Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum.

The building will be open from 8:40-11:30 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting.

Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.

Host: Dawn Paul

Join us for Poets in the Round: a spontaneous, rapid-fire mix of verse, where poems are chosen not by preference, but based on a word or image in the poem read prior. You’ve never seen a reading quite like this!

The readers will be Carla Panciera, Kali Lightfoot, Colleen Michaels, MP Carver, Danielle Jones, and Dawn Paul (as reader and moderator).

Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum.

The building will be open from 8:40-11:30 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting.

Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.

All are welcome to bring work-in-progress to share with the group for feedback. The group is facilitated by J.D. Scrimgeour, Professor of English, Salem State University.

Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of the month at 11:00 a.m.

View the reading list.

Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum.

The building will be open from 8:40-11:30 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting.

Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.

Instructor Jacob Boucher—writing as Jack Badelaire

Historical fiction is popular, despite the fact that it is often an exercise in frustration for the story creators. In this Saturday morning workshop will explore the balance between fiction and history, and how the two can co-exist within one story in a way that appeals to the story’s target audience.

Jacob Boucher has a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Television Production with a Minor in Classical Studies, as well as a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems and IT Project Management. He currently works at Boston University as an IT services manager. He also teaches blogging and self-publishing courses through the Brookline Adult and Community Education Program.

Under the pen name Jack Badelaire, he has written nine novels and a number of shorter works, mostly in the historical military adventure genre (namely the popular COMMANDO series, as well as Assault on Abbeville, San Francisco Slaughter, and the Western novella Renegade’s Revenge). You can find him online at postmodernpulp.com, where he discusses his writing as well as books, film, and other popular media.

Weekly Writing Studios at the Salem Athenaeum.

The building will be open from 8:40-11:30 every Tuesday (unless announced otherwise). Feel free to come by and write in a quiet peaceful setting.

Come for as long as you’d like–for 20 minutes or all three hours.

All are welcome to bring work-in-progress to share with the group for feedback. The group is facilitated by J.D. Scrimgeour, Professor of English, Salem State University.

The new date is December 19!

Film Screening and Discussion

In a world of uncertainty, one of the ecosystems emblematic of the need for balance is the coral reef. Bonaire Bonanza is a success story of good reef management on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, where scientists and citizens work together to manage and protect the reefs. This documentary by George Buckley and Dutch filmmaker Edward Snijders won the Palme d’Or Award in Marseilles.

Tonight’s screening of Bonaire Bonanza includes a discussion session with George Buckley who narrated and advised on the film.

George Buckley is the co-founder and Assistant Director of Sustainability and Environmental Management Program at Harvard Extension School. He is an expert scuba diver who has led hundreds of students to study the sea. He has been a long-time Associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and chief scientist on some two dozen Earthwatch Expeditions on marine ecology and field studies on coral reefs, bay ecology, horseshoe crabs, fresh water clams and land snails. He is the Chairman of Bonaire’s Accolade Foundation and Director of the Marine Ecology Project.

His awards include the Palme d’Or for his film Bonaire Bonanza, the EPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Beneath the Sea (BTS) Diver of the Year. It was when he worked on the award-winning NOVA TV program, “The Sea Behind the Dunes,” that he began his career in environmental filmmaking.