December inkmail

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.

September inkmail

Greetings Friends,

I spotted orange leaves littering lawns this morning as I drove to work and caught myself heaving a sigh of relief. Whether it is nostalgia for new notebooks and the lure of meeting a world of new authors in high school English or the promise of a future weekend in front of a roaring fire with a good book, there is something about fall that comforts me like no other season.

This month, we have two big events planned, as well as a wonderful playwriting workshop. Please read through for all the important bits.

-Amy Stevens, for the Inkberry Board

June inkmail

The June issue of inkmail, written by Inkberry board member Amy Stevens, has been published on our website. Here’s a taste:

It is now summer in the Berkshires, and while some may think this is the season for plays and concerts, I only have eyes for baseball. I’ve just cracked open Summerland by Michael Chabon (author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay). Summerland is Chabon’s first novel for young adults, and features a young man named Ethan, who may be the worst little league player ever. Yet he is recruited to help save the world from extinction in a text that blends the line between reality and fantasty on a small ballfield on Clam Island.

If your mind has been wandering to ballfields, you might want to consider entering our next contest…

Read the whole thing here.

Oh, and while you’re at it, consider taking our online survey, designed to help us learn what you’d like Inkberry to be and to do! A randomly selected respondent will receive a $20 gift certificate to Papyri Books. To receive a prize, you must include your name and contact information at the end of the survey. Otherwise, this information is not required, and you can submit the survey anonymously.

Here’s the link to the survey.

Thanks for being a part of Inkberry!

Upcoming Events

Saturday, June 14th from 7pm-9pm
Inkberry & Papyri Books present: WordPlay featuring Leith Colen , Papyri Books, 45 Eagle Street, North Adams. An open mic will follow Colen’s presentation. Gail Burns is host. The event, as usual, is free and open to the public. Call 664.0775

After Wordplay, swing on by The Main Street Stage for the return of The Red Room on Saturday, June 14. Doors open at 8 PM for life drawing, with models and art materials provided. There will also be mingling and light refreshments. 9 PM marks the beginning of the variety show. The Red Room is featured on Saturdays in June and Mondays in July and August, featuring local musicians, writers, dancers, magicians and more. Contact Kelli at 664.664-7745 for more information. Red Room contains adult themes and language.

April inkmail

The April edition of inkmail features a farewell from Inkberry’s two interns:

Holly and Sondra: We both heard about the internship through last year’s Workshop Facilitator intern, Sarah Russell, and it appealed to our interest in the literary world. We started out not knowing what to expect, but over the past year, we have each found our places in our own literary niche…

Read the whole April issue of inkmail here.

March inkmail…from Stockholm!

I wrote this post back in March…and accidentally “saved” the draft, rather than “publishing” it. Mea culpa! Here ’tis, belated but no less heartfelt. – RB

This month’s inkmail was written by Patty Crane, an Inkberry board member emerita. She’s a fantastic poet (you can read three of her poems here in Ars Interpres, an international poetry journal) and she’s one of our very favorite people. She’s also now living in Sweden.

Greetings from Stockholm, where the days are growing steadily longer and the return of light feels like the physical and emotional equivalent of taking a long, deep breath. After seven months living here, experiencing the cultures of an open-bordered society, learning the language and mores, I find myself drawn, in my reading, to an array of prose and poetry that crosses borders of some kind—continents, cultures, religions, gender roles, and languages, to name a few…

Read the whole thing here. Thanks for writing for us, Patty!

February inkmail

The February edition of inkmail was emailed out over the weekend, and appears now on the Inkberry website. This one’s written by board member Tom Bernard, and offers answers to questions like “how should we entertain ourselves in the time before baseball season begins?”

The new inkmail also makes makes mention of Lighten Up!, a light verse / doggerel workshop taught by Seth Brown which begins tomorrow, February 5; Seth’s a funny guy and a fabulous writer, so if this appeals, sign up now!

Also in this month’s inkmail: a thank-you to the last of Inkberry’s co-founders to step down from org administration, and news about the organization’s impending move to Western Gateway Heritage state Park.

Read the whole thing here.

January inkmail

The latest edition of inkmail — the monthly chronicle of the ins and outs of Inkberry life — has been posted to our website. This month’s inkmail was written by Linda White, the intrepid chair of our board of directors.

The coming of a new year always seems to raise questions about who we are and what we’re doing; I hope you are all being kind to yourselves. On our part, at Inkberry, we’re resolving to bring organizational assessment to the fore this year. The board of directors has chosen to devote the next few months looking at Inkberry’s strategic plan, so that we can continue to provide the programs and services you have valued in the past, as well as develop relevant programs for the future…

You can read the whole thing here. Enjoy!