2026 Conversations in Craft Series

Dear Writers and Readers,

I send you warm greetings from the Hudson Valley Writers Center and wanted you to be the first to know that the Conversations in Craft Lecture Series has returned for the winter/spring, with some of the most acclaimed writers in contemporary letters.

These lectures are designed to explore the craft of writing: how do these literary legends do what they do? What can they teach us about language and form? What big ideas can we discuss and work out together? Where else can you spend an evening with David Kirby, Ellen Bass, Maggie Smith, or Camille Dungy? We are offering each lecture individually, or as a discounted series.

David Kirby will kick off the series on January 22 with "The Poet's Mind: It's Your Mind, Too.” He writes that this lecture will be emphasizing three points: all poems begin small, a poem is a combination of the deliberate and the accidental, and a small beginning plus lots of time results in a great poem. Together, we will look at poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts, George Bilgere, and Emily Dickinson, with plenty of time for questions.

Register and find more information on the following pages:

1/22 - David Kirby

3/26 - Ellen Bass

4/23 - Maggie Smith

5/28 - Camille Dungy

You also have a second chance to catch the re-scheduled December Conversations lecture with Mahogany L. Browne. The new date is February 5, 2026, and tickets are still available!  

We hope you’ll join us to talk about the literary arts that we all love.

With gratitude for your support,

Dominika Wrozynski, HVWC Program Director