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Co-sponsored by:
Straw Dog Writers Guild and Nan Parati (owner, Elmer's Store and the Inn at Norton Hill)
Featured Reader: Ernie Brill
Born in Brooklyn, Ernie Brill writes fiction and poetry. His short story "Crazy Hattie Enters The Ice Age" from his collection of hospital stories, I Looked Over Jordan (South End Press), was purchased and performed on PBS by the actress, writer, and activist Ruby Dee. He has published stories and poems in the US and Canada.
He received his BA, and MA from San Francisco State College and was an active participant in the 1968 Student Strike, the longest in American history that not only won the first Black Studies Department in the U.S., it also encouraged the establishment of a School of Ethnic Studies.
Brill taught high school in Northampton Ma for twenty years and pioneered curriculum in Middle East Literature, African literature, Latin American literature, literature of the Vietnam War, and a more inclusive American literature, bringing in such writers as Richard Wright, Toni Cade Bambara, Charles Johnson, Martin Espada, Janice Mirikitani and others.
He is currently writing a novel about the 1968 San Francisco State Student Strike.
His favorite writers include Virginia Woolf, Jean Toomer, Sterling Brown, Mahmoud Darwish, and Kim Hyesoon.
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 read for five minutes each. If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 3:15.
Hosted by Jane Roy Brown (brownjaneroy@gmail.com )
Upcoming: May 6th Lesléa Newman
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 Kathleen Kelley, a Straw Dog Writers Guild member since we began, died on March 18 at Cape Cod Hospital with her sons Sean and Michael by her side. A lifelong Massachusetts resident, she touched the lives of many as a social worker and colleague in Cambridge and Northampton. She began writing with Amherst Writers & Artists several years ago, and upon retirement in 2011 founded Back Porch Writers, a small peer group in the Northampton area. Her poetry and short stories captivated her writing peers and the public, earning recognition in a number of publications. She was awarded The Philbrick Poetry Prize for her chapbook, The Waiting Room, published by The Providence Athenaeum in 2010. Her work will appear posthumously in the forthcoming anthology Compass Roads, and also in the next issue of “Stone Walls II.” After sampling a winter on Cape Cod, Kathleen recently bought a house in Eastham and moved last November. An aggressive cancer interrupted her dream of living near the ocean with her beloved dog Bella.
A celebration of Kathleen’s life will be from 1-3 p.m. on April 14 at the Pathways Co-Housing common house, 25 Mountain Laurel Path, Florence. At the request of her family, contributions in Kathleen’s name may be made to the Straw Dog Writers’ Guild.
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Two Community Book Festivals
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April 7 - Juniper Literary Festival Book Fair, UMASS Amherst. If you are a Straw Dog member and would like to include your most recent book publication in a list for people to pick up, please send Laura the title, genre, link to your website, and a .jpg of the cover.
April 14 - Easthampton BookFest Marketplace, Eastworks, Easthampton. We haven’t seen the details on the marketplace yet, but have had a table there the past two years and it’s great visibility for Straw Dogs and for our books. We can display one or two titles per member at the table, IF you provide books, and envelope with change, and are willing to take an hour shift at the table. Please let Laura know if you’re interested.
And ... Straw Dog will be debuting Compass Roads at the Easthampton BookFest.
Two chances to join us to celebrate!
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OUR BOOK LAUNCH CELEBRATION
April 10th at 7PM
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AND A READING AT
THE EASTHAMPTON BOOKFEST
April 14th at 4PM
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EASTHAMPTON BOOKFEST –
Compass Roads Reading
April 14 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
White Square Books, 86 Cottage St
Easthampton + Google Map
POETS READING: Gail Cleare Deborah Dill Tzivia Gover Ray Homstead Phyllis Katz Eileen Kennedy Jan Maher Ellen Meeropol Rebecca Hart Olander Christine Ann Pratt Diane Rachele Laura Rodley Cynthia Suopis Hilde Weisert Jane Yolen Straw Dog Writers Guild presents our first Poetry Anthology – Compass Roads, Poems about the Pioneer Valley. w/ Editor Jane Yolen. MORE
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A challenge that many writers face is how to choose artful details when writing about strong emotional content. Some of us may shy away from expressing loss or anger, or we may produce work that’s overly sentimental. For inspiration we will read poems that elevate personal experience by paying close attention to craft. We’ll also engage in an exercise to discover fresh metaphors and experiment with form. Open to poets and prose writers, this workshop will illustrate how to use poetic craft as a means of diving more deeply.
Gail Thomas has published four books of poetry, Odd Mercy (2016), Waving Back (2015), No Simple Wilderness: An Elegy for Swift River Valley (2001) and Finding the Bear (1997).
Odd Mercy was chosen by Ellen Bass for the Charlotte Mew Prize of Headmistress Press, and its “Little Mommy Sonnets” won Honorable Mention for the Tom Howard/ Margaret Prize for Traditional Verse. Also, Waving Back was named a Must Read for 2016 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book and Honorable Mention in the New England Book Festival.
Thomas’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, The North American Review, Hanging Loose, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Individual poems have won the Naugatuck Review’s Narrative Poetry Prize and the Pat Schneider Poetry Prize. She was awarded residencies at The McDowell Colony and Ucross.
Her book, No Simple Wilderness, about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930’s, has been taught in college courses. As one of the original teaching artists for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Elder Arts Initiative, Thomas led workshops and collaborated with dancers, musicians and storytellers in schools, nursing homes, hospitals and libraries across the State.
Thomas teaches, speaks at conferences and poetry festivals, and reads her work widely in community and academic settings. www.gailthomaspoet.com
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MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON!
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