November 2007

Greetings from Inkberry,

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Amy Stevens and I am the latest addition to the Inkberry Board of Directors. We’ve got lots of events and news to cover this month, but before we move on I want to let you know how thrilled I am to be working with Inkberry. Inkberry was one of the very first organizations I found when my family was researching our move to the Northern Berkshires and I’m excited about finding ways to advance literary arts in our new neighborhood. In my own life, I tend to be more of a reader than a writer, although I’ve been blogging for six years, In fact, a local writer I’d like to introduce you too this month is another blogger, Ali Wade Benjamin, who keeps the “Cleaner Plate Club.” Inspired by Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, Benjamin set out to find a way to feed her kids better, without breaking the bank, or spending all day in the kitchen, only to be faced with, what at our house we call, the moment of yuck. Benjamin’s writing is conspiratorial - where in others hands it might be sanctimonious or dry, her posts are Informative, entertaining, and frequently mouthwatering. With the winter holidays coming up, be sure to check out her entry on squash, I know it will be on my dining room table come Thanksgiving.

You can visit the Cleaner Plate Club once and see the latest entry, but to stay on top of all the posts, make sure you subscribe. Also found around the blogosphere, is a post from Rachel Barenblat on An Evening with MassPoP - (Poetry Outreach Project), which brought together poets from Western Massachusetts who all cited poetry education as a priority. You can read more about the event on the Inkberry blog.

There are plenty more local people blogging online, be sure to start with the Inkberry blogroll, and soon you’ll be introduced to us all.

Happy reading,

—Amy Stevens

November 1, at 7:30 pm - Thursday Night Critique, NaNoWriMo Edition** Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, slightly-insane writing project that challenges its participants to write a 50,000-word first draft during the month of November. Last year, the project had 79,000 participants and 13,000 winners. This year, a handful of Inkberry’s friends and neighbors have practiced their speed-typing, stocked up on coffee, and signed up for the project. As a kick-off to NaNoWriMo, the Inkberry office will be open from 7-9 pm on November 1st for anyone who wishes to drop in for a couple hours of uninterrupted writing. Whether you are one of the brave souls who signed up for NaNoWriMo or a writer trying to find time to work, feel free to stop by the office, have a cookie, and write. For more information on NaNoWriMo or to sign up, visit their website.

**The regularly-scheduled Thursday Night Critique group will meet again on November 15th, 7:30 pm Writers need feedback. Get it here: Workshops at Inkberry.

November 10, 7:00 pm - WordPlay at Papyri Books featuring fiction writer Bill Belcher. Further information is available at inkberry.org/events or at Papyri Books, 413-662-2099.

November 12th and 26th, 6:30 pm - SCRiV at Inkberry For more information on Inkberry’s college workshop group, go here.

Richard Criddle’s exhibition, It’s Rude to Stare, which features oversize sculptural portraits of the people from the artist’s past, is on view in Kidspace at MASS MoCA through February 24, 2007. This fall, Inkberry is collaborating with Kidspace at MASS MoCA to incorporate writing into the program, which is funded in part in part through North Adams Public Schools’ Massachusetts Cultural Council Creative Schools grant. Inkberry writer-in-residence, Curt Asch, will work with nine third-grade classes in the three North Adams elementary schools to create poems, creative writing pieces, and even some skits based on Criddle’s artwork. Students will present their writing at free special events for families, friends, and the general public to be held in MASS MoCA’s Café B-10. Brayton 3rd graders along with students from The Write Stuff program at Conte Middle School will present on December 4th at 5:00pm. Sullivan and Greylock 3rd graders will present on February 7 at 5:00pm.

National Book Award winner Andrea Barrett’s latest novel, The Air We Breathe, is getting national attention. She was recently interviewed on All Things Considered and The Diane Rehm Show. The novel, set at an Adirondack sanitarium for TB patients in days before World War I has been described an exquisite, “expertly-paced and thoughtfully written” book. If you’re already a fan of Barrett’s work, you’ll recognize a characters from her collections Ship Fever and Servants of the Map.

Congratulations to Jim Shepard, whose latest short story collection, Like You’d Understand, Anyway was recently nominated for this year’s National Book Award. The collection of 11 first person tales are well researched and crafted, and the critics seem to be unanimous in their praise of Shepard’s work.

Finally, join us in celebrating Inkberry friend (and blogger!) Seth Brown, who recently published, Rhode Island Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff. The former Providence Journal columnist introduces you to the quintessential Rhode Island-its iconic foods, coffee milk, the Awful Awful, Del’s lemonade, and Yacht Club Soda; its iconic monuments, the two-ton termite known as The Big Blue Bug, the Superman Building, and Mr. Potato Head; and its iconic events, Parade of the Ancients and Horribles, Best Dressed State Trooper Awards, and the Fools Regatta.

Inkberry is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. As always, if you are receiving this inkmail in error or would like us to send news by snail mail instead, please contact us at info@inkberry.org.