• Wednesday, May 9th at 7:30 P.M.

"Anne Halley Poetry Prize Reading"   Bob Hicok, winner of the 3rd annual Anne Halley Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Massachussetts Review, will read in the University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts, from his prize–winning new volume, This Clumsy Living.   Hicok’s first book, The Legend of Light, was chosen by Carolyn Kizer for the 1995 Felix Pollak Prize; it was later chosen an ALA Booklist Notable Book of the Year.   Other collections of poetry include, Plus Shipping; Animal Soul, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; & Insomnia Diary.   Hicok’s poems have appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Poetry, & The American Poetry Review, as well as three volumes of The Best American Poetry.   Awarded an NEA Fellowship in 1999, his work has also been reprinted in the Pushcart Anthology.  

The Anne Halley Poetry Prize is named in memorial for Anne Halley, to honor her 25 years of work as poetry co-editor of the Massachusetts Review as well as her work as a poet & writer.   Her last collection of poetry, Rumors of the Turning Wheel, was published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2003.

• Wednesday, May 9th at 8:00 P.M.(Talk)

Eesha Williams, author of Grassroots Journalism: A Practical Manual, will talk.   Williams has been a Visiting Lecturer in Journalism at Williams College, has been a radio & newspaper reporter in New York, Illinois, California, Illinois & Vermont, & a reporter for WAMC, Northeast Public Radio.   He freelances, & runs with his wife the New Leaf community-supported agriculture farm, outside Brattleboro, Vermont.   Grassroots Journalism is a handbook for a new kind of community journalism that shows people how actively engaging in public issues can make a difference in the quality of their own lives, & the world.   Chapters cover such subjects as: real–world examples where grassroots journalism worked & resulted in positive change; the nuts & bolts of writing grassroots news articles; how to make sure your articles are read.

• Thursday, May 10th at 4:30 P.M.(Book Launch Party)

Join us in celebrating the publication of new books by Amherst College music faculty— Bartók, Hungary & the Renewal of Tradition: Case Studies in the Intersection of Modernity & Nationality, by Music Department chair David Schneider (Read more!);   & visiting professor Mirjana Laušević's Balkan Fascination: Creating an Alternative Music Culture in America.   In her book, Laušević challenges the notion that participation in Balkan culture in North America is merely a specialized offshoot of the 1960s American folk music scene.   Instead, her exploration of the relationship between the stark sounds & lively dances of the Balkan region & the Americans who love them reveals that Balkan dance & music has much deeper roots in America's ideas about itself, its place in the world, & the place of the world's cultures in the melting pot.

• Thursday, May 10th at 8:00 P.M.(Poetry reading)

Margaret Lloyd & Anne Love Woodhull will read from their recent collections of poetry.  Lloyd, who has published widely, is author of two volumes of poetry, This Particular Earthly Scene &, more recently, A Moment in the Field: Voices from Arthurian Legend.   (Read more abot Margaret Lloyd on our Local Author’s Page!)   Woodhull is author, most recently of Every Season, a children's poetry book with photographs by Shelley Rotner.   She is also author of a poetry chapbook, This is What We Have, of which Jack Gilbert wrote, “Often now when I read the new poems I think of the frustrated conductor I once heard saying to his choir, ‘I said stronger not louder.’   This chapbook would make him happy.   The refinement of these poems is never a lessening.   The seriousness is never labored.   It’s precise rather than careful.   Acute & moving at the same time.   The love & compassion is blended with a smart spirit.   The tenderness is an adult passion.”

• Friday, May 11th at 8:00 P.M.(Reading)

Victoria Redel will read from her new novel, The Border of Truth.   Redel is author of two collections of poetry, Swoon & Already the World & a collection of stories, Where the Road Bottoms Out.   Her novel, Loverboy, was awarded the S. Mariella Gable Novel Award, was selected as a Borders Original Voice, a Paperback Book Club Featured Selection, & a BookSense 76 selection.   Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Bomb, The Antioch Review, Missouri Review, The Ohio Review, & StoryQuarterly.   She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College & the Columbia University Graduate Writing Program.

• Monday, May 14th at 4:30 P.M.(Book Launch Party)

Join us in celebrating the publication of a new book by University of Massachusetts history professors, Ronald Story & Bruce Laurie—The Rise of Conservatism in America, 1945-2000 A Brief History with Documents.   Including a rich variety of primary sources: speeches, cartoons, party platforms, & editorials, that demonstrate the remarkable impact of the conservative movement.   Outspoken intellectuals, charismatic political figures, & powerful organizations weigh in on such issues as the death penalty, taxation, gun control, affirmative action, abortion, & foreign policy.   The authors' lucid introduction traces America's turn to the right from the demise of New Deal liberalism to the election of George W. Bush in 2000, examining the conservatives' motivations & strategies & the key events that fostered the rise of conservative attitudes.

• Tuesday, May 15th at 8:00 P.M.(Reading)

Creative Writing from UMASS   Undergraduates from the University of Massachusetts read their stories & poems.   Hosted by MFA student Andre Khalil.   Readers include Steven Flahive, Sean Mahan, Kelly Mahan, Sean Wright, Tristan MacDonald, Casey Hewins, Matthew Sherman, Ashley Winn, Christa Elliot, & Leah Romano.

• Thursday, May 17th at 7:00 P.M.(Reading)

Celebrate spring with Small Beer Press’s Speculatively Spectacular evening of art, readings, music, & perhaps a little more.   Beginning at 7 p.m. on May 17, the event will be held at Artifacts, a new gallery at 28 North Maple Street in Florence, MA.   Artifacts is housed in a converted warehouse, where guests will be able to meet the authors, listen, dance if they are so inclined, & mingle as three bestselling authors showcase their latest offerings.   Three authors will headline the event: John Crowley, author of Ægypt; Little, Big; The Translator; Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land; & just out, the concluding volume in the Ægypt tetralogy, Endless Things: a Part of Ægypt.   Elizabeth Hand, author of many books including, Mortal Hand, Saffron & Brimstone: Strange Stories, & most recently, Generation Loss.   And, Paul Park, author of The Tourmaline & The White Tyger, & other fantasies.   Crowley, who lives in Conway & teaches at Yale, & Hand, who lives on the Maine coast, will be reading from their recently published novels. Park, who teaches at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, will read from his latest novel, The White Tyger.  A variety of other local authors will read their work, including a number of contributors to Small Beer Press’s tiny lit zine, LCRW. The evening will be topped off by Flora Reed & Philip Price (of the critically-acclaimed Winterpills), who will provide musical entertainment.

• Thursday, May 17th at 8:00 P.M.(Reading)

Creative Writing from UMASS & Hampshire College   Please join us for a celebration of the literary journal Here Comes the Dirtbike.   Wesley Miller, John Bonanni, John Ware, Allison Nilan, Rosie Ellis, Nick Vale, Ben Cecil, Tessa Lawrence, Gabe Munitz, Chris Cheney, Jennifer Redish, Kendra Smith, Dinah Grossman, & Josh Heerter from the University of Massachusetts & Hampshire College will read from their fiction & poetry.   Selections from the writers will be included in the journal which will then be distributed free of charge.

• Friday, May 18th at 8:00 P.M.(Poetry reading)

Kim Burwick & Henrietta Goodman will read from recent work.   Burwick, a winner of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Annual Poetry Award, has had poetry published in The Indiana Review, The Literary Review, Fence, & Conjunction.   Percival Everett said of her book, Has No Kinsman, that “this work is aching to get into the world & mean things.   It will.”   Goodman’s poems have appeared in Mid–American Review, Willow Springs, RUNES: A Review of Poetry, Northwest Review, & other journals.   Her first book of poetry, Take What You Want, is due in April.   Dara Wier said “these poems have tonal ranges necessary for the complexities Goodman tackles, sometimes tames, more often allows to remain feral & wild.   At times the poems read as if they were urgent instructions hellbent on keeping us alive.”

• Thursday, May 24th at 8:00 P.M.(Talk)

Local author Jan Frazier will talk about her new book, When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening.   The book describes Frazier’s day–by–day account of the shift in consciousness & its alteration of her life which began in 2003 when fear fell away from her, & she was immersed in a state of causeless joy that has never left her.   While she has continued her life as writer, teacher, & mother, she has discovered it is possible to live a richly human life free of suffering.   Her wish now is to communicate the truth that within every person is a pool of calm well–being that waits patiently to be stirred to life.     Frazier’s poetry & prose have been widely published, appearing in, among other journals, Cimarron Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Negative Capability, Calyx, Minnesota Review, & Artful Dodge.   A poetry collection, Jan Frazier’s Greatest Hits, was published by Pudding House in 2003.