Literary Open Mic "Lit Lit" Temporarily Moves To Happy Valley Bar This Month

The literary Open Mic night, “Lit Lit” is temporarily moving for its March location from the Howland Cultural Center to Happy Valley Bar, 296 Main St. in Beacon, on Thursday, March 3rd from 7-9pm. The event free, and proof of vaccination will be required at the door. People can buy drinks and snacks as they like. Normally “Lit Lit” is on the first Friday of the month at the Howland Cultural Center, but this month is different as the Howland undergoes planned renovations.

“Lit Lit” launched during the summer of 2021 during the pandemic at Homespun, as a way for literary and writerly minded people to gather together to read their words on paper. It has been a traveling literary group ever since, battling variant surges and weather cancellations ever since.

Founded by Donna Minkowitz, a writer of memoir, journalism and fantasy, “Lit Lit” has been a success. “We have a very warm and welcoming crowd, and we get a great turnout of local writers and readers!” Donna told A Little Beacon Blog.

How It Works

Anyone can sign up to read their own writing of any genre, for up to five minutes in length, “or until we run out of time,” says Donna. For info, people can contact Donna at litlitseries@gmail.com.

Events In Beacon

See a list of upcoming events at A Little Beacon Blog’s Event Guide. Submit your own event here for consideration. To guarantee placement, support ALBB with an Event Listing sponsorship. People with more than one event coming up should consider a subscription event listing package for a discount. Shops and Restaurants can have all events listed in advertising packages for the Shopping Guide or Restaurant Guide.

Writerly Happenings: October Edition

Beloveds, it’s been a long, long time since we last met here; I hope you are all well and surviving if not all the way to thriving.  So there’s much to catch up on. What did you read and love this summer? My summer reading favorites were:  Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans (who is an extremely talented writer), Interior, Chinatown by Charles Yu (innovative structure for a novel-as-screenplay), and The Porpoise by Mark Haddon (trigger warning in an Ancient Greek kind of way). 

I just finished The Matrix by Lauren Groff, which, oh my goodness, knocked my socks off and also made me feel slightly self-conscious that I was reading about nun sex in a public place. Currently reading Fault Lines by Emily Itami which may veer too far into the sad mommy genre, but also delivers whoppers like “It’s hard to remember who you are without people who know you that way.”

I took an amazing field trip over the summer to Hobart, NY – the used bookstore lover’s dream. Made me incredibly grateful we have Binnacle Books here in Beacon with their used book selection, but how great would it be if there were, say seven more used bookstores?

So what’s happening this month in the world of literary pursuits? 

The Howland Library has a great program set up for October: Stop by at any time starting Friday, October 15th to pick up a cookbook titled, "Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors" by famed chef and author, Andrea Nguyen. FREE! 2021 Big Read's chosen title is the graphic novel memoir "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui. The memoir follows a family's journey from Vietnam to America and is being discussed on October 20th outside in Memorial Park. 

Split Rock Books in Cold Spring has a couple of great events lined up this fall, as well as their graphic novel and fiction book clubs which meet at the end of the month. Their fiction pick is one that has been on my list: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk, and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.

Over the bridge in our sister city is the Newburgh Literary Festival at the end of the month. I’m so happy to see this event return, it was so fantastic the first year it happened. The festival will begin Saturday, October 30 at 11am with a full day of readings, interviews, and conversations with eight featured writers. Sunday, October 31, will feature a series of in-person writing workshops with award-winning, Hudson Valley-based authors and artists. The Saturday event, which has been curated by writers Ruth Danon and Belinda McKeon, will include paired readings and moderated conversations and will feature an in-conversation event with Joe Donahue, host of The Book Show and The Round Table on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. We stan for Joe Donahue!

Here in Beacon, our very own Donna Minkowitz is putting on Lit Lit, a monthly writer’s salon at Homespun Foods on Main Street. This month the reading is October 7th, from 7-9pm, and going forward will meet the first Thursday of every month, with Friday as the rain date. Writers can read their own writing of any genre, up to five minutes in length.

Zoom Readings?!

If you want to attend some killer zoom readings with famous authors, may I suggest The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence, who has some heavy hitters booked for later this month and November. If you want to take a workshop, The Poetry Project in NYC has some really far-out offerings coming up. The Hudson Valley Writer’s Center has a number of readings and workshops, including a Legend of Sleepy Hollow family storytelling workshop on October 17th that looks like a lot of fun.

Here’s to cozy reading and blue skies and bright leaves for the next little longer, friends. I promise not to let it be so long before we meet again.

Writerly Happenings: April Hope Edition

By Pheobe Zinman

We made it to April! That was an extremely long returning. Hope you are ready for some unabashed optimism in the following paragraphs.

Saturday, April 24th is BUSY

Independent Bookstore Day - April 24, 2021

Split Rock’s newsletter brings good news: “This year's independent bookstore day is extra special because it's the first Saturday we'll be open for walk-ins! We will also have exclusive indie-only items, a raffle for kids and adults, and more!” They also have a number of great book clubs in effect - “Fiction History Book Clubs” every other month; “Reading with Writers” twice monthly and a “Graphic Novel Book Club” each month.

Binnacle Books in Beacon is open for limited hours for walk-ins and by appointment. I am in love with the radical activist vibe in there. I got some great kids’ books out of their $1 bin the other day, including “The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story” which had been distributed by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Dolly! Free books and vaccines - we don’t deserve you!

It’s National Poetry Month!

On April 10th is the 10th Annual Westchester Poetry Festival. The festival is online and features none other than Reginald Dwayne Betts, whose book Felon we discussed in the last edition of Writerly Happenings.

One Poem A Day Won’t Kill You is a clever initiative to get you to listen to one recorded poem every day. It’s a joint initiative of the Highland Current and the Desmond Fish Public Library in Garrison. 

At the Howland Library in Beacon, they have an Amanda Gorman-inspired poetry & collage project with Compass Arts. On April 6th there’s an inclusive, neurodiverse event for Autism Awareness month (April is busy). 

Howland Public Library Board Elections

Howland Library Board elections are on April 29th! Voters will get to pick three candidates from the five on the ballot and the two who get the most votes will get the 5-year terms and the person who gets the third most will get the two-year term. Yours truly happens to be running, as is the wonderful Sam Anderson, a local famous writer, and previously funny person.

Other News

I heard the next Artichoke storytelling slam is May 8 – but their website can’t confirm. If you want to go see some of the best storytellers in the HV (Hudson Valley), keep an eye out and get tickets early, it always sells out.

Beacon’s own poet and teacher extraordinaire Ruth Danon is looking fierce on page 16 of the Highlands Current! 

Lots of great writing and discourse to be found on Bard’s website for the Written Arts.

Published by Beacon’s own Elizabeth Murphy, Grid's imprint, Off the Grid Press, sponsors an annual poetry contest for poets over sixty.  Submissions open May 1 and this year's judge is Jimmy Santiago Baca! His older poem Immigrants in Our Own Land is very worth reading. 

So what do you think? Feel the stirrings of hope within? Go brush off the cobwebs and listen to the poem the peepers are reading us, greet the birds with a sonnet about daffodils tomorrow morning. Some lovely things survived the winter.

Writerly Happenings By Phoebe Zinman: Blizzard Edition

Hi lovely readers.

If shoveling hasn’t put you in traction, and you’re able to read this, I salute you!

Books From Phoebe’s Writing Group

I have a cozy little writing group that’s helping me get through this epic midwinter, and I surveyed them for what they’ve been reading of late.

They recommend the novel The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. It's about three sisters in late-19th Century America who are descended from witches and get involved in the suffrage movement.

Also The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy, Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich (a theme emerges), Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders.

Someone else is reading nonfiction like Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Hahneman, and Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, who passed away last month. I just finished Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts, an incredible book of poetry that takes on the American prison system, and Euphoria by Lily King, which is loosely based on Margaret Mead’s life and made me question the moral ground of whole entire field of anthropology.

Any of these could be had at either Binnacle Books or Split Rock Books or requested for curbside pickup at the Howland Library!

What else is going down besides rock salt?

Well, the Hudson Valley Writer’s Center has a pretty serious lineup of awesomeness if you want to join on Zoom. There’s a great workshop with Karen Finley (!!!!) on February 13th called What’s Love Got To Do With It. The center also has an open mic on February 19th if you feel brave.

In conjunction with Bard College, the phenomenal Meshell Ndegocello has created this amazing project inspired by James Baldwin. Chapter & Verse “is a 21st century ritual tool kit for justice. A call for revolution. A gift during turbulent times.” You can call in for meditations, songs, readings; it’s such a creative work.

I just discovered the Albany Poets group and that’s a website you can spend some time in. They have a number of performance recordings, lots of calls for submissions, and they just published two poems by Mike Jurkovic, who is a really fun poet to hear read.

Kingston Reads presents A Community Conversation about Race and Social Classifications on February 18th, in collaboration with one of my favorite bookstores, Rough Draft. Moderators Shaniqua Bowden, Erica Brown, and Charlotte Adamis “will hold the space for a spirited conversation about race and social classifications inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” 

For a book discussion closer to home, you can join the Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center for their Abolitionist Study Group in March. Email them to join in. And if you want to exercise your abolitionist muscles in a different way, consider the Black & Pink, a nationwide PenPal program in which incarcerated LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS are matched with PenPals who correspond, build relationships, and participate in harm reduction and affirmation.

The Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston has some scheduled meetings to virtually write these letters with a group! In partnership with the TMI Project, the Center is also putting out a call for storytellers who self-identify as members of the Black Transgender & Gender Non-Conforming community.

Finally, on February 25th, SUNY Dutchess Community College presents New York Times best selling author Hanif Abdurraqib. This is a great opportunity to hear a really prolific writer.

This should be enough to warm you up, dear readers! Stay safe, stay cozy, keep shoveling.

Writerly Happenings: Zoom Era Edition

Well it’s been quite a while since I last got to close my eyes in a room full of writers and be transported by someone’s words. I miss it dearly, but there are some amazing literary events happening via Zoom. And while we can’t spend our days spontaneously popping into the bookstore, or browsing the library shelves for hours, we can most definitely enjoy the treasures that are our local booksellers.

Outdoor Book Club November 10

I had not been to the Howland Public Library in Beacon since February and I finally went in last week to pick up some requests. I felt giddy with excitement. The vibe, however, was serious. The librarians are keeping things ship shape in there, so follow the rules, friends. The library book club is going outside, weather permitting. Join them November 10th at Memorial Park to discuss "The Night Tiger" by Yangsze Choo at a 6’ social distance. Bring a chair and a sweatshirt!

What books did I request, you are wondering? Well, I picked up the hilarious combination of Untamed by Glennon Doyle and Rock and Roll Bob (for my kindergartner). “Haha!” I said to the librarian. “I am not a cliché at al!” He did not laugh. (Justice I miss you). I have resisted reading Untamed since it was published in July, for reasons that are obvious if you know me at all, or maybe even if you don’t know me because this is a small town, but I decided to just go for it. I read the whole thing in one night, cried my eyes out, and promptly returned it. I’m super glad she’s bravely sharing her story with the wide world of Oprah’s Book Club readers, but honestly she’s a little Basic B for me.

A little more my speed is Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by Adrienne Maree Brown which is taking me weeks to read, in part because I’m underlining everything. It is an incredibly powerful compilation of words and thoughts on transformative justice, radical pleasure and honesty and self-awareness. Preach. I’m going to have a discussion group around this book via Zoom on November 8th, and if you want to join in you can email me at phoebe@littlebeaconblog.com.

A Book Store All To Yourself! And Book Club For Kids

And I didn’t stop at the library! I finally got my first Unemployment payment since I started filing in June and I went and dropped a bundle of it at Split Rock Books in Cold Spring. It was a totally orgasmic 30 minutes of private shopping because they are only open by appointment for one lucky reader at a time. They have a whole bunch of Zoom book clubs coming up in November: The Kids Book Club is for ages 8-11 and meets Thursday, November 5th at 4pm. Next Book: Class Act by Jerry Craft. The Graphic Novel Book Club meets Tuesday November 24th at 7pm and is tackling the amazing Watchmen by Alan Moore. On November 19th is the Fiction Book Club and they will be reading The Other by Thomas Tryon.

Beacon’s own Binnacle Books is also open for appointment only browsing and while you are there, sponsor a book for a prisoner through the amazing Beacon Prison Books Project. I have a few books on my list that I’ve seen on their killer Instagram feed (follow them if you aren’t) that I want to go get. 

Writing Labs And Workshops

I just started an online writing workshop with the New York Writer’s Workshop, in the city, and it looks like there’s loads of workshops with some heavy hitters lined up at The Hudson Valley Writer’s Center.

If you want a less formal group writing environment, I just learned about Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory provides free bi-weekly remote Writing Labs. These Labs provide a space for experienced and aspiring writers to set goals, read and workshop their work, and provide support to one another. And if you develop your work with the Writing Lab, you also have the opportunity to share your completed work (or portions of your completed work) at one of their readings. Dates for the rest of the year are 11/3, 11/17 and then the reading on 12/4.. Please register for the next workshop at hvpal.org/events or email info@hvpal.org for more details. 

Poetry Power!

Want to hear some amazing crème-de-la-crème poets? The Newark-based Dodge Poetry Festival is online this year and if you pay-what-you-can, you can access the recordings of the readings after it ends on November 2nd.

Sarah Lawrence College has a great online event on November 11th when they bring together essayist Rachel Cohen and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri.

And there are so many good things happening at The Poetry Project in the city and now you can check them out without getting on the train. Plus! Their beautiful website just alerted me that you can pre-order We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics from Nightboat Books. This collection brings together seventy-two intergenerational trans poets writing against capital and empire. Yum!

Happy writing and reading, my friends! Maybe I’ll see you around down once the leaf-peeping insanity dies down next week. 

New Book "Weather" by Jenny Offill Available Now - Author Conversation At Binnacle Books On Saturday

Tuesday was the day! Jenny Offill’s new book, Weather, is being released by Penguin Random House and on Saturday the Syracuse resident is blessing us downstate babies with a reading for free at Binnacle Books from 7 to 9 pm at 321 Main Street. Yes, the very same Jenny Offill that wrote the amazing Dept. of Speculation, Last Things, and Sparky - a book for children that is very beloved in my house.

Binnacle made these beautiful posters for the event and promises that “wine and literary wit and beauty will be served.” The book’s main character is a librarian (swoon), and there’s a family member with addiction issues (love), and a podcast that is bringing together left-wingers and right-wingers who are all afraid the end is nigh. So it sounds very timely, does it not?

Even more exciting is that the evening is framed by a conversation between Jenny Offill and local author Lynn Steger Strong. A Little Beacon Blog was able to ask her some questions about what to expect Saturday night and also about her own forthcoming book.

ALBB: I always start my article with what some vaguely linked assortment of people I know are reading. What are you reading and loving right now? Or what’s topping your reading list for 2020?

LYNN STEGER STRONG: I'm re-reading Iris Murdoch's The Bell for a class that I'm teaching ,as well as Deszló Kosztolányi's Skylark, and Willem Frederik Hermans' The Untouched House. I also just finished Rufi Thorpe's extraordinary new novel The Knockout Queen, which comes out in April.

JENNY OFFILL: I am reading the new novel by Eimear McBride, Strange Hotel.

ALBB: So, Saturday night! What do you think you’ll be talking about? Is there anything in particular that you hope to be able to discuss or have Jenny elaborate on? Have you gotten an advance copy of Weather to read ahead of time?

LYNN STEGER STRONG: I have read Weather, and think, like Jenny's previous novel, Department of Speculation, it is an extraordinary exploration both of the intricacies of daily life as well as an engagement with some of the largest and most daunting questions and issues of today. I think I'll ask her about this combination. How, in such a short span, in these sometimes paragraph-long missives, she is able to crystallize the specific wants and fears and anxieties of our daily lives in ways we've not yet seen or thought them right next to and in congress with the anxieties and wants we feel globally. I want to ask her about precision and acuity and how she achieves it, as I feel like her books are informed as much by what they include as in this extraordinary ability to leave almost everything but the absolute most important details out.

ALBB: Are there stylistic or narrative threads that you feel connect your novels (and maybe even your children’s books? Sparky is quite deep, in my opinion)?

JENNY OFFILL: I think I write a lot about loneliness. And Sparky is about a particular kind of loneliness you feel as a child when your grand plans don't work out. Dept. of Speculation is about the loneliness that can exist even within a good marriage. Weather is about a wider kind of loneliness, the loneliness of humans having cut ourselves off and placed ourselves above the other creatures of the world.

ALBB: Also, let’s talk about how it feels to have so many double letters in a row in your first and last name. Do you think that’s contributed, along with your intensely awesome use of language and interesting writing perspective, to your success? Lynn Steger Strong also has a double letter in her name, so I think this event will be something really special. 

JENNY OFFILL: Maybe it's lucky! I have certainly had a lot of good luck lately. When I was younger, I heard that my last name was Welsh and came from of the field, but now I have an aunt who is really into genealogy who says we are not Welsh, so who knows?

ALBB: Lynn, would you like to tell us something about your own forthcoming novel, Want? When is that being published?

LYNN STEGER STRONG: Want takes place over a period of a few months in the life of a mother and teacher who, along with her husband, is declaring bankruptcy, and, in this process and during the gradual unraveling that follows, she decides to reach out to her oldest, now estranged, friend, who also happens to be in an extreme moment of flux. It comes out in July and attempts to explore topics of womanhood, motherhood, friendship, privilege, anger, and downward mobility. 

ALBB: We can’t wait to read that one. Unraveling and flux are never not-timely.

And there you have it, friends. See you Saturday night for Jenny Offill at Binnacle. We are betting it is going to be crowded. I need to find a babysitter ASAP!

Writerly Happenings: 2020 Edition

Happy New Year sweet readers! Have you been reading anything good, or just floating around on a graham cracker raft in a sea of egg nog? I’ve been busy recovering from surgery and have been reading nonstop in the absence of anything else to do besides “heal.” Feel free to send me a pillow with an inspirational message on it if you like, OR just tell me what to read next.

Top Picks

Here are my top picks from an array of genres: Garments Against Women by Anne Boyer (poems); Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh; Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock; The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner; Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister; and I reread the still-transformative Women Who Run With the Wolves for good measure (by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.). And I’m reading Dr. Dolittle with my kids in anticipation of the movie coming out next week. It’s still funny. Chapter 8 is basically a feminist manifesto.

What is ALBB up to in the reading department these days? Well, magazine devotee Katie Hellmuth Martin is turning those mags into 2020 foresight with Vision Boarding at the A Little Beacon Space. Check back for more workshop dates!

Happening In January

On Saturday, January 11, there’s another amazing edition of The Artichoke at the Howland Cultural Center. It promises to be “a superb evening of storytelling with Sam Dingman (The Moth Grand Slam Winner & host of Family Ghosts), Micaela Blei (The Moth Radio Hour), Erin Barker (The Story Collider), Sandi Marx (Stories from the Stage), Mike Cho (Risk!) and Beacon's own Mike Burdge (Story Screen).” 8 pm; $17.50 in advance, a cool $20 at the door.

On Saturday, January 25, the Spring Street series kicks off the new year at Atlas with an evening of international writers and translation. “The writers are: Mercedes Roffe, whose wonderful book Ghost Opera was translated by Beacon's own Judith Filc. Also appearing that night are Pierre Joris, whose translations of Celan and Adonis will be featured along with his own work. Jeanne Bonner will be reading her translation of the amazing work by a Hungarian writer who actually wrote in Italian, and, following up on the terrific discourse on cheese in The Odyssey at our last food fest event, we have Charles Stein, who will be presenting from his translation of The Odyssey and maybe even the Iliad.” 6:30 pm; donations appreciated.

Writing Workshops Galore!

Did you resolve to write more, even at the risk of harming your social standing and neglecting your family? Well, we support you 100 percent! There are a number of workshops you can join that are starting soon. Find a group to make you accountable!

Danielle Trussoni, writer and organizer of the fantastic Newburgh Literary Festival in October, is leading a writing workshop that will begin Sunday, January 26, 4 to 6 pm, and go for six weekly sessions. “This course is a reprisal of the sold-out course that I taught at Hudson Valley Writers Center, in 2019. It was designed to offer another opportunity to participate - especially for the people in and around Newburgh who could not make the trip, or were closed out.” RSVP to danielle@danielletrussoni.com to reserve a spot.

Ruth Danon is offering live writing poetry-centric workshops beginning in early February. She’s planning to run a “six-week session, take a break and then run another six-week session, the second of which would culminate in a reading by the workshop participants. The fee for the six-week session is $250 and will include private conferences.” Email Ruth for details about time and day: ruthdanonpoetry@gmail.com.

Also in Beacon, Donna Minkowitz is offering a memoir-writing workshop starting Wednesday, January 22, at 7 pm and it “goes for eight Wednesday nights, [until] March 11. The focus is on craft, especially on using the senses, lyricism, emotion, critical thinking, and storytelling to create meaningful and relatable works of memoir. Students get frequent feedback in a supportive atmosphere, and all levels of writers are welcome.” The cost is $275, and people who are interested can write her at Minkowitz46@gmail.com. 

Split Rock Books in Cold Spring is rolling into 2020 with a cute new baby, some great book clubs and events and a writing workshop with Lynn Seeger Strong, author of Hold Still. The course is described as a “hybrid craft and reading seminar/workshop.” Spend the first three weeks reading short stories and excerpts, and generating work. The second half will be a more traditional writing workshop: Each student will submit up to 25 pages of work and get written feedback from the instructor as well as from the class. Cost: $395 for six weeks. Meets consecutive Mondays. Capped at 12 people. Sign up at the store. Check out their website (www.splitrockbks.com) for book club info!

Coming In February!

In Beacon, Binnacle Books continues to tempt me with all their beautiful instagram photos of books I want, as well as the promise of a book release event for Jenny Offill (author of Department of Speculation) and her new book Weather. She'll be in conversation with Lynn Seeger Strong, leader of a workshop above. It'll be in the evening of Saturday, February 15, and we’ll be writing more in depth about that soon.

No. 3 Reading Room is wisely hibernating for the rest of January, but you can make an appointment or get in there in February to check out works by a legion of talented artists and writers, as well as the latest book of poetry by Edwin Torres and photobooks by Ronnie Farley, both of whom reside in Beacon.

Deeper into the winter we go, my loves; let’s leave a trail of bookmarks behind us.

Writerly Happenings: An Ode To Autumn Reading And Safe Harbors' Newburgh Literary Festival

Nicole Homer

Whatcha reading?

My daughter, 8, is sitting next to me at Trax on a beautiful Sunday morning reading McMummy by Betsy Byars for a book report and it’s really pretty deep. I’m feeling the sweet and sad parallels between the vegetable mummy disintegrating into green scraps and the main character’s feelings of loss around the inherited box he has of his dad’s things. Deep!

I’m reading a new book of poetry I special ordered from Binnacle Books. It’s called Pecking Order by Nicole Homer and it’s about race and motherhood and I’m loving it. The book is published by Write Bloody, which seems like a pretty rad, scrappy press and I’d like to read more of their authors. 

Also, Homer’s poem “Underbelly” is deeply affecting and totally worth a read on poets.org: 

“Let me say it 
another way: I like to call myself wound

but I will answer to knife. “

Well, dang. 

So – here’s to super lovely Hudson Valley blue skies full of wispy clouds and crisp breezes that keep the sun from being too hot, and some stupendous upcoming events to make it all come together this fall like caramel and apples.

Safe Harbors’ Newburgh Literary Festival

This edition of Writerly Happenings is going to mostly focus on the Safe Harbors’ Newburgh Literary Festival this coming weekend, Friday to Sunday, October 18 to 20!

This is an amazing new festival coming to our area, and there’s so much to celebrate! The festival is organized by Safe Harbors board member Hannah Brooks and novelist and memoirist Danielle Trussoni - two Newburgh neighbors who wanted to build an event around all of the writers that have been more recently drawn to our neck of the woods, and draw some talent up from the city as well.

“The word was in the air,” said Hannah when I recently asked her about their motivation for creating this event. They reached out to Atlas Studios, who had recently started the Spring Street Reading Series with Ruth Danon, as well as the Newburgh Free Library, and the organic process moved very quickly from there. Always a good sign you are on the right track!

So - what does the literary festival have in store for us? 

Mitchell Jackson

Friday Night

Friday night at 6:30 pm at Atlas (11 Spring St., Newburgh) there’s a reading and reception featuring author Mitchell Jackson, winner of the Whiting Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction.

Also reading will be poet Gretchen Primack, whose work has been published in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review and many others. I’m going to miss this and I’m so sad about it I could cry. Please go in my stead, sweet readers.

Saturday Day

Safe Harbors will host the Festival’s Main Event on Saturday, October 19, from 2 to 6 pm at the Ritz (107 Broadway, Newburgh), with a robust, full-day program of readings, interviews, podcasts, film clips and Q&A with nationally-recognized authors and poets.

Among them will be Maria Dahvana Headley, creator of The Mere Wife, the celebrated and politically topical adaptation of Beowulf; Molly Ringwald (!!!), actor and author of the critically acclaimed story collection When it Happens to You; Bettina “Poet Gold” Wilkerson, Dutchess County poet laureate; Edwin Torres of Nuyorican Poets Café; and award-winning novelists Panio Gianopoulos, Danielle Trussoni, Crystal Hana Kim, and Elizabeth (Betsy) Crane. 

Saturday Night Cocktail Reception & Local Authors Fair

A cocktail reception and Local Authors Fair from 6 to 8 pm will follow the day’s events. Tickets are $20 available online and at the door the day of the event. Students, $10 at the door with valid ID.

Sunday Day

Sunday, October 20, will feature two live-writing workshops that are almost sold out already: First, How to Tell the Story of Your Life, led by novelist and memoirist Danielle Trussoni at Safe Harbors Ann Street Gallery, 104 Ann St., Newburgh, 10 am to noon; and Surprise Yourself; Surprise Your Reader, with poet Ruth Danon at Atlas Studios Gallery, 11 Spring St., Newburgh, 1 to 3 pm. Tickets are $25 per person, per workshop.

Special Note For Friday and Saturday

Also on Friday and Saturday, from 11 am to 5 pm, the Ann Street Gallery at 104 Ann St., will present TEXT, a group exhibition of text-based art. 

Safe Harbors is all about community engagement and blocks of tickets have been provided to area high school and college students. This is an inspiring program on so many levels.

“So I’ll see you there, babies, with bell jars on. ”

— Phoebe Zinman

AND if you needed any more motivation, local merchants and restaurants will be offering discounts throughout the weekend for Festival attendees.

So I’ll see you there, babies, with bell jars on. Let’s support this inaugural event in the hopes that not only does it become a regular thing, but the ongoing smaller and inclusive projects that the organizers hope to be able to fund throughout the year can come to fruition.

Speaking of fruition, let’s see these other notable happenings blossom! 

Happening At This Side Of The River

Hatched In The Drift, works by Mariam Aziza Stephan and poetry by Julia Johnson.
Photo Credit: No. 3 Reading Room and Photo Book Works

No. 3 Reading Room and Photo Book Works in Beacon has a pretty special exhibit up this month: Hatched In The Drift features works on paper by Mariam Aziza Stephan and poetry by Julia Johnson. 

Local author Virginia Sole-Smith will be conversating with Nicki Sizemore on Friday, October 25, at Split Rock Books in Cold Spring about Sizemore’s new cookbook, Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker. My crock pot saves my family from starving on a fairly regular basis, so this seems not to miss.

On Saturday, October 26, the Desmond-Fish Library in Garrison has the Hudson Highlands Poetry Reading Series from 1:30 to 2:30 pm. 

Coming In November!

And just in case we don’t get back here before (Second) Saturday, November 9, from 3 to 5 pm the Beahive on Main Street in Beacon will present writers Ken Holland and Maceo J. Whitaker to celebrate the book launch of Maceo's debut collection of poems, Narco Farm.

Sigrid Nunez

Slightly farther afield, on November 11th Bard College presents a reading by National Book Award winner Sigrid Nunez. That’s a treat, not a trick.

Speaking of tricks, double check all your candy, hide all the wrappers, and soak up that glorious sun while you can. 

Writerly Happenings: Your Fall Reading And Writing Checklist

by Phoebe Zinman

To honor the passage of bright summer days into the crisp academia of autumn, I decided to talk to Beaconite and Exceptionally Smart Person Sarah Uzelac about her summer reading list that she always posts on Facebook. All these other exceptionally Smart Women respond to it, and then I crib the whole thing and work on it all year long. 

Sarah! I love your summer reading list posts! Do other people talk to you about it or is it one of those weird Facebook things that you don’t talk about in real life?

Other people totally talk to me about this in real life and it is one of my favorite uses of social media. It makes me feel super connected to people to know we share a love (or hate) for a text - even if we can’t ever meet up IRL to discuss it.

What were some of the highlights of this year’s summer reading? Did you try anything you expected to not like and love it?

I’ve been on a real nonfiction jag this year and I can’t seem to step away from it for long. Usually I’m all fiction all the time, but I think maybe, given the state of our country at the moment, I’m subconsciously hungry for truth and information and super smart people telling me stuff? This summer I really loved The Furious Hours, by Casey Cep and the grief memoir Tell Me More, by Kelly Corrigan, and my favorite fiction from this summer was Fleishman Is In Trouble, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I just realized those are all women authors - I think that might be another unconscious theme for me these days: Enough with the dudes, already.

(I’m so with you. Enough, already. Grab your pom poms and warm the bench.)

 What are you reading right now? 

Right now I’m reading Edith Wharton for the first time ever (even though my husband has been trying to get her on my radar for like 10+ years). We took a little visit to her estate (The Mount) in upstate NY this summer - seeing her space and learning more about her life is what tipped the scale for me. I started with a couple of short stories (Xingu and Roman Fever) and they blew my mind with the perfectness of her descriptions and how incredibly dead on and absolutely CUTTING the social interactions were.

So right now I’m about a third of the way into House of Mirth and am loving it. And if you’ve never made the trip up to The Mount - do it this fall! Have a glass of Prosecco on her amazing terrace overlooking her incredible gardens and wander through her beautiful home and see for yourself what a genius she was.

[Editor’s Note: Sarah is married to NY Times Magazine staff writer Sam Anderson, whose most recent book Boom Town is available at Binnacle Books in Beacon, where he read earlier this year.]

What’s next?

I’m not sure - what are YOU reading??

I just borrowed The Flick from my Mom and read it in one night. It’s by one of my favorite playwrights, Annie Baker. And I just discovered, amazingly, that it’s being put on at Vassar on Wednesday to Saturday, October 9-12. Thanks, Hudson Valley. Keep it local, babies.

Speaking of Vassar College, I’m ashamed to admit I have never investigated their Elizabeth Bishop collection and am adding that to my Fall Goals checklist along with this Edith Wharton jaunt. 

Ok, so, back to Sarah… Who has lived in Beacon for a hot minute (over 10 years) and so of course I want to know what is your favorite new spot in town? What old spot do you miss?

We moved to Beacon in 2005 back when there was only *one* coffee shop and the Mountain Tops shop and that was basically it! I love this town so much. I love the new connections through town to the Madam Brett walking path along Fishkill Creek, I love Big Mouth Coffee, and the Himalayan stall in the new food hall, and the Beacon Yoga Center (because they have hatha and hatha is the best yoga). I miss the unobstructed view of the mountain while walking down Main Street and the comedy shows David Rees and Sam used to host – those were the good old days.

[Author’s Note: An Aside: Those comedy shows were as spectacular as the view of the mountain! But things change like the leaves, which lets me transition gracefully into our official Writerly Happenings round up for September…]

Writerly Things To Do

Speaking of recommendations, I discovered that Binnacle Books has this super sweet matchmaking feature on their website and you can order up a custom Binnacle Book match! 

How was the Artichoke??? We are so sorry to have missed it on the 14th. I’m guessing the next one will be in November. There’s still so much glowing Fall weather in between [fingers crossed].

On Saturday, September 21, we’ll see you at the Spring Street Reading Series at Atlas in Newburgh, which is dreamily titled “The Exile’s Child is Also an Exile” in which Faisal Mohyuddin, Natania Rosenfeld, Ruth Danon and Edwin Torres “explore the ways in which the children of the displaced carry the experience of exile into the next generation.” I mean. That doesn’t resonate or anything. 

Then head down to the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Peekskill on Sunday, September 22, for the ferocious billing of Sean Thomas Dougherty, Jeffrey McDaniel (Cold Spring local and Sarah Lawrence prof) and Michelle Whittaker. Have lots of fun and then go back on Friday, October 4, for master class with Arthur Sze (um, wow).

Split Rock Books in Cold Spring is keeping it pretty chill as we all settle in to Back to School land, but their graphic novel book club on the 23rd looks pretty spectacular. Kingdom by Jon McNaught portrays the realness of a family’s summer vacation. On Sunday, October 6, from 10:15 to 10:45 am they are having a storytime for little ones and award-winning author and illustrator, Elisha Cooper, will be reading from River - as in, our very own Hudson.

Want to do some of your own writing? Writer (and Artichoke storyteller) Donna Minkowitz’s fall workshop will begin September 25 from 7 to 9 pm, and goes for eight Wednesdays. Participants in the small workshops will “work on writing about our lives using the senses, emotion, lyricism, critical insight, and storytelling come to create profound and relatable works of personal writing.” Email her for more info at minkowitz46@gmail.com.

And Ruth Danon is starting up live writing in October, so you should check her website for more details. But only if you like doing experiential, improvisational writing to generate unexpected results and language in the company of really interesting and talented people and getting lots of insightful feedback. You don’t want that.

Then get your head out of that notebook on Sunday, October 13, and head down to Oak Vino for monthly literary salon Get Lit, featuring Matt and Emily Clifton. Matt and Emily wrote the beautiful Cork and Knife (locally profiled to an extreme extent on Published Local on A Little Beacon Blog, written by yours truly). If you aren’t yet getting the email newsletter, previewing articles from A Little Beacon Blog, you must get on that. Fall goals! Check!

Go fight your way through an apple orchard on a Saturday if you must, but treat yourself to some writerly nourishment afterwards. Don’t anyone talk to me about pumpkin-flavored anything, though. We’ll see you back here to jump in some leaves before Halloween…

Writerly Happenings: Summertime Edition For July (and Maybe August)

Listen, it’s summer and we are keeping it loose. This edition of Writerly Happenings is being brought to you by “Spontaneity and All The Popsicles,” and may contain happenings in both July and August. 

Katie’s Summer Reading List - no shame. #SaveTheMagazines

On The Nightstands…

In that same spirit, this edition of What Are We Reading is keeping it real and not worried about intellectual heft. Our fearless leader Katie confesses that she went to Rite Aid and bought all of the rag magazines and a Clive Cussler book for summer reading. She is on a quest to save the magazines. Right now, you’ll find all of them at big box stores. So, people need to buy them. You can pick up your favorites at Rite Aid too. And Vogel Pharmacy, if you’re out near Leo’s.

Managing Editor Marilyn Perez is reading “Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life” by Charlotte Bell for the third time! She comes back to it every couple years, and I can only assume it helps to inform her excellent yoga teaching at Firefly Yoga in Fishkill.  

As for me, I’m staying informed about local events and maintaining a very low overhead by enjoying the Chronogram and Edible Hudson Valley (yay, Weed Issue!) and the award-winning Highlands Current.

So then, what’s happening all around us?

Writerly Happenings Around Town

Split Rock Books has this pretty incredible offsite event with author Benjamin Dreyer, discussing his book at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival on Friday, July 12. I’ve heard a lot of great things about his book, “Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style.” 

Saturday, July 20, competes for your heart and mine with an intergalactic event at BAU. Matt Clifton and Larry Sansone are organizing a reading alongside an exhibition of Sam Beste and Elizabeth Arnold’s artwork. The subject is space exploration (in tandem with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission) and the fragility of life on earth.

Also that night, there’s another Spring Street Reading Series over at Atlas Studios in Newburgh. “Women and their Bonding,” from 7 to 8:30 pm, features writers Laura Brown and Idra Novey and is curated by Ruth Danon.

On Sunday, July 28, you could take a workshop with Donna Minkowitz, who will also be reading at Get Lit on Sunday, July 14, at Oak Vino. In the Beacon Summer Memoir Intensive, participants “write about our lives using the five senses, lyricism, emotion, critical thinking, and the art of storytelling." Then on Saturday, August 24, she is offering Writing From the Body at Wyld Womyn. This is a memoir workshop for all who identify as women, nonbinary or trans, and want to write about their “lives, sensations, pains, pleasures, and feelings of all kinds.”

Speaking of Get Lit, there’s a great interview with the righteous Ronnie Farley up on their website, and on Sunday, August 11, from 5 to 8 pm at Oak Vino they will feature poet Catherine Arra. Their lineup is looking very interesting for the fall, too.

And while we’re on the subject of of 50th anniversaries, on Tuesday, August 13, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, you can head to the Howland Public Library in Beacon to hear local author Sharon Watts discuss her newest book, “By the Time I Got to Woodstock - An Illustrated Memoir of a Reluctant Hippie Chick,” which she both wrote and illustrated! 

Farther afield, there’s this fascinating series happening up in Hudson that I’m really intrigued by - The Home School Poetry Readings at Time and Space Limited - and they have a pretty stellar (interstellar?) lineup of writers. 

Also I saw a very pretty picture of some lucky writer working away at the Kingston Writer’s Studio and felt such envy! They are all booked up for members, but you can get a day pass and write all the things.

So then, if you Writerly Types can put down your magazine and climb out of the hammock, come join us. There will be air conditioning and no judgment about your summer trash-reading game. We’ll be tailgating out front with a popsicle.

Writerly Happenings: Open Mics, Writer Circle's and Book Club Happenings In June!

Too Upset To Read?

No one is reading anything these days because the world is insane and everyone is too mad to read. Seriously, it’s a drought out there in terms of book recommendations. I cornered my brainiacs at a party last weekend and - nada. I myself just finished the YA novel “Girls on the Verge,” by Sharon Biggs Waller, and I think it’s probably mandatory reading for everyone. I might follow it up with “Handbook for a Post-Roe America,” by Robin Marty, you know, just to keep things light.  

And I’m again happily and intensely flipping and flopping through Diane Wakoski’s “Emerald Ice: Selected Poems 1962-1987” in the middle of the night. 

In “Sour Milk,” she writes, 

“You can't make it
turn sweet
again.”

True, so true, Diane.

What’s Happening In June

So then, if we aren’t too busy with dismantling the patriarchy or gardening or figuring out where to keep the ice scraper until next year (trunk, someone’s eye, whichever), we’ll see you at one of these amazing writerly happenings all around us.

First of all, put on your calendar under “ways to improve writerly self for next year”: the Sarah Lawrence Summer Seminar. This year’s deadline was Saturday, June 1. If selected, you can join 70 writers for a week of workshops and readings and craft talks. There are scholarships available and you can take a hybrid genre workshop with Cold Spring’s Jeffrey McDaniel, who is a phenomenal teacher and writer (this is said confidently from personal experience in his workshops).

On Wednesday, June 5, you could be at the Writers Speak Easy, a “monthly open-mic roundtable” for writers, poets, comics and storytellers at Rough Draft Books in Kingston from 7 to 9 pm. It’s free but for the purchase of some of the excellent food, drink or books they have on hand. Worth it!

On Friday, June 7, you could head up to Poughkeepsie’s Underwear Factory for Earth Wind  & Fuego’s Fiesta Friday open mic, hosted by Poet Gold, and find yourself among a lovely and strong community of supportive writers. 5 to 10 pm. 

It’s Time To Get Lit

Sunday, June 9, finds us back in the nurturing arms of the Get Lit literary salon at Oak Vino Wine Bar from 5 to 8 pm. These busy bees also started a monthly writers’ circle so you can get some feedback, and just donated loads of books to Beacon High School. 

Binnacle Books was on the scene to sell copies of “Deadly” and “Looker” at the new Spring Street Reading Series at Atlas Studios in Newburgh on May 17, when Get Lit founder and author Julie Chibbaro read with poet and prose writer Laura Sims and they had a great dialogue afterwards with series curator Ruth Danon. The series gathers a host of creamline novelists, poets, editors and nonfiction writers from the Hudson Valley and beyond. The next one is Saturday, June 29, at 7 pm.

Bringing Newburgh To Beacon

The Beacon bookstore is also bringing Newburgh to Beacon with a relentlessly enticing Afro-futurism Book Club Series in partnership with the Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center. Starts on Sunday, June 23, with Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” and is from 7 to 8 pm at Binnacle Books. Your recommended $10 donation also gets you a book to use for the duration of the series!

Back over in Newburgh on Wednesday, June 19, PANJA presents The Lit: Book Club at 15 Liberty St. from 7 to 9 pm. This book club “will be prioritizing authors outside the traditional canon; narratives that uplift the voices of POC, women, mystics, immigrants, envelope pushers, and other out-of-the box thinkers whose work touches on issues that tie into current events & critical conversations.” Yes, please.

From Cold Spring

On Saturday, June 15, the new Hudson Highlands poetry series at the Desmond-Fish library in Garrison has a pretty primo lineup of writers reading: Kathleen Ossip, Kristin Prevallet and Marjorie Tesser will thrill you from 1:30 to 2:30 pm. We’ll stop in at Split Rock Books on our way back to Beacon for their One-Year Anniversary Party. Big-time congrats! 

Speaking of Split Rock Books, we are sorry to not have hyped everyone more on their triumphant score for hosting Susan Choi’s reading of Trust Exercise: a novel, on Friday, May 17. Another past happening we can light up was their Kids Book Club from Beacon resident Deb Lucke and author of The Lunch Witch! Kids 7 to 10 years old could come on Thursday, May 30, from 4 to 4:45 pm and she was there to talk and answer questions.
Editor’s Note: We sadly published this Writerly Happenings too late after the happening, but didn’t want to delete the details! You must know about them in case you want to pursue this book and the Kids Club in the future.

So Then!

We’ll see you beautiful book nerds out and about in the Hudson Valley, whilst gnashing our teeth and talking about our wild irises. 

Writerly Happenings: Friends Who Knew My Cat Way Back When (AKA April Writerly Events)

We’ve made it to the light of April!

What Everyone Is Reading :: Theme: Friends Who Knew My Cat

The wind is blowing, seasonal allergies are beginning their ravaging Times Square hustle, and the sunsets are magnificent! But March dug her jagged little nails in at the very end and I had to put my cat of 16 years to sleep. So this introduction to Writerly Happenings will honor the reading habits of Friends Who Knew My Cat Way Back When.

Firstly, About My Cat

I rescued her as a tiny kitten from the roof of a crack house on South 12th Street on the way home from work in Philadelphia one July, and that all seems like a lifetime ago. The fact that I just eagerly started “I Must Be Living Twice” by Eileen Myles is fitting, I think.

When I got home with the kitten, my roommate, Miriam Singer, was an absolute angel about the new addition biting her toes. Right now she’s reading “M Train” by Patti Smith but feeling so-so about it. Maybe she should try “Evening in Paradise,” a collection of short stories by Lucia Berlin, because I am swooning over it. Swooning!

Our downstairs neighbor Alexandra was a champion of both cats and pink champagne at happy hour, and she is now reading “The Art of Communicating” by Thich Nhat Hanh and “Who I Am” by Pete Townshend. She once gave me a Freddie Mercury biography by Lesley-Ann Jones that I ate up with a spoon, so her rock memoir recommendations are solid.

Back In The Hudson Valley Writing Community

This event has already passed, but you should know about it, that on Sunday, April 7, you could have gone to Get Lit at Oak Vino and read for 5 minutes yourself, and/or enjoyed featured writer (and visual artist) Will Lessard and writer and musician Mike Faloon. (Don’t miss another Get Lit.)

Get Lit is sponsoring a book drive for Special Education English classrooms at Beacon High School for Get Caught Reading month in May! They’ve teamed up with Binnacle Books, and you can help contribute! A Little Beacon Blog already wrote all about it here. Binnacle Books is otherwise taking a break for their monthly Book Club for a hot minute, partly because they were producing this event, “Reframing Urban Renewal: A Presentation and Discussion,” which was at Fullerton Center in Newburgh for a discussion about urban renewal in the Hudson Valley. It explored creative ways of mobilizing a contested landscape and featured panelists including Ben Schulman of Newburgh Packet, David Hochfelder and Anne Pfau of 98 acres and University of Albany, and artist, academic, and author of “Contested City,” Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani.

Down In Cold Spring…

In the meantime, Split Rock Books in Cold Spring came back from their winter break with a vengeance and is offering approximately 7,000 things for you to do in April. I’m super interested in their reading on Saturday, April 13, with “author, poet and professor Caroline Hagood. ‘In Ways of Looking at a Woman’, a book-length essay that interweaves memoir with film and literary history, Caroline Hagood assumes the role of detective to ask, what is a ‘woman,’ ‘mother,’ and ‘writer’?” There’s also a discussion on Thursday, April 18, of “An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History #3)” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, which I’ve been wanting to read. On Thursday, May 16, Split Rock is hosting Susan Choi for her new book “Trust Exercise”. She just got a big write up in the New York Times.

Back In Beacon…

The phenomenal poet Edwin Torres is teaching a series of workshops on Saturdays at Beahive, aiming “to align our natural tri-lingual voice, our voice, with the humanity that defines us. “ Sounds so very good to me!

Thursday, April 18, is “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” as part of National Poetry Month and you should totally put a poem in your pocket and then give it to someone. Also, sign up for Poem-A-Day emails while you are at it! Meanwhile, have you seen the postcard books at Binnacle Books from local publisher Paravion Press, who is located in the old Beacon High School off Fishkill Avenue? So neat.

John Blesso’s Adult Stories is back on Sunday, April 28, if you want to share your work at Oak Vino. Looking ahead to May, we are certain that The Artichoke on Saturday, May 25, is going to sell out again, so maybe get those tickets now!

In the spoken word world…

On Saturday, April 20, there’s Poughetry Fest 2019, a not-to-be-missed festival of spoken and written word at the Cunneen-Hackett Center in Poughkeepsie. There will be a Youth Open Mic hosted by Derick Cross, LGBTQ Open Mic hosted by Jen Herman, the Calling All Poets Series hosted by Mike Jurkovic, the Poet Laureate Room featuring the newly appointed Hudson Valley & beyond Poet Laureates, and the Audre Lorde Room co-curated by Armando Batista. Amazing lineup!

In Newburgh…

Also Ruth Danon is teaming up with Atlas Studios to curate the monthly Spring Street Reading Series beginning on Friday, May 17, with Beacon’s own Julie Chibbaro and NYC hot ticket Laura Sims. We will be there with bells on. Well, we’ll probably take them off before the reading so as not to make a scene.

Also, up in Saugerties they are celebrating poetry all month with readings and sidewalk haiku and poetry and potions/purls and pints(oh my!).

Saturday, April 27, is “Independent Bookstore Day,” so give your local bookseller some big love that can’t fit into a big box.

Got more ideas about where to go for the writerliest of happenings? Please be in touch! phoebe@alittlebeaconblog.com. Or just let me know what you are reading and loving these days.

Writerly Happenings: March Is Packed With Writerly Things To Do! New Writers Circle, Book Clubs and More

View fullsize

Nicole from the hit Netflix show “Nailed It.”

By Phoebe Zinman

“Hellooo again!!”

Ideally, I’d like you to have heard that “Helloooo” in the voice of Nicole from “Nailed It,” but since that’s not likely we will move on immediately to…

“What Are You Reading?” The Co-Worker Edition

At my new full-time job, I surveyed women I work with, who are surviving working with me, in order to bring you these highly skilled and marketable reading recommendations. To keep their persons anonymous, I have revealed them only by nicknames.

The HBIC sent an email marked with High Importance and instructions not to delete her cosigning of Karen Moning’s “Highlander” series (this co-worker is indeed a fan of all things magic and supernatural and Irish).

The Chorus Line duo is all about jazz hands. One is reading “The Alienist” by Caleb Carr, which combines suspense, historical fiction and justice (what more does one really need?), while the other is feeling the women’s empowerment of “We” by Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel.

The Little Bird is making sure her glam new highlights didn’t fry any brain cells by staying up all night reading “Neverwhere” by sometime Hudson Valley resident Neil Gaiman and feeling very dreamy about it.

And the Silver Fox is multitasking as usual, with “Purity” by Jonathan Franzen and “All About Love” by bell hooks (also on my list).

As for myself, I just started “The Ticking is the Bomb” by Nick Flynn and am withholding comment until later because I’m cold-hearted like that. 

“What’s Going On? I’m Losing My Mind In This Weather!”

So what’s going on in the writerly corners of the Hudson Valley that you can get out to, since we are all about to lose our minds in the weather soup that is March?

LOTS OF WRITERLY HAPPENINGS!

GARRISON INSTITUTE
A new game in town (at least to me) is the Writer’s Circle at the Garrison Institute on Wednesday, March 20, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, looking super lovely and free of charge. Bonus round: It includes time for meditation, reflection, writing, and sharing.

BINNACLE BOOKS BOOK CLUB
Binnacle Books in Beacon is doing its boozy book club at Denning’s Point Distillery on Wednesday, March 13, and you want to be there. “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah (of The Daily Show) is what’s on the menu. Get 10% off the book at the store, and $5 cocktails to sip whilst you tilt your head thoughtfully. 

P.S. EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you Binnacle Books for becoming a regular sponsor of A Little Beacon Blog’s Shopping Guide! It’s quite an honor to have an independent bookstore show their appreciation and value with a sponsorship!

HUDSON VALLEY WRITER’S WORKSHOP
Hudson Valley Writer’s Workshop has their monthly meeting on Wednesday, March 6, and a Facebook page full of other things to investigate.

SPLIT ROCK BOOKS
Split Rock Books in Cold Spring is on winter vacation until Monday, March 4, with limited hours until then. I’m personally pleased as punch for any small business owners who take a little time to recharge. And they are going to need it for March, because whatever your book club preference may be (History, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Kids Club) they have you covered this month. Also on tap in March: a drawing night, fermentation workshop, and readings by locals and beyond.

ADULT STORIES AT OAK VINO
John Blesso is hosting the second Adult Stories reading series at Oak Vino on Friday, March 8, with a great lineup of writers telling “true stories of an offbeat, edgy, or emotionally-challenging nature told without notes or pages.” $5 and please arrive on time at 7 pm so as not to interrupt. (I’m side-eyeing myself here, if that’s anatomically possible.)

GET LIT AT OAK VINO
Get Lit on Sunday, March 10, features two speakers about award-winning children’s literature power couple James Ransome (illustrator) and Lesa Cline-Ransome (author). In addition to their collaborations on books about Serena and Venus Williams, Harriet Tubman, Louis Armstrong and Alvin Ailey, James is also the artist behind the beautiful mural at the Adriance Library in Poughkeepsie.

GET LIT WRITER’S WORKSHOP
Lucky us! Get Lit founder Julie Chibbaro is doing a an ongoing writing workshop for teens called “Write Your Own Adventure” for ages 12-15 on four Thursdays (March 7-28), and an adult writing intensive on Saturday, March 30, at the Howland Library in Beacon. Also free! See here for details.

WRITING WORKSHOP AT QUINN’S
Stop in to Quinn’s on Tuesday, March 12, and stay a while as readers from Ruth Danon’s Live Writing workshop take to the stage at 7 pm. I am not reading this time, but I will be eating some pickled plum and clapping like mad for them.

THE ARTICHOKE STORYTELLING SERIES
Meanwhile, The Artichoke Storytelling Series at the Howland Cultural Center, hosted by Drew Prochaska, is SOLD OUT! It features storytellers from The Moth, Risk! and Story Collider, as well as Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening. If you were considering moving to Beacon, Fishkill, or Wappingers (anywhere close to the Howland Cultural Center), this new series is a pretty compelling reason!

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH IN TIVOLI
On Tuesday, March 26, you can start your National Poetry Month festivities early (move over, St. Paddy’s Day) up in Tivoli with this brilliant mashup of poetry and philosophy at Murray’s Coffeeshop (the coffee is super good there) from Bard College and the Poetry Foundation. “The Words We Live By: Poetry and Philosophy in Conversation” features poet Fred Moten and author Robert Gooding-Williams, and looks to be a deep well. It’s introduced by this quote by Hannah Arendt: “The storehouse of memory is kept and watched over by the poets, whose business it is to find and make the words we live by.”

Phew! That was a lot of must-dos for this month. If you hear of any throughout the year, email me at phoebe@alittlebeaconblog.com.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Surprise! An Editor’s Note, because we couldn’t just stop writing in the Writerly Happenings section! If you love this Writerly Happening series as much as we do, and if you love helping promote writers and illustrators and books, then consider becoming a regular Supporting Sponsor! You can get your logo published bright and shiny at the top of this article, and each article we publish a month. Or, if you are a regular person with no business but really want to be a Sponsoring Individual, you can! Please see our Media Kit page for details, and other opportunities for sponsorship. All of our sponsoring advertisers help us get the word out, pay our writers, and grow this publication as a self-sustaining, family-friendly business. Thank you!

Art & Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon At The Howland Public LIbrary

“How To Edit Wikipedia” is an event at the Howland Public Library to encourage women to make edits in Wikipedia, the content producers of which are traditionally men.

WHAT: Art & Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
WHERE: Howland Public Library
DAY: Saturday, March 2, 2019
TIME: 11 am to 3 pm

Happening today is the (so far) annual Wikipedia Editing event at the Howland Public Library during Women’s History Month. The class is provided as a means to encourage women especially to come out and edit Wikipedia, the group-sourced encyclopedia of the Internet. This local event is organized by local library advocate, Ms. Rajene Hardeman, as part of the international annual Art+Feminism campaign. As of last year, only 9% of the edits or contributions made to Wikipedia were made by women.

This can change! Half of the battle is probably not knowing where to start with how to edit. This class aims to change that. A tutorial of how to enter Wikipedia to make an edit kicks off the day, and from 12 to 3 pm, an open edit session happens, where people can sit and edit.

All people are encouraged to attend, regardless of gender, and bringing your own laptop is encouraged.

Last year, our writer Catherine Sweet wrote about the event for A Little Beacon Blog, and explored the gender gap in who is making the edits in this globally used information center.

Writerly Happenings: Live Storytelling, Book Releases & New Writing Opportunities!

Hi Hi Hi! It’s Phoebe here. It’s been so long, I know, did you miss me? We wanted to wait til after the holidays to round up the best of the local literary scene and now we have eaten all the brie and there are so many good writerly happenings afoot to attend! We will do them all! We are leaning in to 2019! Actually, we are so tired, we are mostly falling over, but the love of the written word sustains us, does it not? (Love of the written word, and brie - life sustainers.)

But first we need to discuss what to read right now. This is the transitional part, like when Mr. Rogers changes his shoes and cardigan. (Why, oh why, won’t he ever pick the red one?) 

So… I’m currently reading “The Mastery of Love” by Don Miguel Ruiz, which is threatening to turn me into the woman with too many rings on who can’t shut up about the amazingly transformational book she is reading. Also I just ate up the delicious entirety of the new memoir “She Wants It” by Jill Soloway, the creator of “Transparent,” and I highly recommend. Still working on “Warlight” by Michael Ondaatje.

I also asked around for recs. Kristen Holt-Browning, writer and editor and co-producer of Get Lit, just finished reading “Northwood” by Maryse Meijer, a sort of novella-in-poems. She says it's a dark, twisty, fairytale-ish story of desire and obsession and also a physically gorgeous object, with white text printed on black pages. Sounds fierce.

Extremely well-published and well-coifed writer Lily Burana is reading “Thick” by Kiese Laymon, and “How to Write an Autobiographical Novel” by Alexander Chee. She’s happily frolicking in the bumper crop of essay collections that have been published in the past few years.

Ok. I’m ready now. Let’s lean/fall/dive/plunge/bellyflop on in.

January 2019 Writerly Happenings 

This Weekend!

The Artichoke at the Howland. Saturday, January 12, 7:30 pm, is sold out online, but not sure if there will be additional tickets at the door. Mentioning here anyway because it is just so cool that this is coming to Beacon. It’s an evening of live storytelling by The Artichoke, hosted by Drew Prochaska and featuring Sandi Marx (seven-time Grand Slam Winner, The Moth), Jeff Simmermon (Grand Slam Winner, The Moth; This American Life), Drew Prochaska (Risk!; Story Collider), Richard Cardillo (Risk!; Stories from the Stage, Susan Kent (The Moth), Micaela Blei (Grand Slam Winner, The Moth), Vanessa Golenia (Risk!) and John Blesso. Can’t get in? Well there’s another chance to do something similar on Sunday the 20th, but you must read on.

Also on Second Saturday is a book release event for Traffic Street Press’ "Trafficking in Poetry" series. The book "Manos Sucias/Dirty Hands" is a collaboration between Paulette Myers-Rich, the visual artist Greg Slick and poet Seán Monagle. A limited number of copies are available for purchase at the book signing at No.3 Reading Room & Photo Book Works on Main Street from 3 to 8 pm. 

Get Lit is happening this Sunday, January 13, from 5 to 8 pm at Oak Vino. The featured speakers will be authors Jessie Chaffee and Brendan Kiely, and as always, anyone who wants to read is invited to sign up to do so at the beginning of the event - bring two or three pages of original writing to share. But also if you are new to writing, or sharing your writing, you answer the monthly prompt about what your New Year’s resolutions are, and then sign up for a one-minute slot. Literally, it’s just a hot minute.

Also In January!

On Sunday, January 20 at Dogwood at 5 pm, John Blesso will be hosting the first installment of “Adult Stories,” a new and developing monthly storytelling series that intends to be like The Moth, but edgier. He’s looking for people willing to share “funny stories, harrowing stories, sex stories, emotionally charged stories, and inebriation/bad-choice stories.” If you’re interested please send him pitches for stories between six and ten minutes long! He’s working with Donna Minkowitz and Drew Prochaska on this, if you miss The Artichoke, or just want more storytelling. All the stories!

What’s that about local memoir writer Donna Minkowitz? Funky Spunky Literature Night (Redux) is a game-show-like Community Memoir Write-a-Thon with prizes for the best sentences and scenes that audience members write about their own lives. She will be joined by professional storyteller Lorraine Hartin-Gelardi at Quinn’s on Wednesday, January 30, from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. She’s also got an 8-Week Memoir-Writing Workshop coming up, focused on craft, particularly on using the five senses, lyricism, emotion, storytelling, and critical insight to create profound and relatable works of memoir. Wednesday nights from February 6 through March 27, 7 to 9 pm. To apply, please email minkowitz46@gmail.com with a one-page writing sample.

Poet and teacher extraordinaire Ruth Danon (to whom I’m a bit partial, not going to even pretend otherwise) is going to start writing improvisation classes the week of January 29. Currently she’s planning on Tuesdays, from 9:30 am to 12 pm and 7 to 9:30 pm, but the time can be flexible based on everyone’s schedules… The fee is $275 for eight weeks and includes a private conference (at least one) and a public reading. Contact ruthdanonpoetry@gmail.com for more information.

Beacon’s magnificent Binnacle Books is featuring “The Great Believers” by Rebecca Makkai for its next book club. I loved that book. So, so much sobbing. This month the book club will meet at the bookstore, but often is at Dennings Point Distillery.

And just downstream (or not, as our majestic and tidal Hudson River flows both ways) in Cold Spring, Split Rock books has a million events, or at least five, to get you through January and smarter on the other end.

The divine “Out Stealing Horses” by Per Petterson was the January book club choice at the Beacon Library, and we were sad to miss it, but the pick for February is “The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper” by Phaedra Patrick and it sounds charming. The Butterfield Library in Cold Spring has a writing workshop with Susan Wallach in January and almost always a box of free books to rummage.

As always, we want to big up independent bookstores that may be a bit farther afield:

Rough Draft in Kingston has happy hours, sip and writes and plenty of other happenings; the Golden Notebook in Woodstock has a terrific event lineup, as usual; and we are wanting to go check out Oblong Books which has somehow escaped our research until now. We’ll report back next month.

Now dear reader, go put on a cardigan and some fresh slippers and get to it. Write! Read! Make it happen!