Deborah Esther Schifter is a writer living in Northampton, Massachusetts. Most of her work has been in the field of mathematics education; Pearson, Heinemann, and Teachers College Press have published her books. Her personal essays have appeared in Solstice, Woven Tales Press, Hippocampus Magazine, and other publications.
Steffi Schamess
When Steffi Schamess is not writing, she is either worrying or bragging about her grandchildren, cultivating her fantasy of being the as-yet-undiscovered Grandma Moses of the writing world (while plugging away in Robin Barber’s writing workshop), participating in a most enjoyable and international group which gathers weekly on Zoom to read Shakespeare aloud, and traveling to visit far-flung relatives in Australia, Israel, Belgium and most exotic of all, Ohio.
Richard McKeown is a visual artist and musician as well as a writer. He is recently retired from a long career working with people with substance use disorders. As he began to explore in writing his mixed feelings about retirement, the narrative quickly changed course when he received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. He plans to read a short piece about a bad childhood experience at Mama Leone’s famous Italian Restaurant in New York City during a trip to the 1964 World’s Fair with his family, and from his memoir of Parkinson’s, tentatively called “Shoulder Season.” During this COVID season he hunkers down at home in Southampton with his wife Carolyn, dog Jonas, cat Max, and turtle Zeke. Words to live by for Rich are, “You can never have too many guitars”. He has eleven.
Kathie Fiveash
Kathie Fiveash is a naturalist and writer who divides her year equally between Isle au Haut, a remote island in Penobscot Bay, Maine, and Northampton Massachusetts. Her book Island Naturalist, a collection of essays about natural history on the coast of Maine, won the Maine Writers and Publishers John N. Cole award for Maine-based nonfiction. Her new book of poems, Human/Nature, published by Penobscot Books, is available now from the publisher.
Jonathan A. Wright of Northampton, Founder and Senior Advisor at Wright Builders Inc, in Northampton, is 1974 graduate of Hampshire College, a published poet and author, and consults and presents on sustainability. His poetry collections include After the Rain (Gallery of Readers Press 2014) and Season of Dreams ( Brook Hollow Press 2017), as well as four chapbooks. Living Building Makers was released by Ecotone Publishing in September 2019.
Kathryn Arbour
Kathryn M. Arbour lives and writes in Colorado. She and her spouse, Pam, have two daughters and six grandchildren who live within a stone’s throw. Kathryn has published poetry, fiction, blogs and essays. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and serves as CEO of a Colorado-based nonprofit, Imagine!, that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her new chapbook, Cul-de-sac is newly out from Gallery of Readers press. Come celebrate with us!
It took composer and college teacher Donald Wheelock forty years of writing formal poetry to reach the stage of submitting it for publication. Kelsay Books has just released his first full-length book of poems, It’s Hard Enough to Fly. Formal poetry, once relegated to second fiddle in a career of writing chamber, vocal and orchestral music, now demands equal time. Indeed, it has taken over his life. Within the past few years his poems have appeared or will appear in publications that welcome formal poetry: Able Muse, Think, Blue Unicorn, Ekphrasis, The Road Not Taken, Third Wednesday, Verse-Virtual, Lighten Up Online, and many other journals. His chapbook, In the Sea of Dreams, is available from Gallery of Readers Press, Northampton, MA. Wheelock is Professor Emeritus of Music at Smith College. He has received grants as a composer from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He lives with his wife Anne in an old house at the edge of a hayfield in Whately, Massachusetts.
DEBORAH wARREN
Deborah Warren’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, and The Yale Review. Her books: Ausonius (translation): The Moselle and Other Poems (2017, Routledge), The Size of Happiness (2003, Waywiser Press), Zero Meridian (2004, Ivan R. Dee) for which she was awarded the New Criterion Poetry Prize, Dream With Flowers and Bowl of Fruit (2008, Evansville), for which she was awarded the Richard Wilbur Award, Strange to Say: Etymology for Serious Entertainment, (Paul Dry, 2021), Connoisseurs of Worms, (Paul Dry, 2021). She’s also received the Robert Penn Warren Prize, the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, the Meringoff Award. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard, Ms. Warren has taught Latin and English, been a software engineer, a farmer, raised nine children. She lives with her husband in Massachusetts.
Click here for the Zoom link The Zoom meeting opens at 3:45 pm on Sunday, April 24, 2022. — Nicole and Gail will each read for about 30 minutes.
Check Audio of Readings, 2022 – Present after the reading for a recording of the reading. It might take a little while after the reading before the audio is put up on the website.
Nicole M. Young-martin
Nicole M. Young-Martin is a performer, poet, playwright, director, event producer/curator, and nonprofit professional with over 20 years of experience combined in these areas. Nicole has worked across various disciplines, including theatre, poetry, and classical music. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Nicole currently resides in Northern Connecticut and works in Western Massachusetts. For more information: https://www.nicolemyoung.com/about-nicole.
gail thomas
Gail Thomas’ books are Odd Mercy, Waving Back, No Simple Wilderness, and Finding the Bear. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, The North American Review, Italian Americana, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She received the Charlotte Mew Prize from Headmistress Press, the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s Must Read, and the Naugatuck River Review’s Narrative Poetry Prize. Thomas, a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and Ucross, is a working poet retired from Smith College.
