Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, June 15, 2011
In This Issue
Guild Announcements: 2011 Non-fiction Writing Contest
Member Announcements: Winifred Elze, Harvey Havel, Laurel Saville, Marion Roach Smith, Barbara Traynor
Area Announcements: Mike Burke featured at Third Thursday Reading in Albany, Tobias Seamon to Read in Kinderhook, Dale Hobson to Read at Sunday Four Reading in Voorheesville, Poets in the Park, Festival of Writers in Rensselaerville, Advance Registration for April Ossmann Workshop in Saratoga
Guild Announcements
2011 Non-fiction writing contest accepting submissions
The HVWG annual writing contest rotates genres each year, and our 2011 contest will be for Non-Fiction (humor, personal essay, and memoir). There is a $100 top prize in each of three categories. Submissions are being accepted through the end of August. The contest is open to residents of any part of New York State. The full guidelines are posted at our website – hvwg.org (under the “about” tab). Here is a direct link: hudsonvalleywritersguild.wordpress.com/about/contests/
Member Announcements
Visit YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=uI56erDOJqA) to see a trailer for Winifred Elze’s latest novel Tilde. She made it from old family photos with my granddaughter doing the voiceover. Enjoy!
Please join Harvey Havel for a reading and a book signing to celebrate the release of his new book of short-stories, Stories from the Fall of the Empire. One book tour date remaining. (All are welcome! Bring a friend!) Saturday, June 18, 3 p.m. – Stuyvesant Book House, 1475 Western Avenue (in Stuyvesant Plaza), Albany.
Laurel Saville would like to announce that her book, Postmortem, has just won the memoir category of the Indie Book Awards. It has also been picked up by the publishing arm of Amazon, AmazonEncore, and will be re-released this fall as Unraveling Anne. Amazon has also released three free sample chapters for the Kindle, which can be picked up at their site. More info: UnravelingAnne.com
Marion Roach Smith’s newest book, The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text on Writing & Life, is out June 9 from Grand Central Publishing. For more than a decade she has taught a class called Writing What You Know at The Arts Center of the Capital Region and elsewhere. This book is a result of what her students have taught her about telling one’s tale. Most of her work includes a large helping of memoir, including the books The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning and Sexual Power of Red Hair and Another Name for Madness, and her commentaries for NPR’s All Things Considered. Seven days a week she is on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius/XM 110, as well as at marionroach.com. For a complete list of events in and around the area, please see here: marionroach.com/classes-events/
Barbara Traynor is interested in purchasing a booth at the Senior Expo, Colonie Center, Friday, October 14, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Would any others wish to sell their books and join in? Cost would be $60 per or $80 per depending on consensus of type of booth if 10 authors participate. Deadline to apply for booth is July 1. Please email barbarawriter@yahoo.com.
Area announcements
Third Thursday Poetry Night, June 16, 7:30 p.m.
Featured Poet: Mike Burke. Mike Burke began writing poetry about 20 years ago to fulfill a creative writing requirement in order to obtain his BA in English from The Sage Colleges. It was one of the few A’s he received. It opened a new world to him, so he continues. He belongs to various poetry groups and resides in Voorheesville.
Third Thursday includes an open mic for community poets before and after the feature: $3 donation, suggested; more if you got it, less if you can’t. Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany. 7 p.m. sign up; 7:30 start. Your host: Dan Wilcox.
Tobias Seamon to Read at Kinderhook Library, June 25, 4 p.m.
The Kinderhook Memorial Library and Blackwood and Brouwer Bookstore will sponsor a reading by Tobias Seamon on Saturday, June 25, at 4 p.m. at the library. Seamon, the author of The Magician’s Study, will be reading from his new collection of short stories, The Emperor’s Toy Chest. For more information, go to tobiasseamon.com.
Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic, June 26, 3 p.m.
Come out June 26 for the last session of our third season to hear Potsdam’s Dale Hobson read from his latest book A Drop of Ink and other fine poems. It will be a treat, we can assure you! Old Songs community Arts Center, 37 S. Main Street, Voorheesville. Hosted by Dennis Sullivan, Mike Burke and Edie Adams
Poets in the Park 2011: Readings scheduled for July 9, 16, 23 & 30
Poets in the Park is celebrating over 20 years of poetry in July at the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, Albany. The series was started in 1989 by the late Tom Nattell and is now run by Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The 2011 readers are:
- July 9: Danielle D. Colin Charlestin & Daniel Nester
- July 16: Cara Benson & Gary Metras
- July 23: Alan Berecka & Rebecca Schumejda
- July 30: Alan Catlin & Marie-Elizabeth Mali
Each reading starts at 7 p.m. All readings are free and open to the public; donations accepted. The Robert Burns statue is located near where Henry Johnson Boulevard passes through Washington Park and crosses Hudson Ave. Please bring your own chairs or blankets to sit on. Rain site for each event is the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany. For more information contact Dan Wilcox, at dwlcx@earthlink.net; 518-482-0262. The series is co-sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild; for more information about the Guild visit the website hvwg.org.
Festival of Writers 2011: A Sense of Place July 28-July 31
To kick off the Rensselaerville Library’s Festival of Writers 2011, two exciting writing workshops, with memoirist Nick Flynn and poet Howard Nelson, will be offered to the public on Friday, July 29. Please call the library at (518) 797-3949 or go to the library’s website – rensselaervillelibrary.org – to register and to check out the week-end’s literary riches, featuring readings and discussions with Jean Craighead George, Francine Prose and Mary Morris among many other award-winning writers. The fee is $50 for each writing workshop. Readings/discussions are $10 each or less if a week-end pass is purchased. Register early for the writing workshops because space is limited to 20.
The Saratoga Poetry & Song Focus Group Presents an April Ossmann Workshop
Thinking Like A Poetry Editor: How to be your own best critic (The Ossman Method Poetry Workshop. Learn how to think like a poetry editor! In this one-session poetry workshop we’ll turn the usual workshop model on its head and not only allow the poet being critiqued to speak, but to speak first and critique his or her own poem, listing its strengths and weaknesses before group discussion begins. This will offer a taste of what it means to be both poet and poetry editor, a position in which it becomes easier to objectively assess your own work, spot dull vs. energetic syntax, generic vs. original imagery and other strengths and weaknesses you may have overlooked. It also empowers the poet in the process and engenders an unusually congenial workshop atmosphere.
Saturday, September 24, 9 a.m.-Noon, Saratoga Arts Center. Fee: $75. Join April Ossmann for Brown Bag Lunch from noon-1 p.m. for Informal Q & A. Advance registration and payment required. Contact Barbara Garro at The Saratoga Poetry & Song Focus Group, (518) 587-9999, WriterBarbaraGarro@ElectricEnvisions.com or ElectricEnvisions.com
