Readings

Upcoming Readings

Want to read your work? We have two opportunities for you.

Poems of Place Reading — Sun Sept 27, 4pm, River Hook Preserve. For the 3rd year running, we’re partnering with River Hook Preserve on a reading of poems with a sense of place — ecological, urban, a state of mind, anything that feels placeful to you.

Want to read? Send 1–2 poems to allwayswritingcollective@gmail.com by Mon Sept 7, 11:59pm, and Kirsten Meehan or Tedo Wyman will follow up. Reading or not, save the date!

Prose Reading: Descent — Sun Oct 4, 4pm, Marydell Faith & Life Center. We’re continuing our partnership with Marydell for this prose reading of local writers’ original work. This season’s theme is Descent — prose that sits with going down instead of up: endings, letting go, shedding, erosion, weathering, the quiet parts of a season that don’t get the attention the bloom does. Doesn’t need to be literal landscape — take it wherever it leads you.

Submit by Fri Sept 11, 11:59pm to allwayswritingcollective@gmail.com, and Kelly Jo will follow up. Save the date!

Past Readings

Spring & All Community Prose Reading featuring Ian Allison, Jill Rovitzky Black, Tina Cooper, Jocelyn Jane-Cox, Doris Hunter Carrion, Ryan King, Jorli Peña, Rebecca Watkins, & Diana Wilkins — Thursday May 21, 2026 at Marydell Faith & Life Center

Poetry Reading with Valzhyna Mort and Samyak Shertok with community readers Kelly Jo Lillian, Conrad Lochner, Marjorie Tesser, Tedo Wyman, and Laura Zaino — Saturday April 25, 2026 at Big Red Books

How to Read a Book (of Poetry) Session 5 with Big Red Books featuring Music for the Dead and Resurrected by Valzhyna Mort — Wednesday April 22, 2026

Let the Story Warm You: An Evening Prose Reading with Marydell Faith & Life Center featuring Ellyn Hament, Christina Leaño, Bridget McFadden, Emilya Naymark, Alex Russo, Fredric Sinclair, Collin Stephens, Jessica Wahlstrom, and Zaneta – Friday February 6, 2026 at Marydell, Nyack

How to Read a Book (of Poetry) Session 4 with Big Red Books featuring The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley – Wednesday November 19, 2025

Poetry Reading featuring Leila Chatti & Isabella DeSendi with community readers H.E. Fisher, Madison Flanagan, Del-Marie Forbes, Alexa Palumbo, & Jeff Shalom – Saturday November 15, 2025 at Big Red Books

Poems of Place: Community Poetry Reading with Friends of River Hook featuring Mary Lou Buschi, Gail Hovey, Eugene Hwang, Shauna Lauricella, Conrad Lochner, Kirsten Meehan, Madalasa Mobili, Alison Stone, Abigail Todras, & Tedo Wyman – Saturday July 20, 2025 at River Hook Preserve

How to Read a Book (Of Poetry) Session 3 with Big Red Books featuring Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay – Wednesday June 11, 2025 at Big Red Books, Nyack

Poetry Reading featuring Dawn Lundy Martin & Matthew Gellman with Community Readers Kelly Jo Lillian, Kate MacLauchlin, Kirsten Meehan, Earl ‘Owen’ Minoza, and Cherish Pratt – Saturday May 18, 2025 at The Angel Nyack

Poetry Reading featuring Andres Cerpa & Joshua Garcia with Community Readers H.E. Fisher, Conrad Lochner, Bridget McFadden, & Jay’Ada Mercedes – Friday April 18, 2025 at Prohibition River, Nyack

Spring & All Community Prose Reading featuring Judy Bivona, Tina Cooper, Vanessa Goldhaven, Ellyn Hament, Jennifer McArdle, Madalasa Mobili, Emilya Naymark, David Thomas Peacock, & Fredric Sinclair – Saturday March 22, 2025 at Old Stone Meeting House, Upper Nyack

How to Read a Book (of Poetry) Session 2 with Big Red Books ft. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón – Wednesday November 13, 2024 at Big Red Books, Nyack

How to Read a Book (Of Poetry) Event featuring Ada Limón’s Bright Dead Things

Nyack Writes Poetry Reading featuring Marie Howe and Megan Pinto – Saturday October 12, 2024 at Nyack Center

Poems of Place: Community Poetry Reading with Friends of River Hook featuring Mary Lou Buschi, Tina Cooper, Vanessa Goldhaven, Ronald Hammond, Bridget Kiley, Kelly Jo Lillian, Conrad Lochner, Kate MacLauchlan, & Tedo Wyman – Saturday July 20, 2024 at River Hook Preserve

Poems of Place Reading at River Hook Preserve

How to Read a Book (of Poetry) Session 1 with Big Red Books ft. The Wild Iris by Louise Glück – Wednesday June 26, 2024 at Big Red Books, Nyack

Night Glare Reading Series: Jill Bialosky & Bethany Ball – Thursday February 29, 2024 at Nyack Library

Night Glare Reading Series: James Hoch & Emily Lee Luan with Carson McCullers Center for Writers & Musicians – Friday October 13, 2023 at Carson McCullers House Nyack

Emily Lee Luan at Carson McCullers House

Night Glare Reading Series: Jennifer Franklin & Isabella DeSendi with Carson McCullers Center for Writers & Musicians – Saturday June 17, 2023 at Carson McCullers House Nyack

Isabella DeSendi at Carson McCullers House