Manchester and the Mountains 2nd Annual Emerging Poets and Writers Weekend

April 24 - 26, 2009

A note from Clemma Dawsen, board member of The Greater Manchester Arts Council, and co-founder of The Annual Manchester and the Mountains Poets and Writers Weekend:

A couple of winters ago I called Jay Hathaway, executive director of The Manchester and the Mountains Chamber of Commerce, and asked what he thought of forming an arts council to serve our community. Turns out, the idea had been on Jay's mind for quite some time. And so it was that the Greater Manchester Arts Council—GMAC--came into being, with Beth Meachem as president of the board.

  As a writer, my own interest in an arts council was support for the founding of a yearly literary festival. As president, Beth turned out to be not only a mover and shaker, but a visionary as well. While others cautioned us to wait a year, Beth was willing to go forward with just a few weeks of planning. Together, we envisioned a small, high quality weekend of classes, readings, panels and events with an emphasis on new work, small house publishing and the writer's craft. We hoped as well to enliven the business community at a slow time of year. We geared our offerings towards unknown or unpublished writers, and had as our theme, The Emerging Writer.

   The First Annual Manchester and the Mountains Poets and Writers Weekend was launched in April of 2008.We were astounded by our success.  
  We are indebted to our local businesses, as well as the well-known poets, writers, agents and publishers, who loved our ideas and helped us get started. Their support inspired others to join us this year in offering our second annual weekend, appropriately titled, Building Momentum.

Special thanks to writer Gretel Ehrlich, author of many books including Islands, The Universe, Home and The Solace of Open Spaces for her endless good humor and invaluable advice.

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