Cambridge Common Writers

Cambridge Common Writers Alumni Reading
2021-06-23 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Join us for an evening of reading and celebration with our CCW community. Open to current students and members of the public.

Featured Readers:

Nada Samih-Rotondo (Fiction, June 2012)Diane Griffin (Nonfiction, January 2018)Kate Kearns (Poetry, June 2008)Patty Pearson (WFYP, June 2015)Wendy Ewan (WSS, June 2018)

Chaney Kwak in conversation with Paul Lisicky
2021-06-30 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Debut author Chaney Kwak (Fiction, June 2009) appears in conversation with award-winning author Paul Lisicky to discuss The Passenger at Greenlight in Brooklyn. Lisicky is the author of six books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, one of NPR’S Best Books of 2020.

In a starred review, Foreword Reviews writes “The Passenger, with its bare-bones honesty and dry, cynical humor, reveals that when all is said and done, it’s the little things that matter: small acts of courage and kindness, words of love, and gratitude for the gift of another day.”

Shakirah Bourne presents Josephine Against the Sea: In conversation with Tracey Baptiste
2021-07-06 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Bajan author and filmmaker Shakirah Bourne joins Greenlight (virtually!) to launch her debut middle grade novel, Josephine Against the Sea, a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology!Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That’s why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team because she’ll get to play her favorite sport and use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating. But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can’t try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life. Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from the clutches of his new girlfriend, a vengeful sea creature, before it’s too late?

Tracey Baptiste (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty), bestselling author of the creepy Caribbean series The Jumbies and several other books, joins Bourne in conversation at this magical virtual book launch!

What The Universe Is: Rob Arnold, Lisa Pegram, Robbie Gamble
2021-07-08 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom
ROB ARNOLD is a Chamoru poet whose work has appeared in Ploughshares, Hyphen, Gettysburg Review, Poetry Northwest, RED INK, Yes Poetry, The Ocean State Review, Peripheries, and The Volta, among others. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and have received support from the Somerville Arts Council, the Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Artist Trust. Rob has two decades of experience in literary publishing and related positions, most recently as an agent with Aevitas Creative Management and as events curator for Hugo House. Previously, he co-founded the online journal Memorious, and worked with Ploughshares, Fence, Beacon Press, PEN New England, The National Poetry Series, and Grid Books. He lives in Seattle, where he is writing a manuscript that explores indigeneity through violence and survival, divisions of self and fragmentations of family.LISA PEGRAM, MFA (Poetry, June 2012), is a Washington, DC native writer, educator, literary publicist and acquisitions editor. Author of Cracked Calabash (Central Square Press) and winner of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award, her work has been published in anthologies by Random House and Black Classic Press, and magazines such as L’Officiel and Atlas Obscura. Lisa was DC WritersCorps program director for a decade and has over 20 years of experience in literary program design for such organizations as the Smithsonian Institute, Corcoran Gallery of Art and National Geographic. In 2018, she completed an Executive Certification in Arts & Culture Strategies from UPenn. She is currently based on the Caribbean island of St. Martin.ROBBIE GAMBLE (Poetry/Nonfiction, January 2017/June 2020) (he/him) received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. His poems and essays have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Cutthroat, Poet Lore, RHINO, Rust + Moth, and Tahoma Literary Review, among others. He was the winner of the 2017 Carve Poetry prize, and was a 2019 Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Sumer Writers Workshop. Robbie is the Associate Poetry Editor at Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices. He worked for many years as a nurse practitioner at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, and now divides his time between Boston and Vermont.

Virtual Launch with Nisha Sharma and Axie Oh
2021-07-13 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Celebrate the releases of Nisha Sharma’s Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance and Axie Oh’s (WFYP, June 2017) XOXO in conversation with Ayman Chaudry hosted by Books of Wonder. There will be a Q&A portion with the audience.

Blurred Lines Writing Workshop with Novuyo Masakhane and Leah Young
2021-07-17 00:00 - 2021-07-18 23:59 (America/New_York) | Online Event
A 2-day generative writing workshop with teachers Novuyo Masakhane (Fiction, January 2021) and Leah Young (Nonfiction, January 2018). July 17-18 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. each day.

Day 1 Saturday:

We will focus on comparing and contrasting craft elements of fiction and creative non-fiction, such as: voice, setting, character and inspiration. Participants will work with a variety of writing prompts. There will be discussion of writing process and time for Q&A.

Day 2 Sunday:

We will pivot to projects in development and new writing, working with writing prompts, discussion and Q&A.

NOTE: Enrolled participants will receive their unique link to the online event the day before the workshop.

About the Presenters:

Novuyo Masakhane MFA s an interdisciplinary artist: writer, dancer/choreographer, filmmaker, and educator. Masakhane is a graduate of Lesley University’s creative writing program. She’s the founder and producer of String of Pearls Creative Writing Salon. Last but surely not least, Novuyo is mother and grandma, and makes her home in Santa Monica, California. She’s currently working on her novel, ‘House of Jewels’ and a short story collection. Her work appears in the Milvia Street Art and Literary Journal.

Leah Young MFA teaches English Rhetoric & Composition at College of Southern Nevada, is a visual artist and published author. She is the founder and director of The Art of Women Foundation and owner of Powher Books. Leah created and taught an online blogging course for beginners and The Creative Fire writing workshop. Leah is also a graduate of Lesley University’s creative writing program. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Powher Books LIVE with Celeste Mohammed
2021-07-20 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Join Powher Books (founded by Nonfiction alum Leah Young) and Celeste Mohammed (Fiction, June 2016) for a discussion of Celeste’s debut novel, Pleasantview, along with guest author panelists Suzanne Edison (Poetry, June 2016), and Benjamin Roesch (Fiction, January 2016).

Celeste has been a lawyer since 2001 but she has been telling stories all her life. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2016, she graduated from Lesley University with an MFA in Creative Writing. Celeste’s goal is to dispel all myths about island-life and island-people, and to highlight the points of intersection between Caribbean and North American interests. In particular, she aims to showcase Trinidad’s entrenched political, racial, and class alliances; the generosity (and yet, cruelty) of the average Trini; the sense of optimism (and yet, harsh reality) which permeates everyday interaction; and the musicality and resonance of Caribbean creole (kriol) expression. She currently resides in Trinidad with her family.

Powher Books Live with Tavi Taylor Black
2021-08-03 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Join Lesley MFA alum-founded Powher Books for a conversation about her work.

Tavi Taylor Black (Fiction, June 2008) lives on an island near Seattle where she designs sets for the Vashon Dance Academy, works as the tour manager for Deva Premal & Miten with Manose (a musical mantra group), and was the founding director of the Dove Project, an anti-domestic violence non-profit organization. Before earning an MFA from Lesley University, Tavi spent 14 years touring with rock bands. Her work has been published in Literary Mama, The Zodiac Review, and is forthcoming in Levee Magazine.

Book Launch with Andrea Wang in Convo w/ Debbi Michiko Florence
2021-08-17 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Celebrate the launch of THE MANY MEANINGS OF MEILAN with award-winning author Andrea Wang (WFYP, June 2011), in conversation with Debbi Michiko Florence who is celebrating the release of JUST BE COOL, JENNA SAKAI. Copies of Debbi’s books are not able to be personalized at this time. Only Andrea’s MG novel will offer personalization.

Andrea Wang is the award-winning author of the picture books The Nian Monster, Magic Ramen, and Watercress. The Many Meanings of Meilan is her debut middle-grade novel. The first character in Andrea’s Chinese name is an archaic one that means fragrant, but her parents’ friends all thought it was the character for jade, which sounds exactly the same. That sparked her lifelong interest in names and identity. She’d much rather be a rock than smelly. Andrea likes to write about family, food, and culture. She spent her childhood in Ohio and Boston and now lives in Colorado with her family.

Debbi Michiko Florence is the author of middle grade novels Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai, which received a starred review from Kirkus, Keep It Together, Keiko Carter, a New England Book Award finalist; and the Jasmine Toguchi chapter books. A third-generation Japanese American and native Californian, Debbi lives in Connecticut with her husband, rescue dog, rabbit, and duck. Visit her online at debbimichikoflorence.com.

The Long Field: A Memoir of Wales and the Presence of Absence--author talk with Pamela Petro
2021-08-18 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
The Long Field burrows deep into the Welsh countryside to tell how this small country became a big part of an American writer’s life. Petro twines her story around that of Wales by viewing both through the lens of hiraeth, a Welsh word that’s famously hard to translate, deriving from an old usage meaning ‘long field’, but is also the name for the bone-deep longing for something or someone – a home, culture, language, or a younger self. The Long Field braids memoir with the essential hiraeth stories of Wales, and in doing so creates a radical new vision of place and belonging.

Pamela Petro (Nonfiction, MFA Writing Faculty) 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.

Writers’ Room of Boston Reading Series: Featuring Amy Yelin
2021-09-09 19:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Join the Writers’ Room of Boston to welcome Robin Lippincott and Amy Yelin (Nonfiction, June 2005) for the next event in their reading series. This event is free and open to all, hosted on Crowdcast.

Amy Yelin is a versatile wordsmith whose articles, essays and author interviews have appeared in Salon.com, The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe Magazine, Brainchild, The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Literary Mama, The ManifestStation, and other publications. Her awards and recognitions include a Pushcart nomination for “The Memoirist” (Lunch Ticket), a Best of the Net nomination for “Taboo” (Pithead Chapel), and a Best American Essays notable mention for “Torn” (The Baltimore Review).

Amy earned her MFA in creative writing at Lesley University, where upon graduation she mentored students for several years as part of the program’s interdisciplinary component. She occasionally teaches for Grub Street in Boston and most recently she was also awarded a fellowship to The Writers’ Room in Boston. She is currently working on a memoir titled, A Stranger There.

The Poets Corner: The Red Thread with Andrea Ballou Read and Anne Riesenberg
2021-09-12 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Join The Poets Corner to hear poetry from four women’s voices.

Megan Grumbling will be reading from Persephone in the Late Anthropocene, along with:

Andrea Ballou Read (Poetry, June 2015)Anne Riesenberg (Nonfiction)Abby Flanagan

Andrea Read’s poems have appeared most recently in Barrow Street, Black Rabbit Quarterly, Copper Nickel, FIELD, Ilanot Review, Plume, The Missouri Review, and Tupelo Quarterly. Andrea is the recipient of a National Resource Fellowship, a Tinker Foundation Grant, an Artist’s Fellowship from the Somerville Arts Council, as well as a Project Grant for a weekly poetry workshop for elders in Somerville. She serves on the board of the Somerville Arts Council and divides her time between Massachusetts and her home in Maine.

Anne Riesenberg is a writer, photographer and Five-Element acupuncturist living in Newcastle, Maine. Winner of Blue Mesa Review’s Nonfiction and Storm Cellar’s Force Majeure contests, her work can be found in Lily Poetry Review, Pleiades, Posit, Heavy Feather Review, The New Guard’s BANG!, The Maine Review and elsewhere. Current projects include a pair of books about harm and healing, and The Palace of Unbearable Feeling, a chapbook of visual poetry. She is a founding board member of Hewnoaks Artist Colony.

Virtual: Buki Papillon with Michael Lowenthal, An Ordinary Wonder
2021-09-14 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Join Porter Square Books for a virtual event with local author Buki Papillon (Fiction, June 2007) for her debut novel, An Ordinary Wonder! Buki will be joined in conversation by Michael Lowenthal (Fiction, MFA Writing Faculty), author of the newly released story collection Sex with Strangers. This event is free and virtual, hosted on Crowdcast.

Buki Papillon was born in Nigeria, the oldest of six. After studying law at Hull University in the UK, she completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has received several fellowships and awards for her writing and is an alumnus of Key West Literary, Vermont Studio Centre and Vona Voices residencies and workshops. Her work was published in Post Road Magazine and the Del Sol Review. She has in the past been a travel adviser, events host and chef. Buki currently lives in Boston, where she is resigned to finding inspiration in the long winters.

Michael Lowenthal is the author of four novels: The Same Embrace, Avoidance, Charity Girl, and The Paternity Test. He lives in Boston.

Blue Desert Book Signing with Celia Jeffries
2021-09-18 11:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Joanne Rossman, 6 Birch Street, Roslindate, Massachusetts, 02131, United States
Celia Jeffries (Fiction/Nonfiction, 2008) will be signing copies of her debut novel, Blue Desert at Joanne Rossman in Roslindale, MA.

Filmspiration: A Generative Writing Workshop (with Movies!)
2021-09-29 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Have a case of writers block? Looking for writing inspiration and don’t know where to find it? Join the Passengers Prose staff for a generative writing workshop that will use film clips as springboards. Hosted by Angelo D’Amato Jr (Fiction, June 2020).

Inspired by a True Story: A Brooklyn Book Festival panel featuring Saraciea J. Fennell
2021-10-03 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Center Stage (Columbus Park), Columbus Park, Brooklyn, New York, 11201, United States
Everyday lives and experiences feed into the creative force behind these powerful books, from exploring the Latinx diaspora through fifteen different voices and the trials and triumphs of growing up Black and queer, to the life of a Jamaican-American teen on the cusp of adulthood, a worldwide pandemic, and a tidal wave of social justice activism. Saraciea Fennell (WFYP, January 2020) (Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed), George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren’t Blue), and C. J. Farley (Zero O’Clock) discuss how real-life events can inspire moving, unforgettable storytelling. Moderated by David Levithan (Take Me With You When You Go).

Proof of vaccination is required for all author events

NBF Presents: An Afternoon with the National Book Awards: A Brooklyn Book Festival panel featuring Candice Iloh
2021-10-03 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Main Stage on Borough Hall Plaza, Columbus Park, Brooklyn, New York, 11201, United States
What do books that investigate bodies, Blackness, the judicial system, and the end of the world have in common? Join 2020 National Book Award–honored authors Rumaan Alam (Leave the World Behind, Finalist, Fiction), Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (Travesty Generator, Longlist, Poetry), Michelle Bowdler (Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto, Longlist, Nonfiction), and Candice Iloh (WFYP, June 2017) (Every Body Looking, Finalist, Young People’s Literature) for a cross-genre conversation on the intersections of contemporary literature, recognition, and community—behind and beyond computer screens. Moderated by Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.

Pamela Petro & Jane Brox - The Long Field, A Memoir of Wales and The Presence of Absence
2021-10-04 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Pamela Petro writes, ‘I’m not Welsh by birth or ancestry. I’m simply Welsh by choice.’

In The Long Field, she burrows deep into the Welsh countryside to tell how this small country became a big part of an American writer’s life. Petro (Nonfiction and Graphic Novel & Comics, MFA Writing Faculty) and her friend, author Jane Brox (Nonfiction, MFA Writing Faculty), sit down for a conversation about the book, about writing memoir and about the powerful places that hold us and keep calling us back.

Pamela Petro is the author of Travels in an Old Tongue, Sitting Up With The Dead and The Slow Breathe of Stone. Jane Brox has written five books, most recently Silence: A Social History of One Of The Least Understood Elements of Our Lives (2019), which received the 2020 Maine Literary Award for NonFiction.

Virtual YA Author Talk: Maggie Tokuda-Hall talks Squad with Sara Farizan
2021-10-27 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
The Silver Unicorn Bookstore will host a virtual talk with YA author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Sara Farizan (WFYP, January 2012) about Tokuda-Hall’s new book, Squad.

When Becca transfers to a high school in an elite San Francisco suburb, she’s worried she’s not going to fit in. To her surprise, she’s immediately adopted by the most popular girls in school. At first glance, Marley, Arianna, and Mandy are perfect. But at a party under a full moon, Becca learns that they also have a big secret.Becca’s new friends are werewolves. Their prey? Slimy boys who take advantage of unsuspecting girls. Eager to be accepted, Becca allows her friends to turn her into a werewolf, and finally, for the first time in her life, she feels like she truly belongs.But things get complicated when Arianna’s predatory boyfriend is killed, and the cops begin searching for a serial killer. As their pack begins to buckle under the pressure—and their moral high ground gets muddier and muddier—Becca realizes that she might have feelings for one of her new best friends.

The Ocean State Review: 10th Anniversary Reading
2021-11-03 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | URI Alumni Center, 73 Upper College Rd, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, 02881, United States
Open to the public.

Q&A and book signing featuring award-winning writers.Colin ChannerColin Channer was born in Jamaica and educated there and in New York. His many books include the novella The Girl with the Golden Shoes and the poetry collection Providential.

Hester Kaplan (Fiction, MFA Writing Faculty)Hester Kaplan is the author of the story collections The Edge of Marriage, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and Unravished, and the novels Kinship Theory and The Tell.

Penelope CrayPenelope Cray is the author of Miracles Come on Mondays (Pleiades, 2020), selected by Kazim Ali for the 2018 Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose.

Robin HemleyRobin Hemley has published fourteen books, most recently Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood (Nebraska 2020). The Art and Craft of Stories from Asia, which he co-authored with Xu Xi, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2021.

Kent Memorial Library Presents: Book & Beyond with Celeste Mohammed
2021-11-10 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
The “Books and Beyond” series is proud to bring another cultural experience to KML with Caribbean born author Celeste Mohammed (Fiction, June 2016). Celeste will be talking about her debut novel Pleasantview via Zoom live from Trinidad.Celeste Mohammed holds an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lives on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago.

Pleasantview is written in remarkable combination of Standard English and Trinidad Creole. Mohammed’s engaging novel is a refreshing portrait of island life told in stories that are crafted with candor and movement.

Registration Required

Emerson YA Author Alumni Panel
2021-11-17 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
Come out to this young adult author alumni panel on Wednesday 11/17 at 7pm on Zoom! Hear from Amy Tintera (All These Monsters & All These Warriors), Margot Wood (Fresh), Maurene Goo (Somewhere Only We Know & The Way You Make Me Feel), and Katie Cotugno (Fiction, June 2015) (You Say It First & Rules for Being a Girl) about their books, their Emerson experience, and their thoughts on the world of YA publishing.

Sewanee Reading Series with Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, Clifford Garstang, Karin Cecile Davidson, and Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
2021-11-18 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Registration for the virtual SWC Reading Series is free, and they’ll raffle books at all readings.

Karin Cecile Davidson (Fiction, June 2009) is the author of the novel Sybelia Drive. Her stories have appeared in Five Points, Story, The Massachusetts Review, Colorado Review, Passages North, Post Road, The Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. Her awards include an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Waasmode Prize, the Orlando Prize, and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Studios of Key West. Independent bookstore link: Pagination Bookshop.

Tufts English Department Creative Writing Showcase
2021-12-01 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Tufts University, 419 Boston Ave, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, United States
A reading from recent books by faculty and staff, followed by an audience Q&A. Featuring Poetry alum Jennifer LeBlanc (June 2012). This event will follow Tufts’ COVID protocols. Please complete the health survey and wear a mask. The event will be held in the Sophia Gordon Hall, Room 100.

Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival: Short Fiction Story Awards Ceremony
2021-12-04 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Facebook Live
Hosted by fiction alum Celeste Mohammed (June 2016) and featuring remarks by Dr. Elizabeth Nunez, the Short Fiction Story Awards Ceremony will celebrate the work of Patrice Grell-Yursik and Akhim Alexis.

Streaming live from the BCLF Facebook page.

Lily Poetry Salon Celebrates Jon D. Lee & Michael Mercurio
2021-12-05 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Event
Join the Lily Poetry Salon as they celebrate Jon D Lee’s (Poetry, January 2017) In/Desiderato.

Jon D. Lee is the author of four books, including IN/DESIDERATO and An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease. His poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Atlantic, Sugar House Review, Sierra Nevada Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, One, Lily Poetry Review, The Laurel Review, and The Inflectionist Review. He has an MFA in Poetry from Lesley University and a Ph.D. in Folklore. Lee teaches at Suffolk University, where he also serves as a senior poetry reader for Salamander.

Also joining will be fellow poetry alum Michael Mercurio (January 2017). Michael Mercurio’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Sierra (the magazine of the Sierra Club), The Inflectionist Review, Lily Poetry Review, THRUSH, Palette Poetry, Bear Review, Cider Press Review, Sugar House Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. His poem “Mercy in a Cold April” was included in the anthology Voices Amidst the Virus and was adapted into a short film by filmmaker Michael Rautio. Michael lives and writes in Western Massachusetts, where he teaches occasional workshops for Writers in Progress and serves on the steering committee for the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival, held each September at Emily Dickinson’s house. In addition, Michael is Director of Community Engagement for the Faraday Publishing Company, a non-profit press dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized and underrepresented writers. A graduate of the Lesley University low-residency MFA in creative writing, Michael is also executive director of Cambridge Common Writers, an association for alumni, faculty, and friends of the Lesley MFA program. Michael also curates What The Universe Is: A Reading Series, with a Zoom reading held each month. Find out more about him at poetmercurio.com.

Creative Writing Minor Speaker Series: Enzo Silon Surin & Cheryl Clark Vermeulen
2021-12-06 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online Zoom Event
The final reading in the Creative Writing Minor Speaker Series. A reading & conversation about first books, literary friendships, and interdisciplinary arts.

Enzo Silon Surin (Poetry, 2012), Haitian-born poet, educator, speaker, publisher and social advocate, is the author of When My Body Was A Clinched Fist (Black Lawrence Press, July 2020) and two chapbooks, A Letter of Resignation: An American Libretto (2017) and Higher Ground. He is a PEN New England Celebrated New Voice in Poetry, the recipient of a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation and a 2020 Denis Diderot [A-i-R] Grant as an Artist-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France. Surin’s work gives voice to experiences that take place in what he calls “broken spaces” and his poems have been featured in numerous publications and exhibits. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, teaches creative writing and literature at Bunker Hill Community College and is President and Director of Faraday Publishing.

Cheryl Clark Vermeulen is author of the book They Can Take It Out (this reading is a part of the launch for the book due out in November by The Word Works, 2021) and the chapbooks Dead-Eye Spring and This Paper Lantern. Her poems, translations, and poetry reviews have appeared in Caketrain, The Drunken Boat, Jubilat, Tarpaulin Sky, Third Coast, Two Lines, Interim, DIAGRAM, EOAGH, among others, and the anthology Connecting Lines: New Poetry from Mexico. She received an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Beyond teaching at MassArt, she is Poetry Editor at Pangyrus. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her family.

Dr. Lisa Gruenberg discusses her memoir My City of Dreams with Laurel Braitman
2021-12-07 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online Event
Join author Dr. Lisa Gruenberg (Nonfiction, June 2007) for a virtual reading and discussion of her second-generation Holocaust memoir, My City of Dreams. This event, hosted by the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and their Medicine and the Muse Program, will be moderated by Laurel Braitman, the program’s Director of Writing and Storytelling and author of the New York Times bestseller, Animal Madness.

In My City of Dreams, Gruenberg, confronted with her elderly father’s flashbacks and nightmares, begins to inhabit the story of his sister Mia, who disappeared into Germany in 1941 when she was just fifteen years old. After her father’s death in 2005, Gruenberg traveled to Vienna, Germany and back to her childhood to explore this lost landscape, and to trace the fates of Mia, their extended family, friends and neighbors. Using letters, old photographs, primary source documents and her father’s writing, she weaves her story with theirs.

Jane Brox (Nonfiction, MFA Writing Faculty), author of Brilliant and Silence writes: “Gruenberg’s search for coherence becomes a journey of both discovery and imagination, and ultimately brings her to an understanding that proves also to be a form of healing.” My City of Dreams is a gift – an honest and thoughtful book, beautifully written and full of compassion.

Learn more about My City of Dreams here: lisagruenberg.com

Holiday Book Signing of The Barn with Leah H. Rogers
2021-12-11 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Canio’s Books, 290 Main Street, Sag Harbor, New York, 11963, United States
Holiday book signing with children’s book author Leah H. Rogers (WFYP, January 2017). Copies of her new book, The Barn, illustrated by Barry Root will be on hand. This charming, heart warming book is a winner for children who love animals.

Reading & Book Launch for "The Elixir of Denial" with E. Christopher Clark
2021-12-21 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Facebook Live
Join author E. Christopher Clark for a reading and book launch event for The Elixir of Denial, the fourth book in his Stains of Time Series. Bring your Q’s and Chris will bring his A’s.
