The Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts is a region rich in history, natural beauty and writers who take the Valley as their subject. On March 21, 2007, five of those writers read selections from some of their works exploring a sense of place to a packed room of local residents at the Buckland/Shelburne Community Center. Writer’s Voice was there…We’ll also be broadcasting excerpts from the readings on our radio broadcasts throughout the coming months. We aired a poem read by Susie Patlove from her new chapbook, QUICKENING, on our March 23 broadcast. The writers were:

Russell Powell, editor and publisher of New England Watershed Magazine;
Richard Todd, an editor for the Atlantic Monthly, New England Monthly and Houghton Mifflin;
William MacLeish of Conway, author of UPHILL WITH ARCHIE, THE DAY BEFORE AMERICA and other books;
Patricia Donohue of Ashfield, who is working on a novel exploring issues that bind and divide neighbors in rural western Massachusetts; and
Susie Patlove of Charlemont, a member of the local poets’ collective, Slate Roof Press.

On this podcast episode you can listen to or download the introduction by Arms Library director, Louis Battalen, and readings by Russell Powell and Patricia Donahue. The balance of the program will be on Podcast #18, to be posted next week.

The program was sponsored by the Pioneer Valley Institute of Greenfield Community College and the Arms Library of Shelburne Falls, MA.