On November 7, 2023, the Notebooks Collective hosted Michael Kleber-Diggs & Danusha Laméris. Each read from their own poetry collections and discussed their friendship, poetry craft, what it means to revise and more.
We were so honored to host Portland, OR writers Jennifer Perrine and Jen Shin in October. After their reading, they delved into healing modalities, grief, writing and the body, and more. Please enjoy the event!
From the Introduction:
This is new for us at The Notebooks Collective. We’ve never hosted an artist before. We’re doing so tonight because Shu and Trish have collaborated on an exhibit that’s currently on display at the Hamilton Grange Library in New York City. Titled In a Garden of Small Dreams, Art + Poetry in Conversation, the exhibit is a study in collaboration, concision, and compromise in the best possible way.
It’s also about the blossoming of a friendship that started with a shared love of, well, gardens. And art. And words and the worlds we can enter when we speak to each other through art, through poetry, through the beauty and shine of life, the fear and underbelly of the darkness we all sometimes feel.
As individual creatives, Trish and Shu are accomplished, focused, fiercely loyal to their respective crafts. As collaborators, they learned to speak yet another language, one in which they learned to listen to and see each other not just as friends, but as artists with something to say. Together, they said those things in a way they may not have have, had they not accepted an invitation from Isaac Sorell at Hamilton Grange Library to display their work as an ekphrastic exhibit.
And this is why they’re here tonight: to talk about the genesis of this collaboration, how they worked together, what they learned from one another and how their friendship changed–or didn’t–through the process.
We were so honored to host Mark Turcotte and Suzanne Frank, two poets who have known each other over 40 years. They read from their collected works and discussed the importance of friendship and community in the writing life.
What a joy to host three poets who know and love each other’s work. Poet Ellen Austin-Li moderated a beautiful conversation between Sara Moore Wagner and Pauletta Hansel, where they touched on persona and masks, cultural heritage, mentorship, and more.
On April 23, we invited Mark & May-Lan to be in conversation about their writing and friendship. They are champions of each other’s work and you can hear it in this conversation.
About two years ago, Lisa & I discussed what it would be like to create a space where we could do community events, readings, classes, lectures, and create community while we were all struggling with the pandemic.
When we first launched the Notebooks Collective on February 11, 2021, we asked our guests to read a poem they wrote and a poem they love. Our guests, Eileen Cleary, Ellen Austin-Li, and Ashley Monet Johnson then chatted with Lisa & me about what they look for in a love poem. It was our intention to open our space with love of the written word. We collected those poems in a little anthology you can read here (pdf).
Looking forward, we are exploring events with fiction writers, more poets, and creators of other spaces. Classes (short sessions and longer workshops) are on the horizon too.
Lisa & I have full time jobs, do our own writing, take care of our families, as well as deal with the unexpected emergencies — and sometimes we can’t make this as much as the priority we want it to be. Yet, the Notebooks Collective is our balm. It’s our heart and we’re so happy to go into official year two with you.
We so appreciate the writers we have met through this and who have shared their precious time with us. We are indebted to those folks who email us and say, “I have this idea for an event…” And we are grateful to all of you who support our work with your donations.
Please remember that you can purchase books from all of our visiting guests at our bookshop. We’d especially love to know what you’re adding to your TBR pile for 2023; tweet us and tag the poet!
With gratitude,
Becca & Lisa
We were so excited to host jason b. crawford, Nicholas Goodly, and Malcom Tariq for an evening of poetry and conversation. They discussed safe spaces, the South, language and more.
We’re so excited to share the recorded event with you! This evening took us on a journey through beauty, faith, and liminal borders.
Our speakers for this conversation are poets, are editors, and are a part of a writers group in Salem MA. Kathi & Jennifer have spent their time locked up with their work and also time with each other revising, workshopping, reviewing, reading. They know each other’s work intimately and while the words are their own, they were supported and propelled by others. Writing is writing. Writing is also revising, reading, talking, mentoring, editing, sharing, and supporting.
