The Cape Cod Writers' Center has been invited to participate in planning the first statewide poetry festival to be held in Lowell, Massachusetts, October 10 and October 11, 2008, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Cultural Council, UMASS Lowell, and poetry leaders around the state.

This exciting venture will bring poets throughout Massachusetts together for the first time to celebrate our creativity and to showcase one of the state's finest artistic resources.

Community Relations Director at UMASS Lowell, Paul Marion, a Jack Kerourac scholar, states the main goals of the event: to build the profile of our state's poets, showcasing their diversity; to make poetry a part of everyday culture; to strenthen our poetry community; and to contribute to the creative economy of the state.

Some of the plans for the festival weekend include readings of the work of New England's historical poets, panels on the poetry history of the state, readings by a wide range of poets from around the state, a book fair, and workshops on reading and publishing poetry. The targeted attendance is 5000. There will be a few "headline poets," and many academic and regional poets reading their work, as well as some poetry performances and slams at a multitude of venues in Lowell's museums, restaurants, and cafes.

I believe that Cape Cod can contribute an exceptional level of energy and participation for the size of the population of our small peninsula. Please let me know your ideas on how we may show our support.

Anne Elizabeth Tom

Executive Director, CCWC

Cape Cod Writers' Center Writers' Night Out in June will be held at a member's home.

The April Writers' Night Out was a smaller gathering than in March, but gave us all a chance to get to know one another. We'll take a break in May and meet again in June at the private home of a member who has generously offered to host us. Please plan to be a part of the June casual get-together to talk about your writing. Once the date and location are posted, just e-mail the office (writers@capecodwriterscenter.org) if you plan to attend, so that we can give our host a heads-up for numbers. We'll order food to be delivered and pay individually. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Sheila Whitehouse
President, CCWC Board of Directors

Announcing a Creative Non-fiction Writers' Group

To be held on the last Thursday of the month at 6pm
West Falmouth Library, 575 West Falmouth Highway

Memoir, anecdotes, history, or whatever participants want to write. Please bring eight copies of two or three pages, double-spaced to share with the group. This is not a class, but a critique group for those already writing.

The only criterion is membership in the CCWC. You may join or renew today by e-mailing writers@capecodwriterscenter.org for information.

Feel free to invite other writers - the more the merrier.

Cape Cod Playwrights Competition and 1,000 Kaplan Prize

The Cape Cod Writers’ Center and Eventide Arts partnered again to sponsor the Second Annual Cape Cod Playwrights Competition to encourage and stimulate the writing and production of new full-length plays by Cape and Island writers. Eventide Arts is a Cape Cod non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of the arts. www.EventideArts.org

The Cape Cod Playwrights’ Competition was open to full-length plays written by both new and experienced playwrights. The prizewinning play, selected by judges to be presented as a staged reading June 21 and 22, 2008 on the historic Gertrude Lawrence Stage, as part of the Eventide Arts 2007-2008 season of plays, concerts and workshops  is "Sequel" by David Kucher. Kucher has received the $1,000 Kaplan Prize.

During the competition, playwrights with works-in-progress attended a five-part playwriting course to help the playwrights to edit and revise. Workshops were led by the distinguished playwright Sinan Unel.

The Second Annual Cape Cod Playwrights Competition announced David Kucher the winner in April.  David will:

• Appear at the Cape Cod Writers’ Center Breakfast with the Authors on June 13 at the Wianno Club. (Public welcome; e-mail the CCWC for reservations)
  
• Be interviewed on Books and the World, CCWC's cable television program on May 23.
  
• Receive a public reading on the historic Gertrude Lawrence Stage on June 21 and 22. Call Eventide box office for reservations.
  
  
  
  
  Sinan Unel’s plays have been produced at The Long Wharf Theater, Boston Playwrights Theatre, The Lark Theatre Company (New York), The Gate Theatre (London), Provincetown Theatre Company, Provincetown Theatreworks, Landes-theater (Germany), Theater Kosmos (Austria), and Theatre at Boston Court (Pasadena, CA). His awards include The John Gassner Memorial Award, The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, The Panowski New Play Contest, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council New Plays Grant. He was a Huntington Theatre Company fellow from 2003 to 2005, received the 2001 New Century Writer Award for best screenplay, and is currently a Playwriting Fellow at the Lark Theatre Company in New York, NY.  (Photo credit: John Andert)