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April 2021
How To Injure Your Characters
Dr. David Page will cover how, when, what, where in a story to place a trauma scene, as well as how to construct the scene with appropriate details. Specifics of head and neck, chest, abdomen and extremity injuries will be briefly covered. Also, the U.S. trauma system will be described to permit the writer to accurately determine what level of care is available and warranted, as well as the health care personnel who participate. Register in advance for this meeting…
Find out more »Writers Read Hilltowns, April 2021
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, April 11 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Ann Averill. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting. Bio: Ann C. Averill is the author of Teacher Dropout, Finding Grace in an Unjust School based on her true story of teaching in an urban school. Excerpts appeared in a Writer’s Digest's best of short short stories collection. Her flash memoir has appeared in WriteAngles Journal…
Find out more »Black Writers Read with Shannon Luders-Manuel
RESCHEDULED: Saturday, April 17, 6:00pm Please join us for the next episode of Black Writers Read featuring memoirist and essayist, Shannon Luders-Manuel. Shannon will read from her essay, "Rediscovering My Father", which was published in the New York Times. Shannon will also share insight into her memoir and her other work. Go to the Valley Society Facebook event to participate. Bio: Shannon Luders-Manuel is a West Coast writer, editor, and sensitivity reader. She received her master's in English literature from…
Find out more »May 2021
Writers Read / Hilltowns, May 2021
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, May 2 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Suzanne Rancourt. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting. Bio: Sundress Best of the Net Nominee, Suzanne S. Rancourt, is of Abenaki/Huron descent. Author of Billboard in the Clouds, Northwestern UP, received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award, and murmurs at the gate, Unsolicited Press, released in 2019. Old Stones, New Roads,…
Find out more »Writers Night In May 2021
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, May 4, 7:00pm. Registration required. Register HERE. Our featured writer is Celia Jeffries. Celia Jeffries is a writer, editor, and teacher whose work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines including Westview, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Puerto del Sol, as well as the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. She has received grants from Turkey Land Cove Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and La Muse. Jeffries holds an MA from…
Find out more »Voices for Resistance
Straw Dog Writers Guild presents Voices for Resistance on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:00pm. Featured writers reading include: Amina Jordan-Mendez, Andrea Hairston, Andrea Lawlor, Charles Coe, Desmond Peeples, and Shanta Lee Gander. This event is sponsored by SDWG Social Justice Committee and Forbes Library. Register through co-sponsor Forbes library at: forbeslibrary.libcal.com/event/7501886
Find out more »Writing About Politics and Current Events: Opportunities and Obstacles
Politics often seems like a faraway, abstract subject that has little to do with our everyday lives. Current events have always been complex and difficult but, in recent years, seem even more divisive and frustrating than ever. So how can we write about important issues in ways that won’t drive us apart? This workshop will focus on writing that bridges the gaps between our personal values and the larger world in ways that empower our voices as agents for connection…
Find out more »June 2021
Writers Night Out/In June
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, June 1, 7:00pm. Registration required. Click HERE to register. Our featured writer is Shanta Lee Gander. Bio: Shanta Lee Gander’s work has been featured in many publications and is the 2020 recipient of the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts and 2020 and named as Diode Editions full-length book contest winner for her debut poetry compilation, GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak in Woke Tongues…
Find out more »Writers Read / Hilltowns June
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, June 6 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Howie Faerstein. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting. Bio: Howie Faerstein is the author of two chapbooks: Play a Song on the Drums, he said and Out of Order (Main Street Rag) and two full-length collections: Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklynand Googootz and Other Poems, both published by Press 53. His poetry and…
Find out more »Poetry Ritual 2021
On the three-year anniversary of the Poetry Critique Meet-up, co-sponsored by Straw Dog Writers and the Northampton Center for the Arts, twenty poets who have participated in the meet-ups this past year will give short readings. Join us for this gala event by writing for the zoom link at poetryritual2021@gmail.com.
Find out more »An Exploration of Flash Fiction & Flash Memoir
Join us online on June 16 from 6:30 – 8:00pm for An Exploration of Flash Fiction & Flash Memoir. Flash takes everything we love about compelling stories - the complexity, nuance, characters, emotion, tension, stakes - and delivers it all in an impossibly short high-wire act that leaves us deeply affected and that resonates long after. But how do we go about writing, crafting, and editing down our stories into these sparkling fictional (or memoiristic) gems? In this short workshop,…
Find out more »Black Writers Read: Juneteenth, One Year Later
On Friday, June 19, 2020, Valley Society hosted an over 3-hour virtual event, convening 16 Black writers from across the country to share their work. Seeing the need to sustain this platform, we launched the series, Black Writers Read. Join us, one year later in celebration of Juneteenth, to hear from members of Valley Society and past Black Writers Read guests reflect on the year in Black culture, literary arts, and existence. Members of Valley Society will read excerpts from…
Find out more »July 2021
Writers Night Out/In July
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, July 6, 7:00pm. Registration required. Click HERE to register. Our featured writer is JoAnne Silver Jones. Writer Bio: In her first book, a memoir, Headstrong: Surviving a traumatic brain injury, JoAnne Silver Jones tells of her journey from suffering an act of random violence that left her with a severe traumatic brain injury, to the publication of her memoir, at age 73, and entry into the world of writing. She…
Find out more »Writers Read Hilltowns July
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, July 11 from 2-4 pm our featured reader is Dr. Jim Brosnan. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting. Reader Bio: Dr. Jim Brosnan holds the rank of full professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. Jim is the author of Nameless Roads (2019), a volume of poetry depicting New England and accompanied by original color photographs. His poems have appeared in…
Find out more »August 2021
Writers Read Hilltowns August
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns! On Sunday, August 1 from 2-4 pm. Our featured reader is Nicole M. Young. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the meeting. Bio: Originally from Detroit, Nicole M. Young considers her creative practice to be inter+multi+disciplinary where theatre, music, poetry, and live performance intersect informing a unique repertoire of work. Trained as a musician and actor, Nicole's gift for writing was discovered as an adult making sense…
Find out more »August 3 Deadline for Author Showcase Submissions
Straw Dog Writers Guild and Forbes Library invite Straw Dog Writers Guild members with a book published in 2020 or 2021 to read as part of the annual Author Showcase on September 8. If you are interested in being part of the Showcase, please indicate your interest by emailing strawdogsubmission@gmail.com. The deadline to express interest is midnight Tuesday, August 3rd. We will let authors know by August 10th. Twelve authors will be selected at random by drawing names from a…
Find out more »Writers Night Out/In August
Join us for Writers Night In Open Mic on Tuesday, August 3, 7:00pm. Registration required. Click HERE to register. Our featured writer is Adam Grabowski. Adam Grabowski is the author of the chapbook Go on Bewilderment (Attack Bear Press, 2020) and his poems have appeared in such journals as Sixth Finch, Rust + Moth, Hobart, jubilat, and elsewhere. A two-time 2021 Pushcart nominee and the recipient of a 2020 Parent-Writer Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Adam…
Find out more »September 2021
Writers Night Out/In September 2021
Join us for Writers Night Out/In Open Mic on Tuesday, September, 7:00pm. Registration required. Register HERE. Our featured writer is Lanette Sweeney. If you have any trouble registering, contact Beth at: strawdogevents@gmail.com Lanette Sweeney's debut collection, What I Should Have Said: A Poetry Memoir About Losing A Child to Addiction, is being published by Kentucky-based Finishing Line Press in August of 2021. The book is divided into the stages of grief and features alongside her own poems 20 poems by…
Find out more »7th Annual Author Showcase
Join Straw Dog Writers Guild and Forbes Library for an online Author Showcase on Wednesday, September 8 at 6:30pm Brief readings from new books by members of Straw Dog Writers Guild: Dusty J. Miller, Eileen P. Kennedy, Howie Faerstein, Kathryn Holzman, Meg Thacher, Jane McPhetres Johnson, Celia Jeffries, Rebecca Hart Olander., J.A. McIntosh, Lesléa Newman, Ellen Meeropol, Stephanie Shafran. Registration required. To register, click HERE. This event is co-sponsored by SDWG and Forbes Library. Meet the Authors…
Find out more »Writers Read Hilltowns September 2021
Join us for Writers Read / Hilltowns on Sunday, September 12th from 2-4pm. Our featured reader is David Wyman. To attend, email Jane Roy Brown at brownjaneroy@gmail.com for a link to the Zoom meeting. David Wyman's second poetry collection, Violet Ideologies, was published in 2020 by Kelsay Books. His first book Proletariat Sunrise, also published by Kelsay Books, came out in 2017. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Dissident Voice, Blazing Stadium, BlazeVOX, Clockwise Cat, Picaroon Poetry, Squawk…
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