Do you like your stories served with a dose of magic and otherworldiness, or featuring a portal, alternate universe, or other element of the Strange? Join us (Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop) at The Roost in downtown Northampton MA for a reading featuring writers who weave weird and wild tales! Reading hosted by PVWW Founder / Director Joy Baglio, as part of the Northampton Literary Walk (more on that below!)

Featured Readers:

• MONTANNA HARLING is an MFA in Prose candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has previously studied literature at UC San Diego and the University of Oxford. Montanna co-founded O(the)r People Magazine, interned with the Brink Literacy Project, and is the Prose Editor of Paperbark Magazine. This summer, she will attend the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. She writes speculative eco-fiction that seeks to give agency back to the ecological environment.

• PETER COOPER HAY is the pen name for Peter Bishop. He’s a retired science teacher, a Quaker, and a Wiccan/Pagan. His eclectic background shows in his writing, where hard science weaves together with mysticism, magic, and political intrigue. He has published nonfiction essays on Quaker and Pagan spirituality. His poetry has appeared in the Quaker publication Friends Journal, he’s included in the anthology Celebrating the Pagan Soul, and he is querying two completed novels, one hard science fiction and the other a historical fantasy romance.

• SARAH JANE CODY is the Marketing Assistant at PVWW, in addition to her role as an instructor. Her stories and essays have appeared in journals such as in The Common, Gulf Coast, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. She is a former assistant prose editor at Pigeon Pages, where she was also a reader since near the time of the journal's inception. She was a finalist for Pleiades’s 2018 G.B. Crump Prize in Experimental Fiction, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She’s a graduate of the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College and an alumnus of Tin House’s Summer Workshop. Currently, she’s at work on a novel and a memoir. Find her online at www.sarahjanecody.com

• JOY BAGLIO is the Founder / Director of Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop, and a speculative-literary fiction writer. Her short stories have appeared in journals such as Tin House, American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, The Iowa Review, and forthcoming this summer in Ploughshares. She’s the recipient of fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, The Elizabeth George Foundation, VSC, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, The Kerouac Project, among others. She’s working on a magical short story collection and a novel about two half-mermaid sisters. Find her online at www.JoyBaglio.com

• ROBERT V.S. REDICK is the author of two epic fantasy series: The Fire Sacraments and The Chathrand Voyage Quartet. He is a former professor in the Stonecoast and University of Nevada Reno MFA programs, Hampshire College, and Clark University, and has taught for many years with the Shared Worlds Summer Writing Program. His stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Puerto del Sol, and various anthologies, including Dreams For a Broken World (2023). He was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel, the Booknest Award for Best Novel, and the Thomas Dunn/AWP award for Best Novel. He holds an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Robert is also an international development & environmental justice consultant with 25 years of experience in Latin America and elsewhere. 

• MIRA BARTÓK is the author of The Memory Palace, a New York Times bestselling memoir and winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. Her writing has appeared in numerous places, including Another Chicago Magazine, Jubilat, The Massachusetts Review, Kenyon Review, and Psychology Today, among others. She has also written and illustrated 32 books for children, including The Wonderling: Songcatcher, published by Candlewick Press and The Wonderling: Singing Tree, forthcoming in 2025. A major motion picture of The Wonderling series is currently in development. Mira is also a Fulbright Scholar in Circumpolar Anthropology and Folklore, and a spokesperson for TransCultural Exchange, an international arts organization that seeks to foster greater understanding between world cultures through artistic collaboration.

ABOUT NORTHAMPTON LITERARY WALK, on 4/20:

Join Forbes Library and Mass Center for the Book for a stroll through Downtown Northampton to celebrate all things literary!

Pick up a map at any participating venue. Get at least three stickers on your map throughout the day, then bring your completed map to Forbes Library by April 30 to be entered into a raffle. Check out details for Lit Walk here.