Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, November 1
In This Issue
Guild Announcements: The Schenectady Community of Writers Event
Member Announcements: Barbara M. Traynor
Area Announcements: Shoe Slam at Albany Institute, Writers Institute Events, “Little d” National Literary Award Events, Frequency North Reading at St. Rose, Reading at the Woman’s Club, New Prose and Poetry Reading at the Arts Center, Carolee Sherwood to read at Social Justice Center, Adirondack Center for Writing Presents Performance Poetry, Poetry Workshop at the Amsterdam Library, Call for Requests for NYFA Fellowships
Guild announcements
November 21, 2-4 p.m.
Schenectady Community of Writers Event
The annual Schenectady Community of Writers readings will take place on Sunday November 21 at the Schenectady Public Library. The readings will take place between 2-4 p.m. with a reception and book sales to follow. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Guild and the library. The readers in order of appearance will be:
Steve Hellyard Swartz, Poet Laureate of Schenectady County. In addition to being a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee for Poetry, he has received Honorable Mention in the Allen Ginsberg, Mary C. Mohr and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. In 1990, his film “Never Leave Nevada” opened at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Margaret Bryant, poet and essayist, has been invited to read her poems and essays on NPR and participates at area open-mics. Her work is published in on-line magazines and journals, and in publications throughout the Capital District. Margaret’s book of poems, Aligning Stems, was published in March 2010 and was featured with others at Open Door Bookstore’s “Artists’ Night” in May 2010.
Kathe Kokolias, essayist and memoirist, painter and photographer, has been published on-line and in the Albany Times Union, the Schenectady Gazette and a variety of magazines and anthologies. In August 2009, she published a collection of essays entitled Spandex & Black Boots: Essays from an Abundant Life. Her travel memoir of Mexico, What Time do the Crocodiles Come Out? will be available in the fall of 2010. She lives with her husband, Brian, in Colonie, NY, and in Ixtapa, Mexico.
Tom Corrado, poet, visual artist and musician, has been writing poetry for 25 years. A founding member of the Every Other Thursday Night Poets, Tom is also a member of the Capital District Poets Collective and the Third Saturday Poesy Cafe. His poems have appeared in several publications.
Keziah Roselin, journal and short story writer, recently moved to Schenectady from Miami. She is majoring in Performing Arts Drama at SCCC. She has kept a journal and written short pieces for many years. Keziah will play the role of Tiger Lilly in the upcoming production of Peter Pan at the Schenectady Players Theater.
Rose Kent, writer of young adult fiction, is a former naval officer and public relations manager at a food corporation. She is the author of children’s novels, including Kimchi & Calamari (HarperCollins), which was chosen for several state reading lists including The New York State Charlotte Award. Rocky Road (Knopf Books), her most recent book, which takes place in Schenectady, about seven miles from her home.
Nancy Duci Denofio, author of What Brought You Here? and Did You Ever Want To Fly?, continues to work with her father, Mayor Frank Duci, on his memoir, from the birth of his mother in 1892. Her work has appeared in journals, publications and newspapers here and abroad. She teaches Author Presentation and several poetry and writing workshops.
Marc Renson, non-fiction writer and memoirist, graduated from Schenectady County Community College with an Associate’s degree in Culinary Arts. He’s the co-owner of the restaurant “Ambition” on Jay Street, a resident of Schenectady and a mentor for the Boys and Girls Club.
Dean M. DeLuke, fiction writer, is author of Shedrow, a new thriller dubbed a cross between Dick Francis and Robin Cook. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon, business consultant and active volunteer, he is a graduate of St. Michael’s College, Columbia University (DMD) and Union Graduate College (MBA). You can read excerpts and reviews, view a book trailer and more at www.shedrow1.com.
Member announcements
M. E. Kemp will speak in Berwick, Maine, on November 2 on the writing topic “Stealing From the Dead.” Kemp’s new book, Death of a Dancing Master, comes out on November 20 from L&L Dreamspell of Texas.
Area announcements
November 5, 6:00 p.m.
Shoe Slam at the Albany Institute
Members of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Guild are invited to participate in an upcoming event at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 125 Washington Avenue. On Friday, November 5, we will be holding an open mic Shoe Slam in conjunction with our shoe exhibitions that just opened at the museum. Members of the public will be invited to share a 5-minute story, poem, song, haiku, skit, etc. somehow related to shoes. If you can bring the shoes with you, all the better!
Upcoming New York State Writers Institute Events
- Tuesday, November 9. Novelist, poet, and literary critic Gerald Vizenor (Griever, Father Meme, Shrouds of White Earth) will read his work in the Standish Room of the Science Library, UAlbany Uptown Campus at 7:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, November 16. New York State Poet Jean Valentine (Lucy, Little Boat, Break the Glass) will read her work at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Ave. at 7:30 p.m.
For more information on these and other Writers Institute events, consult albany.edu/writers-inst.
“Little d” National Literary Award Events
HVWG members are most cordially invited to attend the “Little d” awards ceremony on Wednesday, November 10, at the Fort Orange Club in Albany from 6 to 8 p.m. Author’s remarks, hors d’oeuvres and music are included in the $55 tickets price (available at ashea@ahns.org ). “Little d” and its related year-round Kids Read program fosters reading by children in third-through-sixth grades in Albany public, private and charter schools.
Author-illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka will be honored with the “Little d” national children’s humorous literature award for his most recent book in his popular Lunch Lady series, Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute. The book will be made into a Hollywood feature film next year starring Amy Poehler.
While in Albany, Jarrett will read to 170 students and their teachers at Arbor Hill Elementary School at 10 a.m. on November 10, followed by book signing from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany. Try to make it and get a Lunch Lady book signed for your favorite child in the nine-to-eleven age range!
November 11, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Frequency North Readings
Alexander Chee and Kathleen Rooney will read on the St. Rose Campus at the Events and Activities Center, 2nd floor, 420 Western Avenue, Albany. Alexander Chee was born in Rhode Island, and raised in South Korea, Guam and Maine. He is a recipient of the 2003 Whiting Writers’ Award, a 2004 NEA Fellowship in Fiction, a 2010 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Ledig House, the Hermitage and the VCCA. Kathleen Rooney is a poet and a writer. Her latest work is the essay collection For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs (Counterpoint Press), which has been described as “smart and subtly honed” (Publisher’s Weekly) and “captures the poignancy and absurdity of life at the turn of the twenty-first century” (Booklist).
November 11, 7:00
Reading at the Woman’s Club of Albany
The Woman’s Club, 725 Madison Avenue in Albany, continues its Women’s Writes reading series on November 11 with Barbara Chepaitis (Something Unpredictable, These Dreams, Feeding Christine) on fiction and story-telling.
November 14, 2:00 p.m.
New Prose and Poetry Reading Series at the Arts Center
The Arts Center of the Capital Region at 265 River Street in Troy is starting up a brand new open mic on the second Sunday’s of each month at. Dan Wilcox and Nancy Klepsch are hosting this new venue for poetry and prose starting on Sunday, November 14.
November 18, 7 p.m. sign-up, 7:30 p.m. readings
Carolee Sherwood to Read at the Social Justice Center
The Third Thursday Poetry Night will feature and an open mic on Thursday, November 18, at the Albany Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue. 7 p.m. sign-up. 7:30 p.m. start. Dan Wilcox, host.
Thursday, November 18, 7:00 p.m.
ACW Presents Performance Poetry at Paul Smith’s College
You asked for more amazing poetry, more new voices and writing styles and more events that will change the way you think about poetry. OK! We understand! We love it too! This is why the Adirondack Center for Writing and Paul Smith’s College are presenting Adam Falkner, John Sands and Mahogany L. Brown at the College. These three poets are the freshest voices in the spoken word scene. Come out and be amazed and thrilled. Free and open to the public. Freer Hall.
Poetry Workshop at the Amsterdam Library
The Amsterdam Free Library will hold a four-week poetry writing workshop, “Put Pizazz in Your Poems,” from 6-8 p.m. on Mondays: November 15, November 22, November 29 and December 6 at the library on 28 Church Street. This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Maureen Hand, local writer and poet, will lead the sessions.
This workshop is designed for those who want to improve their poetry, sharpen their skills and discover ways to generate ideas for poems. No experience is necessary. Beginners as well as published poets are welcome. Each session will include discussions on poetry such as types of poems, poetic devices, imagery, voice, syntax, etc. Weeks 2, 3, and 4 will feature poems written by the participants.
Here are additional details:
- Week 1 will explore what poems can do such as tell a story, describe a person, evoke a feeling, recall a memory, depict a theme, etc.
- Week 2 will show that words do count and choosing the right word(s) is crucial for a great poem. For example, action verbs beat all those “is’s and was’s.”
- Week 3 will demonstrate the importance of meter (musicality) in poetry. Poems that hit sour notes hurt the ears.
- Week 4 will point out how writing a Haiku, a Quatrain, a Diamante Poem, and other recipe poems is not only fun, but it generates ideas for other poems.
For registration and other information call (518) 842-1080.
Deadlines approach for New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships
Artists’ Fellowships are $7,000 unrestricted cash awards made to individual originating artists living and working in the state of New York. Grants are awarded in 15 artistic disciplines, with applications accepted in five categories each year. Since the awards began in 1985, NYFA has awarded over $22 million to over 3,688 artists. Peer review panels select approximately 100 Fellows each year based on artistic vision, the goal being to buy recipients creative time to continue making work. The Fellowship award is free for artists to apply! Please go to nyfa.org/afp to apply and to review application guidelines.
The following categories will be reviewed during the 2010 – 2011 cycle: Digital/Electronic Arts, Crafts/Sculpture, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry and Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. The deadlines are November 30 at 11:59 p.m. for Crafts/Sculpture and Digital/Electronic Arts and December 1, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. for Nonfiction Literature, Poetry and Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts.
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The Hudson Valley Writers Guild offers space in its newsletter for submission and program opportunities but does not endorse any programs or publications that are not offered through the Guild. Two notes from the newsletter editors:
* Within each section, announcements/events are arranged, when possible, by relevant dates.
* We are always curious to know if the formatting “works” (appears neat and tidy) in your email or if it causes issues (is difficult to read). Send feedback and suggestions regarding any formatting issues to hvwginfo@gmail.com. News items should go to Bob Sharkey at riverrun@nycap.rr.com. Thank you!
Carolee Sherwood
Newsletter Co-Editor
Bob Sharkey
Newsletter Co-Editor
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