After a multi-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the conference will reconvene on Saturday, April 6, 2024, at the Northampton Center for Arts.

Jeffers, a novelist, poet, essayist, and scholar, commands an impressive portfolio. 

She has published five books of poetry, including The Age of Phillis, which reflects a decade and a half of dedicated research into the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters, the first African-American woman to publish a book. The work garnered critical acclaim, including recognition from the National Book Award in Poetry, The Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the NAACP Image Award for Literary Work: Poetry.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is her debut novel and also won her widespread praise. It was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club, recognized by President Barack Obama in his 2021 Book Recommendations, and acclaimed by numerous esteemed publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and NPR.

Since its first iteration in 1987, the WriteAngles Conference has been a celebrated gathering for writers in Western Massachusetts. Originally sponsored by the local chapter of the National Writers Union, the conference operated independently and was run by a committee of dedicated volunteers for many years. Last year, the committee handed over the management and running of the conference to the Straw Dog Writers Guild.

Known for its roster of renowned keynote speakers over the years, including Elinor Lipman, Jonathan Harr, Ann Hood, and Patricia Smith, the conference continues to create a platform for writers to share, learn, and inspire.

The WriteAngles Conference aims to attract a diverse array of writers who love language and are open to exploring its myriad forms. The organizers have expressed a commitment to writing that illuminates the complexities of our world, aiming to create dialogue, incite change, and heal wounds. 

This year, the conference also includes the Abel Meeropol Social Justice Writing Award, paying tribute to writers whose work centers on social justice. Jeffers will be the recipient of this year’s award. 

The award finalists are Carmen Maria Machado, Shanta Lee, and Cameron Awkward-Rich.

In anticipation of its 2024 return, the WriteAngles Conference warmly invites all writers — established, emerging, and aspiring — to be a part of this gathering. More information about the conference is available from the new conference website at www.writeanglesconference.com. The event promises a riveting exploration of the written word.

The post Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Announced as Keynote for the Return of the WriteAngles Conference appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

They are Vida James, Regine Jackson, and Syki Barbee (L to R in the photo above).  One writer will be named the 2022-23 Fellow in March. 

The Fellow will receive a $3000 grant from Straw Dog Writers Guild to be used for writing-related expenses, access to mentors who can offer assistance with writing needs identified by the Fellow, a professional author website, valued at $1,500, sponsored by Valley of Writers, membership to Straw Dog Writers Guild for two years, and other benefits.

Syki Barbee of Springfield MA is a first-generation college graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and specializations in Professional Writing and Technical Communication & Creative Writing from UMass, Amherst. She is passionate about the centralization of BIPOC characters and characters from other underrepresented communities in literature. 

Born and raised in Springfield, MA, Regine Jackson loved reading as a child. Her mother worked as a clerk and page at different libraries in the city and would always bring books home – from manga to Diana Wynne Jones. Regine grew up wanting to write characters in those worlds; characters who looked like her and who she could relate to. 

Vida James is a Nuyorican social worker from Brooklyn, NY. She is a Delaney Fellow in the UMass Amherst MFA Program for Poets & Writers. She is the winner of the 2021 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artists Award and a 2021 Cara Parravani Memorial Award in Fiction. Her writing has been supported by Tin House, Bread Loaf, and VONA/Voices. She has work appearing in Story, New England Review, Epiphany, and elsewhere.

The Emerging Writer Fellowship was designed to support women of color and gender-expansive writers of color based in Western Massachusetts at the early stages of their careers. The Fellowship was created to help emerging writers negotiate barriers that may prevent them from accessing mentorship and pursuing publication of their work. In 2022-23, the second cycle of the Emerging Writer Fellowship Program, the genre is fiction.

This year, the selection panel was made up of writers Kaija Langley, Aqueela Culbreath-Britt, and Fungai Tichawangana. Speaking on behalf of the panel, Tichawangana said that a number of the writing samples submitted by the applicants made intriguing reading. “We received some great writing samples and it made the selection process enjoyable. There was quite a leaning towards speculative fiction, which resonates with trends we are seeing in publishing.” 

The finalist will be named at the beginning of March.

The post Straw Dog names 3 writers for its 2022 Emerging Writer Fellowship shortlist appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

QUALITIES THAT MAKE YOU A GOOD FIT FOR THIS ROLE

• Love of poetry and belief in its potential as an agent of change
• Commitment to sustaining and expanding our community and to creating opportunities for poets and readers
• Leadership skills and ability to work collaboratively and effectively with others
• Openness of heart and mind

ROLE OF THE PRESIDENT

To lead the organization by coordinating the activities of board members and working committees of the NEPC.  To be the face of the NEPC with respect to the community of poets and to the public.

Responsibilities: 

• Convene and lead monthly board meetings
• Represent the NEPC to the New England community
• Ensure the NEPC’s dedication to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda 
• Serve on the board of the Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters, venue of summer programs
• Collaborate with other board members and committees of the NEPC to:
  • facilitate ongoing communication with membership and the poetry community
  • arrange readings and events for members and the public
  • organize poetry workshops and foster education in poetry
  • partner with and build relationships with other organizations
  • award prizes and grants to poets and organizations
  • ensure sustainability and financial health of the NEPC
  • foster broader membership, including bringing in younger members
  • develop and mentor future leaders of the NEPC

TO APPLY

If you are interested in this volunteer position, submit the following (in Word or PDF format) to NEPC advisory member Danielle Legros Georges on or before March 31, 2022:

A brief statement of interest, including a summary of your leadership experience in work and/or volunteer contexts, as well as your background and participation in poetry and in community-building, and anything else you’d like us to know about you. Sharing your resume is optional. 

Send to daniellelaureate@gmail.com with the subject heading NEPC President; please include your telephone number and email address.

The post The New England Poetry Club is looking for a President appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

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This 22nd edition is open for books published in 2021. Submissions will be accepted until January 15, 2022. 

We invite you to review the guidelines and complete the submission form using the link below. You will find some new elements this year:
In the Picture Book/Early Reader category, books are eligible if the writer OR illustrator is a current resident of MassachusettsWriting for adults or children that has been TRANSLATED by a Massachusetts resident is invited for a new category of achievement.We request one physical copy of the book for the first round of judgingMass Center for the Book has a new mailing address. Please update records so as to ensure timely delivery.

Click here to enter

Picture: Some of the winners and honorees of the 21st Massachusetts Book Awards

The post Call for submissions: 22nd Massachusetts Book Awards appeared first on Literary Massachusetts.

The Awards recognize achievement in five categories of literature written by current residents of the Commonwealth and published in 2020.

“The Massachusetts Book Awards is a perennial reminder of the enviable talent of the many writers living and working in the commonwealth,” said Sharon Shaloo, Executive Director of Massachusetts Center for the Book. “During yet another extraordinary year, the MassBooks are both timely and resonant.”

Here are the winners:

Fiction Award

Fiction Winner

The Bear (Bellevue Literary Press) by Andrew Krivak of Somerville. This fable about seeking harmony with nature by Earth’s last human inhabitants – a father and daughter – has lessons of love, loss, family and survival. 

Fiction Honors 

• Inheritors (Doubleday/Penguin Random House) by Asako Serizawa of Brookline 
• The Yellow Bird Sings (Flatiron Books/Macmillan) by Jennifer Rosner of Leverett

Fiction Long List

• The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey (Harper/HarperCollins)
• Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe (Lethe)
• Fabrications by Pamela Painter (Johns Hopkins UP)
• Impersonation by Heidi Pitlor (Algonquin Books)
• Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston (Tor/Macmillan)
• Monogamy by Sue Miller (Harper/HarperCollins)
• Popol Vuh by Ilan Stavans (Restless Books)
• The Resisters by Gish Jen (Knopf/Penguin Random House)
• Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin (Celadon Books/Macmillan)
• Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman (Ecco/HarperCollins)
• Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay (William Morrow/HarperCollins)

Non-Fiction Award

Non-Fiction Winner

How to Make a Slave and Other Essays (Ohio State UP) by Jerald Walker of Hingham. This collection of powerful essays about growing up, parenting and writing as a Black man in America deftly combines humor and anger in the author’s personal and cultural observations.

Non-Fiction Honors 

• Cross of Snow (Knopf/Penguin Random House) by Nicholas A. Basbanes of North Grafton 
• What Can a Body Do? (Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House) by Sara Hendren of Cambridge

Non-Fiction Long List

• Bright Precious Thing by Gail Caldwell (Random House/Penguin Random House)
• Demagogue by Larry Tye (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Finding Sanctuary by Barry Van Dusen (Mass Audubon)
• Full Dissidence by Howard Bryant (Beacon)
• A Furious Sky by Eric Jay Dolin (Liveright/Norton)
• Is Rape a Crime? by Michelle Bowdler (Flatiron Books/Macmillan)
• Money for Nothing by Thomas Levenson (Random House/Penguin Random House)
• The Power Worshippers by Katherine Stewart (Bloomsbury)
• Say I’m Dead by E. Dolores Johnson (Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review)
• The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager (Crown/Penguin Random House)
• Spirit Run by Noé Alvarez (Catapult Books)

Poetry Award 

Poetry Winner

When My Body Was A Clinched Fist (Black Lawrence) by Enzo Silon Surin of Swampscott. A debut collection about coming of age in New York during the 1990’s, it describes the poverty and violence of that time and place with eloquence and sensitivity.

Poetry Honors 

• Now It’s Dark (Wesleyan UP) by Peter Gizzi of Holyoke 
• Women in the Waiting Room (Black Lawrence) by Kirun Kapur of Amesbury

Poetry Long List

• Between Lakes by Jeffrey Harrison (Four Way Books)
• Field Light by Owen Lewis (Dos Madres)
• First Generation by Krikor Der Hohannesian (Dos Madres)
• Geode by Susan Barba (Black Sparrow/Godine)
• Land’s End by Gail Mazur (U of Chicago P)
• Listen by Steven Cramer (MadHat)
• Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful by Matthew Lippman (Four Way Books)
• On Earth Beneath Sky by Chath pierSath (Loom)
• Petition by Joyce Peseroff (Carnegie Mellon UP)
• Teaching While Black by Matthew E. Henry (Main Street Rag)
• Wonder and Wrath by A.M. Juster (Paul Dry Books)

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Award 

Winner

Flamer (Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan) by Mike Curato of Northampton. In this debut graphic novel, the author shares his own heartbreaking and triumphant personal journey with humor and compassion, offering hope for young readers struggling with self-discovery and acceptance.

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Honors

• The Degenerates (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster) by J. Albert Mann of Charlestown 
• Trowbridge Road (Candlewick) by Marcella Pixley of Westford

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Long List

• Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit (Bloomsbury)
• The Colossus of Roads by Christina Uss (Margaret Ferguson Books/Penguin Random House)
• Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)
• Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk (Dutton Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House)
• Illegal by Francisco X. Stork (Scholastic)
• The Maps of Memory by Marjorie Agosin (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)
• Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan)
• Sources Say by Lori Goldstein (Razorbill/Penguin Random House)
• The Witches of Willow Cove by Josh Roberts (Owl Hollow)
• This Book Is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books/Quarto)
• Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles (Wednesday Books/Macmillan)

Picture Book/Early Reader Award

Picture Book/Early Reader Winner

Wherever I Go (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster) by Mary Wagley Copp of Westport. This fictional story of a family in a refugee camp in Ethiopia captures the innocence and joy of childhood while portraying the courage, hardship and dreams of refugees everywhere.

Picture Book/Early Reader Honors

• Seven Golden Rings (Lee & Low Books) by Rajani LaRocca of Concord 
• Zero Local: Next Stop: Kindness (Candlewick) by Ethan Murrow and Vita Murrow of Jamaica Plain

Picture Book/Early Reader Long List

• Be You! by Peter H. Reynolds (Scholastic)
• The Bear in My Family by Maya Tatsukawa (Dial Books/Penguin Random House)
• Cozy by Jan Brett (Putnam’s Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House)
• Geeger the Robot Goes to School by Jarrett Lerner (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)
• Hound Won’t Go by Lisa Rogers (Albert Whitman)
• How Long is Forever? by Kelly Carey (Charlesbridge)
• I am the Storm by Jane Yolen & Heidi E.Y. Stemple (Rise x Penguin Workshop/Penguin Random House)
• A Kid of Their Own by Megan Dowd Lambert (Charlesbridge)
• Lali’s Feather by Farhana Zia (Peachtree)
• River Otter’s Adventure by Linda Stanek (Arbordale)
• You’re Invited to a Moth Ball by Loree Griffin Burns (Charlesbridge)

Judges

The Judges for the 21st Annual Massachusetts Book Awards were:

• Rachel Alexander (Peabody Institute Library, Danvers)
• Cindy Erle (Shrewsbury Montessori School Librarian)
• Karen Kosko (Cambridge Public Schools Librarian, ret.)
• Amy Lewontin (Northeastern University Library)
• Michael J. Moran (Western Mass Library Advocates, Palmer)
• Katie Nelson (Beverly Public Library)
• Josh Newhouse (Bourne High School Librarian/Media Specialist)
• Molly Riportella (Walpole Public Library)
• J. D. Scrimgeour (Salem State University)
• Renee Wheeler (Leominster Public Library)
• Staff and Consultants of Massachusetts Center for the Book

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