Word Up Next
Word Up Next is a listing of writers’ events in Salem and nearby towns. Want to add something to the calendar? Email ellorelizabeth@gmail.com.
Tuesday, July 17, 8:40 am – 11:30 pm
Writer’s Open Studio
Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex St, Salem
Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum. The building will be open from 9:45-12:00 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting. Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.
Tuesday July 17, 7:30-9:30 pm
Salem Writer’s Group
Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex St, Salem
All are welcome to bring work-in-progress to share with the group for feedback. The group is facilitated by J.D. Scrimgeour, Professor of English, Salem State University.
Monday, July 18, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
David Herd
Gloucester Writers Center, 126 East main St., Gloucester
Monday, July 20, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Fish Tales: Our Town
Gloucester Writers Center, 126 East main St., Gloucester
Saturday, July 21, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Hawthorne 101 and Photo Hunt
The House of the Seven Gables, 115 Derby St, Salem
Confused by some of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s verbose vocab? The Witch City Writers will give you a download of the language of 1851 by looking at passages from The House of the Seven Gables. Next, grab your camera and set off to search the grounds of the House of the Seven Gables to find the nooks and niches described by Hawthorne in the book. Document your findings for the chance to win a prize.
Because of support from both Mass Humanities and the Witch City Writers, this event is free. Click this Tickets link to reserve a place for your family. For more information, email jarrison@7gables.org, or call 978-744-0991 ext. 152.
Tuesday, July 24, 8:40 am – 11:30 pm
Writer’s Open Studio
Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex St, Salem
Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum. The building will be open from 9:45-12:00 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting. Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.
Monday, July 25, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Erica Funkhouser and Soren Stockman
Gloucester Writers Center, 126 East main St., Gloucester
In addition to Post & Rail, Erica Funkhouser has published four books of poetry with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and one with Alice James Books. [See Books] Included in Sure Shot (HM 1992) are three dramatic monologues in the voices of 19th century American women: Sacagawea, Louisa May Alcott, and Annie Oakley. The Oakley poem was adapted for the stage and produced by the Helicon Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Funkhouser’s work on Sacagawea led to her appearance in Ken Burns’ PBS documentary on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and her essay on Sacagawea appears in Lewis and Clark:Voyage of Discovery (Knopf, 1997). “Singing in Dark Times,” an essay on war poetry, appeared in the Autumn 2005 issue of The Harvard Review, and a story, Snapper, appeared in The Massachusetts Review in 2006. Funkhouser’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The Paris Review, Poetry and other magazines; one of her poems has been sand-blasted into the wall of the Davis Square MBTA Station in Somerville, MA. Educated at Vassar College (BA) and Stanford University (MA), Funkhouser was honored as a Literary Light by The Boston Public Library in 2002 and in 2007 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry. She lives in Essex, MA and teaches at MIT. She is currently completing a novel that is set on the Crow Reservation in Montana at the end of the 19th century.
Soren Stockman’s poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in The Iowa Review, the PEN Poetry Series, Tin House Online, The Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Louisville Review, Prelude, Southword Journal, BOAAT, St. Petersburg Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, The Paris-American, and Narrative, which awarded him First Place in the 2013 Narrative 30 Below Contest. The recipient of fellowships from New York University, the Ucross Foundation, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and the Lacawac Artist’s Residency, he works currently at the NYU Creative Writing Program, and as Curator for Springhouse Journal.
Tuesday, July 27, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Salon: Tea with Alice B. (a theatrical tea party).
Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex St, Salem
As a supplement to our Summer Exhibition, Food for Thought, we invite you to partake in an interactive biographical performance with Agatha Morrell as the author, muse, and minor celebrity: Alice B. Toklas.
Agatha will share stories, anecdotes and recipes from Alice’s life and times while she resided at 27 Rue de Fleurs with her lifelong companion, Gertrude Stein.
The focus of the performance will be the early heady days of the modernist movement in arts and literature in Paris commencing in 1907, continuing through the war years (1914-1918) and ending with introducing the ‘lost generation’ of writers in the 1920’s.
Alice was an accomplished cook and collector of recipes. She also did needlework, loved hats and was a keen gardener.
Light refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, July 31, 8:40 am – 11:30 pm
Writer’s Open Studio
Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex St, Salem
Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum. The building will be open from 9:45-12:00 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting. Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.