MoonLit Reading & Literary / Art Walk in the Orchard, with Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop!

Join us for a night of poetry, stories, and literary magic under the full moon, featuring a lineup of local writers! PVWW Founder / Director Joy Baglio will host this nighttime literary/art walk at Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton MA, where we will journey together - with flashlights, lanterns, and live musical interludes - through the orchard’s Art in the Orchard exhibit, which showcases an eclectic array of art installations positioned at intervals  throughout the fields. We’ll stop at select sculptures, where - illuminated by flashlights and moonlight - our featured local authors will read from original work. 

Please note the NEW DATE for this event is Sunday October 1 (7-9pm)! Unfortunately we had to reschedule due to an almost definite forecast of rain this Friday (as well as on our former rain date of Saturday). But the good news is that Sunday 10/1 looks blissfully nice and WARM, and the event will happen then as planned! We look forward to seeing you at Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton then!

Featured Writers: 
Joy Baglio • Chris Boucher • Sarah Jane Cody •  Alejandro Cuellar • Carolyn Cushing • Melenie Freedom Flynn • Tzynya Pinchback • Rachel Teferet • Carolyn Zaikowski.

Live Music:
Daring Coyotes (David Clark Carroll)

Preparation:

- Attendees should wear walking shoes and be prepared to stand (and walk through farm fields) for the full 2-hour journey through the orchard. Because the ground may be wet in some places, rain boots, hiking boots, or other waterproof shoes are recommended.

- Bring flashlights, LED lanterns, glow sticks, or other (non-flame) lights to carry with you on the walk! We will have some LED lanterns and flashlights on hand to borrow, but we may not have enough, so bring them if you have them!

- You may want to carry a portable/folding chair with you, if you'd like to sit throughout the walk. We will be pausing for 5-minute readings at various sculptures throughout the orchard, and there will be no seating (except the grass) at these points.

Accessibility: 

This event, by its very nature, involves standing/walking, in the dark, through uneven fields for roughly 2 hours. It is not advised that anyone with difficulty walking and/or balance attempt this walk. We will be pausing for 5-minute readings at various sculptures throughout the orchard, and there will be no seating (except the grass) at these points. There will be VERY limited transportation around the orchard (in a cart) for no more than a handful of folks who cannot otherwise walk that distance, and if you'd like to "reserve" one of these spots for someone, please email joy@pioneervalleywriters.org. 

Date: Sunday, October 1 (7 - 9pm)*
*This is the new date of the event, rescheduled due to rain forecast.

We will be sending reminders and more details to those who RSVP!

FEATURED WRITERS

CAROLYN ZAIKOWSKI, in human earthling terms, is a fiction writer, essayist, poet, writing teacher, death doula, and vegan feminist mutineer with an unglued anarchabody who accidentally came to this planet via the wrong spacetime wormhole while trying to figure out the nature of spacetime wormholes, and is now walking around with a permanent furrowed brow, staring at flowers, utterly awe-filled and confounded and horrified and enchanted by the spectacle.

TZYNYA PINCHBACK is a disabled mermaid writing the Black woman body in nature, in illness, and in joy as a deliberate act. She is not magic, but maybe a little. Her chapbook, “How to make pink confetti”, was selected for the Dancing Girl Press reading series for women poets in 2012, and her poems appear in various print and online publications. Tzynya lives with a queer narwhal and a turtle inside a teacup on a pond.

CHRISTOPHER BOUCHER is the author of the novels How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, Golden Delicious and Big Giant Floating Head (a 2019 Massachusetts Book Award Finalist). He’s also an Associate Professor of the Practice of English at Boston College and the managing editor of Post Road Magazine.

SARAH JANE CODY is a literary writer currently working on a novel and a memoir. Her stories and essays have appeared in journals such as in The Common, Gulf Coast,  and Joyland, among others. Her novel-in-progress,The Woman Without Her Skin, utilizes fairytale and speculative elements to convey the experiences of chronic illness and neurodivergence.

RACHEL ROSE TEFERET (Xe/They/She) is a creative writing MFA candidate at Lesley University and is currently working on multiple dark fantasy novels for young people. Xer work has been published by Subprimal Poetry Art, Zoetic Press’ NonBinary Review, Page & Spine, Slink Chunk Press, Manawaker Podcast, and won first place in the September 2021 Storytwigs micro fiction contest. Xe has +6,000 followers on her blog lettersandfeathers.wordpress.com, and posts book reviews and cute dog pictures on Insta @rachelteferet.

CAROLYN A. CUSHING is a lyric poet inspired by nature and currently focused on the places where life and death meet. She seeks out ways to collaborate with fellow writers and artists as well as share poetry in dynamic formats, resulting in projects such as the Poetry Oracle (2020) and Chapbook in the Street (2022). Carolyn is a recipient of grants from the Easthampton Cultural Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the 2023-2025 Poet Laureate of Easthampton, Massachusetts in the United States. 

ALEJANDRO CUELLAR was born in San Salvador, El Salvador under a waxing crescent moon in Capricorn and the 8th house and emigrated to the United States at age seven, again under a waxing crescent moon, this time in Gemini and the 11th house. Weirdly, his rising sign is also Gemini. He writes about biculturalism and bilingualism, and other isms as well. When not at home, he misses his dog Oliver and cat Piper immensely. 

Born on a new Moon in Cancer many moons ago, MELENIE FREEDOM FLYNN’s memoir-in-progress is supported by fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation and Massachusetts Cultural Council. She’s the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, Djerassi Artist-in-Residence Fellowship, and Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency. A graduate of the MFA Acting Program at California Institute of the Arts, Melenie has performed in theatres locally and across the country. Moonlight on snow is one of her favorite things.

JOY BAGLIO is the Founder / Director of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, a proud Leo (Scorpio Rising) and also your Spirit Guide during The MoonLit Walk! Her short stories have appeared widely, in journals such as The Missouri Review, American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, Tin House, The Iowa Review, Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere. Recent honors include fellowships, residencies, and grants from Yaddo, The Elizabeth George Foundation, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Bread Loaf Writers’ and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, and The Kerouac Project, among others. Joy holds an MFA from The New School and is a contributing editor at the literary magazine West Branch. When not writing and hosting events, she can be found playing bagpipes, watching Instagram bird videos, and looking for magical doorways to other realms. Find her online at www.JoyBaglio.com.

LIVE MUSIC

DARING COYOTES was born under the high deserts winter moon in Joshua Tree as David Clark Carroll coaxed notes out of his mandolin to the howls of coyotes. A hard driving progressive bluegrass band frequently performing as a trio and occasionally as a quartet, 2019 saw Daring Coyotes hit stages all over Northern California culminating in a short tour along the Humboldt coast. In 2021 David moved home to Massachusetts to be closer to family, and in November of 2021 released the album Odyssey of the Far West. Over the next two years Daring Coyotes has graced stages from Berkshire Busk's Railroad St stage, Timberyard Brewing, Black Birch Vineyard, Bright Ideas Brewing, Northampton’s Summer on Strong music series and many more. He performs both solo and with various configurations of his string band."  I'm @daringcoyotes just about everywhere and daringcoyotes.com has all my links.  Much appreciated, glad we had a chance to chat last night even if I was incredibly distracted by the mind blowing music. 

FEATURED SCULPTURES / ARTISTS
Part of the 2023 Art in the Orchard Exhibit, at Park Hill Orchard, Easthampton MA

These are some of the sculptures we will stop at for readings on our literary walk through the orchard, although this lineup is subject to change due potential changes in readers' schedules. 

"Praying Mantis Tetherball Game" (Kimberly MacDonald)

"Ruff" (Michael Tillyer)

"Thaw" (Natalie Tyler)

"A New England Diana" (Brian McQuillan)

"After the Fall" (Christopher Woodman & David Rothstein)

"Evolving Poles" (Anne Alexander)

"Miss Porters the Rolling Giraffe" (Elizabeth Denny) - pending availability of reader

"Two Scalenes and a Sphere" (Robert Osborne)