Cambridge Common Writers

Main Point Books Presents Pamelo Petro, "The Long Field"
2023-10-22 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Main Point Books, 116 N. Wayne Avenue, Wayne, Pennsylvania, 19087, United States
Main Point Books and The Welsh Society of Philadelphia welcomes Pamela Petro (Nonfiction/Graphic Novels & Comics), author of The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence, a Memoir. This new book, perfect for fans of H Is for Hawk, is an intimate memoir of belonging and loss and a mesmerizing travelogue through the landscapes and language of Wales.

Reservations are requested via Eventbrite; walk-ins are welcome. Books are for sale through Eventbrite and the store’s website, and will be available during the event. Signed copies can be mailed within the U.S.

Pamela Petro is a writer, artist, and educator and the author of four books, including “Sitting Up with the Dead: A Storied Journey through the American South” and “Travels in an Old Tongue: Touring the World Speaking Welsh.” Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic, Granta, Guernica, Paris Review, and others. Pamela teaches creative writing at Smith College and in Lesley University’s MFA Program, and is codirector of the Dylan Thomas Summer School at the University of Wales, where she is a fellow. Pamela is also a visual artist who lives in Northampton, MA, with her partner, Marguerite, and Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Topaz.

A﻿bout the Book

Hiraeth is a Welsh word that’s famously hard to translate. Literally, it can mean “long field” but generally translates into English, inadequately, as “homesickness.” At heart, hiraeth suggests something like a bone-deep longing for an irretrievable place, person, or time—an acute awareness of the presence of absence.

In The Long Field, Pamela Petro braids essential hiraeth stories of Wales with tales from her own life—as an American who found an ancient home in Wales, as a gay woman, as the survivor of a terrible AMTRAK train crash, and as the daughter of a parent with dementia. Through the pull and tangle of these stories and her travels throughout Wales, hiraeth takes on radical new meanings. There is traditional hiraeth of place and home, but also queer hiraeth; and hiraeth triggered by technology, immigration, ecological crises, and our new divisive politics. On this journey, the notion begins to morph from a uniquely Welsh experience to a universal human condition, from deep longing to the creative responses to loss that Petro sees as the genius of Welsh culture. It becomes a tool to understand ourselves in our time.

A finalist for the Wales Book of the Year Award and named to the Telegraph’s and Financial Times’s Top 10 lists for travel writing, The Long Field is an unforgettable exploration of “the hidden contours of the human heart.”

Poetry Reading with Rebecca Faulkner and Guests
2023-10-26 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby St, New York, New York, 10012, United States
Readings by:

Rebecca Faulkner

Molly Zhu

Robbie Gamble (Poetry/Nonfiction, January 2017/June 2020)

Anna Genevieve Winham

Kyle Studstill

Rebecca Faulkner is a London-born poet based in Brooklyn. The author of Permit Me to Write My Own Ending, (Write Bloody Press, 2023) her work appears in New York Quarterly, The Maine Review, The Poetry Society of New York, CALYX Press, Berkeley Poetry Review and elsewhere. She is a 2023 poetry recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women, and the 2022 winner of Sand Hills Literary Magazine’s National Poetry Contest. Rebecca was a 2021 Poetry Fellow at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. She is currently at work on her second collection, exploring female identity and artistic endeavor. www.rebeccafaulknerpoet.com

Molly Zhu is a Chinese American poet and attorney. She likes to write about alter egos, chasms, dreams, tears, rage, translation and the women in her life. She was twice nominated for Pushcart prizes and has been published in both print and online journals including Hobart Pulp, the Ghost City Press, and Bodega Magazine, among others. She serves as assistant poetry editor for Passengers Journal, and she is the winner of the 2021 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize awarded by the Cordella Press. Her debut chapbook, Asian American Translations, is now available for purchase.

Robbie Gamble is the author of A Can of Pinto Beans (Lily Poetry Review Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in Whale Road Review, Lunch Ticket, Poet Lore, Post Road, Salamander, and The Sun. Robbie was the winner of the 2017 Carve Poetry Prize, and he was a 2019 Robert Taylor fellow at the Kenyon Summer Writers Workshop. His essay “Exit Wound” was cited as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2020. Robbie is the poetry editor for Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, and he divides his time between Boston and Vermont. www.robbiegamble.com

Anna Genevieve Winham is an award-winning writer who serves as the Development Director for PSNY, the EIC for Passengers Journal, and the Marketing Director for EdTech startup Biblionasium. She also performs in the Poetry Brothel, and she previously edited Oxford Public Philosophy. Anna writes at the crossroads of science and the sublime, cyborgs and the surreal, and you’ll find her work in Ninth Letter, New York Quarterly, the Oxford Review of Books, Brooklyn Magazine, and Meetinghouse Magazine online among others. While attending Dartmouth College (which was the pits), she won the Stanley Prize for experimental essay and the Kaminsky Family Fund Award. She’s working on her novel—ask her about it, if you dare.

Kyle Studstill is a Brooklyn-based performance poet, word artist, and visual artist. His work is about finding deep humility, about reckoning with our own vivid and terrifying self-awareness, and about being better humans in a more-than-human world. His story-driven writing has appeared in Monocle Magazine, CreativeMornings, and Fast Company. His visual art has been featured by NYC street art pillars Up Magazine, Sour Mouse, 188 Allen and Soiree Henzo. His performance poetry has been featured by the Poetry Brothel, Inspired Word NYC, and the New York City Poetry Festival.

Arrowsmith Fall 2023 Book Launch
2023-11-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Boston University Katzenberg Center, 871 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States
Join Arrowsmith Press for their Fall 2023 Book Launch with authors Christopher Merrill, Diane Mehta, and Steven Cramer (MFA Writing Faculty, Poetry). This event will take place both in-person at the Boston University Katzenberg Center and online.

CCW Book Launch with Jody Hobbs Hesler
2023-11-02 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Join Cambridge Common Writers as we celebrate the launch of Jody Hobbs Hesler’s (Fiction, June 2017) new book, What Makes You Think You’re Supposed to Feel Better.

The grisly death of the hermit outsider in a tight-knit neighborhood prompts a young mom to yearn for solitude. A man wrestles with regrets from a 30-year-old affair while his wife hovers toward death in the ICU. An older, childless woman aches to rescue the seemingly mistreated child she observes in the grocery store. And a girl’s desire to avoid the party her father dragged her to nearly gets her abducted. Told with restraint and deep compassion against the backdrop of Virginia back streets and small towns, Jody Hobbs Hesler’s debut collection shines with its portraits of longing, disconnection, and the ache for renewal and redemption that comes from our own frailties.

Book World Meets Wine World with Jody Hobbs Hesler
2023-11-03 16:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Revalation Vineyards, 2710 Hebron Valley Rd, Madison, Virginia, 22727, United States
Jody Hobbs Hesler (Fiction, June 2017) will present her book What Makes You Think You’re Supposed to Feel Better as part of a benefit for the Literacy Council of Madison County at Revalation Vineyards.

The grisly death of the hermit outsider in a tight-knit neighborhood prompts a young mom to yearn for solitude. A man wrestles with regrets from a 30-year-old affair while his wife hovers toward death inthe ICU. An older, childless woman aches to rescue the seemingly mistreated child she observes in the grocery store. And a girl’s desire to avoid the party her father dragged her to nearly gets her abducted. Told with restraint and deep compassion against the backdrop of Virginia back streets and small towns, Jody Hobbs Hesler’s debut collection shines with its portraits of longing, disconnection, and the ache for renewal and redemption that comes from our own frailties.

Steven Cramer and Pamela Petro at Tidepool Bookshop
2023-11-08 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Tidepool Bookshop, 372 Chandler Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01602, United States
Steven Cramer (Poetry, MFA Writing Faculty) and Pamela Petro (Nonficton/Graphic Novel & Comics, MFA Writing Faculty) will be at Tidepool Bookshop to read and discuss their respective works, Departures from Rilke and The Long Field.

Steven Cramer’s newest book of poems, Departures from Rilke, derives from his favorites among Rainer Maria Rilke’s two volumes of New Poems (1907/08). Cramer repurposes, updates, and sometimes upends the subject matter and style of the originals, often leaving Rilke’s premises almost altogether. A practice dating back to Thomas Wyatt’s imports of Petrarch and including Robert Lowell’s Imitations (1961), Cramer’s approach makes for an original poetry of personal and contemporary resonance, while remaining alert to Rilke’s chastening presence.

In The Long Field, Pamela Petro braids essential hiraeth stories of Wales with tales from her own life—as an American who found an ancient home in Wales, as a gay woman, as the survivor of a terrible AMTRAK train crash, and as the daughter of a parent with dementia. Through the pull and tangle of these stories and her travels throughout Wales, hiraeth takes on radical new meanings. There is traditional hiraeth of place and home, but also queer hiraeth; and hiraeth triggered by technology, immigration, ecological crises, and our new divisive politics. On this journey, the notion begins to morph from a uniquely Welsh experience to a universal human condition, from deep longing to the creative responses to loss that Petro sees as the genius of Welsh culture. It becomes a tool to understand ourselves in our time.

The Making of a Picture Book: From Concept to Completion with Deborah Sosin
2023-11-08 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
DEBORAH SOSIN (Nonfiction, January 2015) is a writer, editor, psychotherapist, and GrubStreet instructor. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe Magazine, Salon, Cognoscenti, Brevity Blog, and elsewhere. Her craft essay on the self as antihero in creative nonfiction appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle. She is the author of the forthcoming Sober Starting Today Workbook: Powerful Mindfulness & CBT Tools to Help You Break Free from Addiction (March 2024, New Harbinger Publications). Her picture book, Charlotte and the Quiet Place, illustrated by Sara Woolley (Parallax Press, 2015), won the Gold INDIEFAB and Silver IPPY awards, among several honors. In addition to her Lesley MFA, she holds an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work. Since 2009, Debbie has led “Write It Like It Is” freewriting groups. She is working on an essay collection titled Heartbeats and Other Seismic Matters.

Cornerstone Press Book Launch with Jody Hobbs Hesler
2023-11-09 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Noel Fine Arts Center Michelsen Hall, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 1800 Portage St, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, 54481, United States
Join Cornerstone Press for a celebration of several of their authors, including Jeff Esterholm, Jody Hobbs Hesler (Fiction, June 2017), and Kevin Clouther. This event will be in-person and livestreamed.

Red Letter Live Poetry Readings with Steven Cramer
2023-11-12 13:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Arlington Center for the Arts’ Shaira Ali Gallery, 20 Academy St, Arlington, Massachusetts, 02476, United States
Back again for 2023, Arlington Open Studios will be hosting poetry readings by local poets. This year’s readings are being presented in the Arlington Center for the Arts’ Shaira Ali Gallery, 3rd floor of the Arlington Community Center, 1-3pm.

Participating Poets:

Steven Cramer (Poetry, MFA Writing Faculty)

Charles O. Hartman

Nathan McClain

Lee Varon

Elizabeth Burke

Lifting Up Marginalized Voices: Reading and Discussion
2023-11-14 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Potter’s House, 1658 COLUMBIA ROAD NORTHWEST, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009, United States
Join Sunu P. Chandy, Jody Hobbs Hesler (Fiction, June 2017), and Martha Anne Toll for Lifting Up Marginalized Voices: a Reading and Discussion at The Potter’s House!

Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a social justice activist including through her work as a poet and a civil rights attorney. She’s the daughter of immigrants from Kerala, India, a queer woman of color, and lives in Washington, D.C. with her family. Her award-winning collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was published by Regal House in 2023.

Jody Hobbs Hesler has written ever since she could hold a pencil and now lives and writes in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her debut story collection, What Makes You Think You’re Supposed to Feel Better was published by Cornerstone Press in October 2023. Jody teaches at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia and reads for The Los Angeles Review.

Martha Anne Toll’s debut novel, Three Muses, was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize and won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction. Toll brings a long career in social justice to her work covering authors of color and women writers as a critic and author interviewer at NPR Books, the Washington Post, Pointe Magazine, The Millions, and elsewhere. Toll is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and serves on the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

All Water Has Perfect Memory: Book Talk with Nada-Samih-Rotondo
2023-11-15 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Ave, Mystic, Connecticut, 06355, United States
Mystic Seaport Museum is excited to host local author Nada Samih-Rotondo (Fiction, June 2012) as she reads excerpts from her new memoir, All Water Has Perfect Memory, in the Treworgy Planetarium. Guests will enjoy an immersive storytelling experience that showcases the exact star patterns overhead as they appear in her book, followed by a Q&A session and an opportunity to purchase a signed copy of All Water Has Perfect Memory. This program is best for ages 13+. Registration is required to attend.

Care in Publishing: Resilience in the Face of Rejection with Nada Samih-Rotondo
2023-12-02 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | LitArts RI, 400 Harris Ave Unit E, Providence, Rhode Island, 02909, United States
Local authors share strategies for coping with rejection on the road to publication at LitArts RI.

The path to publication can be riddled with rejection. Whether you are looking for an agent, submitting to publishers, sending your manuscript out to contests, or receiving a challenging round of editorial feedback, cultivating care is key. On Sat, Dec 2, join local authors Rebekah Bergman, Nada Samih-Rotondo (Fiction, June 2012) and Candace Williams at LitArts RI for an honest discussion about the difficulties inherent in traditional publishing—including the barriers writers from historically underrepresented identities are forced to navigate—and explore the resources and self-care practices these recently published authors turned to in moments of despair. Learn productive strategies for approaching the publishing world, connect with fellow writers facing these challenges, and shore up your resilience in the face of rejection.

This event is made possible by funding from Providence Arts Culture and Tourism and the Dexter Donation.

About the Panelists

Rebekah Bergman‘s debut novel The Museum of Human History (Tin House, 2023) was named one of Wired Magazine’s best books of summer and received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness. Her writing appears in Joyland, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and other journals. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her family.

Nada Samih-Rotondo is a multi-genre Palestinian American writer, educator, and mother. A graduate of Rhode Island College, she earned degrees in English and Education and an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University. When she is not befriending trees or attuning to hidden stories, she is leading transformational educational experiences and addressing the social-emotional needs of historically underserved and multilingual youth. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and Squat Birth Journal. She lives in Providence with her husband and three children and works at Brown University’s Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice as the Public Education and Community Engagement Coordinator. All Water Has Perfect Memory is her first book.

Candace Williams is a poet and interdisciplinary artist. I Am the Most Dangerous Thing (Alice James Books, 2023) is their debut full-length poetry collection. Candace earned their Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) from Claremont McKenna College and Master of Arts in Education from Stanford University. They grew up in the Pacific Northwest and found love and poetry in Brooklyn, New York. Now, Candace lives and makes art in New England.

Lily Poetry Review Presents Askold Melnyczuk and Steven Cramer
2023-12-03 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Join Lily Poetry Review as Askold Melnyczuk and Steven Cramer (Poetry, MFA Writing Faculty) read from their works.

Tufts English Department Creative Writing Showcase with Jennifer LeBlanc
2023-12-04 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Granoff Music Center, Room 155, Tufts University, 20 Talbot Ave, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, United States
A reading by faculty and staff, followed by a reception.

EmmaJean Holley

Jennifer LeBlanc (Poetry, June 2012)

Anna V.Q. Ross

Noa Saunders

David Valdes

Befriend Your Inner Critic Workshop with Deborah Sosin
2023-12-05 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
You might be familiar with your Inner Critic—the voice that says you’re not good enough. Or compares yourself to others. Or expects nothing but perfection. Our instinct is to push that voice away. But, paradoxically, we can find more inner peace and free up creative energy by moving toward that voice, with curiosity and compassion. In this workshop, we will cover the roots and purpose of the Inner Critic and how it affects writers and other creative people. We’ll look at seven types of Inner Critics, including the Perfectionist, the Task Master, and the Guilt Tripper, followed by a self-assessment quiz to determine your predominant types. Finally, you’ll learn specific skills and strategies for managing your Inner Critic so that you can move happily forward in your writing life.

Overview:

What is the Inner Critic (IC)?

Roots of the IC

Purpose of the IC

Seven Types of IC

Brief self-assessment tool to identify participants’ predominant type of IC

Strategies and tools for befriending the IC

Q&A and discussion

Hosted by Cambridge Common Writers and led by Deborah Sosin (Nonfiction, January 2015).

Poetry Round Robin with Kate Kearns
2023-12-07 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Scarborough Public Library Meeting Room, 48 Gorham Road, Scarborough, Maine, 04074, United States
Come join the fun as local poets Kate Kearns (Poetry, June 2008), Meghan Sterling, and Katherine Hagopian Berry play “round robin” with poetry.

Instead of each of person doing a “set,” they take turns sharing one poem at a time that’s related to the one that came before, so they keep responding and building on each other. It’s impossible to plan ahead and more spontaneous and fun for the audience.

Katie Cotugno LA Book Launch for Meet the Benedettos
2023-12-08 19:00 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Ripped Bodice – Los Angeles, 3806 Main St., Culver City, California, 90232, United States
The Ripped Bodice is hosting an LA launch event with Katie Cotugno (Fiction, June 2015) on Friday, December 8th at 7pm PST. She will be in conversation about her new novel, Meet the Benedettos, with author Elissa Sussman.

There will be a book signing to follow. This is a ticketed event that includes a copy of the book.

Can’t attend the event? Signed books are available for in-store pick-up and shipping here.

An A-list movie star moves to Los Angeles—next door to a family of five eligible sisters—in this irresistible novel where The Kardashians meets Pride and Prejudice, from the NYT bestselling author of Birds of California.

Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed them to pop-culture fame, the five twenty-something sisters are living together in their parents’ crumbling McMansion, nearly broke and teetering towards rock-bottom. Lilly, the sensible second-eldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle, but she’s focused on holding herself and her family together, and unlike her siblings she tends not to care what the world thinks.

The Benedettos’ fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of Captain Fantastic, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend Will Darcy in tow. It isn’t long before Charlie falls for the warm and lovely eldest sister, June. Lilly has no such luck: the arrogant and judgmental Will Darcy, a man plagued by his own private demons, seems ready to clash with her at every turn–yet the two can’t seem to stay away from each other. And while the Benedettos’ matriarch sets to work encouraging a potential match between Charlie and June, there are plenty of others in the community who are determined to steer these eligible young men away from a ridiculous family of reality show has-beens…

Katie Cotugno brings a big, boisterous cast of characters to life in this deliciously sprawling LA story—a thoroughly fresh and modern tale about a family that’s “famous for being famous,” the ways that preconceived notions make fools of us all, and how unexpected romance can bloom despite the odds.

An Evening with Kate Fussner, author of The Song of Us
2023-12-13 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Barefoot Books, 23 Bradford St, Second Floor, Concord, Massachusetts, 01742, United States
Barefoot Books is committed to opening children’s hearts, minds, and worlds so that they can embody kindness in all its forms. 826 Boston thanks Barefoot Books for hosting this event at their Bradford Mill home in West Concord. Featuring author Kate Fussner (WFYP, June 2021), whose debut middle-grade novel, The Song of Us, retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in modern-day middle school.

The Eras Tour: Local Author Edition with Sara Zarr
2023-12-13 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 South 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84105, United States
On the 13th of December, join 13 local authors for a special event at The King’s English Bookshop! Meet authors in unique reading “eras”, get your books signed, and hang out with other readers and collect bookish friendship bracelets! This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Authors:

Lyla Sage: Cowboy Romance Era

Tricia Levenseller: Romantasy Era

Tiana Smith: Romance Era

Kathryn Purdie: Fantasy Fairytale Era

Samantha Hastings: Historical Romance Era/Cozy Mystery Era

Bradeigh Godfrey: Thriller Era/Romance Era

Kaela Rivera: Middle Grade Era

Lena Jeong: Fantasy Era

Lindsey Leavitt: Kid Lit Era

Sara Zarr (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty): Kid Lit Era

Mackenzi Lee: Adventure Era/Historical Fiction Era

Krysti Meyer: Rom-Com Era

Mickey George: Graphic Novel Era/Historical Fiction Era

What The Universe Is: Adrian Matejka and Kevin Prufer
2023-12-13 20:30 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Come close out the 2023 season of What The Universe Is with two of America’s finest poets:

Adrian Matejka was born in Germany as part of a military family. He grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is the author of The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003) which won the New York / New England Award and Mixology (Penguin, 2009), a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series. His third collection, The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013), was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The Big Smoke was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His next collection, Map to the Stars, was published by Penguin in 2017.

Kevin Prufer’s (Poetry, MFA Writing Faculty) newest poetry collection, The Fears, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2023. His new novel, Sleepaway, will appear in 2024 from Acre Books. He is also the author of several other books of poetry, including The Art of Fiction (2021), How He Loved Them (2018), Churches (2014), In a Beautiful Country (2011), and National Anthem (2008), all from Four Way Books. Prufer is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston and the low-residency MFA at Lesley University.

Sara Levine for “Sensitive”, Storytime
2023-12-16 09:30 - 10:30 (America/New_York) | People’s Book, 7014-A Westmoreland Ave, Takoma Park, Maryland, 20912, United States
Join Sara Levine (Nonfiction/WFYP, January 2006), author of Sensitive, for a storytime event.

Sara Levine is an author, educator and a veterinarian. Her books for children include four books in the Animal by Animal series, illustrated by T.S Spookytooth: Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons; Tooth by Tooth: Comparing Fangs; Tusks and Chompers; Fossil by Fossil: Comparing Dinosaur Bones; and Eye by Eye: Comparing How Animals See.

Sara’s books have received multiple awards, among them: Utah Beehive Book Award, Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, Cook Prize honor book for best STEM picture book, AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books, Monarch Award Master List, Junior Library Guild selection, and Mathical Book Prize.

Open Write: Refining Your Skills for Screenwriting with Thato Mwosa
2023-12-16 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Join Company One Theatre on Saturday, December 16 from 11am-1pm ET for a free online experience led by C1 Resident Playwright Kirsten Greenidge and guest artist Thato Mwosa (WSS, June 2017)!

Breaking into screenwriting can seem daunting, but not when you lean on your established craft and practice! Let your curiosity guide you as you learn to apply existing skills to an unfamiliar format.

RSVP required; this is a Pay-What-You-Want experience with $0 minimum. All proceeds support C1’s mission to build community at the intersection of art and social change.

Black Writers Read Presents Writers Across the Margins: Nada Samih-Rotondo
2023-12-16 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Facebook Live
Join Black Writers Read for a chat with Nada Samih-Rotondo (Fiction, June 2012) on her debut book, All Water Has Perfect Memory.

Nada Samih-Rotondo is a multi-genre Palestinian American writer, educator, and mother. A graduate of Rhode Island College, she earned degrees in English and Education and an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University. When she is not befriending trees or attuning to hidden stories, she is leading transformational educational experiences and addressing the social-emotional needs of historically underserved and multilingual youth. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and Squat Birth Journal. She lives in Providence with her husband and three children. All Water Has Perfect Memory is her first book.

To learn more about Nada and her other work, please visit https://nowapproachingprovidence.wordpress.com.

This event is presented in collaboration with Levee Break Lit.

Writer to Writer - An Intimate Chat Between Ira Mathur & Celeste Mohammed
2023-12-16 15:30 - 16:30 (America/Halifax) | The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair, Trinidad and Tobago
2022 OCM Bocas Prize winner Celeste Mohammed (Fiction, June 2016) and 2023 OCM Bocas Non-Fiction Prize winner Ira Mathur cozy up to chat about the writing process, the power of creative non-fiction, and much more.

"Shangri-La" by Nancy Temple - Staged Reading with Theatre One
2023-12-17 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Mitchell Memorial Club, 29 Elm St, Middleborough, Massachusetts, 02346, United States
There will be staged reading of Nancy’s full-length play, “Shangri-La,” by Theatre One, on December 17 at 2 pm.The play has four characters: a woman with a secret, her drug-addicted son, her lover, who claims to be Lakota Indian, and an old friend who comes to visit. Lots of drama!

There will be a talkback with Nancy after the reading. Come, ask questions, give feedback.

Grolier Poetry Book Shop Presents Cynthia Bargar, Shari Caplan and Hannah Larrabee with an introduction by Eileen Cleary
2024-01-03 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plympton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States
Join the Grolier Poetry Book Shop for a reading with Cynthia Bargar, Shari Caplan (Poetry, June 2014) and Hannah Larrabee with an introduction by Eileen Cleary (Poetry, June 2016).

Registration required. This event will take place synchronously in-store at 6 Plympton Street and on Zoom.

Lesley MFA Winter Reading Series - Michelle Knudsen & Pamela Petro
2024-01-05 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | University Hall – Amphitheater, 1815 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02140, United States
Join the Lesley MFA program for an evening reading with Michelle Knudsen (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty) and Pamela Petro (Nonfiction/Graphic Novels & Comics, MFA Writing Faculty). This event will take place both in person and over Zoom.

MICHELLE KNUDSEN is the New York Times best-selling author of fifty books for children and teens, including the award-winning picture book Library Lion, which was selected by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time. Her other books include the picture book Marilyn’s Monster (NPR’s Best Books) and the novels The Dragon of Trelian (VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers) and Evil Librarian (YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults; Sid Fleischman Humor Award). She writes about love, friendship, dragons, demons, magic, musical theater, and, sometimes, giant spiders. She also writes occasional short stories for adults. Her next book will be LUIGI, THE SPIDER WHO WANTED TO BE A KITTEN, coming March 5, 2024, from Candlewick Press.

PAMELA PETRO is a writer, artist, and educator. She works in both research nonfiction and memoir—often braiding the two together—and as a visual artist works with experimental forms of photography. In addition to the MFA, she teaches creative writing at Smith College and is the Director of the Dylan Thomas Summer School at the University of Wales, Trinity St David. Her essays have been published in Lumina, The Paris Review, Granta, Slab, and Harvard Review Online.

Cambridge Public Library Presents Story Time with Sara Levine
2024-01-06 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Cambridge Public Library (O’Neill Branch), 70 Rindge Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02140, United States
Join patrons of the Cambridge Public Library on Saturday, January 6th to hear Sara Levine (Nonfiction/WFYP, January 2006) read Sensitive.

This tender picture book follows a girl who is told she is too intense, too sensitive, too much. She’s told to grow a thicker skin, but the words of others slip right through. They somersault around inside and press against her heart.

What can she do to stop the hurt?

She needs to take time alone to think and read, rest and create.

Thoughtful text, detailed collage illustrations, and an unexpected word puzzle combine in Sara Levine and Mehrdokht Amini’s moving portrayal of a girl who discovers that what others call a weakness can also be a gift.

All Lesley Reads: Ukranian Writing in a Time of Russian Invasion
2024-01-06 15:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | University Hall – Amphitheater, 1815 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02140, United States
For its January 2024 All Lesley Reads Visiting Writer Series, Lesley University’s MFA Program inCreative Writing is honored to sponsor an international conversation and reading with Ukrainian poet and translator, Yuliya Musakovska; poet and translator Olena Jennings; and essayist, novelist, and poet,Askold Melnyczuk, founder of the celebrated literary magazine AGNI and currently publisher ofArrowsmith Press.

From 3:00 to 4:00, Askold and Olena will join Yuliya from Ukraine, for a conversation about poetry,literature, translation, writing, and the arts in Ukraine now and in the past, exploring what it means towork as an international artist during war. From 4:00 to 5:00, Yuliya will read from her poetry.Questions and responses will be invited after each event. This event will be both in person and online.

Lesley MFA Winter Reading Series - Kevin Prufer & Jason Reynolds
2024-01-06 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | University Hall – Amphitheater, 1815 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02140, United States
Join the Lesley MFA program for an evening reading with Kevin Prufer (Poetry, MFA Writing Faculty) and Jason Reynolds (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty). This event will take place both in person and on Zoom.

KEVIN PRUFER is the author of seven books of poetry and the editor of numerous anthologies, the most recent of which is How He Loved Them (Four Way Books), winner of the Julie Suk Award and long-listed for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Prufer is also Co-Curator of the Unsung Masters Series, and Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston. Among Prufer’s awards and honors are four Pushcart prizes and multiple Best American Poetry selections, numerous awards from the Poetry Society of America, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation.

JASON REYNOLDS is an award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Jason’s many books include Miles Morales: Spider Man, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Correta Scott King Honor, and Look Both Ways, which was a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, is a collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi. Recently named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning.
