If you are (or know) a poet in Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin or Berkshire counties of western Massachusetts consider this important opportunity from Hedgerow Books

~ Submission Guidelines ~

Hedgerow Books, the poetry imprint of Levellers Press, seeks to promote literary voices from the culturally rich environment of Western Massachusetts.

Poets who have full-length poetry manuscripts completed (45-80 pages), and who meet the eligibility outlined below, are invited to submit samples of their work during our Open Reading Period: August 15 – October 15, 2011.

Eligibility

• Entrants must live or work in one of the four counties of Western Massachusetts: Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin or Berkshire counties of Western Massachusetts.
• Translations, previously published books, and self-published books are not eligible.
• Individual poems in the manuscript may have been published previously in journals, anthologies, or chapbooks of less than 30 pages (or which contains less than 30% of the current manuscript).
• Previous book publication will not be a criterion for selection.
• Only online submissions will be accepted.

Process

• During the open reading period (August 15-October 15), a diverse group of readers will consider 10-page sample manuscripts (anonymously, i.e. no names attached).
• By December 1, a small group of finalists will be invited to submit full manuscripts.
• A final decision will be announced on our website by January 15, 2012.
• There is no submission fee, and all submissions that adhere to the guidelines will be considered, but only one submission per person, please.

How to Submit

• Submissions must be sent via e-mail to hedgerowbooks1@gmail.com with the subject line: “Poetry Sample Submission”
• Submissions must consist of two separate attachments (word doc or RTF only), to facilitate the blind reading process

• Poet Info Attachment – use your name as the filename of this document and include:
  • your name, postal address, e-mail address, and title of your full manuscript
  • a short description of your full manuscript, including the number of pages
  • a brief biography
  • a list of the titles of the poems in your sample

• Sample Poems Attachment – use your ms. title as the filename of this doc and include:
  • Title page: manuscript title and list of titles of each poem in the document
  • A selection of up to 10 poems, not to exceed 10 pages in total
  • Nowhere on this sample packet of poems should your name appear.
  • Your manuscript title should appear as a header of each page.

Submissions must be received by October 15, 2011.

We are excited to read your work!

Hedgerow Books of Levellers Press invites you to an evening of pure poetry…

Celebrate the publication of new work from Patricia Lee Lewis and Diana Gordon

Reading, Book Signing & Reception

D M Gordon’s poems and stories have been published widely. Prizes include The Betsy Colquitt Award from descant, The Editor’s Choice Award from the Beacon Street Review, a First Prize for a short story from Glimmer Train. Phi Beta Kappa, Masters in Music from Boston University, she’s the recipient of a 2008 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in fiction, having been a finalist in poetry in 2004. She’s been an equestrian and chamber musician, and currently works as a free-lance editor in both poetry and prose, and facilitates weekly public discussion of contemporary poetry, in its eighth year, for Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts. She’s the author of Fourth World (Adastra Press, 2010) and Nightly, at the Institute of the Possible by Hedgerow Books, brand new. She’s currently at work on finishing novel set in the islands of British Columbia.

Patricia Lee Lewis was born and raised in Texas, where her three children were also born; for over 30 years she has lived and worked at Patchwork Farm Retreat in Western Massachusetts. She holds an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College, and a BA from Smith College, Phi Beta Kappa. Beloved mentor of many writers, leader of frequent writing retreats both nationally and internationally, she has also been the publisher of The Patchwork Journal. A grant in 2011, from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, enabled her to help establish a writing program at her local library. Trained to teach English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), Patricia and friends volunteer in Guatemala. Her first book of poems, A Kind of Yellow, was awarded first place by Writers Digest International.

Contact Patricia: patricia@writingretreats.org

Visit our website: www.writingretreats.org

Everyone in Santa Cruz works hard, so it wasn’t easy to find a time for our 3-week English class for adults. But we finally settled on 4:00 – 5:30 pm, Monday through Thursday afternoons, and invited a lively, motivated group of six students to join us:

Juan, Juana and Rosalea look for words to describe families

CECAP’s staff: Rosalia Hernandez Pérez, administrative assistant and law student; Noë Raphael, director; and Juan Pérez, who heads up the computer lab and attends university in Quetzaltenango. Lucas Sajcuy, is a 3^rd year law student and is a guardian (property caretaker); Juana Hernandez, has finished secretarial school and works at Villa Sumaya; and Guadalupe, the medical center’s nurse and women’s health educator.

We (Linda Fry, Patricia Vogel, Susan Webber, Elizabeth Stauder and I) wanted to find out what these students already knew and what they wanted to learn, so we began with introductions that included our favorite food. It’s a testament to how small the world is becoming, that lasagna, falafel, spaghetti and chocolate brownies beat out tamales—by a long shot.

The "small world" comes to Santa Cruz by boat and pickup truck

And to the question, what do you want to learn in this 3-week class, everyone agreed that they wanted to speak in English about their families, by which they meant their community, to outsiders. They wanted to learn to read and write English more easily, to master the verb TO BE, and to get the ABC’s down cold.

Lucas, Noë and Elizabeth find words that begin with "J"

So, to see how well they could speak and write, we told a chain story, beginning with “We went to Africa…,” to hear how students used the past tense, in which each person repeated the sentence of the person before and added a sentence. We wrote the sentences down and compared with each other to see if we wrote the same thing. Linda wrote them on the board for us, and we corrected our own work.

We did some pretty funny things in Africa.

And finally, we learned to sing the very same ABC song you probably learned in kindergarten, first pointing to the letters on cards and saying them aloud many times. What a wonderful way to practice those most difficult letters, i and h and j—and the difference between b and v. We were all in it together, singing away, when 5:30 came–too soon, really, on this very first day.

February 9 dawned clear and calm, meaning the lake was free of whitecaps – propitious for any boat trips on Lake Atitlan. Embarking and disembarking can be trecherous otherwise. A merry group  – Patricia, Susan Webber, Linda Fry and Trisha Vogel – met at the pier at Santa Cruz for a trip to the village of San Juan, approximately a half hour trip, with our intrepid boatman, Ramos. We arrived at a pier that had been inundated by last year’s storm, seeing what had been small shops and a dock surrounded by water hyacinth and water fowl.

After arriving at the pier, we hired a tuk-tuk driver, Juan, who is a huge fan of FC Barcelona, to drive us up and down the winding, steep  lanes and by-ways of San Juan. Our first stop was the Co-operativa de café, which is formally named “La Voz que clama en el desierto” the voice crying in the desert.  Coffee plants flower somewhere around May 1- May 5 and the village of  San Juan collectively climbs a steep mountain across the way to give thanks, their “Dia de la Cruz”. We saw the coffee beans spread out on tarps to dry in the sun before being roasted and ground for sale and export.   Of course, we had to sample!  In this remote village in Guatemala, they served us Latte, Café Americano and Cappuccino, all made of organically grown and roasted coffee beans. Need I say it was delicious?

Then, Juan drove us up the winding streets to the area where there was an abundance of women’s textile co-operatives, where we had an introduction to cotton dying processes, briefly watched one weaver at work and then proceeded to pick  out shawls and ponchos and cloth reams from all the wondrous patterns and colors, both bold and pastel.  The hardest part of the day: choosing what to take!  We all had the same problem at one of the co-operative art centers where many of the talented San Juan artists show their oil and acrylic paintings of various aspects of village life, women weaving, gathering crops and selling them at the market. The colors, as you will see below, were mostly vibrant primary colors, Guatemalan rainbows on canvas!  Again, the problem was deciding what to buy and “How many Quetzales do I have left?!!”  All in all a very successful and exciting excursion.  Trisha dice, “Hasta luego, amigas y amigos!  Ven aca!”

Ramos the Intrepid

San Juan dock

Gourmet Coffee

Miriam showing dyed cotton

Juan's tuc-tuc

Arriving at CECAP Center Santa Cruz, Guatemala February 2, 2011

ancient young faces
perched on blue chairs
like colorful birds on a wire

8 sewing machines hum
measuring tape cravats
and scissors wait for instructions

do you measure a smile
like the length of a sleeve
shoulder to elbow, armpit to wrist?

do you measure pride
like a pant leg inseam
or the waistband for a skirt?

smiles measure from ear to ear
and pride, from head to toe
whether in inches or centimeters

tailor children for life
teach them a craft
then watch them grow

February 3: the dock at Tsununa – it is the only one there, the old one having been destroyed by storm.

Everywhere I look, people are patient and take pride in small things like serving food to an amiga.

This is an adventure and a learning experience that will color the rest of my life – moving, exciting, challenging and very worthwhile. Come join us!!! If you haven’t noticed, colors are very important here.

The Nutrition Center at Tzanjomel, high above Tsununa, is decorated.

-Patricia

So, by boat on Sunday, January 30,  amid the lake’s rough afternoon waves, Susan Webber and I arrived in Santa Cruz laden with teaching materials, our clothes soaked. We were very happy.

Jeremias, Servando, Loida, Juan Carlos, Pedro, Rebeca, Julia, Jeanne, Tomasa, Juana, Julia

At 8:00 am Monday, we met Jeanne Mendez and her class of ten culinary students at CECAP.

The students are learning at the moment to wait tables–in English. They have opened the Café Sabor Cruzania on the top floor of the CECAP building where the view is most fabulous. They welcome guests in English or Spanish orKek’chikel, depending.

And with varying degrees of success ask, “How may I help you,” as they offer licuados (a lovelier word than “smoothie”) in pineapple, strawberry, mango, and banana, with yogurt, milk or water—a lot of vocabulary to learn in just a few days—and coffee: do you want milk and sugar with that?

Jeanne asked Trish Vogel and me to give her a hand with the class and  today we spent a lot of time answering the question, “Where is the bathroom?” –something we had forgotten to teach before the café opened–which led us into consideration of the differences between there and here and where.  And by the end, we could all see why it’s important to keep them straight.

The culinary program began a couple of weeks ago and runs for 10 months. I’ve already spoken with two restaurateurs here in Santa Cruz who are anxious to hire some of the graduates. It’s my guess that with good teamwork and support from us in the bleachers, CECAP, teachers and students have hit a home run with this program.

Juan Carlos brings pineapple licuado to Jeanne

The immediate reward of course, besides the great fun we’re having with ten bright, motivated students, is going to the café after our class. If you plan to visit, I can recommend the licuado with mango, banana and yogurt. And the fresh pineapple upside-down cake is–well, you’ll really have to try it.

CECAP staff with carpentry teacher in new café

Speaking of which—if you are TESOL-trained and can lead a class, or if you have the gift of teaching and want to tutor individual learners, I hope you’ll consider giving part of yourself to the people of Santa Cruz la Laguna. We need teachers who can come in for ten weeks to a year (or more!–it’s a fascinating, beautiful place to live), to work within the English program. Then you can have all the licuados you can drink. Would you like chocolate with that?

What a journey from the snows of Massachusetts to the warm days and cool nights of beautiful Lake Atitlan!

Patricia and I arrived in Guatemala City on Wednesday and spent a few days in Antigua, sightseeing & practicing Spanish with her amazing teacher Hugo Arriola.

THIS is how you learn a language!!  We spent 4 hours a day wandering the streets of beautiful warm (the people and the weather) Antigua, visiting museums, buying textiles, changing money at the bank, breakfasting at wonderful local cafes– we even had a field trip to a macadamia farm. All the while Hugo gave a narrative–ALL in Spanish. It was delightful conversation, paused now and then for gentle correction & instruction.

Visiting macadamia farm with Hugo (left)

Early Sunday morning we boarded the shuttle for the 3 hour winding ride to Lake Atitlán–a place I had read about and seen photos in Spanish classes for so many years.  The first sight of it took my breath away, and continues to do so as I look at it out the door of my cabin (which faces east so I can watch the sunset from my bed!)

Next post: off to school!
warmly,
Susan

Prayer to Ixchel While Boarding the Plane for Guatemala

Ixchel, Maya Goddess of Moon & Weaving

Oh let the synapses reconnect

Lo siento, olvidarme todas de español

Let the words of my mouth be in Spanish

Cuando llego en Guatemala

Let the world I carry in English

Be safe and beautiful

Mis hijos y hijas, mis nietas

Y nietos, mi esposo y amigos.

May I open to the people and colors

And smells of Antigua, ciudad vieja,

Con una cabeza y corazon de español.

Patricia Lee Lewis

View from Santa Cruz

How can it be, in what looks like paradise, that strong, resourceful Maya people want to spend their time learning English? They have a rich culture and speak Kaqchikel, the complex language of their own—-and many also speak and read Spanish; but in the pueblo of Santa Cruz la Laguna high on a mountain above Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, where women weave exquisite textiles on looms strapped around their waists

Weaving on backstrap loom

and carry heavy loads of firewood on their heads; where men fish the unfathomed waters of the lake of legends in hand-carved wooden boats and work their way up and down steep paths, backs bent under stones weighing sometimes 200 pounds, poverty is an everyday experience.

All paths are steep

Other communities around Lake Atitlan rest on its shores within easy reach by tourists. Until lately, with the advent of a road fit for trucks and tuk-tuks, few visitors braved the steep, long paths to the heart of Santa Cruz, and there was little to entice them. The economy and everything based on it withered.

These days, thanks to the inspired leadership and support of Amigos de Santa Cruz, most children in school finish sixth grade, many go through ninth grade, and a few move on to higher education in nearby Panajachel or Solola.

Young student

Older students

But until this year, there has been no opportunity for adults to gain practical vocational skills beyond weaving and fishing. The villagers must hire electricians and plumbers and carpenters and tile setters from outside, sending their precious quetzales across the lake to other pueblos. And just in case a tourist should wander up the mountain to discover the textile treasures hidden there, virtually nobody in Santa Cruz would be able to speak to them in English.

Speaking English can make the difference to the young villagers whose jobs are all outside of Santa Cruz center. It’s the difference between cleaning bathrooms in a hotel, and working the front desk, so the Maya employees of CECAP, Centro de Capacitación–

Local volunteers build CECAP

the pueblo’s first vocational school for adults–told me when I asked a year ago what I could do as a volunteer that would help the most.

Without hesitation, Enséñanos inglés! they said.

OK, I said, but I only know how to lead creative writing & yoga retreats (something I’ve done in Santa Cruz at the gorgeous Villa Sumaya Retreat Center for the past 5 years).

You can do it, they said, start this afternoon. And so we did.

Pat Torpie y amigo

Pat Torpie, gifted founder and director of Amigos de Santa Cruz and CECAP gave Rosalea, Noë and Juan time off for a couple of hours each afternoon for a week to come to my “class.” We had a great time, laughed a lot, even spoke a little English together by the time I had to leave for home–and I had no idea what I was doing.

Rosalea at work

OK, amigos, I said in my halting Spanish, I’ll make you a promise. I’ll go back to the States and learn how to teach English. In one year, I’ll come back.

I could make this promise because I knew Alexis Johnson. She’d been to Santa Cruz on a writing & yoga retreat and she directs the International Language Institute (ILI) in Northampton, MA. ILI offers a terrific (and intensive) course in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), accredited by the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT.

Buoyed by my confidence in ILI and photos of some of my friends from the pueblo who were counting on me, in October, I joined with 7 other women to learn what we soon realized was a remarkably effective method of teaching a language–a process which begins by eliciting from the learners what they already know.

TESOL Sisters at ILI

One of my classmates, Linda Fry, a chef and former restaurant owner, became excited by the idea of going to Santa Cruz with me to teach, and I put a call in my Patchwork e-newsletter to others who might like to join us.

Lo and behold, there was an outpouring of interest, and other amazing volunteers found the time and resources to make it happen:

Susan Webber en route to Santa Cruz

Susan Webber, Spanish teacher, musician & textile artist from Massachusetts; and Patricia Vogel, music therapist and ESL teacher from Germany.

We’ll converge on Santa Cruz in the next few days and offer our best for the month of February to students in the exciting vocational programs that have just begun at CECAP in culinary and sewing arts. Lord willin’ and the creeks don’t rise we’ll create this Blog together, to let you know how things go.

Jeanne Mendez, full-time resident of Santa Cruz and energetic teacher, has picked up the mantle of head English teacher and program coordinator. We’re hoping that other volunteers will take over to assist her when we leave, for continuity and for the sake of the pueblo.

Since I made my promise to return, it’s been exactly one year.

With love, Patricia