June 2001

June is busting out all over, and so is Inkberry!

We’re having a terrific month. Our reading series debuted on June 14, and I can truly say we started with a bang. Donald Hall read to a packed house at the Main Street Stage, treating the crowd to poems new and old, and then to a delightful question-and-answer period in which he talked about the craft and practice of writing. Many thanks to Mr. Hall for helping us start on such a high note - and to the many people who turned out on an impossibly humid night to hear him.

We’ve also wrapped up our first session of classes. We had a great group of students - smart, talented, and friendly - and feel lucky to have worked with them. We’re now gearing up for our second session, which will feature a repeat offering of our introductory mixed-genre workshop (if you missed it the first time, now’s your chance!), a special one-day workshop on ekphrastic writing (writing about art), and two new book groups. I’ll be leading our Stranger than Fiction book group, which will look at novels that don’t behave like novels; meanwhile our good friend and favorite chef Daniel Wallace will lead a group on Food Writing. More information about all these classes is available in our summer calendar and on our website, at www.inkberry.org. Register now!

Speaking of our website, I want to point out our spiffy new site design! Daniel Beck, graphic designer and web-guy extraordinaire (and, truth be told, my husband - not that I’m biased in any way), has done a lovely job in reorganizing and beautifying our site, which was growing faster than we could handle. It’s now vastly improved, and has all sorts of neat features, like an area for press clippings, and an explanation of just what an inkberry is, plus in-depth information about all our upcoming classes and events - even some as far away as next April.

And what are some of those upcoming events? (Note the smooth transition.) On Sunday, July 22 we will present Berkshire poets Michelle Gillett and Karen Pepper at the Main Street Stage, for an afternoon reading. On August 12 we’ll move over to MASS MoCA for an evening with Pam Houston and Nerissa Nields. And in September we’ll be back at the Main Street Stage with local writers Paul Marino and Sandra McDowell. See our calendar and/or website to learn more!

I’ve been reading a lot over the last few months, and a wide variety of material. Right now I’m happily immersed in Moby Dick; last week I devoured The Last Samurai, a recent novel by Helen DeWitt. Both have taken a toll on my writing (I have this problem where I slip into the voice of whoever I’m reading), but both are brilliant in their very different ways. In Moby Dick, which I think has a bad reputation because too many people were forced to read it in high school (I wasn’t), the story of Ahab’s pursuit of a white whale develops into a vast philosophical examination on the place of man, and a single man’s quest, in the larger universe. Which I admit is not going to appeal to everyone, but I’m finding it a page-turner. The Last Samurai, if we may turn 180 degrees, focuses on a child prodigy and his mother in contemporary London. We follow young Ludo from age 5 to age 12, as he masters around twenty languages, studies up on aerodynamics and wilderness survival tactics, and searches for his father - ultimately deciding that if his natural father won’t do, he’ll seek out and audition other promising father-figures, the way the chief samurai in the Kurosawa film The Seven Samurai puts together his fighting force. Both books are fabulously engrossing, and a combination of humbling and exhilarating in their erudition. Either would make a pleasant companion on a lazy summer day.

That’s all for now. Keep reading and writing, and we hope to see you soon.

— Emily