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.
April 2020
Open Write
Please note: given the current public health directives, this group will meet online via Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate video classes from your computer. Participants will receive login instructions prior to the meeting. 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 and community building at the Hudson…
Find out more »Creative Writing for Youth with Michael Patrick Collins
We are TENTATIVELY hoping to offer this 6week class series beginning on Tuesday, April 14 through May 19. Please check back here for updates or write to [email protected] for additional information. This class will serve as an energetic supplement to the traditional academic writing instruction of grammar and vocabulary development by providing a space in which young writers engage in open ended writing activities and encounter creative challenges that foster enjoyment of and enthusiasm for writing. Special focus will be…
Find out more »Year of Deep Revision: Poetry with Jennifer Franklin
NB: This a 6-week class meeting Wednesdays 12:30pm-3pm starting on April 15th. 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 with Jennifer Franklin
NB: This a 6-week online class via ZOOM meeting Fridays 10:45am-1:15pm starting Friday April 17th. 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 combination of workshopping new and old…
Find out more »Open Mic
Please note: given the current public health directives, this group will meet online via Zoom, which is a very user-friendly platform to facilitate video classes from your computer. Participants will receive login instructions prior to the meeting. Our Open Mic Nights are held from 7:30-9:30 pm on the 3rd Friday of each month. Doors open at 7:15 pm for event starting at 7:30. Due to popular demand to participate, we've had to limit the amount of readers to 20. NOTE…
Find out more »Playwriting Workshop: Storycraft & Structure for Writers with Barbara Blatner
Join playwright Barbara Blatner as she spends four hours working on the importance of story and structure in playwriting. This class will focus on craft and is intended for new and experienced playwrights. 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…
Find out more »Emerging Writers
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 7:00 to 9:00 pm.…
Find out more »SHP Annual Sanger-Stewart Reading VIA ZOOM with Liz Marlow, Julie Danho, and Rebecca Doverspike
Join the Slapering Hol Press co-editors, Margo Taft Stever, Peggy Ellsberg, and Jennifer Franklin as they welcome the 2019 SHP chapbook winner, Liz Marlow, the 2018 SHP chapbook winner, Rebecca Doverspike, and the 2013 SHP chapbook winner, Julie Danho, to read their latest work and talk about their experiences as Slapering Hol press poets. Liz Marlow’s poems have appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, The Greensboro Review, The Rumpus, Tikkun, and elsewhere. Additionally, her work has been a finalist for Permafrost Magazine’s New Alchemy Contest and…
Find out more »Year of Your Book: Deep Revision with Kirsten Bakis
This a 6-week class meeting Mondays 10:15am-12:15pm starting on Monday April 20th. This class will be taught online via Zoom. Students must 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. Enrollment is by application only.
Find out more »Monday Night Poetry Workshop with Amy Holman
This class will be taught online via Zoom. This class is designed to inspire and support poets who want to return to writing, try new ideas, and refine their voices, whether for their own pleasure or to share with the public through readings and publication. It is open to beginning and emerging poets. The new poems in this class are both those you will write and those we will read from literary journals and poetry books. Amy Holman will offer…
Find out more »Memoir Writing Workshop with Susan Hodara, Spring Session 3, AM
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 memoir workshop options, please email [email protected] This a 6-week class meeting online via ZOOM Tuesdays 10:30am-12:45pm on April 21, April 28, May 5, 12, 19. 26. Are you inspired to record the transforming events of your life? Are you drawn to explore the circumstances surrounding your most vivid…
Find out more »Memoir Workshop with Susan Hodara Spring 3 PM class
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 memoir workshop options, please email [email protected] This a 6-week class meeting online via ZOOM Tuesdays 1:15 to 3:30pm on April 21, April 28, May 5, 12, 19. 26. Are you inspired to record the transforming events of your life? Are you drawn to explore the circumstances surrounding your…
Find out more »Year of Your Book: Fiction with Kirsten Bakis
This a 6-week class meeting Wednesdays 10:15am-12:15pm starting Wednesday April 22nd. 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 such as dialogue, scene construction, plot and structure; generative exercises will help…
Find out more »Writing, Revising, and Publishing Short Fiction with Beth Hahn
This class will be taught online via Zoom. In this six-week workshop, take your short stories from first to final draft. Gain a deeper understanding of revision through in-class critiques and writing exercises. Experiment with short story forms. Read and discuss work from literary journals. Finally, learn how to craft a cover letter and navigate the submission process. All levels of fiction writers are welcome. Beth Hahn studied art and writing at The University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy…
Find out more »Page-Turning Fiction with Joanne Dobson
This class will be taught online via Zoom. If you’ve ever stayed up ‘til three with a compelling novel, you’ve probably wondered, “How do they do that?” Study the literary techniques of popular genres and learn how to create compelling plots in a unique voice, by harnessing the conflict and tension between sympathetic protagonists and disquieting antagonists. Whether your characters inhabit the extreme world of detection and intrigue, or the everyday life of private agonies and personal satisfactions, your writing…
Find out more »Embracing “Plausible Magic” In Your Fiction with David Queen
This class will be taught online via Zoom. Plausible magic is a technique that suggests an unbelievable—and often surreal—scenario can arise from “believable” character action and reasonable narrative means. Plausible magic is ordinary life rendered strange through the strength of the author’s vision. In this course, students will read and discuss the wonderfully bizarre stories of Alexandra Kleeman, Donald Antrim, Camille Bordas, Joy Williams, and more. They will also take turns bringing in their own “plausibly magical” stories each week…
Find out more »Writing for Stage, Screen, and Television with Bill Bigelow
This class will be taught online via Zoom. 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, pinpoint and create interesting, unusual characters. How structure is the backbone of a dramatic piece, and how narrative drive and the understanding of the elements of the construction…
Find out more »POSTPONED: SHP Presents: An Evening with 2019 Conversation Chapbook Poets Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon & Leela Chantrelle and 2020 Conversation Poets Toi Derricotte & Dawn Lundy Martin
NB: This reading will be held on Friday, November 6th, 2020. Toi Derricotte is the author of I: New & Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019),The Undertaker’s Daughter (2011), and four earlier collections of poetry, including Tender, winner of the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her literary memoir, The Black Notebooks (W.W. Norton), received the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Non-Fiction and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her honors include, among many others, the 2012 Paterson Poetry Prize for…
Find out more »I am (Not) a Real Writer
This a 5-week class meeting on Saturdays 10am-12pm starting on April 25th. It will be taught online via Zoom. This is a 5-week version of Kirsten Bakis’ popular one-day class. “I am not a real writer” is what I hear most often from people who almost take a class, but don’t. This fiction writing intensive is for everyone who is concerned about having what it takes, whether the issue is “not being a writer,” “having no good ideas,” or anything…
Find out more »The Art of The Praise Poem with JP Howard via Zoom
Join JP HOWARD as she explores the Praise Poem and shows you ways to enhance your own writing with a genre we need now, more than ever. 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 Literary Award Finalist in the Lesbian Poetry Category. JP is a 2019-2020 featured…
Find out more »Reading & Conversation on The Gaming Mind with Alex Kriss
Are videogames bad for us? It’s the question on everyone’s mind, given teenagers’ captive attention to videogames and the media’s tendency to scapegoat them. It’s also — if you ask clinical psychologist Alexander Kriss — the wrong question. In his therapy office, Kriss looks at videogames as a window into the mind. Is his patient Liz really “addicted” to Candy Crush — or is she evading a deeper problem? Why would aspiring model Patricia craft a hideous avatar named “Pat”? And when Jack immerses himself in Mass Effect,…
Find out more »May 2020
An Evening with Diannely Antigua, Ryan Black, and Justin Wymer
Diannely Antigua is a Dominican American poet and educator, born and raised in Massachusetts. Her debut collection Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019) was the winner of the Pamet River Prize. A graduate of the MFA program at NYU, she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship to Florence, Italy. She is the recipient of additional fellowships from CantoMundo, Community of Writers, and the Fine Arts Work Center Summer Program. Justin Wymer is a poet, scholar, and educator. Born and raised in southwestern…
Find out more »Letters to Nobody: Understanding Your Audience for the Epistolary Poem with Justin Wymer (via Zoom)
Join poet and professor, Justin Wymer, as he conducts a one-day craft class on the epistolary poem. All students should bring in one poem that is, in some way, addressed to another person. Full course description and details to follow. This class is capped at 13 people. PLEASE NOTE that given the current public health directives, this course will be taught online via Zoom. Justin Wymer is a poet, scholar, and educator. Born and raised in southwestern West Virginia, he…
Find out more »Home Run Project with Stan Friedmann
NB: This class starts on May 3rd and runs for 6 Sundays. It ends June 14th, No class on Sunday May 24th. The HOME RUN PROJECT was developed over twenty years ago as an entertaining and interactive learning program to help children (grades 3-6) improve listening skills and focus, encourage the love of reading and creative writing, and at the same time strengthen crucial life skills. The program is based on the true stories in THE MACMILLAN BOOK OF BASEBALL…
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 »Improv for Actors, Writers, and Bored People with Lynne Lori Sylvan
This is a six-week class that starts on Tuesday May 3rd. There will be a final show on June 16. In this supportive class, you will gradually build your improvisational skills through a series of warmups, games and scenework. This class is for all levels. The focus is on supporting your scene partner, not on being funny. You will come away with stronger communication skills, particularly the ability to accept others’ ideas and build on them as well as more…
Find out more »An Evening with Martha Collins, Fred Marchant, and Alan Shapiro
Please join us for a Special Benefit Reading, which will benefit our ongoing reading series. Tickets for this special reading are $25. We welcome further donations at the checkout screen or in person that evening. Thank you for your support and generosity! Martha Collins’ tenth book of poetry, Because What Else Could I Do, was published in the Pitt Poetry Series in fall 2019. Her previous books include two volumes of linked sequences, Night Unto Night and Day Unto Day (Milkweed,…
Find out more »Advanced Hybrid Workshop with Chris Campanioni via Zoom
Please note: Given the current public health directives, 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. Objective: To straddle the line between poetry & prose, essay & narrative, list & analysis. I’d like to…
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 and community building at the Hudson Valley Writers Center. Prompts will be offered, refreshments served (that includes wine). Stories swapped. $10 for non-members; free for members (will be deducted at checkout when you log in). Become a member here.
Find out more »Writing through Darkness to Light (all genres) with Susan Tiberghien via Zoom
What and where is story? Margaret Atwood writes, “Going into narrative is a dark road.” We will find our way into the dark, into the unconscious and bring our stories out into the light. Looking at examples from Orhan Pamuk, Toni Morrison, and Terry Tempest Williams, we will craft our stories into journal entries, personal essays, short stories, poems. Our voices will bear witness in our turbulent times. ** Please note: This class will be taught ONLINE using Zoom, which…
Find out more »Open Mic
Our Open Mic Nights are held from 7:30-9:30 pm on the 3rd Friday of each month. Doors open at 7 pm for event starting at 7:30. Due to popular demand to participate, we've had to limit the amount of readers to 20. NEW: We're adjusting the policy to balance the demand at the door and online: There are now 10 performer slots up for sale online, placing you on the list in order of your purchase. The other 10+…
Find out more »Emerging Writers
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 7:00 to 9:00 pm.…
Find out more »Craft and Self in Poetic Forms with Cynthia Manick VIA ZOOM
Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press) and editor of Soul Sister Revue: A Poetry Compilation (Jamii Publishing, 2019). She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among others. Winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, Manick was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize. She is Founder of the reading series Soul Sister Revue; and her poem "Things I Carry Into the World" was made…
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 »June 2020
The Art of Crafting and Telling Personal Stories with Wendy Mages
Storytelling is an essential human endeavor; everyone has compelling stories. This 4-hour workshop will create a safe space where you can experiment with voicing your true personal experiences and sharing those experiences with others. Beginning with a series of interactive exercises, you will identify a personal experience you would like to share. You will then be led through a series of activities to help you structure and craft your experience into a compelling well-structured story. This workshop will not only…
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 »Virtual Reading with SHP Editors: Peggy Ellsberg, Jennifer Franklin, Margo Taft Stever
Join Slapering Hol Press's founding and current co-editor, Margo Taft Stever, as she reads from her two new poetry collections, Cracked Piano (CavanKerry Press, 2019) and Ghost Moose (Kattywompus Press, 2019). SHP's two other co-editors, Peggy Ellsberg and Jennifer Franklin will also read from their most recent collections. 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…
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 and community building at the Hudson Valley Writers Center. Prompts will be offered, refreshments served (that includes wine). Stories swapped. $10 for non-members; free for members (will be deducted at checkout when you log in). Become a member here.
Find out more »Open Mic
Our Open Mic Nights are held from 7:30-9:30 pm on the 3rd Friday of each month. Doors open at 7 pm for event starting at 7:30. Due to popular demand to participate, we've had to limit the amount of readers to 20. NEW: We're adjusting the policy to balance the demand at the door and online: There are now 10 performer slots up for sale online, placing you on the list in order of your purchase. The other 10+…
Find out more »Poetry as a Practice of Awareness with Nickole Brown via Zoom
There are a lot of terrible things happening in the world right now but HVWC is grateful to our amazing community of writer-teachers who have come together during this difficult time to offer you a panoply of incredible courses. 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…
Find out more »Emerging Writers
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 7:00 to 9:00 pm.…
Find out more »July 2020
Creative Writing Camp
HUDSON VALLEY RISING WRITERS Creative Writing Camp Youth writing workshops for students entering Middle school (Grades 5-8) Four Wednesdays in July July 1, 8, 15, 22 Hudson Valley Writers Center 300 Riverside Drive Sleepy Hollow (Classes will meet in the historic Philipse Manor Train Station Building of Sleepy Hollow) $160 residents, $185 non-residents We are excited to welcome writer Amy Holman to lead the workshops! For more details or to register, please click here. Amy Holman is the author of Wrens Fly Through This…
Find out more »SHLF Saturday: A Reading by Diane Lechleitner, Andrea Kott, & David Puretz
In the spirit of the Sleepy Hollow Lit Fest, we proudly launch our new semi-annual showcase of local and/or self-published authors. Krista Madsen hosts. Saturday, July 25, 7 pm SHLF Saturday Presents: Diane Lechleitner’s poems and short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines. Faron Goss is her first novel, to be published in fall 2020 by Green Writers Press. In addition to writing fiction Diane has exhibited her visual art, received an Exxon Award for Printmaking, was a recipient of…
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