Poetry News February 16, 2015

Nick Fleck Book Launch and Reading
A book launch and reading for “Natural Sustenance” will be held Sunday, Feb. 15, at 3:30 p.m., upstairs at Dickinson Memorial Library, 115 Main St., Northfield. (Rain or snow date: Feb. 22.)

Fleck will also be a featured reader at the Third Tuesday Greenfield Word reading on Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m., 9 Mill St., Greenfield. Doors open at 7 p.m. and there are 5-minute open mic slots in addition to two featured readers.

Paul Richmond is also working on plans for another reading for Fleck in Orange in March. For more information or to order books: www.humanerrorpublishing.com.

Claudia Rankine at Smith
February 23, Monday, 4:30 pm
Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall, Smith College
Author of Citizen: An American Lyric, a finalist for the National Book Award, Claudia Rankine will give a reading at Smith College. Rankine has been awarded fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lannan Foundation. In 2013, she was elected as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and in 2014 she received a Lannan Literary Award. She has taught at the University of Houston, Case Western Reserve University, Barnard College, and Pomona College. This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.

Spring Reading Series
February 24, Tuesday, 8 pm
Amherst Books, 8 Main Street, Amherst
Joshua Mehigan’s second collection, Accepting the Disaster, was cited as a favorite book of 2014 in The New York Times Book Review, which praised the poems for their “deep human understanding—of work, of small-town life, of mortality and suffering—that makes them feel not just impressive but trustworthy.” His first book, The Optimist, was a finalist for the 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His poems have appeared in The Common, The New Yorker, Poetry, and The Village Voice, among other periodicals. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

“The Ones We Carry”
an evening of poetry with Lesléa Newman sponsored by Hospice of the Fisher Home will take place on Thursday, March 5th, 7:00 p.m. at the Amherst Women’s Club, 35 Triangle Street, Amherst. Lesléa will read and discuss her new poetry collection, I CARRY MY MOTHER  which explores a daughter’s journey through her mother’s illness and death and how she carries on without her. She will donate $1.00 per book sold to Hospice of the Fisher Home. More information can be found here: http://www.webharmony.com/fisherhome/new.html

Writers Night Out!
by Straw Dog Writers Guild.
Every first Tuesday of the month, 7-9 pm
March 3 – Jennifer Rosner, featured reader
The Basement, 21 Center St., Northampton.
Five minute open mike slots, then featured reader.

Write Like a River: Women’s Writing Workshops with Chivas Sandage (Northampton, MA)
Jump start, reboot, develop, and deepen your writing in a supportive circle of women. Generate new material and/or make progress on an ongoing project. Count on intriguing prompts, time to write, supportive feedback, and discussion of craft, strategy, and writing as a practice. The end of each session features a balanced manuscript critique for rotating participants. Nurture and connect with your work and a lively community of writers. This multi-genre, generative workshop is appropriate for all levels. Space is limited.

Chivas Sandage’s first book, Hidden Drive (Antrim House, 2012) was a finalist for the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards in Poetry and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. MSNBC just released a mini-documentary in which she speaks of her current work on a nonfiction book about the 2012 double shooting of a young lesbian couple in south Texas. Sandage holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Bennington College.

When: March 12 & April 16 on Thursdays / 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Where: Writers in Progress Studio, a literary arts center located in the Arts & Industry Building on 221 Pine Street in Florence, MA (http://artsindustryopenstudios.blogspot.com)
For more info: http://www.writelikeariver.com

Write Minds
an evening of poetry with
Lori Desrosiers, Edward Bruce Bynam,
Howie Faerstein, Marian Kent
Wed. Feb. 25, 7pm
The Thirsty Mind, S. Hadley

Call for Submissions: Slate Roof Press,
a member-run, not-for-profit collaborative, is pleased to announce our 3rd Annual Poetry Chapbook Contest. The winner becomes an active member of the press and will have his/her chapbook published by Slate Roof. We publish limited-edition, art-quality chapbooks with letterpress covers — beautiful books by an award-winning book designer and printer. Winners make a 3-year commitment to the press, including monthly meetings in Greenfield, MA, and share work responsibilities for many aspects of publishing. Submit no more than 28 pages of poetry. $25 reading fee. Deadline (upload/postmark): May 15, 2015. For full contest guidelines, visit www.slateroofpress.com  or  http://slateroofpresscontest.submittable.com/submit.

24th Annual Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest
sponsored by the Friends of the Greenfield Public Library.
For for details, see
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsGPL.

Open to residents of Franklin County
Two categories:  Adult and Young Poet (ages 12-18)
Deadline:  March 9, 2015 (postmark)
Awards Ceremony:  Tuesday, April 29, 7 p.m., Capen Room,
Stoneleigh-Burnham School, 574 Bernardston Road, Greenfield
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsGPL

The Poetry of Growing Older: the Joys and Challenges of Aging
Wed., March 11th, 2-4pm,
Northampton Senior Center, 67 Conz St.
and
Thu., March 26th,  2-4pm
Amherst Senior Center,
30 Boltwood,Dr.,  Amherst
{Snow dates:   Thurs., March 12, 27}
Sliding scale donation: $2-$5
John Berkowitz and Daisy Mathias will read their own and others’ poetry about living fully, aging gracefully, dealing with grief and loss, and befriending death.
–Area poets welcome to submit their work.  Due to time and space limitations, not all poems submitted by area poets can be included.
–Audience will receive a photocopied packet of the poems to read along with and take home, and for others unable to attend to request and receive by mail.
–Audience response and comments will be invited several times during the program
— Audience encouraged to bring chair pillows.
More Info:   John Berkowitz,  johnpberk@gmail.com

Poetry Critique Group Seeks Members
A Belchertown based poetry critique group is seeking members who actively write poetry, have previously published their work, and can commit to meeting the second and fourth Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.Contact: dcfontaine @yahoo.com

Poetry in Praise of Trees

Sliding scale donation: $2-$10
John Berkowitz and Daisy Mathias will read their own and others’ work on the awe and wonder inspired by trees.
–Area poets welcome to submit their work.  Due to time and space limitations, not all poems submitted by area poets can be included.
–Audience will receive a photocopied packet of the poems to read along with and take home, and for others unable to attend to request and receive by mail.
–Audience response and comments will be invited several times during the program
— Audience encouraged to bring chair pillows.
More Info:   John Berkowitz,  johnpberk@gmail.com

“In Our Nature” writing workshops
~ Winter 2015 ~
Thursday mornings, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm 10 weeks ~ Jan. 13 – Mar.  19
New members can join after the first week, as long as there’s room. Occasional members are also welcome.
Workshops are held in my airy, comfortable Ashfield home. Access from all directions is via paved roads.
$28/week (Or save $30 by paying $250 in 2 installments ~ at least half by Dec. 31, the balance by Feb. 19.  If you can’t come to all 10 meetings, you can still get a discount ~ ask for details.)

To keep our group writing experience feeling safe, we follow guidelines developed by Amherst Writers and Artists.
Occasional critiques for those who want them are included at no extra cost. Not sure? Try a meeting at no cost to see if you like it.
For more information, contact Susan Middleton at  smiddle@crocker.com

Advanced Poetry Writing Workshop led by Tom Daley
Eight Mondays, March-April 2015
For poets working at an advanced level, particularly those preparing to apply to MFA programs, and for those ready to begin submitting poems to journals and magazines. Also useful for graduates of MFA programs who wish to continue to work at their craft in the workshop format at an advanced level.

With optional exercises based on the poetry of James Dickey
At the instructor’s house in West Cambridge (free parking, accessible by three bus routes from Harvard Square)
Eight Mondays from 7:45-9:45 pm starting March 2, 2015.
Dates: March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, April 6, 13, 20, 27.

Cost: $200
For more information, contact the instructor at tom.daley2@verizon.net

To apply, send 3-5 recent poems in the message box of an e-mail (no attachments, please) to tom.daley2@verizon.net

Tom Daley serves on the faculty of the Online School of Poetry and teaches poetry writing at the Boston Center for Adult Education and poetry and memoir writing at Lexington Community Education. His poems appear in a number of journals including Fence, Massachusetts Review, Denver Quarterly, Crazyhorse, Harvard Review, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, 32 Poems, In Posse Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Diagram, and Rhino and have been anthologized inHacks: The Grub Street Anthology, Unlocking the Poem, and the Poets for Haiti anthology. His manuscript, Shim, was a finalist for the Emily Dickinson First Book Award. He is a recipient of the Charles and Fanny Fay Wood Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Dana Award in Poetry. His book,  House You Cannot Reach—Poems in the Voice of My Mother and Other Poems, will be published this summer by FutureCycle Press.  He is the author of two plays,  Every Broom and Bridget–Emily Dickinson and Her Irish Servants, and In His Ecstasy—The Passion of Gerard Manley Hopkins, both of which he performs as a one-man show.

GREENFIELD, SHELBURNE FALLS AND NORTH

Writers Read
Thursday, February 26 at 5:30pm
at the Good Purpose Gallery
40 Main Street, Lee, MA
~ Welcome back to Writers Read!
Come hear two terrific poets from one family:

Kateri Kosek’s work has appeared in Orion, Creative Nonfiction, Terrain.org, South Dakota Review, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. Her poetry and personal essays lean toward environmentally-conscious, place-oriented writing inspired by the natural world. An avid birder, she also writes a birding column for the Poughkeepsie Journal. Kateri teaches English and writing at Marist College and Northwestern Connecticut Community College, and mentors in the MFA program at Western Connecticut State University, where she received her MFA in the genre of creative nonfiction. Last summer she was the recipient of a writing residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska. She currently lives in Sheffield.

R​aphael Kosek’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals and magazines including Still Point Arts Quarterly, Commonweal, Big Muddy, The Chattahoochee Review, and is forthcoming in Catamaran. She is a life-long Hudson Valley resident where she graduated from Vassar College and now teaches American lit and creative writing at Marist College and SUNY Dutchess Community College. Arts Mid-Hudson has twice awarded her fellowships for her poetry, and her poems have placed first, second and been shortlisted in international contests. Her 2009 chapbook, Letting Go, was published by Finishing Line Press, and includes several O’Keeffe-inspired poems. She has written and published many ekphrastic poems, finding inspiration in the paintings of Homer, Rousseau, Inuit stone cut prints, and many others.

It costs money and time to keep the Gallery space open, lit, and warm (or air-conditioned), so  Gallery personnel have asked that Writers Read ask a suggested donation of $3.00 per person.  $1.00 will go to the gallery for expenses, and each reader will receive $1.00 also.  I want to emphasize that this is a suggested donation.  Those who can’t donate or can’t donate $3 will not be turned away, frowned at, or cajoled.  We want you to attend and enjoy the readings!  Do what you can.