WELCOME TO THE HVWC CALENDAR: home of all our upcoming readings, events and workshops. You can view by list or calendar (see right menu to choose). Click the colored tabs below to show only specific options. Our workshops run as multi-session series or one-day “intensives.” Note, we list the multi-session courses on the first day they meet only. The full dates of the session are described in the course descriptions. You would need to scroll back to the start date if you needed to enroll for something already underway. But do let us know if you want to join something in midstream since we need the blessing of the instructor. Questions? Email us.
Workshops – This category encompasses all one-day and multi-week classes, whether in person or via Zoom.
Readings – Our readings are in many different genres and take place in person, on Zoom, or both!
HVWC Recurring Events – This category encompasses such regular favorites as Open Mic, Open Write, and Submission Sunday.
Special Events – These other creative experiences are sure to interest our creative community!
Don't miss this rare chance to work with brilliant West Coast poet & professor, Kim Addonizio. Bring copies of a poem you’re trying to wrestle into shape! We’ll discuss it with an eye elements of craft like imagery, metaphor, line, surprise—as well as to finding places it sings and comes alive, and especially to finding […]
A writer must be a reader first and last. Your poetic proficiency, your potential goodness or greatness, depends on your depth as a reader. I will take us on a journey through the poetry of W. S. Merwin, from early to middle to late, focusing on three things: the stages of his development; the most […]
Kim Addonizio is the author of eight poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. Her poetry collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. She also has two word/music CDS: Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing (with Susan […]
Are you interested in understanding the scope, needs and skills to craft a strong short screenplay? Short films are a great way to showcase your voice, talent and storytelling skill, but they have specific needs to be successful. The focus of this class will be the fundamentals of character, dramatic structure and the special needs […]
Midrash writing is a modern adaptation of an ancient rabbinic form–retelling some of the compelling stories in the Bible, from the point of view of the characters. In workshop, we start by re-imagining Adam and Eve, then go on to more complicated tales, discovering what they can mean for us today. Participants work at speed—some […]
No, writing poetry is not necessarily a therapeutic process. But in anxious times, we can turn to creativity as a means of engaging dynamically with complex feelings and experiences. In this class, we will explore methods of writing about anxiety––integrating the terrible, speculative powers of “what if” and “what now” into our writing practice. The […]
Submission Sundays is a free service to members of HVWC. Space is limited so please reserve your spot. This group will meet online via Zoom. The host will email the Zoom link in the day leading up to the event. Please email [email protected] with any questions. One Sunday a month, 12:30-2:30 pm. Join host M.A. Scott for two […]
Storyteller David Neilsen will perform a 25-minute retelling of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In costume, Neilsen uses Irving's original language to set the scene and take the audience on a ride along with Ichabod Crane on that fateful night. This will be a fun, family event, featuring additional Halloween treats and activities […]
Please join us for our warm and welcoming Open Write Nights, recurring monthly on the Second Saturday of each month. This group will take place in HYBRID FORM, meaning that there will participants in person at HVWC as well as joining on the big screen via Zoom. Your hosts Cassie Cartaginese and Cassie Valencia will facilitate an […]
We are excited to hold Open Mic Night in hybrid form, both in-person at HVWC and virtually! Physical and virtual doors open at 7:20 pm for event starting at 7:30 pm. Due to popular demand to participate, we’ve had to limit the amount of readers to 20. All performers, whether “in person” or on Zoom, […]
In what ways is "The Little Mermaid", "The Shadow", or "The Fisherman and His Soul" also about one choosing one’s own fate regardless of brutal consequence? How can we see the metaphor of Snow White and her sleep as a way of thinking about the hard bumps in the road we need to encounter before […]
Storyteller David Neilsen will perform a 25-minute retelling of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In costume, Neilsen uses Irving's original language to set the scene and take the audience on a ride along with Ichabod Crane on that fateful night. This will be a fun, family event, featuring additional Halloween treats and activities […]
Theories of comedy go back to antiquity in many cultures, and we’ll familiarize ourselves with some of those. Then we’ll reverse-engineer some genuinely funny poems to learn what we can about how they work, how they achieve their effects, what kinds of materials, tones, and non-funny elements they can include, how what people find funny […]
Alan Felsenthal's second collection, Hereafter was listed as one of the most anticipated books of 2024 in Publisher's Weekly. He is also the author of Lowly (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017). His writing has appeared in BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine. He is the co-editor of A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind: […]
I like to think of a first draft as the block of marble we've dragged up from the quarry into our studio. The first draft might be roughly the size and shape of our story but without revision, we cannot bring out the unique qualities that will cause a story to leap off the page […]
Please note that this workshop is now sold out! Thanks for all the interest. If you want to be put on the waiting list for this workshop, or have questions about other workshop options, please email [email protected]. During the first hour of this four-hour workshop we’ll read and explore published poems that will give you […]
This interactive class, led by a longtime independent book editor and writer in the publishing world, helps you get the navigational tools you need to chart a path from being a writer who publishes individual stories, poems, articles, and essays to becoming the author of a published book. We’ll collaboratively explore the vast changes occurring […]
An evening of interactive magic at the Hudson Valley Writers Center. Presented by Noah Levine. Noah Levine (Magic After Hours, Speakeasy Magick, The Magic Castle) presents a night of conjuring at HVWC (the old Philipse Manor Station). In this intimate, atmospheric space, stories of coincidence will be interwoven with expert sleight-of-hand and psychological misdirection as […]
Poets have always called out to whatever they consider holy: God, the Goddess, a higher power, nature, the unfathomable. We reach out with ‘why’ questions, such as ‘Why is this happening?’ or ‘how’ questions, such as ‘How can I keep a good heart in this world?’ We reach out with pleas and supplications, with our […]
There is an amazing moment in Book 18 of the Iliad where Homer stops talking about war and begins, in great detail and great emotional depth, to describe the shield of Achilles. Many point to that moment as the first example of ekphrasis—the practice of writing poetry about art. Few poetic endeavors have proven more […]
Please join the Slapering Hol Press coeditors, Liz Marlow & Luisa Caycedo- Kimura, as they welcome four poets who have just published their first full-length collections. This reading will tale place on Zoom and is free and open to the public. As always, donations towards the honoraria for the Slapering Hol Press Reading Series is […]
In this two hour discussion class, we will closely read poems through the lens of thermostatic control -- we'll especially look at the actual language of the poem, pretty much word by word, to see how the writer manages to fluctuate temperature or maintain it, and to what effect. A poem might be hot, indicating […]
With so many things to worry over, we need to keep finding joy and celebrating gratitude. This feel–good workshop will help you write in praise of small beauties, large events or anything in between. Learn how to move beyond the obvious *like* and *love* into the deeper and more magnificent *why*. We will map at […]
The first formal poem to really sink its teeth into me was “One Art,” by Elizabeth Bishop. Something about using the fussiness of the villanelle to contain and express the heartache of a breakup, particularly of a lesbian relationship in the closeted 1970’s, spoke to me of Bishop’s particular combination of woundedness and genius. In […]