Writers Work

Writers Work hosts a rich array of professionals working in fields related to literary, book, and other arts, but distinct from academia. Showcasing the way writers and other artists find careers in which to apply their skills, and the ways art lovers bring the arts into their lives, editors, publishers, librarians, booksellers, arts administrators and other professionals share how their careers and their love of literary and other arts intersect. Interactive and anecdotal, each forum offers a window into a different part of the literary landscape, providing firsthand accounts of professional trajectories and offering advice from many different parts of the field. Writers Work is a program of the MFA for Poets and Writers’ Juniper Initiative.

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Past Guest include:

Michael Barron, New Directions, Supermachine

Mira Bartok, Mira’s List

Jedediah Berry, Small Beer Press

Liza Birnbaum, Holyoke Care Center

Robert Casper, Poetry Society of America, Council of Literary Magazines & Presses, jubilat

Robert Cox, Du Bois Library

Carol Ann Davis, Crazyhorse

Erica Dawson, Poetry Editor, Tampa Review

Corwin Ericson, The Massachusetts Review

Melissa Flashman, Trident Media Group

Brett Fletcher, Poetry Society of America, A Public Space

Lauren Goodman, Teaching & Learning Director, Berkshire Community College

James Heflin, The Valley Advocate

Bonnie Isman, Jones Library

Chris Janke, Slope Editions

Heidi Julavits, The Believer

Alix Kennedy, Family Fun Magazine

David Kermani, Flow Chart

Reb Livingston, No Tell Motel

Frances McCue, The Hugo House

Lynn Melnick, Outreach Director for VIDA

Cal Morgan, Harper Collins

Stephen Motika, Poets House

Travis Nichols, Poetry Foundation, Weird Deer

Lance Olsen, Fiction Collective Two

Chris Parris-Lamb, Literary Agent, The Gernert Company

Katie Raissian, Grove Atlantic

Camille Rankine, VIDA Board of Directors

Jason Schwarz, Greenpeace

David Shields, author

Joanna Rakoff Smith, freelancer

Karen Skolfield, Poetry Editor, Amherst Live; winner, 2014 PEN New England award in poetry

Lauren Smythe, Literary Agent, InkWell Management

Rob Spillman, Editor and Co-Founder, Tin House

Amy Stolls, The National Endowment of the Arts

Tree Swenson, The Academy of American Poets

Stephen Tagle, Fulbright Fellowship

Ryan Walsh, Development/Writing Director, Vermont Studio Center

Ellen Watson, Smith Poetry Center

Rebecca Wolf, Fence, Fence Books

Jung Yun, Director of New Faculty Initiatives in the UMass Office of Faculty Development

Matthew Zapruder, Verse Press/Wave Books