September 2002

As usual, there’s a lot going on within our sponged-blue walls. August brought a successful workshop on the intersection between words and graphic design; it also brought a lovely reading by Norton Owen (Jacob’s Pillow’s resident historian), which got us to chuckling at the notion of what a someday Inkberry historian might make of the emails, photographs, and records we’re creating in our first years of operation.

The Inkberry store is up and running; in addition to selling books at each of our readings (provided for us by partner Papyri Books), we’re now selling Inkberry t-shirts. They’re cream-colored, 100 % cotton, sized from S through XXXL, and bear the Inkberry name, logo, and tagline (“Reading and writing in the Berkshires.”) Best of all, they’re just $15 apiece. Pick one up for yourself or a friend; show your support for Inkberry, both by wearing our colors and by sending a little cash our way! For those of you reading Inkmail who aren’t in the area, never fear; the shirts will be available on our website soon, and until then, you can order one by dropping us an email or giving us a call.

Our resource library expanded significantly this month. New to our shelves are the 2003 editions of Writer’s Market and Poet’s Market, so if you’re a poet or writer in search of publication opportunities, come on down and browse. (We’ll have the latest editions of the other books in the series later this fall when they’re released.) We started a new subscription, with literary magazine Connecticut Review, which we’ll now be archiving on the periodical shelf. Last, but not least, the general book collection grew to the tune of two full shelving units of books (thanks, Daniel Wallace). Our hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays from 1-5pm.

And speaking of our hours, we’re now offering a new service during our Saturday hours. Our classroom space is now available for meetings. Want a place for your informal book group or writers’ circle to gather? Want to keep meeting with classmates from an Inkberry workshop that’s now over? Sign up for our classroom! It’s first-come, first-served, so give a call or drop by and reserve the space.

September’s a busy month. In addition to the Jewish Days of Awe, the start of school (for you academic types), and the Autumnal Equinox, our primary celebratory event this month is a reading with poets Bob Hicok and Aaron Jorgensen at 7:30pm on Saturday September 14th.

Aaron Jorgensen, the night’s “opening act,” is a young poet who has until recently lived in Amherst, Massachusetts. (He’s moving to South Korea in October, so this may be your last chance to hear him read for a while, at least on this continent.) Bob Hicok, the evening’s featured poet, is truly splendid. All three Inkberries are Hicok fans; my partner Emily calls him her “favorite living poet.”

“Mr. Hicok’s gift lies somewhere between those of the surgeon and the gods of the foundry and convalescent home: seamlessly, miraculously, his judicious eye imbues even the dreadful with beauty and meaning,” writes a New York Times critic. A review in Passages North opines that “[t]he best reason to read magazines now is to find the newest Hicok poem. The best reason to buy a new book is that Bob Hicok has just published one.”

As it happens, this humble newsletter played a part in getting Bob to the Berkshires. Emily raved about a volume of Bob’s poems in our very first Inkmail (January 2001); a friend of his saw the newsletter and suggested that we contact him; and, well, next thing we knew, Bob was agreeing to fly out here from Detroit and be a part of the Inkberry reading series. This is going to be one of the highlights of our year: don’t miss it.

Our fall calendar goes to press shortly. Stay tuned for news about the fantastic new things we’ll be offering in our fall (October-December) term, including our very first online workshop, a collaboration with the UNITY program of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on workshops for high school students, workshops focusing on novels and poetry, and a Tolkien book-and-movie group in partnership with Images Cinema.

When not actively Inkberry-ing this summer, I’ve been reading a wonderful novel by Myra Goldberg, called Bee Season. Bee Season is about Eliza Naumann, the younger daughter of a slightly dysfunctional Jewish family, who has always assumed (along with the rest of the world) that she’s a slow learner…until she finds herself on the road to spelling bee stardom. The novel shows a slice of several intertwined lives, with a whole cast of believably endearing and neurotic characters. As an added bonus, the book’s motifs include words and the nature of language, family dynamics, the role of religion in contemporary life, and the esoteric writings of a medieval Jewish mystic named Abraham Abulafia — all “a few of my favorite things.” Bee Season was probably tailor-made for me. That said, it’s a novel I think anyone would enjoy, regardless of whether your obsessions dovetail with those of the book. I recommend it highly.

That’s it for now. Hope to see y’all at the Hicok reading on 9/14!

— Rachel