Annual Report

eight hundred sixteen: the number of writers featured this year by ACW

A Note from the Executive Director: This has been an unbelievable year for ACW. With generous funding from a Regional Economic Development Council grant, through the New York State Council on the Arts , for the first time ever we have a second full-time staff person. Having Baylee Annis join us has had an enormous impact both on our outreach and programming.

We expanded our Library Reading Series to

This is our vision. Help us bring it to life!

Ross Gay

Ann Patchett

Margaret Atwood

Neil Gaiman Jhumpa Lahiri

Dave Eggers

include new partners from all over the region, we partnered with North Country Public Radio to host a series of open mic story slams, also all over the region, and we launched our first ever poemvillage, which solicited 420 poems from people living in the Tri-Lakes community. Take a look at the following pages and you will discover an undercurrent of renewed energy and community involvement. Our staff has grown and therefore so has our family, our heart.

We have big plans for the future as well. We

want to launch three major reading series to take place annually in different parts of the Park. To do this, we will need to raise a considerable amount of funding, more than we ever have, but we feel bringing the world’s best writers to the region will enrich the lives Won’t you support stories in of our communities, we consider it our the Adirondacks? responsibility and honor to bring the best the literary world has to offer to the region. We Adirondack Center for Writing also plan to offer long weekend writing We’re a small organization, but we program BIG workshop programs and expanded programs for regional students. We hope you share our vision of building the literary arts in the region. All that we’ve accomplished, we’ve done with your help, and we hope we can count on you to continue to show us your love and support. Toni Morrison

Andrea Gibson

John Green

Thanks, Nathalie Thill ACW Executive Director

Let’s celebrate a

year of great stories! The Howl Story Slam In partnership with North Country Public Radio, we set out to create a series of story slams that draws upon the rich tradition of storytelling in the Adirondacks. Since February, the open-microphone style event welcomed over a hundred storytellers to its stage. The Howl Story Slam has already reached into the communities of Saranac Lake, Canton, Plattsburgh, Watertown, Old Forge, Saratoga Springs, Clayton, Jay, and we’re not stopping there! The Grand Slam on September 24 at Pickens Hall Opera House will be a showcase of all the first season’s winners.

Open Mic Nights Old Forge Library, an ACW partner, hosted three open mic nights for the public and for writers in November, February, and May. The events provided space for locals to present stories, songs, and other original work in a supportive environment. Emcees for the open mic nights included local writers Nancy Best, Glenn Miley, and Gary Van Riper.

Young Writers Festival On a sunny June afternoon, a crowd gathered in the Saranac Lake Depot train station. Focusing on supporting the work of young writers, an open mic event welcomed original work from writers under 26.

Adirondack Summer Shorts In the spirit of summer fun, the Adirondack Center for Writing started this collaborative online story project and invited everyone of all ages to join us in crafting some new Adirondack stories. Part storytelling game, part narrative free-for-all, this project encouraged people to contribute to some part of the story.

Prison Writing Program Taking place year-round, classes are focused on teaching creative writing, literacy, and professional development at the Federal Correction Institute in Ray Brook, New York. This program is funded by a combined National Endowment for the Arts and Federal Bureau of Prisons grant.

Workshop & Reading with Gerry LaFemina

ACW partnered with SUNY Plattsburgh to host an audience of 40 for a reading with poet Gerry LaFemina. Following the reading, LaFemina welcomed selected participants to join him for a writing workshop.

Library Readings Local writers delighted audiences with readings and discussions from their work at partnering libraries all over the Park. The Library Reading Series is made possible from a generous grant from the Lake Placid Education Foundation.

• Bibi Wein at Long Lake Public Library, July 2015

• Jamie Sheffield at Tupper Lake Library, August 2015

• Rich Frost at Easton Library, May 2016

Upcoming featured local authors include Neal Burdick, Rich Frost, Amy Godine, Sabrina Jones, Aline Newman, Tony Holtzman, and Ed Kanze at these partnering libraries: Easton Library, Schroon Lake Library, Hillview Free Library, Saranac Lake Free Library, Lyon Falls Library, and Woodgate Free Library.

Library Reading Series Adirondack Center for Writing 2016 adirondackcenterforwriting.org

Sabrina Jones Graphic Novelist

Author of Our Lady of Birth Control: A Cartoonist’s Encounter with Margaret Singer

July 18, 2016 7:00 pm Saranac Lake Free Library

Saranac Lake, NY Join ACW and Saranac Lake Free Library for an author reading with Sabrina Jones Free and open to the public! This event and the rest of the Library Reading Series is made possible through a generous grant from the Lake Placid Education Foundation.

Here’s to supporting

the craft of writing!

Anne LaBastille Memorial Writer Residency For two weeks in October 2015, our annual residency provided space, time and an inspiring landscape for regional and non-local writers to work on their writing projects, a chance to unplug and connect with other writers, and to tap into their creative self. In the beautiful setting of Twitchell Lake, six writers (three regional, and three non-regional) wrote, explored Anne LaBastille’s property, enjoyed each others’ company and hosted a local audience for a reading of their writing projects. This year’s selected writers included Stuart Bartow, Andy Bates, Carrie Bramen, Sarah Browning, Doug Deneen, and Ellen Rocco. The residency was generously provided by the estate of Anne LaBastille, who wrote books like Woodswoman and Beyond Black Bear Lake from her cabin on Twitchell Lake.

ACW Online Writing Classes Everyone has true stories to tell—these online writing classes joined together local and non-local writing students with incredibly talented teachers for five-week classes this past February. Students interested in nonfiction and memoir were enthralled by The Personal Essay with Annie Stoltie, and those seeking feedback in and instruction in poetry loved Writing Poetry: Limbs and Language with Mahogany L. Browne. ACW Online Writing Classes are being hosted twice this year, and are created with needs and interests of their students at heart.

Poetry Alive! High School Writing Retreat We started the retreat in 2005, and every year sees more interest, and a new group of excited students. Through unique creative writing exercises, students generate poems and essays, and learn to read their work to an audience. This program is often the first time students have heard contemporary writing from Latino and African-American writers, steeped in tradition and dealing with social and political issues. It’s particularly fascinating to hear how students apply what they hear to their own experiences and emotions living in the North Country. Another role of this program is to create a place where students with a common interest can meet and develop friendships based on a mutual appreciation. This year for a full day at the end of October, over 120 students attended the retreat, learning from performance poets and teachers Angel Nafis, Jon Sands, and Jive Poetic. A huge thanks to those who make the High School Writing Retreat possible: Stewart’s Holiday Match, Saranac Lake Young Arts Association, Adirondack Foundation-Bengt Ohman Fund, Adirondack Foundation-Evergreen Fund, and Adirondack Foundation-Saranac Lake Public School Education Fund.

Adirondack Literary Awards The Adirondack Center for Writing hosted the annual Adirondack Literary Awards at the Blue Mountain Center on Sunday, June 5 to celebrate another year of publications for regional authors and presses, and of course to announce this year's winners. Following the ceremony Joe Bruchac gave a tribute to poet, Maurice Kenny, that concluded with a moving rendition of a Seneca song. Judges selected winners from the categories of fiction, memoir, general nonfiction, poetry, and children's literature. This year’s judges included: Joseph Bruchac (Fiction), Ellen Rocco (Fiction), Bibi Wein (Nonfiction), Jerry McGovern (Nonfiction), Marilyn McCabe (Poetry), Elizabeth Cohen (Poetry), Peggy Orman (Children’s Literature) and Ellen Wilcox (Children’s Literature). The People's Choice Award is selected by peers and audience members as their favorite title of the year's submissions.

Fiction Category Winner: Steve Stern, The Pinch (Graywolf Press)

Memoir Category Winner: Erik Schlimmer, My Adirondacks: Ten Stories in Twenty Years (Beechwood Books)

General Nonfiction Category Winner: James Schlett, A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: A Philosophers' Camp in the Adirondacks (Cornell University Press)

Poetry Category Winners: Barbara Ungar, Immortal Medusa (The Word Works) and Stuart Bartow, Einstein's Lawn (Dos Madres Press)

Children's Category Winners: JD Spero, Forte (Xchyler Publishing) and Joseph Bruchac, Walking Two Worlds (7th Generation Book Publishing Co.)

People's Choice Winner: Steve Stern, The Pinch (Graywolf Press)

PoemVillage Saranac Lake If you walked through downtown Saranac Lake during the month of April, you would have been greeted by over 400 poems from writers in the Tri-Lakes region in every business window. Inspired by the PoemCity events in Montpelier, the Adirondack Center for Writing partnered with over forty local businesses to display locally-written poems and participate in our Pocket Poetry hunt, when we hid miniature versions of the submitted poems in their stores, merchandise, and in every corner of the town. Outside of all the downtown Saranac Lake businesses, we teamed up with the Adirondack Medical Center to put Pocket Poetry on the breakfast and lunch trays of every patient. This event was beyond our own expectations—we hoped for 100 poems, and we received four times that amount from ten schools and twelve townships. A group of locals created a spinoff event and created a PoemVillage Pub Crawl, locals and visitors alike crowded storefront windows to read poems, business owners welcomed us into their stores and praised our efforts when the time came to remove the poems. The region of Saranac Lake amazed us with its support and excitement, and we look forward to host and expand the event in the years to come.

ACW Publishing Conference Tucked between the High Peaks, thirty writers gathered on June 11 for the annual publishing conference at Heaven Hill Farm. Presentations from editors, publishers, agents, and self-publishing experts including Jeffrey Lependorf, Melissa Flashman, Philip Turner, and Renate Wildermuth helped writers of all experience navigate their way through the world of publishing. Philip Turner and Melissa Flashman were available for one-onone manuscript critiques, offering even more insight for writers. Each summer we look forward to welcoming another batch of talented local writers into a community of driven peers, and providing them with the support they need to create their own path to publishing.

Pop Up Poets Following High School Writing Retreat in the fall, one of the students and her teacher came to ACW with one simple wish: to expose the entire Lake Placid Central School to the power of the same performance poetry they’d found at the retreat. Together, we created a Pop Up Poetry event for the entire school in May 2016. Pop Up Poets including Jon Sands, Adam Faulkner, and Lauren Whitehead stormed into classrooms, hallways, computer labs, libraries, and lunchrooms with poems and songs. At the end of the day, 375 middle and high school students, as well as teachers and administrators, joined the poets in an assembly performance and Q & A session. Students were welcomed into a discussion of the poets’ writing process, professional development, struggles, and creating a culture of acceptance and support.

An Evening with Bernd Heinrich Bernd Heinrich, author and renowned biologist, joined co-hosts ACW and Paul Smith’s College in April 2016 having just released his new title, "One Wild Bird at a Time” and upon the announcement of Heinrich as the 2016 winner of the John Burroughs Association Nature Essay Award. In a New York Times book review, David Quammen wrote that Heinrich “is no ordinary biologist. He’s the sort who combines formidable scientific rigor with a sense of irony and an unslaked, boyish enthusiasm for his subject . . . He has a rare ability to embed dense scientific explications within graceful, light-footed nature writing . . . The mind of Bernd Heinrich is a big antic thing, like a raven, and meant to live outdoors.” Heinrich led a reading and discussion about his findings for his research that supplied his latest book. An audience of 130 joined the event which was free of charge and open to the public at Paul Smith's College. Following the discussion, Heinrich signed books, met with audience members and joined ACW staff, board members, and community members for dinner.

Book Reviews in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise The ACW Board Chair, Rich Frost, organized book reviews of local books for ACW to appear in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise with a total of 25 book reviews printed year round.

An Evening with Joy Harjo ACW partnered with SUNY Adirondack to present poet, musician, storyteller, and writer Joy Harjo. Harjo received the 2015 Wallace Stevens Award for proven mastery in the art of poetry by the Academy of American Poets only days before her reading at SUNY Adirondack, which stirred an extra air of excitement into the 75 audience members.

Local Author Showcase with Barnes & Noble ACW co-sponsored the Local Author Showcase at Barnes & Noble, which features local authors and welcomes readers to meet, purchase recent titles, and chat with fellow fans.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS… Major Funders

Donors ($100-$499)

Estate of Anne LaBastille

Regional Economic Development Grant-NYSCA

New York State Council on the Arts

Stephanie Banks

Barnes & Noble

Nancy Beattie

Jackie Beattie

Mr. and Mrs.Bengt Ohman

Eleanor Berger

Sharon Black

Anne and Jim Bodnar

Phil and Sally Bogdanovitch

Michael Wilson and Beverly Bridger

Joe Bruchac

Fred Calder

Chris Cohan

George Davis

Doug Deneen

Sandy Danussi and Paul Dooling

Lorraine Duvall

Michael Collins and Kathe Fox

Steven Holtzman

Mary Anne Johnson

Roger Kessel

Caroline and Serge Lussi

Clive Priddle and Alane Mason

Marilyn McCabe

Jerry and Barbara McGovern

Kate Messner

Rebecca O'Neill

Peter Obourn

Steve Sheinkin and Rachel Person

Meredith Prime

Ellen Rocco

Paul Schlimmelpfennig

J. Kellum Smith

Rob Surovell

Ed Surovell

Albert and Isabella Worthen

Businesses & Organization Sponsors Adirondack Motel

Adirondack Museum

ADK Mountain Club

Ampersound

Bloated Toe Publishing

High Peaks Publishing

North Country Books

Northshire Bookstore

Old Forge Public Library

RA Press

The Greenfield Review

The Bookstore Plus

Vista Court Books

Stewart’s Holiday Match

Patron ($1000+) Adirondack Foundation-Linda and Sarah Cohen Fund

Adirondack FoundationSaranac Lake

Anonymous

Bernice Godine

Michael Coffey

Richard Frost

Tony Holtzman

John and Nancy Rosenthal

Lake Placid Education Fund

Paul Smith’s College

Public School Education Fund Mary Sanders Shartle

Benefactors ($500-$999) Adirondack FoundationBengt Ohman

Adirondack FoundationEvergreen Fund

Russell Banks & Chase Twichell

Saranac Lake Young Arts Association

Friends ($50-$99) Jane Agee

Elizabeth Reyes Baker

Stuart Bartow

Margaret Kent Bass

Bloated Toe Publishing

Ted and Jane Caldwell

Paul Castellani

Varick Chittenden

David Donahue

Yvonne Fast

Phil Gallos

Sarah and Marc Galvin

Daniela Gitlin

Bob Miner and Elaine Hadley

John Heinz

Robert Igoe

Gregory Jeffers

Christine Jerome

Lynn Kellogg

Nancy Kimball

Susan Knight

Todd Lockwood

Rosemary Miner

Mary Moore

Adrienne Morris

Susan and Fred Mueller

Annette Nielsen

Suzanne Orlando

Philip Petronis

Beth and Tim Rowland

Catherine Sanja

Caroline Seligman

Parmelee Tolkan

Elizabeth Varnai

Sally and Francis Ward

Charles Watts

Daniel Way

Sean Conin and Beth Whalen

Burdette Parks and Fran Yardley

Ellen Zunon

Members ($30-$49) LeeAnne Baker

Mark Barie

Edward Finnerty and Nancie Battaglia

Lisa Bellamy

Emmanuel Bernstein

Jim and Linda Bourey

Joseph Brownell

Neal Burdick

Marjorie Burns

Mark Coleman

Judith Coopy

Stephanie Coyne-DeGhett

Ray Curran

Kate Curry

Ruth Ann Dandrea

Patricia Davidson

Karen Davidson

Debbie Gaida Ostrowski

John DeJoy

George Drew

Jokie Falkenham

Margo Fish

Jo Ann Flammer

Linda Gaida

Alice and Craig Gilborn

Patricia Baird Greene

Lois Gunning

Kay Hafner

Jane Haugh

Deb Havas

Brian Heinz

John Henningson

Rick Henry

Gail Huntley

Leslie Karasin

Scott Keen

Tom Van De Water and Betsy Kepes

Jacqueline Keren

Peter Klein

Victoria Levitt

Eric Luper

Paul Madison

Liana Mahoney

Hope Irvin Marston

Andrea Masters

Kathleen McCoy

Mary Kate McNairy

Bernice Mennis

Dorian Gossy and Roger Mitchell

Linda Moerschell

Eric Mondschein

Judith Moore

Mary Ann Morreale

Ann Mullen

Selma Nemer

Susan Newell

Anastasia Osolin

Jerry Pepper

Paul Pines

Susan Riggins

Penny Jolly and Jay Rogoff

Rosemarie Sheperd

Shawn Ryan

Nancy Scarzello

Jamie and Gail Sheffield

Johannah Spero

Dan Sullivan

Laurie Swinwood

Capterton Tissot

J.L. Torres

Ann Tracy

Barbara Ungar

Irene Uttendorfsky

Eudora Watson

Bibi Wein

Renate Wildermuth

Keith Willis

Isabella Worthen

ANNUAL BUDGET ACW Staff Executive Director: Nathalie Thill Assistant to the Director: Baylee Annis Advisory Board Russell Banks Joseph Bruchac Jim Gould Sue Halpern Christine Jerome Christine McDonald Bill McKibben Ellen Rocco Bill Smith Chase Twitchell Fran Yardley Board of Directors Michael Coffey Rich Frost Tony Holtzman Marilyn McCabe Craig Milewski Rachel Person Nancy Rosenthal Mary Sanders Shartle

Income NYSCA $20,000 RED C $22,250 Unrestricted Contributions $18,196 Membership $4,910 Anne LaBastille Residency $19,391 Program Income $23,213 Total Income $107,960 Expenses Management $61,667 Writer Honoraria $16,695 Other Program Costs $13,817 Operating Costs $9,273 Total $101,452 Change in Net Assets $6,508 *Preliminary, unaudited results