Essential Dreams Press

Readings & Events

Writers Read: An In-Person Reading

Robert V.S. Redick, Tina Egnoski, Jan Maher, Celine Keating, and Joy Baglio

When: Wednesday, November 30 (7 – 8:15pm ET) 

Where: The LAVA Center, 324 Main Street, Greenfield, MA

Cost: Free 

Please Note: Masks are required for this event.

“24 impressive stories of healing and rebuilding.” ​- Publishers Weekly

​This November, Essential Dreams Press launches a second anthology in the Dreams series: Dreams for a Broken World, from Series Editor Julie C. Day and Guest Editor Ellen Meeropol. The LAVA Center invites you

​The anthology brings together twenty-four authors from both genre and literary traditions, including reprints by authors such as Nisi Shawl, Ava Homa, Usman T. Malik, Aimee Liu, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Breena Clarke and original stories from authors such as Charles Payseur, Innocent Chizarama Ilo, Robert V.S. Redick, Marie Vibbert, and Veronica Schanoes. Their work traverses an array of styles, genres, and subject matter, from fantastic to realist, dark to playful, speculative to activist, yet are connected by questions of what it means to live in a fractured and uncertain world: How do we face the ugliness? How do we find a better way forward? In the process of editing and bringing together these stories, Essential Dreams Press Founder and Series Editor Julie C. Day is joined by Guest Co-Editor Ellen Meeropol, alongside Assistant Editors Carina Bissett and Celia Jeffries . All proceeds from the sale of the anthology go directly to the Rosenberg Fund For Children.

We look forward to sharing this important anthology with readers, and we hope you’re able to join us for what we know will be an inspiring evening!

Editors

Julie C. Day

Julie C. Day is currently at work on her mosaic novel Stories of Driesch. Her dark fantasy novella, The Rampant, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She is also the author of the genre-bending collection Uncommon Miracles and series editor of the charity anthologies Weird Dream Society and Dreams for a Broken World. Day has had over forty stories published in magazines and journals such as The Dark MagazineBlackStaticPodcastleInterzone, and The Cincinnati Review. With an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and MS in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, all research is now in service of her stories and her rabbit-hole curiosity. You can find Julie online at @thisjulieday or on her blog at stillwingingit.com.

Ellen Meeropol  is the author of the novels The Lost Women of Azalea Court, Her Sister’s TattooKinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest and the play Gridlock. Her dramatic program telling the story of the Rosenberg Fund for Children was produced five times between 1997 and 2013, featuring Ossie Davis, Mandy Patinkin, Ed Asner, Danny Glover, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Bill T. Jones, Angela Davis, Eve Ensler, and Howard Zinn. Recent essay and short story publications include Ms. Magazine, Lilith, Guernica, Lit Hub, Solstice, and Mom Egg Review. Her work has been honored by the Sarton Women’s Prize, Women’s National Book Association, and the Massachusetts Center for the Book. A founding member of Straw Dog Writers Guild, Ellen coordinates their Emerging Writer Fellowship program. Find her online at ellenmeeropol.com.

Anthology Authors Reading at the Live Event

Robert V.S. Redick is a novelist, teacher, editor, and international development consultant with thirty years experience in the Neotropics and Southeast Asia. His debut novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, was a finalist for the SFX Novel Award and received a special commendation by the 2010 Crawford Award Committee. He is the author of The Fire Sacraments epic fantasy series, including the recently-published Sidewinders, and The Chathrand Voyage Quartet. He is a winner of the New Millennium Writings Award, and a finalist for the Booknest Award for Best Novel and the Thomas Dunne Novel Award. Redick lives with his partner, Dr. Kiran Asher, in Western Massachusetts.

Jan Maher novels Heaven, IndianaEarth As It Is, and her short fiction collection The Persistence of Memory and Other Stories have each won Kirkus “Best Of” designations. Her stories and poems have been published regionally in Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, and Compass Roads: Poems about the Pioneer Valley. Her documentary stage play Most Dangerous Women celebrates with word and song a century of the international women’s peace movement. She leads three online programs for The LAVA Center in Greenfield, MA: a poets & writers café, a playwrights circle, and a book club. Maher is a member of the ECHO Greenfield project team, a local history project that encourages people to uncover the hidden histories of their communities and to recognize themselves as history makers. Her website is www.janmaher.com.

Céline Keating is an award-winning writer of fiction. She is co-editor of On Montauk, A Literary Celebration and the author of two novels, Layla, a Huffington Post featured title, and Play for Me, a finalist in the International Book Awards, Indie Excellence Awards, and USA Book Awards. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress, The Stark Beauty of Last Things, won the first-place fiction award from the Tucson Book Festival in 2021. Her story “Home” received the first-place 2014 Hackney Award for Short Fiction. Other short fiction has been published in Appearances, Echoes, Emry’s Journal, Mount Hope, The North Stone Review, Prairie Schooner, and the Santa Clara Review. Keating lives in New York with her husband, Mark Levy, and is on the board of environmental organization Concerned Citizens of Montauk.

Tina Egnoski
Tina Egnoski is the author most recently of the novel Burn Down This World and the story collection You Can Tell Me Anything. Her work, both fiction and poetry, has appeared in a number of literary journals, including Flying South, Green Briar Review, Gris-Gris, and The Masters Review. She leads community-based writing workshops and has been an instructor with Grubstreet Providence. Along with writing, she’s a papermaker and bookbinder.

Joy Baglio is a speculative-literary fiction writer and proud Leo living in Northampton, MA. Her short stories have appeared in Tin HouseAmerican Short Fiction, Conjunctions, The Missouri Review, The Iowa ReviewThe Fairy Tale Review, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, New Ohio Review, and elsewhere. Her honors include residencies/fellowships from Yaddo and Vermont Studio Center; scholarships from Bread Loaf Writers Conference and Sewanee Writers’ Conference; and grants from The Elizabeth George Foundation and The Speculative Literature Foundation, among others. Joy holds an MFA from The New School and is the founder of the literary arts organization, Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop. She is at work on a novel and short story collection. Find her online at www.JoyBaglio.com and Twitter @JoyBaglio.

We hope you join us on November 30th!