Writing is a solitary act, but something magical happens when an author shares it aloud with others. That’s exactly what has been occurring for 13 years in Writers Read, Niki Patton’s free, public, drop-in group, which welcomes writers of all forms of prose.
Patton moved to live full-time on the Island in 1995. She began as a writer for a commercial production company in New York City, which she co-owned with Charles Close, a well-known former Vineyard summer resident. Since then, she has added a book, articles for local and regional magazines and newspapers, essays, songs, performance pieces, and monologues to her writing portfolio.
She says, “The year I moved here, I took Nancy Aronie’s ‘Writing from the Heart’ course at her Chilmark Writing Workshop. Nancy does a really good job, and I have taken it many times. It is where I started to find my own internal writing voice after writing in other genres. I recommend it to all those who want to connect to that voice.”
Patton launched Writers Read under the sponsorship of the West Tisbury library. Participants gather on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 pm, either via Zoom or, quarterly, in person in the library’s community room, where I attended on March 9.
The group, which is a drop-in, had about 12 or so people this time, including both readers and those who had just come to listen. Patton reviewed the guidelines for giving feedback after a writer reads for up to 10 minutes: “Make sure to keep it on the ‘I,’ because for every writer, there are multiple readers. You do not tell the writer what to do. You can share your opinion, perhaps; ‘I’d like to hear some more description in this piece.’”
I decided to take the plunge and read the first two chapters of my upcoming memoir, “In My Mother’s House, There Will Always Be Dancing.” Afterward, I found the responses helpful and affirming — both hearing that the story resonated with people and also fielding questions from the audience about where the narrative was going.
Four other readers shared their work, making for a lively evening. David Lott began attending last year: “The Island has a very active and vibrant writing community, and I wanted to be a part of it.” Lott, who had been a tennis journalist with CBS and the New York Times, began taking online courses through the Writer’s Studio in New York in 2023: “I hadn’t done much personal writing. Memoir seemed like a good way to talk about a subject you know, and to work on your storytelling skills.” That evening, he read the opening pages of his memoir, which recounts his adventures at 22 when he built a house on West Chop: “I was surrounded by other young kids, all building houses. I just started, and I had no experience at all. Each person I met led me to another Island character.”
Lott says, “It’s a great exercise to read your own piece aloud. You might have questions about how it might be received. To have a live audience react to places in your narrative where you think it’s fun or entertaining, and you get confirmation, that’s pretty cool.”
Karen Miller has been part of the group for two years. She read a segment of a flash fiction piece featuring Trace, the protagonist of a novel Miller is also working on. The work was a response to a prompt that Patton and Ron Slate, who runs the Poetry and Prose Tuesdays program at Pathways, provided about how you have changed in your life, and whether it is truly possible to do so.
Talking about what keeps her coming back, Miller says, “The feedback is supportive. Also, it helps me to edit and to clean it up before I share it [such as at Pathways]. I like hearing other writers, and learning how my work fits in that. It’s an intimate group. It’s a wonderful, safe, and interesting way for people to hear and respond to your work.”
Jess Shapiro has been with Writers Read for about four or five years: “I started once I got closer to publishing my book, ‘The Theory of the Sofa.’ I was having trouble finishing things off. I began bringing in work I had been having trouble with, and they gave me very good advice. I realized I needed some unbiased opinions on some of the things I thought were wonderful.”
Shapiro read a new essay he had been working on, “The Animal Kingdom Chart.” Building on the idea of a chart of the animal kingdom, with humans at the top, Shapiro’s main point was that teaching is a special ability that sets us apart from other creatures. He says what keeps him returning each month is that “what is read is always such high quality, it’s always entertaining.”
Julia Kidd began participating in Writers Read around 2015. She shared an excerpt from a story titled “Back to Bellingham,” about driving with her 90-year-old mother from Palm Springs to return to her hometown in Washington State. The story touches on aspects of their relationship, chosen careers, behaviors around food and appearance, and a lifetime of nurturing.
Kidd says, “A big part of my work is sharing it with others. Reading aloud has always been something I’ve done. It lets me hear how the work sounds, and I can edit from there. Reading aloud is a very different experience from just reading on the page. You can hear whether something drags on or ask if a section makes sense. And you get audience response. Do people laugh, or is there silence?”
Kidd greatly enjoys that the group is a safe space, and that all levels of prose writers are welcome. “It’s drop-in, so that makes it easy, too. The other thing is that it’s really a way to get to know people.”
And for Patton, why she continues to run Writers Read is easy: “I haven’t stopped enjoying it for 13 years.”
Writers Read occurs year-round at the West Tisbury library on the second Monday of the month at 7 pm (in person quarterly, and on Zoom the other months). For more information, contact Niki Patton at gaia1muse@gmail.com, or the West Tisbury library at 508-693-3366.