Tag Archives: poetry

New Release: Life Cycle by Dena Rash Guzman

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dena-rash-guzmanWe’re proud to announce a new poetry collection, Life Cycle (Dog Chain Press, 2014), by author Dena Rash Guzman, a Portland poet, who read with us at our A Night at the Victrola Reading in Seattle!  Dena Rash Guzman is an American author, poet, editor, born in Las Vegas, Nevada 3/8/72. Founding Editor literary journal Unshod Quills. Poetry Editor, The Nervous Breakdown. Founder of Old Heavy Press; first print title for release in 2013, a chapbook about David Bowie by Seattle author Jenny Hayes. Poetry Editor and Managing Director at HAL Publishing, Shanghai’s independent English language literary journal and small press. Former co-producer for Unchaste Readers, Portland’s only live reading series focusing solely on the work of female writers.

Dena is not only a great poet, a bold feminist and a great editor, but she’s also a greatly  genuine and good-hearted woman.  Her work is comical, sensual, hearty and nourishing (and that’s not just because there’s a poem about Warhol’s Campbell Soup). – Leah Umansky

 

 

New Release: The Situation & What Crosses It by Amy Schrader

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AmySchraderAmy Schrader, a wonderful poet and good friend of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, has just released her first collection of poems, The Situation and What Crosses It, through MoonPath Press.  Check out this wonderful collection of sonnets!  Amy Schrader holds a B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology and English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.A. in English Literature from Boston University. She earned her M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Washington. She was a semifinalist for the 2006 and 2007 “Discovery”/The Nation poetry contests, and a recipient of a 2008 GAP grant from Artist Trust.  

These sonnets are like spells, like mirrors, as in funhouse—, smoke &—, magic—, and even ceiling— (oh, the delicious, dirty double entendres!). They are sly forms within forms, these sonnets in the Celtic Cross, stories in poems, the made-up in the real, the work of life in a game. In these playful, lovely pieces, Schrader shows us language trying to see and hear itself, admire and rip its own skins. Reading these poems is like reading all the secrets wedged in all the bottles floating in all the oceans, but be careful—they’re stuffed with bits of heartbreak and danger. —Arlene Ki

AWP 2014 – That’s A Wrap

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AWP14-2The AWP 2014 Conference in Seattle was full of meetings with wonderful writers and friends, great hijinks, and even better literary readings.  During the conference, the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Bookfair Table was featured in the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts’ Scavenger Hunt!  At the CWW, we met some amazing new writers, and got a chance to tell people about our Call for Submissions for CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos & Sourcebook for Creative Writing, our 2014 Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne, and our upcoming workshops & literary internships!  A very special thanks to Elizabeth Devlin, Jessica Reidy, Pattabi Seshadri, Jessica Day, Alice Marshall,  Rita Banerjee, and Diana Norma Szkolyai for helping man the CWW table!!  On Friday February 28, Diana Norma Szokolyai and Rita Banerjee had featured author signings at the AWP 2014 Bookfair, and later that evening, the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop celebrated “A Night at the Victrola!” at the original Victrola Coffee & Art café in Seattle!

CWW-VictrolaA Night at the Victrola was featured as a top AWP 2014 reading in Vanguard Seattle and included the wonderful fiction, poetry, and nonfiction of Seattle, Portland, and East Coast writers such as Peter Mountford, Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Pattabi Seshadri, Nancy Jooyoun Kim, Kevin Skiena, Jessica Day, Anca Szilágyi, Talia Shalev, Carrie Kahler, Dena Rash Guzman, Leah Umansky, Susan Parr, & Johnny Horton.  It was great to see so many UW MFA alumni and affiliates of the CWW at the reading!  Congratulations to Peter Mountford and Anca Szilágyi for having their stories, “Life in the Group Room” and “Sugar” published in the New York Times Magazine and Gastronomica, respectively!  Thanks so much for sharing your work with us before it was published!  Check out our AWP 2014 Equisite Corpse & reading highlights at our Night at the Victrola Gallery.  Also, be sure to check out all the AWP & CWW action in Anca Szilágyi’s wonderful review, “The Best AWP Ever.”

PW-Retreats2014Thanks also to all the wonderful literary organizations and blogs which reviewed the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop at AWP 2014 and featured our readings, authors, and events!  Thanks especially to Yoga Trail, BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog, The Furnace, Poets & Writers Magazine, Newpages.com, Harvard Magazine, Duotrope, Dena Rash Guzman, Leah Umansky, Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szkolyai, Anca Szilágyi, Jessica Reidy, Raquel Henry, The Writers’ Loft at MTSU, my rite of passage, Sarah Kuntz Jones, Amy King, and Allison Joseph for featuring our events and supporting the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop!  You guys rock!

Until next time,
Cambridge Writers’ Workshop

Cambridge Writers’ Workshop 2014 Retreat Featured in Poets & Writers Magazine

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PW-Retreats2014Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Elissa Lewis, and Jessica Reidy are featured in the March/April 2014 Writers Retreats Issue of Poets & Writers Magazine for their instruction in the 2014 Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne.  In this special issue of Poets & Writers, the “Conferences & Residencies” section features the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop 2014 Summer Retreat in France.  The 2014 Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat will be held from August 7 to August 20 at the Château de Verderonne in Picardy, France, located approximately 50 miles north of Paris. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft seminars, art classes, time to write, and daily yoga and meditation classes. Optional excursions to Paris and Chantilly are also available to participants. The faculty includes poets Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai, fiction writer Jessica Reidy, and yoga and arts instructor Elissa Lewis. – P&W

2014 AWP Featured Book Signing – Feb 28 (10-11:30am) – Diana Norma Szokolyai

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normaDiana Norma Szokolyai will be a featured author at the 2014 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Seattle.  She will be signing her book, Parallel Sparrows (Finishing Line Press) on Friday February 28 from 10:00-11:30am at the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop table (BB29) in the AWP Bookfair.  Diana Norma Szokolyai’s writing has also been published in Lyre Lyre, the front page of The Boston Globe, Dr. Hurley’s Snake Oil Cure, Teachers as Writers, Polarity, Up the Staircase, Belltower & the Beach, Human Rights News, and Area Zinc Art Magazine, among others. 

AWP 2014 Featured Book Signing – Feb 28 (10-11:30am) – Rita Banerjee

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ritaRita Banerjee will be a featured author at the 2014 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Seattle.  She will be signing her book, Cracklers at Night (Finishing Line Press) on Friday February 28 from 10:00-11:30am at the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop table (BB29) in the AWP Bookfair.  Rita Banerjee’s writing has been published in Poets for Living Waters, The New Renaissance, The Fiction Project, Jaggery: A DesiLit Arts and Literature Journal, Catamaran, The Crab Creek Review, Amethyst Arsenic, 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 received First Honorable Mention for Best Poetry Book of 2011-2012 at the Los Angeles Book Festival.

CWW 2014 Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne, France!

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CWW-Verderonne2014The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Annual Yoga & Writing Retreat will be held from August 7 -20, 2014 at the Château de Verderonne in Picardy, France, located approximately 50 miles north of Paris. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft of writing seminars, art classes, free time to write, and daily yoga and meditation classes.  Writers of all genres and levels are welcome.  Yoga practitioners of all levels are also welcomed (we have experience adapting the yoga sequences to meet the level of beginner-advanced participants).  Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring their own long-term projects to work on.  Whether writers are beginners or advanced, CWW workshops have a history of success in generating new writing.

Optional excursions to Paris and Chantilly are also available to participants.  The faculty includes Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Elissa Lewis, and Jessica Reidy. The cost of the conference is $3,200, which includes lodging, meals, writing workshops, yoga classes and transportation to and from the airport.

Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Version 3.0 feat. Vogon Poetry

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Welcome poets, writers, dreamers, artists, travelers, & word-weavers to the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop website Version 3.0.  We hope this new web platform will inspire you to create, encounter new writers & treats, and most of all write many, many wonderful things!  So sit back, relax, and join us for the ride.  We promise we’ll have some of the best literary events found this side of the Milky Way & the best Vogon poetry of this galaxy and the next!  Just remember to bring your blanket & don’t panic!

CWW Summer 2013 Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne

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thumb_verderonneCome join us for our second annual writing retreat in France. This year, we will stay at the Château de Verderonne (45 min from Paris), in a lovely and spacious 17th century manor house.  A French chef will prepare all of our meals on site, and we will dine together in the large kitchen or on the terrace. Enjoy walks through the château at your leisure, take refuge writing in the drawing rooms, or relax in the sprawling gardens.  The ancient discipline of yoga directly benefits the creative process. Yoga heals and strengthens posture and chronic tensions common to writers, making writing time more productive. Calm the nervous system through meditation and breathing exercises.  Writers & Co-Directors of Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Diana Norma Szokolyai and Rita Banerjee will be your guides and help you create the space you need to nurture your writing projects. Certified yoga instructor/visual artist Elissa Lewis will guide participants in daily yoga and meditation exercises.

Boston Conservatory Performance

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thumb_conservatoryBoston Conservatory Performance
Featuring Diana Norma Szokolyai, Rita Banerjee, & Dennis Shafer

Judson Evans and the Garden hosts the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop & Chagall Performance Arts Collaborative for an evening of poetry reading with interdisciplinary performance of poetry, music, and movement.  Poetry performance intertwined with the live composing art of Soundpainting will feature poets Diana Norma Szokolyai and Rita Banerjee (CWW directors), and Soundpainter Dennis Shafer as well as Boston Conservatory students.