Ask me where I'd recommend your going to a writers' conference or to an MFA program and you're likely to always get the same response: Solstice, which has both. I've posted before about the spectacular open-to-the-public reading series that takes place when either is in session. The Solstice MFA program meets in residence twice yearly in January and July; the Solstice Summer Writers Conference meets in June. This past year, I started teaching blogging in the MFA program; this coming summer, I'll teach in the writers conference.
Next up, the January Reading Series, Jan 2-9, at the usual place: Founder's Room of Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 7:30 PM (unless otherwise noted below). Books are for sale as is a cash bar on designated evenings. And there's always free parking on this lovely campus.
Fri, Jan 2: Amy Hoffman & Dzvinia Orlowsky
Amy Hoffman (author of the memoirs Hospital Time and An Army of Ex-Lovers) & Dzvinia Orlowsky (author of four poetry collections, most recently Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones).
Sat, Jan: Meg Kearney & Laura Williams McCaffrey
Solstice Director and poet Meg Kearney (author of An Unkindness of Ravens and The Secret of Me) & Laura Williams McCaffrey (author of Alia Waking and Water Shaper).
Sun, Jan 4: Tanya Whiton & Sandra Scofield
Program Administrator and fiction writer Tanya Whiton & Sandra Scofield (National Book Award Finalist for Beyond Deserving; author of seven novels, a memoir, and a craft book).
Mon, Jan 5 (4:30–5:30 p.m.) Graduating Student Readings
Tues, Jan 6: Ray Gonzalez & An Na
Ray Gonzalez (author more than 15 books, including The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape) & An Na (author of The Fold; Wait For Me; and A Step From Heaven).
Wed, Jan 7: Terrance Hayes & Naomi Shihab Nye
Terrance Hayes (author of Hip Logic, Muscular Music, and Wind in a Box) & Special Guest Naomi Shihab Nye (author and/or editor of more than 20 volumes, including the National Book Award Finalist 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East and the recent Honeybee).
Thurs, Jan 8 (4:45–5:45p.m.) Graduating Student Readings
Thurs, Jan 8: Laban Carrick Hill & Venise Berry
Laban Carrick Hill (author of America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s) & Venise Berry (author of four novels, including the forthcoming Pockets of Sanity).
Fri, Jan 9: Steven Huff & Randall Kenan
Steven Huff (author of two poetry collections and the forthcoming short fictions, A Pig in Paris) & Randall Kenan (author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century and The Fire This Time).
