Straw Dog Writers Guild, is founder/director of Lotus Peace Arts (www.heronsbridge.org), a founding member of Valley Women’s Martial Arts, and was the 2nd poet laureate of Northampton. Her writing is widely published, and her most recent book of poems is Bird of a Thousand Eyes. Read More
Promise, Walking On A Woodland Trail by Rema Boscov
Rema Boscov is an artist, teacher, musician, poet and journalist who has written for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and numerous magazines and newspapers. She has been an artist-in-residence in three national parks. She lives in Franklin County, Massachusetts. Promise, Walking On A Woodland Trail 1. A brisk wind whiffles through the pines. It Read More
I Dream of Wind by Lori Desrosiers
Lori Desrosiers’ poetry books are The Philosopher’s Daughter, Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak and Keeping Planes in the Air, all from Salmon Poetry. Two chapbooks, Inner Sky and typing with e.e. cummings, are from Glass Lyre Press. She edits Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrative poetry and Wordpeace.co. I Dream of Wind In Read More
What Matters by Roxanne Bogart
Roxanne E. Bogart is a wildlife biologist and writer, whose poems have appeared in The Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Silkworm, and Poetry Quarterly. She is a member of the Straw Dog Writers Guild, the Academy of American Poets, and the Florence Poets Society, and lives in Hampshire County. Roxannebogart.com What Matters I never Read More
The Verb To Be by Amy Gordon
Amy Gordon’s first chapbook, Deep Fahrenheit, was published 2019 (Prolific Press) and her poems have appeared in the Aurorean, The Massachusetts Review, Writeangles, and other journals. She is the author of numerous books for children and young adults. She lives in Gill. The Verb To Be So I had been trying to psych myself into Read More
Standing at the Edge by Kai Carol Jud
Kai Carol Jud, a therapist and retreat leader, lives in Wendell, MA, Franklin County in a little blue house in the woods. She is working on her book called The Way of the Yum, A Memoir of Life, Death and Awakening. Standing at the Edge Standing at the edge, gone is the path to yesterday, Read More
Lament, April 2020 by Carol Rinehart
Carol Rinehart enjoys an active retirement in Florence after a decade coordinating hospice volunteer services in Hampshire County. An ordained interfaith minister, she supports groups and individuals through her STAMINA Project (Strength Training for Aging MINdfully Always). She has only recently discovered her inner poet. Lament, April 2020 Seismographs are reporting softened trembles from solitude. Read More
Your mother has expired by Anita Gallers
Straw Dog Writers Guild and Florence Poets Society member Anita Gallers lives and writes in Northampton, Mass (Hampshire County). Her mother died on April 17, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 crisis in the New York City area. Your mother has expired like old milk the nurse on the phone is preparing to throw Read More