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Meet Emily Smith, our new Editing and Communications Intern

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EmilySmithPictureWe, at the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, are excited to announce a new member of our CWW team.  Emily is our new Editing and Communications intern from Manchester, New Hampshire:

Emily Smith is an Editing and Communications Intern for the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop. Originally from Sarasota, Florida, she currently attends school at the New Hampshire Institute of Art where she studies Creative Writing and Art History. She writes for Opposing Views, Highbrow Magazine and a number of health websites run by Deep Dive Media. Her poetry has been published in Walleyed Press, Essence Poetry, and Ayris.

Megan Tilley’s “Puddle” feat. in Quail Bell Magazine

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The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop is proud to announce that Megan Tilley’s poem, “Puddle,” is featured in the new issue of Quail Bell Magazine.  Megan Tilley, one of the one of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop’s interns has been instrumental in planning the CWW’s upcoming Pre-Thanksgiving Yoga, Writing, and Juice Cleanse Retreat in Quail Bell Magazine (November 22-23). In the interview, the CWW shares tips on creating a creative discipline of writing, yoga, and self-care.  If you are interested in the CWW’s Pre-Thanksgiving Yoga, Writing, and Juice Cleanse Retreat, there is a limited time reduced registration fee. It will only last until Thursday, November 20th at 11 p.m., so apply now! – Jessica Reidy

Puddle
by Megan Tilley

I.
The bodies around me dream of poppies, draped half-lidded across scratchy couches. Science fiction is all that plays on the television, and I watch tin can space crafts drift in and out of stars, fingers of both hands on two different pulses to make sure there’s still life in their veins. I can feel the wet thumping through the pad of my thumb as space flashes by me and I wonder if this is how god feels.

II.
When the azaleas are in bloom we go walking among the fires of their blooms, grass soft underfoot. Golden bourbon sings in our veins, softening in the shadows and the sunlight that shines through lazy-branched oaks. There are notches in the park from the great war, where men hung like the wind chimes on my grandmother’s porch. She drinks sweet tea like it was water from Jordan, says words so gentle they melt in your mouth like rose hips.

III.
Summer closes. The trees bear heavy fruits, skin smooth under grasping palms. He takes a bite, juice running along his jaw, autumn sweet. We dangle our feet over rock edges, where fish dappled orange and yellow gape pink mouths wide. He says how sad it is that they their pond is all they know. I look to the north, at a horizon unsmudged by mountains, at the trees still summer-bleached forming a cup of its own, a puddle shimmering in unending sun where we swim day after day, pretending it’s the ocean.

Rita Banerjee & Diana Norma Szokolyai’s “Mis/Translations” feat. in Quail Bell Magazine

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Who-LambThis month, Quail Bell Magazine will be curating and publishing a series of “Mis/Translations” poems by Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai.  Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai are the founders and directors of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop (CWW). You can read about the CWW’s upcoming Pre-Thanksgiving Yoga, Writing, and Juice Cleanse Retreat in Quail Bell Magazine. In the interview, the CWW shares tips on creating a creative discipline of writing, yoga, and self-care.  Rita also discusses the creative writing invention exercise “Mis/Translations” and how it can help kick-start your writing. Rita’s poem, “Who Lamb” was inspired by a Mis/Translation exercise at the last CWW Verderonne retreat. Norma read her own poem, “hullám/wave” in Hungarian and Rita “Mis/Translated” based entirely on the sound and feel of  words that were foreign to her.  – Jessica Reidy

hullám/wave
by Diana Norma Szokolyai
(to be read out loud simultaneously in Hungarian & English)

Az állando hullám                                The continuous wave
igaznak hangzik                                     rings true
egymással keresztbe futó hullámok              cross sea
elmerülök a hullám sírban                       I am submerged in a watery grave
érzed?                                                   Do you feel it?
Már jön az érzelmi hullám                       The tidal wave is already coming
Az égbe nyúlik                                       It is reaching for the sky
és a felhök, gyáva mint a nyúl                   and the clouds, timid as rabbits
hallom a folyamatos hullámot                   I hear the continuous wave
beszélsz hullámositásokat                                    you are talking channelings
szeizmikus hullámok idógörbéje                time curve,
a hajadba, hullámos papirszalag             in your hair, streamers
hullám, hullám                                       wave, wave,
hullám                                                  wave

Who Lamb*
by Rita Banerjee

Who lamb.
Who’s into who lamb?
Igor likes Congo Music,
Caress my photo, who lamb.
He said Marion bring me a who lamb,
Sheared.

Azaleas on the bank,
Hollow as eggs
On the bank

Best who lamb with chocolate
Seismic who lamb
Igor likes to pay
For it with
Who lamb
Who lamb
Who lamb

* A “Mis/Translation” of Diana Norma Szokolyai’s poem “hullám/wave.”

Check out the on-going series of “Mis/Translations” poems by Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai at Quail Bell Magazine!  If you are interested in the CWW’s Pre-Thanksgiving Yoga, Writing, and Juice Cleanse Retreat (November 22-23), there is a limited time reduced registration fee. It will only last until Thursday November 20th, so apply now!

CWW Intern, Megan Tilley’s writing featured in Fictionvale

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Our inFictionValetern, Megan Tilley, has a short story coming out in thelatest episode of Fictionvale!  She would like to thank their wonderful staff and editors for giving her this opportunity.  Megan Tilley is a recent graduate from Florida State University with a degree in Creative Writing.  She has been published in The Rectangle, The Kudzu Review, and Wiley Writer’s online podcast.  She was senior editor at Live Music Media for three years, and also edited for The Kudzu Review.  Writing and editing has always been her passion, and Megan is excited to be able to expand her experience with editing, among other things, while working with the Cambridge Writer’s Workshop.

Meet Katy Miller, our new Editing and Communications Intern

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Katy PhotoWe, at the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, are excited to announce a new member of our CWW team.  Katy is our new Editing and Communications intern from Córdoba, Spain:

Katy Miller is excited to become the latest Editing and Communications intern for CWW.  She is a recent MA graduate (Contemporary Literature) from the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, where her interests included race and gender theory in post-2000 novels.  Previously interested in journalism before pursuing literary studies, Katy has been published in the Tulsa World and the Huffington Post. She is looking forward to furthering her enthusiasm for the arts with the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop and hopes to expand her editing experience and promote new writing through social media.

Happy Halloween Costume Contest!

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Dear writers, readers, and creative artists!

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop wishes everyone out there a very frightening, eery, and Happy Halloween!  May your #Halloween be filled with ghosts, goblins, creepy monsters, and lots of strange undead things.  In the spirit of Halloween, we’re running a little #contest.  Please tweet us your best Halloween costumes @CamWritersWkshp, and best-dressed will win a free retreat day at our Nov 22/23 Pre-Thanksgiving #Yoga & #CreativeWriting Cleanse in New York!  You have until November 2 to send us your best #Halloween or #DayoftheDead costumes!  Costumes can be from the present year or any year prior.  Just tweet us your pic, your first name, costume pic, and where your pic was taken @CamWritersWkshp by November 2, 2014 and follow our contest on #BestHalloweenCostumes !!

Rita Banerjee teaches Character Development Workshop at the Munich Readery – October 12

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CharacterDevelopment

Character Devleopment & Playing with Persona Workshop
Sunday, October 12, 2014 * 14:00-16:30
The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

Femme fatales, gumshoe detectives, star-crossed lovers, wicked stepmothers, wise fools, empathetic anti-heroes: dynamic and archetypal characters can be key to making a good story or lyrical piece tick and pulling in the reader deeper into your creative work. In this workshop, we will discuss how dynamic and archetypal characters can help structure stories, propel narratives forwards, and how they can provide interesting ethical dilemmas and emotional spectrums to narratives and verse. We will learn about the building blocks of creating strong, unforgettable characters, and learn how playing with persona can help liberate nonfictional stories and lyrical poems. So if you’re currently working on a short story, novel, screenplay, theatre play, lyrical essay, memoir, or poem which has a strong and unique character at is heart, come stop by the Munich Readery on Sunday October 12 for our next creative writing workshop led by Rita Banerjee, Cambridge Writers Workshop’s Creative Director. Workshop fee: €25. To register, send an email to store@themunichreadery.com by October 8.

Rita Banerjee is a writer, and received her PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. She holds an MFA in Poetry and her writing has been published in Poets for Living Waters, The New Renaissance, The Fiction Project, Jaggery, The Crab Creek Review, The Dudley Review, Objet d’Art, Vox Populi, Dr. Hurley’s Snake-Oil Cure, and Chrysanthemum among other journals. Her first collection of poems,Cracklers at Night, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2010 and received First Honorable Mention for Best Poetry Book at the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival. Her novella, A Night with Kali, was digitized by the Brooklyn Art-house Co-op in 2011. She is a co-director of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, and her writing has been recently featured on HER KIND by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and on KBOO Radio’s APA Compass in Portland, Oregon.

August 20 – Bon Voyage, Mes Amis!

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August 20 marked the very last day of the 2014 Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne.  The day started early for me at 5:30 am with me bidding adieu to our wonderful and talented intern, Meghan Tilley, as she when to catch her flight at Charles de Gaulle Airport.  By 8 am, all of our terrific writers, artists, and yoga-philes sat down at the great table in the Château de Verderonne hunting lodge to have one last breakfast together.  Our writers would be returning home to the US, the Philippines, the UK, and Germany after this all-too-short and productive retreat.  Breakfast was bittersweet as we all said our fond farewells, exchanged emails, and promised to keep in touch with our writing partners and workshop groups.  We chose November 20 as our first post-retreat rendez-vous date when all of our 2014 retreat participants would meet via Skype to exchange their writing and update us on the projects we had begun at the Château de Verderonne.  Participants began to make their way to the train station and airport around 11 am.  Some writers would be staying a few days extra in Paris while others would do a short tour of Europe before they returned home.

After 11 am, only a few of the participants and instructors remained at the Château de Verderonne.  We thanked Gina & Jessica for their incredibility generosity and fierceness of spirit, which brought a of light and great humor to the retreat.  We walked around the blooming flower gardens and lush green estates of the château one more time together, remembered our meetings on the trampoline, the incredible meals we had made together, and all the writing that was produced on the trip.  We made a pact to not only keep in touch, but to keep each other posted on our creative projects, and to most of all, keep on writing.  The creative energy at the end of the trip was tangible.  And after spending the afternoon working on our own writing and art, Norma, Elissa, and I joined Monsieur and Madame Marié de l’Isle for one last dinner at the château.  Over apéritifs and a wonderful home-cooked meal, we spoke of our favorite French authors and thinkers, the luminaries who had graced the Château de Verderonne, and the exciting plans for the château’s future.

Returning to our rooms late in the evening when the fog and mist had settled over the château’s gardens, we enjoyed one last midnight discussion together, and then rested for the next day we would be heading off to Paris!  In Paris, we met up with Jessica and Antonia Alexandra Klimenko, a celebrated member of SpokenWord Paris and one of the most renowned English-language poets currently living in Paris.  Together, we enjoyed a to-die-for Morrocan meal complete with mouth-watering tajines, delicious couscous, and hot mint tea at La Baracka in Paris.  A black cat with green eyes watched us overhead as we enjoyed our dinner together.  Then we visited L’altelier Charonne which was featuring Jazz Manouche and Tzigane music.  Two of the musicians were of Roma descent and the third was Italian, and together they blended French classical music styles, bossa nova, and traditional Gypsy music themes together beautifully.  After the concert, Jess and Norma had a chance to chat with the Roma musicians as well.

After the amazing concert, we noticed an unmarked building with gorgeous electric lights, dark curtains, and an assortment of odd mid-century modern furniture inside.  The place was actually a tavern called Bar Sans Nom (A Bar With No Name), and as the owner later described it to us, the place purposefully lacked a marquee sign and any exterior indication that it was a bar at all.  In this way, the tavern could be magical.  Hard to spot the first time, and even harder to find the second.  The dark velvet walls seemed to invite.  And sitting there in the middle of old television sets, typewriters, pianofortes, and hard-metal fans, it was easy to wonder if this place was really real, or rather, if it was something we had imagined to entertain one last evening together.

–  Rita Banerjee, Cambridge Writers’ Workshop’s Creative Director