Emily Lackey's stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Glimmer Train, Prairie Schooner, Post Road, The Literary Review, Green Mountains Review, The Rumpus, and Longreads, among others. She lives and writes in Western Massachusetts and teaches writing workshops at Writers in Progress.

Dori Ostermiller is the founding director of Writers in Progress, and the author of a novel, Outside the Ordinary World (MIRA, 2010) which was an Indie Next pick and an MLA must-read, published in several countries. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Bellingham Review, Alligator Juniper, Bellowing Ark, Peregrine, Calliope, Roanoke Review, Chautauqua Literary Journal, The American, The Massachusetts Review and The Rumpus. Dori has worked for over two decades as an editor, and has taught literature and writing at the University of Massachusetts, Westfield State College, Springfield College, Holyoke Community College and Bay Path College. The recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist’s Fellowship, a Tobias Wolf Fiction award, and a Walker Gibson award, Dori lives in Northampton with her husband, two daughters, and a pampered Border Collie/Lab named Sammy.

Mary Warren Foulk has been published in journals including VoiceCatcher, Cathexis Northwest Press, Yes Poetry, Arlington Literary Journal (Gival Press), The Hollins Critic, Ignatian Literary Magazine, Los Angeles Poet Society, El Portal, Packingtown Review, Pine Hills Review, Palette Poetry, Visitant, Silkworm, Slab, and Steam Ticket, and the anthologies (M)othering Anthology (Inanna Publications) and My Loves: A Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems (Ghost City Press). Mary's chapbook, If I Could Write You a Happier Ending, was selected by Dancing Girl Press (2021) as part of their annual series featuring women poets, and her manuscript Erasures of My Coming Out (Letter) won first place in The Poetry Box’s 2021 chapbook contest. An educator, writer, and activist, Mary lives in western Massachusetts with her wife and two children.

Join us for an evening with Paris Writer in Residence Rachel Lyon to discuss Lyon’s captivating new novel, Fruit of the Dead, "an electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, exploring who holds the power in a modern underworld."  The conversation will range across the complexity of mother-daughter relations, love, control, and American's own late capitalist mythos. 

Fruit of the Dead has been called "a spellbinding account of a young woman’s hunger for freedom, the sordid underbelly of big pharma, and the siren call of addiction" (Leslie Jameson).

The conversation will be followed by a drinks reception and book sale.

Lena Valencia's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in BOMB, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Epiphany, the anthology Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2019 Elizabeth George Foundation grant and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is the managing editor and director of educational programming at One Story and the co-host of the reading series Ditmas Lit. Her debut short story collection, Mystery Lights, was published by Tin House Books in August 2024.

Sarah Bridgins is the recipient of the 2018 Sexton Prize from Eyewear Books. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, BuzzFeed, and Bustle among other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she is the co-host of the Ditmas Lit reading series.

Anne-E. Wood’s fiction has appeared in AGNI Online, Tin House, New Letters, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Cream City Review, Fourteen Hills, Fiction Attic, Other Voices, Beloit Fiction Journal, The Licking River Review, and others. She has an MFA in fiction from San Francisco State University, where she received the 2006 Michael Rubin Award. She lives in New York and teaches writing at Rutgers University. Her short story collection TWO IF BY SEA won the 2006 Michael Rubin Chapbook Award.

Essie Chambers is an author and award-winning independent producer. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. Previously, she worked as a television executive, and was a producer on the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. Her debut novel Swift River came out in June 2024.

Ellen Meeropol's fifth novel, The Lost Women of Azalea Court, was published in September 2022 by Red Hen Press. Her previous novels are Her Sister's Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. Ellen's work has been honored by the Sarton Women's Prize, The Women's National Book Association, and the Massachusetts Center for the Book. A Founding Member of the Straw Dog Writers Guild and coordinator of its WriteAngles writers conference held in April 2024, Ellen is married to Robert Meeropol, the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. They have two grown daughters, two grandchildren, and one cat, and live in western Massachusetts.

The primary songwriter for the beloved and lauded folk-rock band The Nields, Nerissa Nields has written 21 CDs worth of songs. Her books include the YA novel Plastic Angel, All Together Singing in the Kitchen: Creative Ways to Make and Listen to Music as a Family, and How to Be an Adult: A Creative Guide to Navigating Your Twenties. Her work has been published in Brevity, American Songwriter, J Journal: New Writing on Justice, Performing Songwriter, The Huffington Post, The Maine Review, and the Boston Globe. She is currently working on The Nields’ twenty-second album, and the third novel in a trilogy about a family band.

Writer, professor, and photographer, Ocean Vuong is the author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, winner of the American Book Award, The Mark Twain Award, and The New England Book Award. The novel debuted for six weeks on The New York Times bestseller and has since sold more than a million copies in 40 languages. A nominee for the National Book Award and a recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, Vuong is also the author of the poetry collections Time is a Mother, a finalist for the Griffin prize, and Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, Vuong's honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. He splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City, where he serves as a Professor in Modern Poetry and Poetics in the MFA Program at NYU.

For more than a decade, Sarah Seltzer has been a feminist journalist and cultural critic. Her lively writing for publications including The New York Times, TIME, Jezebel, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, The Nation, and many other places has shaped the discourse on subjects ranging from Hollywood casting, to abortion rights, to Jane Austen and beyond. A native and lifelong New Yorker, Sarah is currently the Executive Editor at Lilith Magazine. Her debut novel The Singer Sisters is out with MacMillan this month.

Sara Eddy is the author of Ordinary Fissures (released by Kelsay Books in May 2024) and two chapbooks, Tell the Bees: Poem About Bees & Beekeeping  (A3 Press, 2019), and Full Mouth: Poems about Food (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Threepenny Review, Baltimore Review, SWWIM, Raleigh Review, and Spank the Carp. Assistant Director of the Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching, and Learning at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Sara lives in a house built by Emily Dickinson’s cousin, with her youngest adult child, a white dog named Sully, and a black cat named Luna.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/juliet-grames-in-person-tickets-915612701237?aff=oddtdtcreator

EJ Seibert's work has appeared in Blue Earth Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Jellyfish Review, Toe Good Poetry, Naugatuck River Review, The Silkworm, Future Earth Magazine, and The National Teaching & Learning Forum. They have published two poetry chapbooks and served as editor of Naugatuck River Review, Silkworm Journal, Toe Good Poetry, and others.

Jennifer Rosner is the author of the novels ONCE WE WERE HOME and THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS, both finalists for the National Jewish Book Award. She is also author of the memoir IF A TREE FALLS: A FAMILY'S QUEST TO HEAR AND BE HEARD, and the children's book, THE MITTEN STRING, a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable. Jennifer's books have been translated into a dozen languages. Her short writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Times of Israel, The Massachusetts Review, The Forward, and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Western Massachusetts.

Gail Thomas's most recent books of poetry are Trail of Roots, a chapbook which won the A.V. Christie Series (Seven Kitchens Press) and the full-length collection Leaving Paradise (Human Error Publishing). Her other books are Odd Mercy (Headmistress, 2016), Waving Back (Turning Point, 2015), No Simple Wilderness: An Elegy for Swift River Valley (Haleys, 2001) and Finding the Bear (Perugia Press, 1997). Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, Hanging Loose, The North American Review, Cumberland River Review, Disquieting Muses Quarterly, Valparaiso Poetry Review and Mom Egg Review. Originally from Pennsylvania, Thomas raised her daughters in Western Massachusetts, where she has lived for 40 years.

Join a Community Reading / Word Share with PVWW students, instructors, community members, to share recent writing or read a favorite poem, passage, or other text. Reading order and signup will happen in the first ten minutes of the gathering. Featured final reader: Rachel Lyon, author of two novels (Fruit of the Dead and Self-Portrait with Boy). Register and find more information at https://www.pioneervalleywriters.org/service-page/march-community-reading-with-rachel-lyon.

Launch event for Sarah Bridgins’ book of poetry DEATH AND EXES.

Launch event for Blair Hurley’s novel MINOR PROPHETS.

Join the Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop for a PVWW Fall Reading at beautiful Park Hill Orchard, in Florence MA! The lineup includes many of this season's instructors, local authors, and former PVWW students. We'll be on the Willow Stage, and readings will be happening from 1 - 3pm, with an hour afterward for mingling and meeting fellow writers and local community. If you've been craving in-person writerly community, we hope you join us! There really isn't a more magical spot in the valley.

The Willow Stage, where the reading will happen, is close to the bathrooms and to Park Hill Orchard's farm stand, which offers fresh cider, donuts, seasonal fruit, and other treats. After the reading, stroll around the orchard and see the many artworks embedded and nestled in the trees and groves (Park Hill Orchard hosts "Art in the Orchard" every year, a season-long display of outdoor artworks by local and regiional artists.)

RSVP here.