The Chilmark Tavern, Pathways’ winter gathering space, will once again be hopping on Tuesday nights. Ron Slate has arranged an impressive array of readers for this year’s Writing and Poetry Tuesdays lineup. As always, there will be time afterward for the audience to speak with the presenters, and then an open mic, making each night a community event. And for those from far and wide, there is always a Zoom option.
Slate speaks about some tweaks for the season: “We’re putting more emphasis on craft. What we are doing in some of our events is not only to have the person read, but to talk about the craft behind their work, and how they improved it to the point where they were able to get it published.” He continues, “I like the idea of putting more emphasis on our Island writers, and for those from off-Island, it should be for the purpose of our own work.”
The season opens on Nov. 14 with Vineyard Gazette editor Bill Eville reading from his new memoir, “Washed Ashore.” On Nov. 21, James Jennings from Oak Bluffs, will read from his novel “Wings of Red,” which Soft Skull Press states is “a clear-eyed, funny, imperfect, and observant work of autofiction that grapples with the absurdity of the New York City educational system as a substitute teacher — that, in the end, reads as an ode to the city itself.”
On Nov. 28, Elizabeth Sylvia will read new poems, and some from her 2021 book, “None but Witches: Poems on Shakespeare’s Women.”
“Her voice is so lively and comedic. She addresses things that are going on in our lives that everyone will recognize,” Slate says.
Dec. 5 is a double-header with Jenny Slate and her husband Ben Shattuck. Jenny will read from an in-progress novel about childbirth and being a mother, and Shattuck will share from his book of short stories, “The History of Sound,” which is coming out in 2024. “I told both of them that I want them to talk about starting from scratch, and the people who helped improve their work,” Slate says.
Slate then has two weeks of writing challenges. The first, for Dec. 12, is a prompt from Island poet Donald Nitchie to write a poem about newly appreciating something/someone you once disliked (or hated). If you are so inspired, you can sign up on the website to read. Once there, you will also find the challenge for Dec. 19, which is to write a crônica, a form of short informal prose that emerged in the 19th century with the rise of Spanish, Portuguese, and French newspapers. Crônicas are about daily happenings and observations, and can include bits of conversation, a memory, an opinion, an anecdote, or a bit of philosophy. (See examples at pathwaysmv.org/two-examples-of-cronicas.)
To ring in the New Year, Nitchie will read some of his poetry on Jan. 2. Then Jan. 9 will be something a little different. “Christoph Irmscher, who teaches at Columbia College Chicago, was hired to go through Max Eastman’s library at his house in Aquinnah this summer. He will read from his essay about the experience, and also show photographs and share what it means to go into somebody else’s library. When you read the marginalia and see notes stuck in the books, you are really intruding into that person’s life,” Slate says.
There is a trio of very accomplished poets, Susan Aizenberg, Betsy Sholl, and Leslie Ullman, who will speak on Jan. 23 about how they write collaboratively, and they will read samples of their work. Feb. 6 will be a reprise of the popular topic of maritime stories. Tony Trigilio will speak about the craft of writing on Feb. 13 and on March 5, Sean Dougherty will talk about his life as an EMT and how that led to his desire to write about it in his book. The season draws to a close on April 2 with Andrea Cohen, who runs the Blacksmith Poetry series in Cambridge, and has been published in the New Yorker.
Asked how he curates his lineup, Slate says, “Variety. We want all the genres to be represented. And if you are going to read over Zoom, you have to read well. You must read slowly, and you need skill. Generally, though, I just look for excellence in the work, and everybody on the list matches my expectations for this accomplishment.”
See pathwaysmv.org/events for more information and the Zoom link, which is posted shortly before each week’s program.