WELCOME TO THE HVWC CALENDAR: home of all our upcoming readings, events and workshops. You can view by list or calendar (see right menu to choose). Click the colored tabs below to show only specific options. Our workshops run as multi-session series or one-day “intensives.” Note, we list the multi-session courses on the first day they meet only. The full dates of the session are described in the course descriptions. You would need to scroll back to the start date if you needed to enroll for something already underway. But do let us know if you want to join something in midstream since we need the blessing of the instructor. Questions? Email us.
Hudson Valley Writers Center
Located at the Philipse Manor Station (still an operating local stop on Metro-North Hudson East line, but we inhabit the historic building!) the Hudson Valley Writers Center offers unique classes and a versatile performance space.
July 2020
Monday Night Poetry Workshop with Alex Dimitrov via Zoom
How to Begin and End Poems In this 6-week workshop we will be studying poems with surprising, urgent, and skillful beginnings and endings. We will also be experimenting with the way we begin and end our own poems. How do we refrain from overwriting? Is it true that most of the time we can cut our last line? What considerations should go into deciding where to begin a poem? All ideas and approaches will be welcome. We will be rigorous…
Find out more »YoYB: Deep Revision Poetry with Jennifer Franklin
NB: This a 6-week class meeting Wednesdays 12:30pm-3pm starting on July 8th. This class will be taught online via Zoom. You have written the first draft of your full-length collection. Now, we need to order all of the poems, decide if there should be sections, revise each of the poems, settle on the title, and most importantly—remove any poems that are not as strong. This series of classes begins at the start of 2020 and goes through the year. A…
Find out more »YoYB: Poetry, Friday with Jennifer Franklin
NB: This a 6-week class meeting Friday 10:30-1pm starting on Friday July 10th. This class will be taught online via Zoom. You have written the first draft of your full-length collection. Now, we need to order all of the poems, decide if there should be sections, revise each of the poems, settle on the title, and most importantly—remove any poems that are not as strong. This series of classes begins at the start of 2020 and goes through the year.…
Find out more »Open Write
Please join us for our warm and welcoming Open Write Nights, now at an easier-to-remember regular recurring monthly spot of Second Saturdays! Your hosts Michelle Thomas and Cassie Cartaginese will facilitate an evening of generative writing, story swapping and community building. $10 for non-members; free for members (will be deducted at checkout when you log in). This group will take place via Zoom. You will get Zoom login instructions when you receive your registration confirmation email. Become a member here.
Find out more »Submission Sunday
Submission Sundays is a free service to members of HVWC. Space is limited so please reserve your spot. One Sunday a month, 12:30-2:30 pm. Join host M.A. Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work to literary journals. Members can reserve a seat at the table of like-minded writers with a room of journals, advice on where to submit, moral and technical support, and everything you need to successfully send your work…
Find out more »Open Mic
Please note: until further notice, this event will meet online via Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate interactive video sessions from your computer. Participants will receive Zoom login instructions in their registration receipt email. Our Open Mic Nights are held from 7:30-9:30 pm on the 3rd Friday of each month. Virtual doors open at 7:20 pm for event starting at 7:30. Due to popular demand to participate, we've had to limit the amount of readers to 20.…
Find out more »Improvise Your Story with Sloane Miller (via Zoom)
Learning about and playing with the rules of applied improvisation (“Yes, And,” support, be present, be flexible, commit), author and improvisation workshop facilitator Sloane Miller will address elements of storytelling through applied improv exercises that will turn you into a creative powerhouse, brimming with ideas. This workshop is experiential: we will do some improv exercises and have time for in-class writing prompts. Please note: This class will be taught ONLINE using Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate…
Find out more »Emerging Writers (writers group via Zoom)
We are excited to offer an Emerging Writers group, based on our popular monthly Open Write. We welcome young writers 18-30 years old for this event. Join prolific local writer and MFA student at Manhattanville College, Taylor Vogt, as he provides writers in all genres monthly prompts and uninterrupted writing time. Emerging Writers is free for HVWC members and $10 a session for non-members. It will take place on the third Saturday of each month from 9:00 to 11:00 pm.…
Find out more »Film Screening of A Late Style of Fire by Michele Poulos (via Zoom)
Join Michele Poulos, director and poet as she presents her award winning documentary about the poet Larry Levis. The brilliant writing and troubled life of Californian Larry Levis came to an abrupt halt when he died at age 49. Is self-destruction required for a serious life of art? Featuring an original score by Iron and Wine and film excerpts by award-winning Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño, this innovative documentary explores his childhood working alongside Mexican-American field hands, three marriages, friendships with…
Find out more »SHLF Saturday: A Reading by Anthony Murphy, Andrea Kott, & David Puretz via Zoom
In the spirit of the Sleepy Hollow Lit Fest, we proudly present our semi-annual showcase of local and/or self-published authors. Krista Madsen hosts. This reading will take place via Zoom. Please register to receive the Zoom login link in the confirmation email. Saturday, July 25, 7 pm SHLF Saturday Presents: Born in 1970 in Burton-upon-Trent, Anthony C. Murphy grew up in Lancashire. He has had many jobs, a few dogs, and three children. He has worked and performed at spoken…
Find out more »Deep Dive: Revision as Discovery with Fred Marchant via Zoom
Please note that this workshop is now sold out! Thanks for all the interest. If you want to be put on the waiting list for this workshop, or have questions about other poetry workshop options, please email [email protected] Sometimes the poem arrives fully realized, but most of the time we revise our way toward what the poem is striving to say. Sometimes a poem might be giving the poet a "hard time," that is leaving the poet with an intuition…
Find out more »Writing for Stage, Screen, and Television with Bill Bigelow
This class will meet from Friday, July 31 for six consecutive Fridays, ending on September 4. This class will be taught online via Zoom. Zoom login information will be included in the email confirming class registration. This is a course designed for writers looking to create screenplays, stage plays, and teleplays for one-hour televisions shows. Paramount in this effort, we will focus on an approach which is necessary in all dramatic writing — the importance of conflict. How we define,…
Find out more »An Evening with Mona Awad & Quan Barry via Zoom
Mona Awad was born in Montreal and has lived in the US since 2009. Her debut novel, 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL (Penguin), won the Amazon Best First Novel Award, the Colorado Book Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Arab American Book Award. It was also long-listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour and the International Dublin Award. Her new novel, BUNNY was published in June 2019 by Viking Press, Penguin Canada,…
Find out more »August 2020
Submission Sunday
Submission Sundays is a free service to members of HVWC. Space is limited so please reserve your spot. One Sunday a month, 12:30-2:30 pm. Join host M.A. Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work to literary journals. Members can reserve a seat at the table of like-minded writers with a room of journals, advice on where to submit, moral and technical support, and everything you need to successfully send your work…
Find out more »YoYB Poetry Student Reading: Bell, Fisher, Jennes, Miller, Powers, Salter, Scott, Wright
Join YoYB: Poetry instructor, Jennifer Franklin, as she welcomes her talented poetry students to read on Zoom. Nine accomplished poets will read their work, including poems that have been recently published in journals. Vincent Bell, Helene Fisher, B. Fulton Jennes, Wayne L. Miller, Jack Powers, Vera Salter, M.A. Scott, and Ellen Wright will bring the "house" down with their powerful poems. Vincent Bell grew up in NYC and has a BS and MA from NYU and an MBA from Fordham.…
Find out more »The Art of Revising the Poem with Sean Singer via Zoom
Join Yale Younger Poet, Sean Singer, as he helps you revise your difficult to place poems that you think are almost finished. Send one poem (limit two pages) to [email protected] when you register for this class. Sean Singer is the author of Discography (Yale University Press, 2002), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; and…
Find out more »Open Write
Please join us for our warm and welcoming Open Write Nights, now at an easier-to-remember regular recurring monthly spot of Second Saturdays! Your hosts Michelle Thomas and Cassie Cartaginese will facilitate an evening of generative writing, story swapping and community building. $10 for non-members; free for members (will be deducted at checkout when you log in). This group will take place via Zoom. You will get Zoom login instructions when you receive your registration confirmation email. Become a member here.
Find out more »YoYB: Poetry Student reading on Zoom: Augenbaum, Campbell-Romano, Cardona, Carlson, Fleck, Garber, Howarth, Moncrieffe, Morris
Join YoYB: Poetry instructor, Jennifer Franklin, as she welcomes her talented poetry students to read on Zoom. Nine accomplished poets will read their work, including poems that have been recently published in journals. Gayle Augenbaum, Alice Campbell-Romano, Roxanne Cardona, Carla Carlson, Lisa Fleck, Jim Garber, Tony Howarth, Aubrey Moncrieffe, and Beth Morris will bring the "house" down with their powerful poems. Roxanne Cardona was born in New York City. Her work has appeared in Constellations, Red Eft, Poetic Medicine-New Voices,…
Find out more »Protected: Memoir Writing Workshop with Susan Hodara – AM 3wk session
This is a 3-week class meeting online via ZOOM Tuesdays 10:30am-12:45pm on August 11, 18, and 25. Are you inspired to record the transforming events of your life? Are you drawn to explore the circumstances surrounding your most vivid memories? For those with a work-in-progress or those starting fresh, this class will offer a supportive environment wherein each week you will read aloud and receive constructive feedback. Writers at all levels of accomplishment, and with projects both full-length and short-form,…
Find out more »Protected: Memoir Writing Workshop with Susan Hodara – PM 3wk session
This is a 3-week class meeting online via ZOOM Tuesdays 1:15pm-3:45pm on August 11, 18, and 25. Are you inspired to record the transforming events of your life? Are you drawn to explore the circumstances surrounding your most vivid memories? For those with a work-in-progress or those starting fresh, this class will offer a supportive environment wherein each week you will read aloud and receive constructive feedback. Writers at all levels of accomplishment, and with projects both full-length and short-form,…
Find out more »HVWC Published Student Reading: Brodnick, Delehanty, Joseph, Odynocki, Matthews, Reitman, Shenkman, Ward
Join HVWC Instructors Bill Bigelow, Beth Hahn, Amy Holman, and Susan Hodara as some of their students read from recently published work. Bill Bigelow will present Susan Ward who will read an excerpt from her solo show Wasbian. She has performed Wasbian in the Emerging Artists New Works Festival in NYC and in the United Solo Festival in NYC where she received the award for “Best Autobiographical One Woman Show.” Susan Hodara will introduce four of her memoir students—Bonni Brodnick, John Delehanty,…
Find out more »In the beginning: Exploring Questions of Spirituality & Religion Through Creative Writing with Jessica Jacobs via Zoom
Please note: This class will be taught ONLINE using Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate video classes from your computer. Students will receive login instructions from the instructor prior to the class date. We will maintain the same high caliber of course and instruction with the same emphasis on keeping class sizes small. We live in a time of always more, always faster, a time of disembodied screen-living where what’s new insists on itself as what’s most…
Find out more »Poetry as a Practice of Awareness with Nickole Brown via Zoom
This class will be taught ONLINE using Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate video classes from your computer. Students will receive login instructions in the registration email at the time of purchase. We will maintain the same high caliber of course and instruction with the same emphasis on keeping class sizes small. Poetry as a Practice of Awareness with Nickole Brown With everything happening in the world these days, how can you possibly stay present to your…
Find out more »Unearthing Your Memoir: Throwing the Bones on the Table with Sarah Bracey White
NB: Sign up now for this intensive class with award-winning journalist and memoirist, Sarah Bracey White, on organizing and beginning your memoir. It will be taught online via Zoom on Sunday, August 16th. As soon as you register, you will receive the Zoom link so make sure you check your email. This class is capped at 12. There are two scholarship seats in each one-day class given on a first come first served basis. Sarah Bracey White has taught creative…
Find out more »Monday Night Poetry Workshop with Silvina López Medin via Zoom
Over the course of this workshop we will read poems by key figures in Latin American twentieth century poetry: Susana Thénon, Amanda Berenguer, Ana Cristina Cesar, Rosario Castellanos. We will observe the formal elements of each poet’s work, and pay attention to which aspects resonate with the participants as they generate their own writing. The workshop aims to build a shared space that encourages the reading of poets not often included on course syllabi, exploring their trajectories from the tip…
Find out more »Writing the College Application Essay That Counts with Dominique Padurano, PhD
Writing the College Application Essay That Counts As 4.0 GPAs have grown more common, the personal statement has become an important way to distinguish oneself in the college application process. That’s never been more important than for the Class of 2021, many of whom will apply to college without having taken an SAT or ACT. While the stakes of college essays are particularly high this fall, crafting an authentic personal statement can also catalyze an invaluable journey of self-discovery and…
Find out more »Open Mic
Please note: until further notice, this event will meet online via Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate interactive video sessions from your computer. Participants will receive Zoom login instructions in their registration receipt email. Our Open Mic Nights are held from 7:30-9:30 pm on the 3rd Friday of each month. Virtual doors open at 7:20 pm for event starting at 7:30. Due to popular demand to participate, we've had to limit the amount of readers to 20.…
Find out more »Emerging Writers (writers group via Zoom)
We are excited to offer an Emerging Writers group, based on our popular monthly Open Write. We welcome young writers 18-30 years old for this event. Join prolific local writer and MFA student at Manhattanville College, Taylor Vogt, as he provides writers in all genres monthly prompts and uninterrupted writing time. You will receive the Zoom login information when you receive your registration confirmation email. Emerging Writers is free for HVWC members and $10 a session for non-members. It will…
Find out more »SHP Presents: Kimiko Hahn, Mervyn Taylor, and Nick Makoha
Join Slapering Hol Press’s advisory committee member and award-winning poet, Suzanne Cleary, as she introduces Kimiko Hahn, Mervyn Taylor, and Nick Makoha. During this difficult time when everyone is deprived of contact with our beloved poetry community, we hope that the SHP virtual reading series will connect and inspire us until we can meet again in person at the Hudson Valley Writers Center. This reading is free and open to the public, via Zoom, but there is a $5 suggested…
Find out more »Beyond “I love you”: Syntactic Strategies for Poems with Martha Collins
This four hour workshop will begin with a discussion of a variety of syntactic strategies for writing poems that get beyond the predictable subject-verb-object sentence (“I love you”). Using examples of published poems, we’ll explore ways in which syntax and prosody—sentence and line—can work together to create complex poetic textures. In addition to giving you a number of ideas for crafting new poems, this discussion may provide focus for our consideration of your own poems in the second part of…
Find out more »September 2020
An Evening with Yona Harvey, John Murillo, and Jacob Strautmann
Join three amazing Four Way Books poets—Yona Harvey, John Murillo, and Jacob Strautmann— as they read from their new collections. Yona Harvey is an American poet and recipient of the the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her first poetry collection, Hemming the Water. Her second poetry collection, You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love, is forthcoming from Four Way Books in fall 2020. She is among the first black women to write for Marvel Comics since the company’s…
Find out more »Taking Risks in Narrative Poetry with Erin Hoover via Zoom
Though narrative is a popular mode for poets writing today, narrative poetry is infrequently a focus of study. How can poetry tell stories differently from its prose cousins? What lens does poetry offer us to examine, interpret, and subvert popular storytelling conventions? We’ll learn to write the narrative poem that takes risks in this workshop open to poets working at all levels. We’ll look at how model poems use the craft elements of story -- scene and exposition, specificity and…
Find out more »Submission Sunday
Submission Sundays is a free service to members of HVWC. Space is limited so please reserve your spot. One Sunday a month, 12:30-2:30 pm. Join host M.A. Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work to literary journals. Members can reserve a seat at the table of like-minded writers with a room of journals, advice on where to submit, moral and technical support, and everything you need to successfully send your work…
Find out more »Year of Your Book: Deep Revision with Kirsten Bakis via Zoom
This a 5-week class meeting Mondays 10:15am-12:15pm starting on Monday September 14 and ending on October 26. (There will be no class on September 28 and October 12.) This class will be taught online via Zoom. New students should send ten pages to [email protected] to apply. She will then send to Kirsten for review. This advanced class is for fiction writers who have a full, or near-full, draft of a novel or book of stories, and are ready to revise.…
Find out more »Year of Your Book: Deep Revision with Kirsten Bakis via Zoom
This a 6-week class meeting Wednesdays 10:15am-12:15pm starting Wednesday September 16 and ending on October 21 (with a makeup date of October 28). This class will be taught online via Zoom. How long have you been saying you want to write a book? How much longer do you have to wait? Whether you have a partial draft, or just an idea and the desire to write, this class can help you reach that goal. In-class work will hone specific skills…
Find out more »Writing for Stage, Screen, and Television with Bill Bigelow via Zoom
This class will meet from Friday, September 18 for six consecutive Fridays, ending on October 24. This class will be taught online via Zoom. Zoom login information will be included in the email confirming class registration. This is a course designed for writers looking to create screenplays, stage plays, and teleplays for one-hour televisions shows. Paramount in this effort, we will focus on an approach which is necessary in all dramatic writing — the importance of conflict. How we define,…
Find out more »An Evening with Ryan Black, Maya Phillips, and Jason Schneiderman
HVWC welcomes three amazing poets—Ryan Black, Maya Phillips, and Jason Schneiderman—as they read from their most recent award-winning collections. This reading is free and open to the public via Zoom but there is a suggested $5 reading fee. Ryan Black is the author of The Tenant of Fire (University of Pittsburgh Press), winner of the 2018 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Death of a Nativist, selected by Linda Gregerson for the Poetry Society of America's 2016 Chapbook Fellowship. He has published previously or has…
Find out more »October 2020
The Lyric Memoir with Marco Wilkinson via Zoom
How can we narrate our lives faithfully while innovating at the level of language and structure, considering truth as something that goes beyond facts and includes imagination? In this workshop students will come to the class having written a short piece about a potent moment in their lives, a moment that "sticks," and in the workshop we will explore various techniques for how to get at different truths of the experience using lyric prose. We will read and discuss various…
Find out more »The Art of Telling with Chen Chen via Zoom
Typically, the principle of “Show, don’t tell” is sound advice for poets—we should aim to evoke and enact emotion, to surprise through imagery and sensory detail. In this generative workshop, though, we will explore how we might use “telling” in beautiful, unexpected, and politically engaged ways. We will examine modes and moods of “telling,” like the discursive, the aphoristic, the bold remembering, the conversationally witty, the necessarily strange challenge to the normative. Writing experiments will occur in between discussion of model poems. We will consider how it is often a fresh combination of…
Find out more »A Reading with Joshua Bennett, Diannely Antigua, and Zeeshan Pathan via Zoom
HVWC is proud to welcome Dr. Joshua Bennett back to read at HVWC for the third time along with first time readers Diannely Antigua and Zeeshan Pathan as they read from their new collections via Zoom. This reading is free and open to the public but we encourage a $5 donation. Dr. Joshua Bennett is the Mellon Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is the author of three books of poetry and literary criticism: The…
Find out more »Poetry of Resistance with JP Howard via Zoom
Join JP HOWARD as she returns to HVWC to grapple with writing poetry of resistance. She will helps you take your writing to a new level with prompts and advice that will teach you how to enhance your work. JP Howard is a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is the author of SAY/MIRROR, a debut poetry collection published by The Operating System (2016, 2nd expanded ed) and a chaplet “bury your love poems here” (Belladonna Collaborative*). SAY/MIRROR was a 2016 Lambda…
Find out more »An Afternoon with Edward Hirsch and Jeffrey Harrison
Join us for a reading and Q&A with award-winning poets Edward Hirsch (Stranger by Night, Penguin, 2020) and Jeffrey Harrison (Between Lakes, Four Way Books, 2020) as they read from their latest collections and discuss the craft of poetry. Please support our friends at the family-owned local Village Bookstore in Pleasantville, NY where you order the readers' books here. Edward Hirsch is a celebrated poet and peerless advocate for poetry. He was born in Chicago in 1950 and educated at Grinnell…
Find out more »Gala: Online 2020
We will hold our annual benefit on Friday evening, OCTOBER 30,2020, at 7 pm, via Zoom. In line with our mission to celebrate the highest quality literature across genres we are proud to honor Jericho Brown (winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; Susan Choi (Winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction); Toi Derricotte (Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry); Katharine Holabird (author of the Angelina Ballerina series of Children’s Literature); and Leslie Jamison…
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