Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, December 15, 2011
In This Issue
Guild Announcements: HVWG Board Meeting, Request for Writers from Guilderland High School, Help Needed for Newsletter
Member Announcements: M.E. Kemp, Linda Sonia Miller, Laurel Saville
Area Announcements: Bookmark Holiday Reading in Troy, Jewish Identity in Contemporary American Poetry Class in Niskayuna, Call for Submissions to Henry Anthology, Fiction Writers Group forming in Southern Saratoga County
Guild Announcements
Save the date: HVWG Board Meeting, January 10
The next HVWG Board Meeting will be Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Albany Public Library Main Branch, 161 Washington Avenue, Albany. There is plenty of street parking both on Washington Avenue and behind the library on Elk Street. In addition, the library has a parking lot at the rear of the building on Elk Street.
Request for Writers from Teacher at Guilderland High School
We received the following request from a 10th grade teacher at Guilderland High School. Please contact her directly if you are interested:
From: Diane Geurin / geurind@guilderlandschools.org
Date: Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Subject: Guest Poet/Author
To: hvwginfo@gmail.com
I would like to invite some local poets and authors into my 10th Grade classes at Guilderland High School. I just hosted some journalists, and the discussions my classes had with them were very productive and lively.
I am contacting you in hopes that you can put me in touch with some of the local talent in our area who might be willing to come in for about 90 minutes and share their work and answer question about their work with my sophomore students.
Help Needed for Guild Newsletter
The editors need some relief as we have been working on this for some years now. If you have time and editing and/or computer skills please contact us at hvwginfo@gmail.com. The work involves pulling information together (usually cutting and pasting) from material sent to us by members or local organizations, and also editing and formatting the material and then publishing the newsletter to our e-list. This entails 3-4 hours twice a month but the function can be split. Currently, two Guild members act as editors.
Member Announcements
M. E. Kemp’s, vice president of HVWG, latest novel, Death of a Cape Cod Cavalier, is scheduled by her publisher for a Fall 2012 release. Kemp will have a chapter essay in an academic anthology concerning the popular character Sister Fidelma (created by Peter Tremayne) and approved by the International Sister Fidelma Society.
Linda Sonia Miller, member of the Delmar Writing Group, has a chapbook of poetry (Something Worth Diving For) coming out in March 2012 from Finishing Line Press You can visit her website for details: somethingworthdivingfor.forpr.net
“In Something Worth Diving For Linda Sonia Miller pulls a pickerel from a cold lake and finds a heart, sees children who ‘hang like damp clothes/from sofa arms’ and discovers that one of the ‘small gifts’ from the world that continually astonishes her is poetry itself. Her love poems to infancy, childhood and maturity expand with this freedom and surprise. I welcome the debut of this lively metaphorist who meditates on time in such deft quick lines.” (Molly Peacock – author of The Paper Garden, and six books of poetry, including The Second Blush and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems)
Laurel Saville’s memoir, Unraveling Anne, launched November 1 and, thanks to a great marketing campaign by her publisher, AmazonEncore, quickly jumped into a great sales position. At one point, in the Kindle store, it was ranked #2 in women’s memoirs (behind Kris Jenner – ha!), #3 in memoirs overall (right behind Joan Didion – gulp!), #3 in hot new releases, and #83 overall out of 750,000 books. The paperback version also seems to be moving right along.
The book was included in a front page New York Times story on Amazon’s entry into the traditional publishing sphere; Laurel was asked to contribute to a NYTimes.com “Room for Debate” feature on the changes in the publishing industry; the Los Angeles Times Magazine featured an adaptation of the book in its November issue; it was included in LA Magazine‘s November reading list; and, it was included in December Elle magazine‘s Reader Prize feature.
The book’s website has also been updated: UnravelingAnne.com.
Area announcements
BOOKMARKS READING | family at the holidays
Monday, December 19, 7 p.m., free. Participants will read works of prose about family and the holidays. What more can we say? What a mix, right? Curated by Marion Roach Smith. BookMarks is part of The Memoir Project, a program of The Arts Center of the Capital Region, and features a series of group readings featuring writing that is grounded broadly in personal experience. All BookMarks readings are free and open to the public.
Jewish Identity in Contemporary American Poetry
As of January 4 on Wednesdays from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m., Susan Comninos will be teaching an eight-week reading, discussion and writing course, “Jewish Identity in Contemporary American Poetry,” at Congregation Agudat Achim, in Schenectady.
The class is open to the community. It will explore a host of contemporary Jewish-American identities in poems by such authors as Gerald Stern, Grace Paley, Matthew Dickman, Katha Pollitt and Matthew Zapruder. Cost: $65 per attendee. Send a check made out to Congregation Agudat Achim (“poetry program” on the memo line) along with contact information to the Congregation’s mailing address at 2117 Union Street, Niskayuna, NY 12309. Note that the class will be limited to the first 15 students to submit registration.
Call for Submissions for Henry Anthology
Attention writers and artists – Henry, an anthology of Hudson Valley writing and art is now accepting submissions. Henry is open to writers and artists who live, work, or attend school in the Hudson Valley and whose work reflects the people, history, culture and landscape of the Hudson Valley. Short story, poetry, memoir, character sketches, interviews, photography and other art will be considered for this premiere issue. We are especially interested in interviews of Hudson Valley characters who add to the personality of our area. The deadline has been extended to January 15, 2012. For guidelines go to flamingo-publications.com or email flamingopublications10@gmail.com.
Wanted: Members for a new Southern Saratoga Fiction Writers Group
Are you a fiction writer (either published or aspiring)? Are you working on a project now? Are you interested in getting together with other fiction writers in the Southern Saratoga area for conversation, networking, brainstorming and critiques? If you answered ‘yes’ to these questions, please contact Keith via email at knightsofkilbourne@gmail.com. I am looking to form a small cadre of writers to meet on a fairly regular basis, possibly at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library. The purpose of this group will be primarily to critique one another’s work, share information about writing/publishing, and discuss the dilemmas we face in our work. Interested individuals should be currently working on a fiction project (short story or novel) which they would like to have critiqued. All genres welcome.
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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. Please use Times New Roman size 12 font whenever possible.
Thank you!
–Carolee Sherwood, Newsletter Co-Editor
-Bob Sharkey, Newsletter Co-Editor
