Tonight at 7pm at Griffin 3, Inkberry will partner with the Williams College English Department to present an evening of speculative fiction featuring Margaret Ronald and Elizabeth Bear.

There’s a great article about the event online here at the Eagle: What if?

Hope to see you at the reading — should be grand!

This Berkshire Eagle article was published in January of 2005, right after Inkberry moved into our second physical space: upstairs at 61 Main, suite #223. (These days Inkberry lives in its third physical home, upstairs at Northern Berkshire Creative Arts, but back in early 2005 we’d only just moved upstairs in the Empire Building, into a suite of sunny corner rooms which looked out on Main Street and on the coffee shop.)

This article is an overview of literary goings-on around the county, including happenings at Word Street and the Berkshire Writers’ Room in Pittsfield, and Inkberry in North Adams. The lovely color photograph here features the painting of the inkberry bush created by artist-in-residence Beth Budwig in our first home.

Here’s the text which appeared below that photo:

Next:

And finally:

This article was published in the North Adams Transcript on January 2, 2002. It features a lovely color photograph of two of Inkberry’s co-founders standing in front of what was then our new storefront in the Empire Building.

Here you can read about the impetus for the organization’s founding, and share our excitement about our first-ever physical office and teaching and reading space — the proverbial “room of [our] own!”

Here’s page one:

And here’s page 2:

While cleaning house this summer, I ran across a trove of old newspaper articles about Inkberry. In the interest of preserving these bits of our history for posterity, I figured I’d scan a few and share them on the blog. Here’s the first one: a June 5, 2002 article from The Advocate entitled “From the erotic to the folksy — Inkberry has summer covered.”

That was our second summer in operation; we’d just moved into our first physical location (on Main Street in North Adams, in what had once been the Crystal Unicorn Bookstore.) Amazing to think that it’s been seven years! Anyway, if you’re interested in a blast from Inkberry’s past, the scanned article appears below.

When asked to write several blogs as the current Inkberry intern, I decided I would write once a month.  Well, it is now over a month since I last posted, so here I am again.

Things are going well, here at Inkberry.  There’s quite a lot going on around here this month as well!  On top of our usual, poetry group, critique group, and WordPlay, we are also sponsoring a reading at the North dams Public Library, and have joined up to sponsor with MCLA at a reading taking place at Gallery 51.  Also, at the end of the month, Inkberry is collaborating with the First Congregational Church in Williamstown, the Willimas College Chaplin’s Office, and the Queer Life Coordinator, to have a Psalm writing workshop.

Though my duties as Intern, rarely change, I almost always have plenty to keep myself busy.  My computer skills are also rather favored here.  I think, thus far, my favorite intern “duty” would be creating the advertising flyers.  I think it’s my favorite, because not only do I get to use my writing and editing skills, but I also get to use my own creative liberties (even though the flyers follow a particular format).

With only about a month left of school, I’m enjoying the feeling of having a real job, as the current economy has made it clear that it might be awhile before I have this experience again.

Ultimately, I think I would love to be a novel editor, just so long as I always have nature and animals in my life.  If I had to chose between happiness and a million dollars, I’d chose happiness, as all a million dollars can do is buy more stuff.

Normally, I am usually more of a blog “stalker” than a blog writer, but that’s not to say I’ve never contemplated it. So, I present to you, my first official attempt at blogging, as Nicole Pervere, the newest Inkberry intern.

First of all, I am absolutely enthralled to be experiencing what it’s like to have a “real” job. I love the independence that Inkberry gives me to work at my own pace, and to not have my hand held every step of the way. I like that I am able to learn from any mistakes I might make, instead of being in fear of doing something even slightly wrong. For this reason I really enjoy working for the Inkberry staff.

I’ve just realized that this is an awfully formal sounding blog, and I am not a terribly formal person. (At least I’ve already warned you that I’m not an experienced blogger!) Anyway, the horrible work experience I alluded to above, is from a job that I have been working at for far too long. I usually work at said job (I won’t name any names) when I go home if I’m feeling desperate for money, otherwise, I’ll take painstaking measures to avoid it.

When I’m not dreading working while home, I like reading and writing (which I don’t do nearly enough of anymore!), spending time with friends, and animals (yes, animals; I love them all), and believe it or not, I’m a pretty avid videogame player, and from time to time, I’m not too bad at it either!

I love nature and the outdoors, and could never give up the country life. In my future I see myself having a couple dogs, and couple (orange!) cats, some chickens for fresh eggs, ducks because they’re just so cute, and a vegetable garden for fresh veggies all summer! As for a future job, well, that’s pretty much still undetermined, but I do really enjoy editing other people’s writing.

I also love baking, and eating what I bake, and eating what I’m baking in the process of making it. Luckily, I don’t bake too often! Once I learn to cook decently well, I think I’ll make a pretty good wife someday! But for now, you can find me here, diligently typing at the keyboard, or, practicing the current love of my life, yoga!

Or, you might find me hanging out with this cow!

The first meeting of Inkberry’s guided poetry discussion group was held at Inkberry the first Monday in February. Though a number of poems were prepared for possible discussion, the first two poems of similar theme proved stimulating enough to carry the group through the full meeting. For an expanded overview of the evening and links to the poetry that will be discussed at our next meeting, which will happen at Inkberry on March 2, 7:00 pm, visit Poet Robert Ronnow’s website: ronnowpoetry.com/Inkberrypoemssf.

– Leanne Jewett

The January 2009 issue of inkmail is now online at the Inkberry website. It’s written by Sharon Wyrrick, and it’s all about The Write Stuff:

The Write Stuff program could not exist without the volunteer mentors who are each paired with one or two Conte students. Currently, 36 seventh graders at Conte work every week with a mentor. This allows the relationship to develop over the course of the entire school year…

Read it here.

The December edition of inkmail has gone live on the Inkberry website! Here’s a taste, from our list of nifty things we’ve done in the year now ending:

·    The Write Stuff, our collaboration with Conte Middle School in North Adams and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, has evolved to offer one-on-one tutoring and mentoring of students.

·    Our reading series has featured National Book Award Finalist Jim Shepard with poet Trudy Ames, Pushcart Prize winning Poet Carol Frost with guest poets Abbot Cutler and Peter Filkins, noted historical author Susan Quinn, and Science Fiction/Fantasy Author Paul Park.

·    Our WordPlay series has featured authors such as sports and fiction writer Derek Gentile and noted J.R.R. Tolkien scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.

·    Inkberry workshops have given the local community a chance to work on poetry with Derek Mong, light verse with humorist Seth Brown, and short play and skit writing with Kelly Newby of Main Street Stage.

·    Our Community Critique Group continues to offer ongoing peer critique and support to local writers…

Read the whole thing here: December 2008 inkmail.

Congratulations to Seth Brown, whose WordPlay reading got rave reviews in the MCLA Beacon! The reviewer, Mark Burridge, praised Seth’s reading from his latest project, From God to Verse (a rendering of the entire Torah into rhyming couplets) as well as his fabulous freestyle abilities.

You can read the article here: Seth Brown Plays With Words at Inkberry/Papyri Reading