October 2004

Greetings from Inkberry!

Our September began in the most pleasant way imaginable: with a dozen eager volunteers. Williams College Chaplain (and Inkberry board member) Rick Spalding connected us with a group of first year Williams students and their senior group leaders. They came in on the afternoon of September 5, and by the time they left a mere two hours later, our classroom space had been completely transformed. Where once we had a perfectly functional (if somewhat drab) space, we now have a room that is as creative as the work our students produce there. Our thanks to everyone in the “Where Am I?” group for their hard work, their sense of humor, and their creativity in making this project such a smashing and colorful success. Thanks also to our good friends at Images Cinema for donating the paint we used.

September continued with a reading by Jim and Karen Shepard. With three recent books between them (Jim’s novel Project X and his latest short story collection Love and Hydrogen, and Karen’s novel The Bad Boy’s Wife), this was the literary equivalent of Wrestlemania, with these two writers laying a veritable prose smackdown on the audience, in the nicest possible way, of course. Karen graced us with an excerpt from her new novel, and Jim read a brand-new short story set in Chernobyl. A good time was had by all.

I’m sorry, but I can’t say enough about our classroom. If you’d like to see our newly refurbished classroom space for yourself, drop by our 63 Main Street, North Adams, location. Our office is open Monday, Thursday and Friday afternoons from 1:00-5:00 p.m. Better yet, why not check out the classroom to its full effect by taking a class with us? Our next in-house workshops are Wednesday Night Writers (which begins on October 6) and Songwriting: More than Lyrics and Chords (which begins on Thursday, October 14). Taught by Bernice Lewis, that latter workship will enable students to talk about the forms and structures that contemporary songwriting uses, listen and analyze examples of songs they admire, and create a supportive environment for feedback for their own works. Please bring an instrument if you play one, and a notebook.

Similarly, if you’re of a lyrical bent but prefer your words without instrumentation, Laura Finnell has the course for you. Her Confessional Poetry and the Path Through the Dark begins online on October 4. Jane Kenyon, Toge Sankichi, Anna Akhmatova, William Stafford, Mark Doty: all of these poets have turned painful situations — some personal, some social or communal — into poems which are beautiful on the page, and which can be healing for writer and for reader. Students will read work by these poets and others, discuss the techniques they use(d) for transforming difficult situations into poetry, and explore how to use these same techniques in creating personal art. There are only a few spots available in that workshop, so if you want in, tell us now!

Finally, if you like the idea of conflict, struggle and transformation, but you need popcorn and Junior Mints with your catharsis, then consider enrolling in our November online workshop, The Art of the Short Screenplay. By the end of the course, instructor Jennifer Peepas will help you write (and revise) a screenplay for a 5-10 minute narrative film. Subjects covered will include character development, story structure, writing scenes and dialogue, visual storytelling, point of view, and revision. You’ll learn big-picture lessons (screenwriting process) and small-picture ones (correct screenplay format). You’ll also be assigned the “homework” of watching some excellent films, to aid you in discussing what works and why. This class is open to all, beginners as well as writers who are experienced in other genres and would like to try their hand at writing for the screen. The course begins online on November 1.

If you’d like more information about any of our in-house or online course offerings, please call us at 413-664-0775, or visit http://www.inkberry.org; you can sign up for any Inkberry workshop at http://www.inkberry.org/store/

Our reading series continues on October 16, 2004 at 7:30pm with Mary A. Koncel, Jeffrey Levine, and Margaret Szumowski. Mary is author of Closer to Day (Quale Press, 1999) and You Can Tell the Horse Anything, a book-length collection of prose poems (Tupelo Press, 2003). Jeffrey’s first book, Mortal, Everlasting, won the 2000 Transcontinental Poetry Award from Pavement Saw Press. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize nine separate times; he’s founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press. And Margaret’s I Want This World won the Peace Corps Writers award for best book of poetry in 2002. Szumowski has been a hostage of Idi Amin, as well as witness to the deposition of Haile Selassie. She mentored some of the first African women training to be teachers at Institut Superieure Pedagogique in Kinshasa, Zaire. (A side note: she was slated to read here in 2002 but a sleetstorm kept her away.) This promises to be an engaging night of readings, and I invite you to join us.

Of course, the literary sun doesn’t rise and set on Inkberry alone. From October 1st-3rd, Brattleboro Vermont’s Main Street will play host to the third-annual Brattleboro Literary Festival. This year’s impressive array of readings, panel discussions, and special events will feature more than twenty-five best-selling and notable writers of prose and poetry. We’d be impressed by this festival even if it weren’t organized by our buddy Wyn Cooper, who read here in May of 2003. More information on times, authors and special events may be found at www.brattleboroliteraryfestival.org.

The equinox has passed, and the leaves are starting to turn. Already it feels like we’re on the downhill part of the year, picking up speed in a mad rush through October, November and December before we crash straight into 2005. We’re already thinking and working on big Inkberry plans for the coming season, and the coming year. We look forward to telling you more about where we’re going in our next Inkmail. Until then, keep reading, keep writing, and don’t forget your jacket when you go out in the morning. You’ll be glad you have it.

— Tom