PathwaysARTS Weekly Writing & Poetry Event is led by
RON SLATE.
Ron invites featured readers from who join live or via zoom from all over the country. We have themes and prompts and open mics. Join our Writing & Poetry email list for insider info!
Sign up to read when you come in or contact us HERE
UPCOMING W&P EVENTS
This season, our featured readers will also talk about aspects of craft in their work, offering insights to the writers, poets and readers who attend our evenings.
There will be no zoom this evening
Jenny Slate is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. Following early acting and stand-up roles on television, Slate gained recognition for her live variety shows in New York City and for co-creating, writing, and producing the children’s short film and book series Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2010–present). She became more widely known as a cast member on the 35th season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live between 2009 and 2010, followed by subsequent roles in the comedic series Bob’s Burgers (2012–present), Parks and Recreation (2013–2015), House of Lies (2013–2015), and Kroll Show (2013–2015).
Slate and her father Ron Slate co-wrote a book titled About the House about their time living in Slate’s childhood home in Milton, Massachusetts, which was published in December 2016. She published her book titled Little Weirds, about her struggles with and thoughts about life and relationships, in 2019.
She will read from her book currently in the works.
Ben Shattuck is an American writer, painter, and curator. Born in Massachusetts, he received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has written one book and a number of short stories. One of his short stories, “The History of Sound”, was developed into an as-yet-unreleased film. Shattuck is also a painter. His first book, Six Walks, was published in 2022. The memoir tracks the author’s retracing of six walks taken by Henry David Thoreau, which brings about personal memories and emotional insights.[9][10] It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. In 2021, Shattuck and his brother bought the general store in their hometown, Davolls General Store, which was originally built in 1793.
He will read from his work in process.
Tuesday, December 5th
Comedic actor, film producer and author, Jenny Slate, reads from her unpublished work.
Ben Shattuck, educator and author of two books, reads from his new book of short stories. No Open Mic this evening.
Tuesday, December 12th
We asked our friend, Donald Nitchie, to create a prompt for poems to be presented live and via zoom at Pathways.
Ron Slate is looking forward to writing a poem for 12/12 and hopes you will join us.
Pass the prompt on to friends who may want to give it a try,
Please let us know if you decide to participate — simply so that we can get organized for 12/12/2024.
Open Mic – As time allows. Many people have signed up to read their work inspired by the prompt.
Tuesday December 19th
CRONICAS
No Open Mic this evening.
Tuesday December 26th
Pathways Closed.
CLICK TO GO TO THE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER EDITION OF ON THE SEA WALL
New books coming to Pathways
as our season begins in November,
Courtesy of Ron Slate of On The Seawall, these books are all new or recently published. The genres are poetry, fiction and nonfiction; and they’re free! You can keep a book, or pass it along. New titles will be continuously added. Ron is the moderator for our Writing & Poetry Series.
PAST W&P EVENTS
Click posters for available videos
Read a recent review in the MV Times by Kate Feiffer
CLICK FOR MORE INFO ON JENNINGS’ BOOK
On JWJ From Le Porte Peinte ( LPP )… James W. Jennings, 36, is a renaissance man, a writer and painter. His paintings are inspired by storytelling, faith in things unseen, connectedness, and process. The “vibes/ondes“ which provide the connective strength in many of his recent works pay homage to those that gave him the opportunity to envision and pursue his dreams.
JWJ in R.Legacy : “You don’t have to be an ‘artist’ to be an artist. Your actions communicate who you are. When you look at my artwork, you’re looking at a form of communication. I want to communicate that invisible bond between us. In other words, I want to say, we all are one, its all about love, get over yourselves.”
Bill Eville is the editor of the Vineyard Gazette. His book Washed Ashore: Family, Fatherhood and Finding Home on Martha’s Vineyard was published in May 2023 by Godine. His writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, This American Life, and The Moth, among many other outlets. He lives in West Tisbury with his wife, Cathlin, and children, Hardy and Pickle.
Featured reader Rich Michelson will join via zoom. His many books for children, teens and adults have been listed among the Ten Best of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the best Dozen of the Decade by Amazon.com. He has received a National Jewish Book Award and two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals (and two Silver) from the Association of Jewish Libraries.
In addition to being an author, Michelson is a popular guest speaker. He has traveled throughout the world talking to children and teachers about his love of poetry and social justice. Michelson represented the US at the Bratislava Biennial in Slovakia, and he is the founder and owner of R. Michelson Galleries.
Local featured reader, Sue Guiney is the founder of Writing Through which began as a skills acquisition program for poor teens and young adults in Cambodia. It soon became clear that it’s programs benefitted all who seek to further develop and express their voices. To date, they work with youth, university students, disabled, and older members of society in Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, as well as the US.” Tonight writers from a locally held Writing Through workshop, Niki Patton, Ellie Bates & Jack Louis will read their work. The work of Abby Remer & Gloria Burkin will be read by others. www.writingthrough.org
CLICK ON POSTERS TO SEE VIDEOS FROM THAT NIGHT
WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE
Katie Peterson is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently A Piece of Good News, named one of the Ten Best Poetry Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review — a a book of lyric prose, Life In A Field. She directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at UC-Davis and Lives in Berkeley, CA..
In 2017, Danielle Mulcahy and her partner Walker Roman renovated a fifth wheel trailer into a mobile art studio. Under the name BarnYard Saints Art, they traveled the country creating and selling art, contributed to art residencies and led workshops. They also volunteered time working for state and national parks while living full time out of their rig. During this time Danielle created sketches, photos and writings of her day to day while living on the road. This book encapsulates a more personal take on her inner thoughts behind the public picture she was creating for her brand at the time. The stunning full-bleed color photos bring the reader right into the environment, while Mulcahy’s writing weaves in and out, reflecting her meandering thoughts in one place.
On THEN THE WAR:
On MY TRADE IS MYSTERY:
TUESDAY MARCH 21st
Sonya Huber discussed & read from her new book on memoir writing, Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto. She is the author of 8 books and teaches at Fairfield University. If you’re interested in memoir writing, this is your event.
SEE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
Ty McDonald, Vineyard Haven storyteller and poet, debuts a multimedia production called, A Bridge in the Fog, consisting of his recent original poems recorded with collaborative vocals and musical contributions. Ty is the producer and host of the video/audio series, The Jalapeño, featuring conversations with artists, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, and other interesting people.
James (Jamie) Craig
Craig’s late father, Philip Craig, grew up on a small cattle ranch near Durango, Colorado and yearned to escape the ranching life. After high school he attended Boston University, where as an assignment for his writing class with Gerald Brace he penned an essay about his experiences on a cattle drive. Jamie read that essay, “Running Buck”, which later gained Philip’s admission to the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where he received an MFA in prose writing. That essay was published in the 1957 BU literary magazine, “Patterns”. Philip went on to author his popular series of mystery novels set on Martha’s Vineyard. Jamie’s mother has long wished for a venue to present this work, as it represents an early example of Philip’s writing before he became a popular novelist.
Unfortunately Tain Leonard Peck was not able to join us this evening. We will be re-scheduling his readings.
“Featured poet Ellie Bates is a visionary of the natural world. Whether it be the land, the sky, the dunes, the trees, Ellie looks at them all with a uique eye full of understanding and love…and they look back at her. She is a friend of the natural world, and inher poems, she shares a vision of nature that we only think we see.”
Jill Jupen, MV Poet Laureate, author of The Space Between
David Rivard has been a professor of poetry for over 30 years. He currently teaches in the University of New Hampshire MFA Program in Writing. In 2006, he was awarded the O.B. Hardison Poetry Prize from the Folger Shakespeare Library in recognition of both his writing and teaching. He taught previously at Tufts University, in the MFA Program at Vermont College, the Sarah Lawrence College MFA program, and at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Additionally, he serves on the writing committee of the Fine Arts Work Center and the board of Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire.
Rivard is the author of seven books of poetry: Some of You Will Know (forthcoming 2022), Standoff, Otherwise Elsewhere, Sugartown, Bewitched Playground, Wise Poison, and Torque. His work has won the PEN/New England Prize in poetry, the James Laughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. He has been awarded fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Massachusetts Arts Council, among others.
David Rivard was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. He currently lives in coastal Maine.
M.D. Semel will read a chapter called “Javan Dreams of Mourning Doves.” It comes late in the book and takes place in Rikers Island, the infamous New York City jail complex.
For thirteen years. Semel worked as a public defender in the Bronx, where he was a participant/observer in the “War on Crime,” and represented clients charged with everything from trespassing to murder. He earned his PhD in Criminal Justice from the Graduate Center – City University of New York. His dissertation research examined the efficacy of military interrogation techniques, one of the first studies of its kind, inspired by the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
He was a college professor for fifteen years, and taught courses on Criminal Law, Race and Crime, Terrorism and Civil Liberties.
Semel’s writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the Connecticut Post, the FBI’s Terrorism Research & Analysis Project (TRAP) Vol. 1, the Journal of Criminal Justice & Popular Culture,Perspectives In Terrorism and The Write Launch. He has also worked as a bricklayer, a garbage man, a waiter, a custodian, a newspaper delivery man, a dishwasher in a sorority, in an asphalt plant and at the Strand bookstore where he shelved many more books than he read. “Word On The Street…” is his first (and as yet unpublished) novel and a fictional account of his career at Legal Aid.
John’s latest book is the memoir, The Archeology of a Good Ragù. Candid and hands-on, the book examines his midlife recovery by way of Naples, his father’s native city. The press is the distinguished Guernica World Editions, and blurbs came from Bob Shacochis, Laura Van den Berg, and others.
The book was a finalist for the Big Other award in non-fiction. A long excerpt appeared in Lit Hub. A rave review appeared in Brooklyn Rail: “astonishing depth.” Rain Taxi called the book “superbly rendered,” ArtFuse “deftly written,” and Ovunque Siamo praised its “energy and insight.” The Iowa NPR station interviewed him as well as several magazines. In Brevity, Domini refected on how he composed the memoir
In June, 2019, Dzanc Books published The Color Inside a Melon. Blurbs included Salman Rushdie and Marlon James, and there’s been praise in Washington Post, The Millions, Kirkus, Nervous Breakdown, and elsewhere.Other coverage included review-interviews in Fiction Writers Review and Writeliving. Excerpts appeared in Conjunctions, Del Sol Review, and elsewhere.
Randall Mann’s DEAL: NEW & SELECTED POEMS is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in May 2023. He is also the author of the following books: A BETTER LIFE (Persea Books, 2021); PROPRIETARY (Persea Books, 2017), finalist for the Northern California Book Award and Lambda Literary Award; STRAIGHT RAZOR (Persea Books, 2013), a Rumpus Poetry Book Club selection and finalist for the Lambda Literary Award; BREAKFAST WITH THOM GUNN (Chicago, 2009), finalist for the California Book Award and Lambda Literary Award; and COMPLAINT IN THE GARDEN (Zoo/Orchises, 2004), winner of the 2003 Kenyon Review Prize. In addition, he has written a book of criticism, THE ILLUSION OF INTIMACY: ON POETRY (Diode Editions, 2019). Winner of the J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize from Poetry magazine. Poems and prose in The Adroit Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Lit Hub, The Cortland Review, and The Kenyon Review. (less)
Sian Williams will read from her newly published book “Stonehouse”
Stonehouse was written in a two year period of self discovery. What began as a memoir, morphed into a fictional tale of a woman in flux, based around a whimsical stone cottage in the woods of Martha’s Vineyard.
Bryn wakes up on her fortieth birthday, lying beside her estranged husband.
STONEHOUSE takes us on a woman’s quest for love and the losses that accompany the journey of her life.
Set amongst the woods on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Bryn’s story is interwoven with the reality of living life in a small community.
Tuesday January 17th
“Truly the voice of the Jersey Shore.” ―Bruce Springsteen
SEE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
Former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky will read from and talk about Jersey Breaks, his new memoir. He will join us via Zoom.
Pinsky traces the roots of his poetry, with its wide and fearless range, back to the voices of his neighborhood, to music and a distinctly American tradition of improvisation, with influences including Mark Twain and Ray Charles, Marianne Moore and Mel Brooks, Emily Dickinson and Sid Caesar, Dante Alighieri and the Orthodox Jewish liturgy. He reflects on how writing poetry helped him make sense of life’s challenges, such as his mother’s traumatic brain injury, and on his notable public presence, including an unprecedented three terms as United States poet laureate.
In late-1940s Long Branch, a historic but run-down Jersey Shore resort town, in a neighborhood of Italian, Black, and Jewish families, Robert Pinsky began his unlikely journey to becoming a poet. Descended from a bootlegger grandfather, an athletic father, and a rebellious tomboy mother, Pinsky was an unruly but articulate high school C student, whose obsession with the rhythms and melodies of speech inspired him to write.
Candid, engaging, and wry, Jersey Breaks offers an intimate self-portrait and a unique poetic understanding of American culture.
Tuesday January 10th, 2023
Co-authors; Meg Pokrass and Jeff Friedman
Our event theme will be “collaborate writing” as Meg Pokrass and Jeff friedman read from their co-authored book, The House of Grana Padano. Meg Pokrass is the author of eight flash fiction collections and is series co-editor of Best Microfiction. Jeff Friedman has published seven poetry collections.
Warren Woessner, a Cleaveland House poet, will read from his work. His recent poetry collection is Exit Sky.
Meg Pokrass
is the author of six flash fiction collections, an award-winning collection of prose poetry, two novellas-in-flash, and a new prose collection, Spinning to Mars, recipient of the Blue Light Book Award in 2020. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Washington Square Review, Wigleaf, Waxwing, and McSweeney’s, among others. She is the Series Founder and Co-Editor of Best Microfiction.
Jeff Friedman
eighth book, The Marksman, was published in November 2020 by Carnegie Mellon University Press. He has received numerous awards and prizes for his poetry, mini tales, and translations, including a National Endowment Literature Translation Fellowship in 2016 and two individual Artist Grants from New Hampshire Arts Council. Two of his micro stories were recently selected for the Best Microfiction 2021 anthology.
Tuesday January 3rd, 2023
SEE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
Joanna Penn Cooper will read from her fiction — and talk about the current popularity of Flash Memoir. Joanna has published two books of lyric prose as well as two chapbooks. She teaches workshops and works as a freelance editor.
Donald Nitchie has led poetry writing workshops on the Vineyard for the past 25 years, and has had his poetry in Salamander, MV Arts and Ideas, Martha’s Vineyard Poets, and other publications. His poetry collection, Driving Lessons, was published by Pudding House in 2008
Jenny Slate and Ben Shattu read LIVE from their respective work.
Ben’s nonfiction book, Six Walks, was published to acclaim this year; it follows the path of Henry David Thoreau’s walks around the Cape and the mountains of New Hampshire.
Jenny is the author of Little Weirds and is writing a second book. She is the writer and voice of Marcel The Shell with Shoes On.
From Today In The Taxi,
Days Of Winter
Today in the taxi I brought a Chinese couple, parents of a student at Columbia, from Amsterdam Avenue to JFK. The girl was crying, the mother was crying, etc. The parents sat in silence for most of the trip. They didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Chinese. I did offer them a little package of tissues. On the other hand, the sun came out and it warmed to 24 degrees.
A driver should find a fixed object on the road, such as a sign or a tree, and when the car in front passes it, count three seconds before his own car passes it. Then add a second for each hazard—rain, or darkness.
The road is not unlike a little pressed-between vessel that the car pushes along its black bloodstream. A psalm instructs that “It will be as it is said.”
John Cotter is the author of Losing Music (Milkweed, April ’23), a memoir about falling mysteriously ill, searching for a cure, then searching for meaning when no cure appears. It’s a story that ranges from a homeless shelter on the Colorado Plains to specialty clinics in Beverly Hills to 18th Century Dublin and the eerily similar illness that afflicted Jonathan Swift as he conceived and wrote Gulliver’s Travels. John’s previous book is the novel Under the Small Lights. His essays and stories have appeared in Raritan, Commonweal, New England Review, Guernica, Electric LIterature’s Recommended Reading, and On the Seawall.
More at http://johncotter.net/
This was our final W&P event in our Chilmark
Gathering Space for the 2021-2022 Season.
SEE MORE INFO ABOUT THE READERS THIS NIGHT
See videos from this 4.5.22 event here.
See videos from this 3.29.22 event here.
See videos from this event HERE
SEE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
See videos from the evening with Hananah Zaheer HERE
SEE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
See Videos from Feb.15th Readings HERE
See Videos from this evening HERE
Videos from this evening coming HERE
SEE THE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
Click for more info on Aaron Smith
Click to see videos of this evening with Aaron Smith
CLICK TO SEE VIDEOS FROM THIS EVENING HERE
CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO OF THIS EVENING
WITH ELIZABETH JACOBSON & OTHERS
Featured Reader Dec.14th 2021.
Elizabeth Jacobson became the fifth poet laureate of Santa Fe, NM in 2019. Her second book, Not into the Blossoms and Not into the Air, was awarded the New Measure Poetry Prize, selected by Marianne Boruch, and was published in 2019 by Parlor Press.
She founded and directs the WingSpan Poetry Project which conducts ongoing poetry classes in shelter facilities. She also teaches a weekly community poetry class in conjunction with the Santa Fe Railyard Art Project. https://elizabethjacobson.wordpress.com/
Invited Poet Elaine Sexton read Tuesday, December 7th, 2021
Elaine Sexton teaches text and image and poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has been guest faculty at New York University and in the graduate writing program at City College (CUNY), and teaches poetry, bookmaking, and art writing at numerous arts and writing centers in the U.S. and abroad including Poets House and Arts Workshop International. She teaches private workshops in her studio and online. Formerly a senior editor at ARTnews, she serves as the visual arts editor for Tupelo Quarterly, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
In Memory of Arnie Reisman
Arnie Reisman served as the Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate from 2014 – 2016. His collection of poems, “Light-Headed in the Dark Ages” was recently released, and is available at Bunches of Grapes, Cronig’s, and Amazon. For the past 24 years he and his wife Paula have been regular panelists on the NPR weekly comedy quiz show, “Says You!” He also wrote columns for the Vineyard Gazette.
Cleaveland House Poets Reading on May 11th:
Ellie Bates, retired from the Edgartown School, is member of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Cleaveland House Poets, MV Poets’ Collective, MV Poetry Society, New England Poetry Club and Pathways Institute. Her collage work of images and words has appeared at Featherstone Center for the Arts. Her writing has been published in the Vineyard Gazette, MV Times, and Cleaveland House Poets: 50 Years. Her photographs and poetry are in her three small chapbooks: Everything Changes, Rooted in Change & A Collage of Poetry and in work by Howes House Writers and the MV Poets’ Collective. She is honored again to contribute to the 2021 Cleaveland House Poets Anthology and is grateful for the opportunity to walk in nature on Martha’s Vineyard, which inspires her poetry. She thanks the community of writers on and off island for sharing their talents with her, as we continue our mission of healing and hope through words, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nan Byrne is a poet and writer and the author of two books. Her work has appeared in a variety of literary magazines including Michigan Quarterly Review, Seattle Review, Fiction Southeast, New Orleans Review, The Mighty Line, and others. A former television writer she holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently the owner of a vintage clothing shop called Utopia.
Peter Ledermann is currently owner and Director of Engineering at the Soundsmith Corporation. He has spent much of his life inventing as well as designing and manufacturing all types of high end audio equipment, including the “lost art” of hand making and rebuilding phono cartridges. He also worked for many years at the IBM T. J. Watson research center, a “think tank” located in Westchester County NY. His interests include philosophy, humor, all forms of science including metaphysics, travel, writing short stories and poetry, but most of all gathering with friends. He is a member of the Cleaveland House Poets and has published one book of his poems, illustrated with his own water-color paintings. His poetry has been published numerous times in Cross Currents magazine and appeared in the last Cleaveland House PoetsAnthology: 50 Years. Peter has been “spontaneously” receiving poetry since he was 9 years old, and states that he just “quickly writes what he hears”. Once he receives them in this manner, he generally remembers most of what he has “heard”, for more than 60 years.
Georgia Morris has been writing poetry throughout her life; while work-shopping plays at HB studios in New York, writing documentaries for ABC, PBS, TNT, and AMC, raising her kids in Tisbury, or writing plays or independent films for Galen Films, her production company with her husband Len Morris. Poetry has been her secret garden nourishing every one of these outward lives. And now, having finished her first novel, and been invited to join Cleveland House Poets, her poetry is crawling out from under the bushel, where it has been thrown to accumulate for too long.
Fan Ogilvie published “YOU” selected poems and “KNOT: A LIFE, a memoir in 2008. In 2016 “EASINESSES FOUND”, poems and paintings was published, receiving special recognition from the Washington Independent Review of Poetry and Grace Cavieleri, creator of the Poet and the Poem series. Fan taught English and poetry in Washington, DC, New Haven, CT, New York City, NY, and Martha’s Vineyard, MA. She was selected to be the 2nd Poet Laureate of West Tisbury, MA. She worked three years at the Dukes County House of Correction, where she published two volumes of poetry by the inmates. She is now facilitator of the Cleaveland House Poets, the oldest continuous poetry group in the USA. Fan, also a painter, had a one person show at Featherstone Center for the Arts, and at The Free Library of West Tisbury, and the Chilmark Library. Fan and Arnie Reisman co-edited a collection of Judith Neeld’s poetry in 2019. Judith’s work has been celebrated many times on the Vineyard. In 2020, Fan published The Berth: American Themes in Poems and Images, a conversation between a contemporary poet and a passenger on the Mayflower 400 years ago, answering the question about what has happened to the dreams between then and now in America.
Susan Puciul wrote her first nature poem, when she was nine, in the wilds of Bayonne, New Jersey. Her experience has been that poetry begins in the body and she has combined her poems with choreography performed at The Yard in Chilmark, at Featherstone, and with the dance collective, What’s Written Within. A member of the Cleveland House Poets since 2009, her work has appeared in their initial anthology, in the book, Legacy of Light, on NPR and in various poetry journals over the years. Her day job has been running Tashmoo Realty for thirty-five years, and raising four children in the home she shares with her husband in Chilmark.
Brooks Robards wrote her first poem in third grade, then exploded into life as a poet while working on an M.A. in English at the University of Hartford. She has been writing poetry regularly ever since, producing five collections in collaboration with visual artists. After earning a PhD in Communication at UMass/Amherst, Brooks taught journalism, film and women’s studies at Westfield (MA) State University for 21 years. Five of her 15 publications are poetry. Brooks lives in Northampton, MA, and spends the summer months on Martha’s Vineyard. The natural world is frequently the theme she pursues.
Annette I. Sandrock, resident of Marthas’a Vineyard for over 30 years, published her first book of poetry, Labyrinth (2019) in Portugal and is honored to be registered in the National Library of Portugal. Her book, exclusively containing her poetry and images of pruned treetops of Crete, is carried in several book stores in Portugal as well as on Martha’s Vineyard. The images from Labyrinth have taken on a life of their own, having been shown at island libraries and virtually by PathwaysArts of Martha’s Vineyard as “an instrument to raise awareness of the personality and special sentience of trees, our companions and providers”. Through manipulation of her photographs, Sandrock uniquely captures trees as embodying spirits and personality traits of humanity and animals. Unfortunately, scheduled shows at the Grand Arsenal in Chania, the MV Film Center, and MVTV art space were postponed due to Covid in the Spring of 2020. Her writing and poetry have appeared in several island anthologies as well as several Martha’s Vineyard publications.
Warren Woessner is a poet, an avid birder and a patent attorney who splits his time between Minneapolis and the Vineyard. In 1968, he co-founded Abraxas magazine, and WORT-FM, hosting its poetry program. His poetry has appeared in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Epoch, Iconoclast, 5AM and the Vineyard Gazette, among others. Many collections of his poetry have been published, including Clear All the Rest of the Way (U. of Nebraska Press), Our Hawk (Coffee House Press) and Exit-Sky (Holy Cow! Press). Warren has received Fellowships in poetry from the NEA, the McKnight Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board, and won the Minnesota Voices Competition sponsored by New Rivers Press. His poems, “Message From David” and “Cleaning Up” first appeared in the online literary review, On the Seawall.
SEE VIDEOS OF THE 4/27 CLEAVELAND HOUSE POETS
READINGS HERE
Christopher Legge is a grateful member of Cleaveland House Poets, and has been honing his unique genre of “Story poetry” for years. Many of his poems are taken from the sights and scenes of the gift that is living on the Vineyard. As well, Chris lets in the embers of the Olde Country, burning bright with deep gratitude. Chris is very close to publishing his own book of stories, A Whither in the Twile, a collection of rhythm and rhyme.
Arnie Reisman, Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate (2014-2016) is the author of three books of poems. His comedy, Not Constantinople, had its world premiere at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse in 2015, directed by MJ Bruder-Munafo. His documentary, The Powder & the Glory (the Helena Rubinstein-Elizabeth Arden business rivalry), co-produced for PBS with Ann Carol Grossman, became the musical War Paint, featuring Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole. It ran for eight months on Broadway in 2017. He’s also a columnist for the Vineyard Gazette and lives with his wife, Paula Lyons, on the Vineyard. Since its debut in 1996, he and Paula have been regular panelists on NPR’s comedy quiz show, Says You!
Brooks Robards wrote her first poem in third grade, then exploded into life as a poet while working on an M.A. in English at the University of Hartford. She has been writing poetry regularly ever since, producing five collections in collaboration with visual artists. After earning a PhD in Communication at UMass/Amherst, Brooks taught journalism, film and women’s studies at Westfield (MA) State University for 21 years. Five of her 15 publications are poetry. Brooks lives in Northampton, MA, and spends the summer months on Martha’s Vineyard. The natural world is frequently the theme she pursues.
Valerie Sonnenthal started writing poetry at age 12 after finding a small notebook on a dusty California road, something she has never stopped carrying with her. When she moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 2005 she was fortunate to be invited to join the Cleaveland House Poets. She has had the pleasure of participating in poetry readings at the MV Playhouse, Pathways Arts, and local libraries. Her poems have appeared in the MV Times, Rattle, and two previous Cleaveland House Poetry books. She is a regular contributor to the MV Times, The Local and MV Arts & Ideas Magazine. She owns Peaked Hill Studio, teaches biomechanical yoga, and offers sound healing. Valerie lives in Chilmark with her family and beloved dogs.
Ellen Martin Story began enjoying Vineyard life as a small child and has been writing poetry for over 40 years. She is a resident of Oak Bluffs, where she and her husband retired in 2014. Previously, she was a Human Resources administrator for the MBTA. In addition to the Cleaveland House Poets, she is a member of Zora’s Girls, a Boston area writing group, and has had the great benefit of writing instruction from Boston’s Grub Street. Several of her poems have been published in the Martha’s Vineyard Times, and she has read at the MV Playhouse Poetry Café, as well as PathwaysArts. She is thankful to have been welcomed into the Cleaveland House Poets and excited to be a part of the upcoming 2021 Anthology.
Jennifer Smith Turner is an award winning author. Her debut novel, Child Bridewas awarded the Best E-book for 2020 by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and Biblioboard, and a Best Book in Women’s Fiction by the New York City Big Book Awards. She is the author of two poetry books; Lost and Found Rhyming Verse Honoring African American Heroesand Perennial Secrets Poetry & Prose. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications. Ms. Turner served as the Acting President/CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation, where she is a Board member. She is the retired CEO of Girl Scouts of Connecticut. During her professional career she served as an appointed government official for the State of Connecticut, and the City of Hartford as a corporate and non-profit executive, as well as a member of many academic and non-profit Boards of Directors. She received a BA from Union College, and her Masters from Fairfield University. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Hartford.
—-Local Authors That Have Presented at Pathways—-
TUESDAY APRIL 20TH, 2021
Join a conversation with Chef-Author, Jamie Sparks, about her new cookbook : Fooding – A Chef’s Journey Through Food, Farms and Community on Martha’s Vineyard.
Joining her is
•Brian Athearn – President of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and owner/farmer at Runamok Farm.
• Dan and Greg Martino – Cottage City Oysters
• Heidi Feldman – Martha’s Vineyard Salt
• Tim and Tricia Colon – The Island Bee Company
Jamie found herself working as a private chef on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 2019, after having just published her first cookbook. She became enthralled by the vibrant local farming community and the shared ethos amongst its members. The book soon evolved into a journey Jamie set out on to meet farmers and members of the community, with recipes and stories paying homage to them through the words in her book.
Jamie’s first cook book – Tchad: Cooking for Conservation, A Gastronomic Safari was published in 2018. Beginning in 2015, Jamie’s passion for culinary arts became closely aligned with her philanthropic commitment to Africa’s wildlife. This landed her in Zakouma National Park, where the Tchadian government was working in collaboration with the US-based NGO, African Parks, to protect the habitat and struggling elephant population in the south. Tchad is surrounded by Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan, many engaged in, or still recovering from disabling civil wars.
Jamie spent years understanding the cuisine of the region, and by 2018 had trained a new generation of Tchadian chefs, using local ingredients and honoring their heritage.
From her desert kitchen she created an original, beautifully illustrated 350 page book – with 100% of the profits earned from sales given back to African Parks. She recounts the challenges she faced during the first season at Camp Nomade; cooking on an open fire, limited refrigerator space, extreme heat, and rusty French language skills.
Jamie Sparks graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris 2006 and has since worked across the globe. She has completed internships in well-known Michelin-rated restaurants, worked at famous eateries in Las Vegas, and cooked on some of the world’s most luxurious yachts, and worked in private homes. Jamie was born in the United States but now calls thinks of Africa as her home. She finds joy in training local chefs in advanced cooking techniques and inspiring and motivating them to raise their standards. Her passion for conservation, and seeing first-hand the positive effects of proper management in far-flung corners of the African continent, motivates her to allocate most all of the profits from the sales of her first book to organizations that make a difference in protecting these special places where wildlife can thrive. Working with a conservation organization has piqued her interest in how we as a society can lead more conservation-minded lives and how to spread the word outside of our own micro-communities.
Previous published book
Cooking for Conservation – A Gastronomic Safari
https://cookingforconservation.com/the-book/
This week Pathways’ ongoing Tuesday Writing and Poetry series featured a special evening with internationally published poet and novelist, SUE GUINEY.Guiney who read poetry from WRITING THROUGH: ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS FROM THE MAGIC PENCILS, collected in workshops throughout Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore, followed by Q&A. These workshops were facilitated by Writing Through, an international NGO she founded. A family trip to Cambodia in 2006, led to Guiney writing the first of her collection of novels set in modern-day Cambodia, A Clash of Innocents. After the publication of that novel, Sue was determined to bring the fruit of her inspiration back to the people who inspired her.In 2010, the novelist, poet and educator led a writing workshop at Anjali House, an education and art centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and it was the beginning of Writing Through.
From there it grew into an international charity targeting at-risk populations – children, adults, students and teachers.Writing Through launched its first project in Cambodia in 2015 – specially designed workshops that use the writing of English poems and stories to develop thinking skills, language fluency and self-esteem. The program now extended to include Singapore and Vietnam, and is expanding.
The Charity has trained facilitators and volunteers around the world and is always receptive to being connected to new partners. An Anthology of Poems from the Magic Pencils is available via www.writingthrough.org, and at some bookstores. You can purchase a book or donate here
https://writingthrough.org/help/#donate.
Sue Guiney is an internationally published poet and novelist, focusing on the intersection of arts training and thinking skills. Skilled in Performing Arts, Manuscript, Fiction writing and Poetry, plus NGO administration and global education. She is a media and communication professional with a MA focused in Classics from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
See the recording of Pathways 2-Part Webinar Series
Natural Witchcraft- Plant Medicine and Food Based Healing
and read the story of Lissana Wallance’s stunning book
Just released for the Public
After touring the US, this play, written for live performance but
rewritten for Zoom, was premiered at Pathways, August 20th, 2020.
NEW BOOKS FROM PathwaysARTS PARTICIPANTS
Jennifer Smith Turner — Child Bride, receives national recognition through the NEW YORK CITY BIG BOOK AWARD®!
WE CONGRATULATE FAN OGILVIE ON ANOTHER BOOK OF POETRY PUBLISHED.
VIDEO FROM FAN’S READING BELOW INCLUDING A CHAT WITH THE BOOK’S DESIGNER JANET HALLIDAY
Barbara Peckham’s new book has been published.
Click here to buy it!
We congratulate Amarylis Douglass on the publishing of her book,
‘Fellowship Of The Rain‘
Winner of the 2020 Blue Light Press Award, this book is the product
of a four-year project; poems “of witness to the epidemic of homelessness,”
“unforgettable portraits of Americans… for whom
the word recovery has not applied,” those who find a place to sleep
each night, outside.
Proceeds from the sales will be shared with “Street Roots”,
in Portland, Oregon
CLICK TO SEE VIDEOS OF AMARYLIS’ READINGS AT PATHWAYS
Watch this Video From Gyn McAllister who writes of waking up as a cockroach in her own apartment
Video Companion to the Single “Noticed,” from Blue, Blue Box, by Rachel Elion Baird. This is a parody on a Spaghetti Western. In the hands of women, we make love, not war, or maybe, we just dance…
Many thanks to all in this video. It was an amazing and fun process with talented filmmakers, wonderful cast and crew, a real cowboy and his amazing horse.
PROMPTS FOR OUR ZOOM WRITING & POETRY READINGS
ON JUNE 16th, 2020
