February 2008

I’ve been watching more football this season than I normally do. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most obvious is that I enjoy the drama around the New England Patriots. Their success this year makes for a good story.

I’ve been a New England sports fan all my life. I want to see the Patriots put the capstone on a perfect season. On the other hand, I love a good plot twist. If the New York Giants deny the Patriots their place in football history, I will be disappointed. If they do so in a suitably dramatic fashion, I will be satisfied.

No matter the outcome, the Patriots’ story highlights two essential narrative truths. First, beginnings and endings are arbitrary. However this season ends, next season is a blank page on which new stories will be recorded. Second, and more importantly, baseball season is right around the corner.

If you’re looking for something to pass the time before pitchers and catchers report, please join Inkberry at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 9, 2008, at Papyri Books (45 Eagle Street in North Adams, Massachusetts) for the monthly reading series Wordplay. February’s featured reader is poet Omar Shapli, who will read from Them and Us, his recent book of poetry, as well as from his 2006 collection, The General Is Asked His Opinion and Other Sad Songs. As always, the evening will culminate in an open mic for anyone who wishes to share their work.

If you’d like to get some feedback on a piece of writing before reading it in front of an audience, please check out Inkberry’s Thursday Night Critique group. Led by Bill Belcher, the group meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month in Inkberry’s global headquarters, located at 61 Main Street in North Adams.

Mr. Belcher takes his writing group seriously. On the other hand, Seth Brown is funny. He’s also an accomplished humorist. If you’re looking for the Rosetta Stone of risibility, please consider enrolling in Lighten Up: An Introduction to Light Verse, Mr. Brown’s four-week doggerel workshop. The first session meets at Inkberry on Tuesday, February 5, 2008, at 7:00 p.m.

At the risk of stealing the thunder from next month’s correspondent, I encourage you to come to MCLA Gallery 51, located at 51 Main Street in North Adams, at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, 2008, for a reading by Jim Shepard. Mr. Shepard’s 2007 short story collection, Like You’d Understand, Anyway, is fantastic. It was one of the best books I read in 2007, with characters and settings that have remained with me since I finished reading it. Hearing Mr. Shepard breathe life into his words promises to be a rare treat. Local poet and teacher Trudy Ames will join Mr. Shepard for this reading.

Then, on Saturday, March 8, 2008, Wordplay at Papyri Books will host featured reader Kelli Newby at 7:00 p.m.

For more information on these readings, or to enroll in the Lighten Up workshop, please visit www.inkberry.org, or call 413-664-0775.

As you know, Inkberry’s focus for 2008 is on planning and process. It’s about asking questions (Where have we been? Where are we going? Who is our audience? What do they want? What works? What doesn’t work? What could work better? If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, can you get away with writing a story from the tree’s point of view?) and following where the answers lead. Through this effort, we seek to build up both organization and our audience. While specific outcomes depend on how the process unfolds, one thing seems certain: when you ask questions and follow answers, it leads to change.

Speaking of change, I must acknowledge outgoing board member Rachel Barenblat. Rachel recently announced her intention to step down from the board to focus her energies on her rabbinical studies. I am confident speaking for the entire Inkberry board when I thank Rachel for her service – as Inkberry founder, former executive director, board member, and perpetual guiding light – wish her the best in her academic endeavors, and express the shared hope that this not “farewell,” but “until we meet again.”

Another change on the immediate horizon is a change of venue. As of the end of February 2008, Inkberry will leave its space at 61 Main Street. We’re moving to a new home at Western Gateway Heritage State Park.

We’ll be sharing space with Northern Berkshire Creative Arts (NBCA). We’ll have an office space on the second floor of Building 1 in Heritage Park. Inkberry Global Headquarters will occupy a space about the same size as our current main office. For larger meetings and events, we will share a large common space on the second floor with NBCA. We expect to be up and running in the new space by March 3.

This is a good move for Inkberry. Thanks to NBCA Executive Director Rebecca DeWitt, everyone at Northern Berkshire Creative Arts, and Inkberry’s executive committee – including Dan Caplinger, Leanne Jewett, and Linda White – for initiating the conversation about this collaboration, and bringing it to fruition.

Please check next month’s Inkmail for updated contact information.

Finally, according to tradition I am supposed to say something about what I’ve been reading lately. Problem is, I’m in a literary dry spell. I started the year reading The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. As the title indicates, Mr. Jacobs spent a year following the codes, laws, precepts, and rules of the Bible literally. The result is an account of what a person can accomplish when they approach a task with a combination of sincerity and obsessive-compulsiveness.

Since then, I’ve been foraging; rereading a Robert Crais mystery here, mainlining a collection of 1970s kung fu comics there, staring guiltily at various perennially unfinished books on my shelves, rifling through the bag of paperbacks a friend loaned me a few weeks back, and requesting books through interlibrary loan, all in the seemingly vain hope of jump-starting my imagination. While uncomfortable, these reading slumps are brief; I usually bounce back after a few weeks.

I know I’m not the only reader who experiences these lapses. If you happen to be similarly afflicted right now, I wish you good luck finding the story that breaks your impasse. If your literary dance card is full, I hope it stays that way.

Best wishes from everyone at Inkberry.

Thomas Bernard

Inkberry Board Member