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.
January 2020
Mapping the Plot with Kirsten Bakis
This one-day class is back by popular demand. Kirsten Bakis will help you map the plot of your novel in progress. If you only have one day to devote to mapping the plot of your novel, spend it with award-winning novelist, Kirsten Bakis, as she guides you through the process of outlining your next fictional work. Kirsten Bakis‘s novel Lives of the Monster Dogs was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, won a Bram Stoker Award, was…
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 »From a Tinkering to the Overhaul: What We Do When We Revise the Poem with Fred Marchant
In this one-day workshop we will consider what it means to revise a poem. Sometimes a poem arrives fully developed, and feels like a pure gift. Most of the time, however, the poem arrives bedraggled, partially there, but not fully realized. The poet senses this, and begins a process of revision. In our workshop we will look closely at that moment of revision, and try to derive some reliable ideas and guidelines about what one might do with a poem in need…
Find out more »Creative Writing for Youth with Michael Collins
Please note: This class will begin on Tuesday, January 28 and continue through March 10, with a week off on Tuesday, February 18 to accomodate the holiday break. This class, for 3rd to 5th graders, 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…
Find out more »An Evening with John James, Diane Mehta, and Daniel Poppick
John James is the author of The Milk Hours (Milkweed, 2019), selected by Henri Cole for the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. His poems, essays, and interviews appear in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, BOMB, Lit Hub, PEN Poetry Series, Best American Poetry 2017, and elsewhere. He lives in California, where he is pursuing a PhD in English and Critical Theory at UC Berkeley. Find him online at https://jj-poetry.com. Diane Mehta’s collection Forest with Castanets was published by Four Way Books in 2019. She has been an editor at PEN America’s Glossolalia,…
Find out more »February 2020
SHLF Saturday
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, February 1, 7 p.m. SHLF Saturday Presents: A Celebration of Local Journals | Readings & Conversations with Inkwell, The Westchester Review, and River River Featuring readings and Q&A with journal editors and contributors: Bridget Potter, Emilya Naymark, Juan Pablo Mobili, Bob Raymonda, Vincent Bell, and Philip Cioffari. Price is suggested donation; walk-ins welcome. Please note…
Find out more »Home Run Project with Stan Friedmann
Please note: This is a six-week class for one hour each week from Sunday February 2nd through March 8th from 11am-12pm. 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 STORIES…
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 Mary Ann Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work. 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 to target…
Find out more »An Evening with Lauren Mechling & Jonathan Vatner
Lauren Mechling will read from her critically-acclaimed debut novel, How Could She (Viking, 2019). Mechling has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The New Yorker online, and Vogue, where she writes a regular book column. A graduate of Harvard College, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. Jonathan Vatner is an award-winning journalist who has written for The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Poets & Writers; and other publications. He has an MFA in…
Find out more »Mapping the Plot 2 with Kirsten Bakis
This is PART TWO of Kirsten Bakis' popular one-day class. Meet up with fellow Mapping the Plot students to update your progress, get feedback and clarity to help map the plot of your novel in progress. Open to writers of all levels. Kirsten Bakis‘s novel Lives of the Monster Dogs was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, won a Bram Stoker Award, was shortlisted for Britain’s prestigious Baily’s Prize, and has a band named after it. A special 20th anniversary…
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 »YoYB: Poetry with Jennifer Franklin
NB: This a 6-week class meeting Fridays 10:45am-1:15pm starting Friday February 21st. 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 poems and…
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 »Fiction Master Class with Christina Chiu
Christina Chiu is the winner of the James Alan McPherson Award. Her novel, Beauty, is available for pre-order. She is also author of Troublemaker and Other Saints, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 2001, Troublemaker was alternate selection for BOMC and QPB, a nominee for a BOMC First Fiction Award, and winner of the Asian American Literary Award. Chiu has published in magazines and anthologies, including Tin House, Charlie Chan is Dead 2, Not the Only One, Washington Square, World Wide Writers, The MacGuffin, the Asian Pacific American Journal, Acorn, Grandmothers: Granddaughters…
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 »Pushing the Poetic Metaphor with Suzanne Parker
Pushing the Metaphor: a craft talk/workshop combination. There will be a prompt folded into a craft talk. The unconscious instinct that is metaphor is thrilling and one of poetry's greatest tools. Through the associations metaphor brings to your writing, it adds complexity, tension, and thrusts the poem into the unexpected. However, often, we each have our own "unconscious vocabulary": the images and comparisons that spring frequently to mind. This workshop will explore pushing past these limits. We will look at…
Find out more »An Evening with Pamela Paul
Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Review and oversees books coverage at The New York Times. She is also the host of the weekly Book Review podcast. She is the author of five books: The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony was named one of the best books of 2002 by The Washington Post; her second book, Pornified, was named one of the best books of 2005 by The San Francisco Chronicle. Her sixth…
Find out more »The Lyric Leap with Rachel Hadas
Spend leap day with poetry professor and guru, Rachel Hadas, as she teaches a craft class & workshop on the lyric leap. In the meantime, check out her most recent poem in The New Yorker. Rachel Hadas studied classics at Harvard, poetry at Johns Hopkins, and comparative literature at Princeton. Between college and graduate school she spent four years in Greece, an experience that surfaces variously in much of her work. Since 1981 she has taught in the English Department…
Find out more »March 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 Mary Ann Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work. 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 to target…
Find out more »Year of Your Book: Fiction, Deep Revision with Kirsten Bakis
NB: This a 6-week class meeting Mondays 10:15am-12:15pm starting on Monday March 2nd. Students must send ten pages to Kirsten via Program Director, Jennifer Franklin ([email protected]) to apply. 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,…
Find out more »Year of Your Book: Fiction with Kirsten Bakis
NB: This a 6-week class meeting Wednesdays 10:15am-12:15pm starting on Wednesday March 4th. 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 you reconnect with your sense of…
Find out more »Writing, Revising, and Publishing Short Fiction with Beth Hahn
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 of the Fine Arts and earned an MFA…
Find out more »Page-Turning Fiction with Joanne Dobson
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 can benefit from that special “can’t-put-it-down” magic. Joanne…
Find out more »Writing for Stage, Screen, and Television with Bill Bigelow
NB: This is a six-week class starting on Friday, March 6th. 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…
Find out more »I Am (Not) a Real Writer with Kirsten Bakis
Please note that this is a six-week session starting on Saturday March 7th. “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 else. No experience required. Through exploratory exercises, light readings and discussion, this class will help you find…
Find out more »Defining & Assembling Your Memoir with Susan Hodara
NB: This is a one-day class. You’ve been writing your memories and stories and chapters, and you’re wondering how it all fits together. In this four-hour intensive, through in-class writing and discussion, we will uncover pervasive themes that connect your pieces, consider possible beginnings and endings, begin to define your narrative arc, and better understand what your work is about. For memoirists at any stage of their writing.
Find out more »Monday Night Poetry Workshop with Kathleen Ossip
NB: This is a six-week class starting on Monday March 9th. Long-time HVWC teacher returns to the Center to teach her popular Monday Night Poetry Class. Register soon. This class fills up quickly. Kathleen Ossip is the author of The Do-Over, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; The Cold War, which was one of Publishers Weekly‘s best books of 2011; The Search Engine, which was selected by Derek Walcott for the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize; and Cinephrastics, a…
Find out more »An Evening with Sally Ball, Catherine Barnett, and Jessica Ficher
Sally Ball is the author of Wreck Me, Annus Mirabilis, and Hold Sway from Barrow Street (2013, 2005, and 2019). She is an associate professor of English at Arizona State University and a faculty member of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives in Phoenix. Catherine Barnett is the author of Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (Alice James Books, 2004), The Game of Boxes (Graywolf Press, 2012), which won the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Human Hours (Graywolf,…
Find out more »Publishing, Editing, Revision, Second-guessing, Peace of Mind, Doubt, Etc with Sally Ball
A class for poets about what happens next We’ll spend part of our time taking stock of the publishing process—what real people who screen for presses say about what they look for, what they set aside, the strategies they use to categorize and rank manuscripts—and also the conditions under which they often work. This conversation can be both exciting and sobering. We’ll move on from there to think about revision and the cycles of engagement poems pass through: how do…
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 »Illuminating the Dark: Flash Fiction with Anna Potter
A one-day intensive generative workshop on the joys of writing flash fiction. If novels are baggy monsters (shout-out to Henry James), then flash fictions are sea sparkle, the bioluminescent plankton that light up when agitated. The best flash uses the condensed form as a way to express emotion that would get obscured by too many details. We do not always need to know the particulars of a character to grasp their most desperate desires, their regrets, their fear that what…
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 »The Character in Poems, Including Your Speaker as a Character & an Avatar of Yourself Who is Not You, Patrick Donnelly
Emily Dickinson wrote “When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse—it does not mean—me—but a supposed person…” Nevertheless some readers of poetry seem to doubt that poets are as capable as other writers of making things (and people) up. So we’ll reexamine that old concept of the poem's speaker, and other characters, as differentiated from the author (though perhaps sharing some of the author's characteristics and history), analogous to characters in fiction, films, plays, operas, etc. How does a poet…
Find out more »An Evening with Alice Quinn
Alice Quinn was Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America for eighteen years. She was poetry editor at The New Yorker from 1987-2007 and at Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers, from 1976-1986. She is the editor of Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments by Elizabeth Bishop. She is currently at work editing the journals and notebooks of Elizabeth Bishop. Her seminar on the poetry and letters of Emily Dickinson was among the program’s most famous…
Find out more »One-Day Memoir Intensive with Susan Hodara
NB: This is a one-day, four hour class. Are you inspired to write about 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 four-hour class will offer a supportive environment where we’ll be talking about memoir writing, writing in class and sharing for constructive feedback. You will leave with a new work-in-progress and some insights into the stories you want to…
Find out more »April 2020
An Evening with Mona Awad & Quan Barry
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 »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 Mary Ann Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work. 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 to target…
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 »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 with Liz Marlow & Richard Jackson
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 a semi-finalist for the Tomaž Šalamun Prize. She received her MFA from Western Michigan University. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee with her husband and two children. Richard Jackson teaches creative writing, poetry, and humanities at UTC and is a frequent guest lecturer at the MFA writing seminars at Vermont College, University of Iowa Summer Writers'…
Find out more »SHP Presents: An Evening with 2019 Conversation Chapbook Poets Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon & Leela Chantrelle and 2020 Conversation Poets Toi Derricotte & Dawn Lundy Martin
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 Sustained Literary Achievement, the 2012 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry, the Lucille…
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 »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 Mary Ann Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work. 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 to target…
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 »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 »June 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 Mary Ann Scott for two hours of insider information on where and how to send your best work. 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 to target…
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 »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 »