Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, March 15, 2011
In This Issue
Guild Announcements: Listing of Peer Writing Groups , Fiction contest winners, Poetry Publishing Workshop with Dan Nester, Poet Laureate Project
Member Announcements: M.E. Kemp, Kathe Kokolias, Bart McIlduff, Dan Wilcox
Area Announcements: Lori Desrosiers at the Social Justice Center, Bookmarks Reading Series at the Arts Center, Writers Institute Programs, Call for Submissions for Community of Jewish Writers Event, Carolee Sherwood at Sunday Four in Voorheesville, National Poetry Month Events in Hillsdale, Gary Soto at Siena, Favorite Poem Project in Rensselaerville, Announcement for Second Annual Smith’s Tavern Poet Laureate Contest
Guild Announcements
Listing of Peer Writing Groups
HVWG volunteer Therese L. Broderick is updating the Guild’s list of local peer writing groups and feedback groups (of any literary genre). If you participate in such a group — whether private or public — please let Therese know the name, email address, and/or phone number of the group’s contact person. Call Therese by phone (518) 482-2639 days, evenings and weekends or send her an email message (brdrck@gmail.com).
To see the Peer Writing Groups listing now on the Guild’s website, visit the direct link hudsonvalleywritersguild.wordpress.com/resources/peer-writing-groups/ or follow this path:
1. Go to hvwg.org
2. Click on “Resources”
3. Select “Peer Writing Groups” from the drop-down menu
Fiction contest winners announced; reading scheduled April 2, 1 p.m.
The Hudson Valley Writers Guild is pleased to announce the winners of its 2010 Short Fiction Contest. The winners and honorable mentions will be recognized at a reading on Saturday, April 2, at 1 p.m. at the East Greenbush Public Library, 10 Community Way, East Greenbush. The first, second and third place winners, respectively, are Ken Holland, Fishkill; Jo Salas, New Paltz; and Carol Derfner, Kinderhook. Honorable mentions are John Velie, Albany; David Sylvester, Watervliet; and Susan Clements, Buffalo.
Details of the HVWG’s 2011 contest — which will be for non-fiction (personal essay, memoir, humor) — will be announced at the end of the afternoon reading. All writers living in the state of New York are eligible. The public is invited to attend the reading and hear from the winners. For more details, contact winterview@earthlink.net or visit the HVWG website (hvwg.org).
Guild Sponsored Poetry Publishing Workshop April 9, 10 a.m.
Daniel Nester, associate professor of English at The College of St. Rose, will be conducting a free workshop on “Getting Your Poems Published in Journals,” Saturday, April 9, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., at Albertus Hall, Room 202, 432 Western Avenue, The College of Saint Rose, Albany. The workshop is sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and is free and open to the public. There is no advance registration.
The world of literary journals, famous and small, new and old, print and online, may seem daunting to the newcomer. This workshop/class will center on where to start: how to find the right places for your work, what goes into a cover letter, formatting your manuscript, resources for poets, and how to start looking at one’s own work with an eye on publication. Participants may send 5-7 to the instructor ahead of time, email: nesterd@strose.edu, or bring them to the workshop, as well as books by your favorite living poets.
County Poet Laureate Project-Update
The Capital Region has one Poet Laureate, Stephen Swartz, who represents Schenectady County. This Project aims to encourage Albany, Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties to name Poets Laureate, as well. We are making progress!
Our member, Mary Kuykendall, has contacted the ten libraries in Saratoga County and their responses have been excellent. Some library boards have not met yet to allow her to confirm 100% approval, but this is a most likely outcome. Our member in Rensselaer County hopefully will report on progress there soon. A HVWG member who is living in Albany County is needed for the Project. Please contact Bill Poppino at poppino3 @ juno.com or 374-5410.
Member Announcements
M. E. Kemp was a recent guest on the popular blog, “Dames of Dialogue.” Her post was called: “Mao’s Last Blogger,” and she blogged about discovering that her web site is blocked in China by the Chinese government. We assure HVWG newsletter readers that she is not a rabid Revolutionary, and she has no idea why she is blocked there. Her site post at the time dealt with heritage pigs! Are Chinese pigs better than ours?
Kathe Kokolias will have a reading and signing of her latest book, What Time Do the Crocodiles Come Out? A Travel Memoir of Mexico, on Saturday, April 16 at 3 p.m. at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. Kathe will have recently returned from Mexico, so stop by, enjoy some refreshments and check out her great tan.
Bart McIlduff will read from his new book, The Innumerable Waste, and then open a discussion forum on Sunday, March 20, at 2 p.m. at The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. There will be refreshments.
Dan Wilcox has been invited to read his poetry at the Sixth Annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival to at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. The festival will be held March 31 to April 2, 2011. Wilcox will be reading on Saturday, April 2, in the 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. slot in North Lounge with poets Patrick O’Campo and Tara Hembrough.
The Scissortail Creative Writing Festival includes readings by highly published and internationally recognized writers, as well as by others who are developing their writing and publishing careers. All are mixed together regardless of achievement or acclaim. The featured readers this year are Billie Letts, Larry D. Thomas, Jonis Agee and Aaron Gwyn. Also featured will be the winners of this year’s Darryl Fisher High School Creative Writing Contest. All the events are held on the campus of East Central University and are free and open to the public.
For more information about the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival visit the website http://ecuscissortail.blogspot.com/. For information about Dan Wilcox, email: dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Area announcements
Lori Desrosiers to Read at the Social Justice Center, March 17, 7 p.m.
Massachusetts poet Lori Desrosiers will read from her work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. Lori Desrosiers is the publisher of Naugatuck River Review. Her chapbook, Three Vanities, a chronicle of three generations of women in her family, was published by Pudding House Press in 2009. In 2010, her poem “That Pomegranate Shine” won the Greater Brockton Society for Poetry and the Arts Award for New England Poets.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center. For more information about this event contact Dan Wilcox at (518) 482-0262 or e-mail: dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Bookmarks Reading Series Continues at the Arts Center March 21, 7 p.m.
The next event in this series will be on the theme of Grace and will be curated by Donna Miller. The reading is free and begins at 7 p.m. at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River Street, in downtown Troy.
Writers Institute Programs, March 22
The State Writers Institute will host journalist and nonfiction writer Seth Mnookin at the George Education Center Auditorium at the School of Public Health on the UAlbany East campus in East Greenbush at 8 p.m.
Submissions Sought for Community of Jewish Writers Event
The Adult Education Committee of Congregation Agudat Achim is sponsoring the second annual Community of Jewish Writers event on Wednesday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. We are seeking fiction, memoir and poetry with Jewish themes. The deadline for submission is March 25. Writers should submit a short bio and poetry or prose (limited to 750 words) to Leslie Neustadt at lesbn96317@aol.com. High school and college students are encouraged to submit their work. Writers will be notified by April 15 whether they have been selected to read.
Carolee Sherwood to Read at Sunday Four Event March 27, 3 p.m.
Please mark your calendars for the March 27, 3 p.m. for “Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic” when we feature the poet from Castleton Carolee Sherwood. This event takes place at the Old Songs venue in Voorheesville. Anyone who has seen Carolee read knows that this studied poet brings a fresh perspective to poesy.
We encourage poets to read three short poems or two medium-sized. We like to get a sense of who you are! We ask for a $3 donation to assist the poet and Old Songs if you can, more if you like.
National Poetry Month at the Roeliff Jan Community Library
The Roeliff Jan Community Library invites the community to celebrate National Poetry Month in April with a wide ranging series of events, including poetry readings, speakers, films and a poetry workshop at the Library’s new facility. The Library is located at 9091 Rte. 22, approximately 1/2 mile south of the traffic light in Hillsdale. (Hillsdale is in Columbia County east of Hudson near the Massachusetts line.) Following is the schedule of events:
Saturday, April 2, 4:30 p.m.
Joan Murray, poet and playwright, and Old Chatham resident, will open the festival. The theme of her reading and the open reading that follows is “Poems of Rural Life.” She is the author of prize-winning books from W.W. Norton, Beacon Press, and Wesleyan University Press, and is one of 41 US Poets to be awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. Her website is JoanMurray.com. Join us! Bring a favorite poem or one of your own.
Sunday, April 3, 2 p.m.
Bruno Navasky, poet and elementary school teacher, will talk about reading poetry with children and read some of his favorite poems. He will discuss teaching poetry in the classroom and his editorial process in selecting poems for his anthologies. He is editor of Poem in Your Pocket for Young Poets (2011), Festival in My Heart: Poems by Japanese Children (1993), and Sixty Years of American Poetry (1996). His publications include poems, reviews, and translations in the New York Times, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He is a former editor of American Poet and a current board member of The Academy of American Poets.
Friday, April 8, 7 p.m.
Film Screening of Dead Poets Society. English professor John Keating instills in his student a love of poetry and inspires them to seize the day. With Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles. Directed by Peter Weir.
Saturday, April 9, 11 a.m.
Poetry for Children. Bruno Navasky will lead parents or grandparents and children in reading and sharing favorite poems. He will provide poems or you can bring your own favorites.
Saturday, April 9, 2 p.m.
Shakespeare Performance. Costumed dramatic readings by Taconic Hills High School students.
Sunday, April 10, 2 p.m.
Peter Bergman, Executive Director, The Millay Society, will discuss Edna St. Vincent Millay’s neighboring home, Steepletop, and her place in the twenty first century. Through poetry, prose, and photography, Bergman will explore the world of Edna St. Vincent Millay, bringing her life alive again more than sixty years after an untimely death. Peter is a writer and reviewer for area papers and a regional playwright with seven dramas and comedies set in the Berkshires. His new novel, Small Ironies, is being published in 2011.
Friday, April 15, 7 p.m.
An Evening with Peter Dufault: Screening, What I Meant to Tell you: An American Poet’s ‘State of the Union,’ a film about Dufault, directed by his son, Ethan Dufault, followed by a short reading. In his poems, nature is the sublime bedrock that forms the basis for ethics and spirituality. A WWII pilot and 1968 Congressional candidate, Dufault remains a peace activist and musician. This is an opportunity to hear him read poems that bridge the gaps between the personal, physical, and political worlds. Author of seven poetry books, his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, and Poetry.
Saturday, April 30, 2 p.m.
J. Daniel Beaudry, Reading and Poetry Writing Workshop / A Way of Poetry?—It is hard to tell if the world is just naturally more luminous to poets, or if it is made so through their engagement in the process of writing. One thing is certain, however: vibrant experiencing and poetry are intertwined. During this workshop, elements of the Buddhist and Imagist poetic traditions will inform participants’ personal explorations of the possibility that the process—the practice—of writing poetry can lead to a fuller and truer way of being alive.
Daniel Beaudry’s poetry has appeared in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Nature in Legend and Story, and world-renowned canopy biologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni’s book, Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees. Daniel divides his time between Saint Rose and Hudson Valley Community College where he teaches Japanese Literature, the Literature of the Returning Soldier, and Composition and Rhetoric. He is studying to become a Tendai Buddhist priest and is the President of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society. The reading is open to all. However, registration for the workshop will be limited to 12 participants. To register contact Cecele Kraus at (518) 329-3056 or cecelekraus@gmail.com.
Gary Soto reading at Siena College, April 14
The English Department of Siena College is pleased to announce that award-winning poet Gary Soto will be visiting in April. The author of 23 books, Gary Soto is a poet, playwright, essayist and children’s book writer. Widely anthologized, he is a frequent contributor to magazines such as Threepenny Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crazy Horse and Poetry, which has honored him with both the Bess Hokin and Levinson Prizes. He has received the Discovery/The Nation Award, as well as the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children’s Video, the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He has also received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the California Arts Council. A National Book Award finalist for New and Selected Poems, Soto divides his time between Berkeley and his hometown of Fresno, California.
Gary Soto will be visiting the campus of Siena College, meeting with students in formal and informal settings throughout the day. The visit will culminate in Soto reading from his work at 7 p.m. in the West Room of Serra Hall.
Favorite Poem Project in Rensselaerville April 16, 3 p.m.
We invite you to participate in Rensselaerville’s Sixth Annual Favorite Poem Project. As part of a national movement begun by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky, this event brings communities together by inviting citizens to bring their favorite poems to read aloud in a relaxed poetry celebration. This year’s Favorite Poem Project will take place at Conkling Hall on Methodist Hill Rd. in Rensselaerville on Saturday, April 16, from 3-5 p.m.
To provide some “Open Mic” access, participants may read both a favorite poem and an original poem. Refreshments served.
Also, save these dates: July 29-31 for the Rensselaerville Library’s Second Festival of Writers – featuring such well-known writers as: Jean Craighead George, Nick Flynn, Francine Prose, Verlyn Klinkenborg, Helen Benedict and Stephen O’Connor among others. Events will include writing workshops, readings, a theatrical experience, a film showing, lawn party, and a photography exhibit. The theme for the Festival is “a sense of place.” Hopefully, there will be room and time for an Open Mic as well.
Smith’s Tavern Second Annual Poet Laureate Contest, April 17
Sunday, April 17, at noon sharp at Smith’s Tavern, 112 Maple Avenue, Voorheesville. Prizes are: Poet Laureate – $100; Second Place – $50; Honorable Mention – $25. Open to the first 25 poets who register by emailing to dsullivan6@nycap.rr.com, starting noon March 21. E-mail must be from the registering poet only. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by March 28.
Each poet will read three poems (one per round) of 25, 35, 45 (or fewer) lines respectively, the title of the poem not being counted. Poets will read the title of the poem followed by the body without introductory remarks, and only once. Poets must bring five hard copies of each poem to the contest to be handed in to Laureate Coordinator, Michael Burke, at time of registration. The poems for all three rounds must have lines visibly and neatly numbered in the margin for easy identification, and name at top, before they will be accepted.
***
