October 2002

One of my favorite things about the English language is the way it has more than one word for the same thing, a consequence of its many linguistic roots. We tend to keep both words when they evoke different ideas. Autumn, with its fireside sound, sounds like cider apples and blustery weather; fall refers to the foliage, of course, and makes me think of crisp air and football games. Whatever you call it, we’re gearing up for a wonderful season at Inkberry.

Come by our beautifully revamped webpages (http://www.inkberry.org) and register for our fall classes; Emily’s teaching a novel workshop, and Rachel’s got a short class on poetry of the numinous (another great Latinate word, meaning the spiritual or mysterious). Both of these start soon, so sign up now!

If you’ve been following Inkberry’s progress from afar, get ready — we’re reaching all the corners of the globe this fall. Rachel will be taking us online for a mixed-genre workshop beginning at the end of the month — this workshop is open to beginning and intermediate writers, near and far. If you haven’t been able to take a workshop because of your location or your schedule, now’s the time!

While you’re at the website, check out the Scrapbook section, which features writing from our workshops, and click on Support Inkberry to find the proto-version of our new online store, where you’ll be able to order a stylin’ Inkberry t-shirt or a copy of Rachel’s new chapbook, What Stays.

If you’re as excited about the forthcoming Lord of the Rings movie sequel as I am, you’ll be interested in our book/movie collaboration with Images Cinema. Chris Warren will be our guide through Tolkien’s trilogy; then, at a special Images screening, Alexandra Kalmanofsky will discuss The Fellowship of the Ring’s transition from book to film. All this will come just in time for the premiere of The Two Towers at the end of the year.

I’m also pleased to announce Inkberry’s collaboration with UNITY (United, Neighboring, Interdependent, Trusted Youth), a forum for youth created by the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. We’ve expanded UNITY’s already successful teen writing program, and are offering three different classes. One, a songwriting workshop with Bernice Lewis, is already under way. The other two workshops, both mixed-genre, will begin in November, taught by Robin Lehleitner (who founded the writing program with UNITY) and myself. I’m really excited about this — I know arts education changes lives, so I can’t possibly be doing anything better with my autumn. For more information about this program, visit http://www.nbccoalition.org/unity.htm or give Inkberry a call (664-0775).

Every reading we host at Inkberry is my favorite, and Bob Hicok’s reading with Aaron Jorgensen last month was no exception. A standing-room-only crowd listened, open-mouthed, to some seriously good poetry… that’s what we’re here for. This month, we hope to pack the house again when novelist, essayist, and poet David Huddle visits on October 19th. Don’t miss it!

Be listening to WAMC’s Round Table on October 10th at 10 a.m., when Emily and Rachel will talk about all these offerings and everything else that’s coming up this autumn.

I’ve recently read two memoirs: Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk and Stefan Fatsis’s Word Freaks. They couldn’t be more different from each other: Norris’s memoir recounts her residencies at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota, where she served as an oblate, or secular member of a monastic order. It’s a calm, meditative, beautifully written book, touching on spirit, the power of scriptural language, and the realities of monastic life. Word Freaks, on the other hand, is a romp through the surprisingly colorful world of competitive Scrabble. Stefan Fatsis makes this uber-geeky world seem both subtle and engaging. In each book, the writer’s honesty and sense of humor make you feel as though you’re there — listening to the psalms read aloud in the abbey, or finding just the right combination of letters to win the tournament. In that way, they’re not as different as they seem; good memoir, no matter what its subject, takes us inside the mind and heart.

Take care.

— Sandy