Celebrate National Poetry Month!

My son came home the other day excited about a book he was reading as part of his fifth grade curriculum. That he was excited about a book was not a surprise to me because all of my children love to read.  What amazed me was that the book was Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust, which is a young girl’s story about her life in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years.  As a general rule, my son gravitates toward books that feature boys, not girls, and are fantastical, not realistic.

I underestimated, though, the power of poetry.

If you are not familiar with Karen Hesse’s book, it is a novel of short verse, with evocative titles such as “Foul As Maggoty Stew”, “Blame”, and “The Empty Spaces”.  For my son, the raw emotions of this young girl’s life, expressed in poetry, with rich, poetic visuals, captured his imagination in a way that prose would not have been able to to do.

I’m thrilled.  As both a writer of both prose and poetry, I know the value of both, and I am glad that my son is beginning to understand the impact poetry can have on his life.

In April, Seven Bridge is celebrating National Poetry Month in our writing groups, in our Bridging Writers Series, in our annual SBWC Student Poetry Contest, and with a new forum for working poets. Please join us in celebrating the power of poetry at the following events:

Student Poetry Contest:  We are delighted to spotlight the work of young, local poets, whose submissions are an inspiration; rich with feeling, imagination, and powerful figurative language. The deadline for the contest is April 1, and is open to students in Lancaster and/or the Nashoba District.  Poems are displayed at the Thayer Memorial Library, and winners will be published on line at the Seven Bridge Writers’ Collaborative website.

A Poetry Open Mic:  On Sunday, April 17^th, from 2 to 4 p.m. Come share your work and cheer on the work of others in this supportive and lively event. Poets read for five minutes maximum, no preregistration required. 

Bridging Writers Series welcomes Karen Sharpe, of the Poetic Lens Poetry Project for a reading and discussion of her work on Monday, April 4^th, at 6:30 p.m. .

A Conversation With Poets:  On Wednesday, April 13^th, poets are invited to gather for refreshment and conversation about creating more opportunities for poets in our area.

More information about these free events can be found on this blog.  We invite you to join us this month, as we consider the impact poetry has had on our lives and our writing.

Paula Castner is a wife, mother of three, and a co-founder of Seven Bridge Writers' Collaborative as well as a freelance writer, playwright, writing and baking workshop facilitator, and drama director. She receives emails at pajamalivingwriting@gmail.com.

Bridging Writers Series

Presents

Karen Sharpe:  Poetry Reading

Monday, April 4, 2016

6:30 to 8:00 p.m., Thayer Memorial Library, Dexter Thayer Room

Karen Elizabeth Sharpe is a poet and writer from Sterling, Massachusetts.

Karen facilitates a Facebook poetry group with weekly poetry prompts called The Poetic Lens Poetry Project. Karen was selected by Marge Piercy for the sixth annual Marge Piercy Juried Poetry Intensive in June 2105 and is finalizing her second book of poetry, Geography of Ruin. Karen's work is forthcoming or has appeared in Columbia Journal of Arts & Literature: Catch & Release, Canary: The Journal of the Environmental Crisis, Silkworm, The Worcester Review, the Sprinkler Factory, Triple Moon Arts, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Poetpourri, The Comstock Review, the Ledge, Yankee Magazine and in her collection, This Late Afternoon. She is a past first place winner of the Worcester Review annual poetry contest and the Prentiss Cheney Hoyt contest at Clark University. She was named Journalist of the Year by the New England Press Association.

Karen has facilitated many open mics at coffeehouses, bars and bookstores – welcoming poets to the musicians’ stage and encouraging the union of music and verse. She has organized writers’ conferences for adults and mentored young writers as part of the Worcester County Young Writers Conference; she has also worked with adults in workshops and retreats in New England. 

Karen was a journalist for many years, writing for Worcester Magazine and the Boston Globe, and was the editor and associate publisher of the newspaper family of The Lancaster Times Inc.

For more information on this program, or on SBWC, please contact us at 7bridgewriterscollaborative@gmail.com, or visit us at sevenbridgewriters.blogspot.com for the latest information and events.

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Upcoming Seven Bridge Sessions

Seven Bridge Sessions

Presents

Creative and Efficient Research—Online and in Person

With Winona Wendth

Saturday, March 19, 2016

10:30 a.m.  – 12:30 p.m.

Thayer Memorial Library, Dexter Thayer Room

No matter what we write, we need to ensure the accuracy and believability of what we’re saying.  Whether we are writing news reports, literary journalism, creative non-fictional essays, or historical fiction, including memoirs.  We cannot rely on what we hear or what we remember or what we hope for without creating a believable world in which our stories live.  Was that really a Studebaker my aunt drove?  Or were they no longer made by then?  Could that family have taken I-495 to Boston?  Or was the Interstate not there, yet? How do we know what medicines our neighbor took when he was sick?  What really killed him, then? What might have been in someone’s medicine cabinet in 1930? And what did those bottles and that cabinet look like?  

Come to this workshop to review the research process and learn new and creative ways to find or verify information about the worlds we are creating.  The workshop will provide illustrative examples and exercises for the class.  Bring questions and a project you are working with for focused suggestions.

Winona Winkler Wendth holds an MFA in literature and writing with an emphasis on creative non-fiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She currently teaches writing, literature, and interdisciplinary humanities courses t Quinsigamond Community College. Winona has been a resident of Lancaster since 1992, a writing mentor since 2007, and a workshop leader in Lancaster for the past three years. Her work appears frequently in print and online literary journals and was listed in Best American Essays/2010 and on NPR. She writes both fiction and creative non-fiction; she is finishing a collection of memoiristic essays and working on a short novel.

For more information on this program, or on SBWC, please contact us at 7bridgewriterscollaborative@gmail.com, or visit us at sevenbridgewriters.blogspot.com for the latest information and events.

Please join us for this free event.

Upcoming Bridging Writers Series

Bridging Writers Series

Presents

Karen Sharpe:  Poetry Reading

Monday, April 4, 2016

6:30 to 8:00 p.m., Thayer Memorial Library, Dexter Thayer Room

Karen Elizabeth Sharpe is a poet and writer from Sterling, Massachusetts. 

Karen facilitates a Facebook poetry group with weekly poetry prompts called The Poetic Lens Poetry Project. Karen was selected by Marge Piercy for the sixth annual Marge Piercy Juried Poetry Intensive in June 2105 and is finalizing her second book of poetry, Geography of Ruin. Karen's work is forthcoming or has appeared in Columbia Journal of Arts & Literature: Catch & Release, Canary: The Journal of the Environmental Crisis, Silkworm, The Worcester Review, the Sprinkler Factory, Triple Moon Arts, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Poetpourri, The Comstock Review, the Ledge, Yankee Magazine and in her collection, This Late Afternoon. She is a past first place winner of the Worcester Review annual poetry contest and the Prentiss Cheney Hoyt contest at Clark University. She was named Journalist of the Year by the New England Press Association.

Karen has facilitated many open mics at coffeehouses, bars and bookstores – welcoming poets to the musicians’ stage and encouraging the union of music and verse. She has organized writers’ conferences for adults and mentored young writers as part of the Worcester County Young Writers Conference; she has also worked with adults in workshops and retreats in New England.  

Karen was a journalist for many years, writing for Worcester Magazine and the Boston Globe, and was the editor and associate publisher of the newspaper family of The Lancaster Times Inc. 

Please join us for this free event.

For more information on this program, or on SBWC, please contact us at 7bridgewriterscollaborative@gmail.com, or visit us at sevenbridgewriters.blogspot.com for the latest information and events.

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Upcoming Bridging Writers Event

Bridging Writers Series

Presents

Deborah Gorlin:  Life of the Garment: Poems

and                               

Jeanne Braham: Available Light: Phillip Booth and the Gift of Place

Monday, March 7, 2016

6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Thayer Memorial Library, Dexter Thayer Room

Deborah Gorlin, author of  Life of the Garment: Poems, is the winner of the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize and the poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.

Jeanne Braham, author of Available Light: Philip Booth and the Gift of Place (October), is the founding editor of Heatherstone Press and the poetry editor of New England Watershed magazine. Available Light combines Booth’s poems and personal photos into a portrait of an overlooked poet.

Please join us for this free event.

For more information on this program, or on SBWC, please contact us at 7bridgewriterscollaborative@gmail.com