The Madwomen in the Attic

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October 26, 2 p.m. EDT: Raising Our Voices, Carlow MFA’s virtual alumni reading series. Featuring AKaiser and the Catalan poet Anna Gual. Free & open to the public. Includes moderated discussion and Q&A. RSVP for the Zoom livestream: bit.ly/4mQMb4n

Two weeks left!

Save the date! Nov-9-2025: Digital stories created by Christina Fisanick’s Fall 2024 & Summer 2025 Madwomen digital storytelling workshops. 4:00 p.m. EST. COhatch, 5428 Walnut Street, Pittsburgh PA; and on Zoom. Free & open to the public. Zoom link to come soon!

Walk & Write: Homewood Cemetery – Shiftworks Community + Public Arts Join historian and archivist Jennie Benford and author Sherrie Flick for a creative writing and walking tour of historic Homewood Cemetery.

Join Madwomen instructor Sherrie Flick for her Walk & Write Tour on Oct 18! This month is at Homewood Cemetery w/Jennie Benford: shiftworkspgh.org/event/homewo...

4 weeks left to submit to the 2025 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award! Open to women writers aged 40+ w/out a full-length poetry book (chapbooks & self-published books excepted). Prize: $1K, reading w/judge Jenny Johnson, poem publication. $20/2 poems. Deadline: Oct-31-2025. Rules: www.carlow.edu/dobler.

Join us Oct 19, 2-4 p.m. for an afternoon of poetry, art, & community! Readings by Madwomen inspired by the Vanka murals, all-ages artmaking, sound baths & songs! Free & open to the public. St. Nicholas Church, 24 Maryland Ave, Millvale. RSVP: bit.ly/4gTj9zL #anthropologyofmotherhood #savemaxovanka

Madwoman Kara Knickerbocker reads w/Damian Rucci & Jay Orlando at the Oddmonth Poetry Series! Sep 27, 7-8:30 pm, Bantha Tea Bar, 5002 Penn Ave, Pgh. Free admission (donations appreciated but optional), books for sale.

Submit to the 2025 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award! Open to women writers aged 40+ w/out a full-length poetry book (chapbooks & self-published books excepted). Prize: $1000, a reading w/judge Jenny Johnson, poem publication. Fee: $20/2 poems. Deadline: October 31, 2025. Rules: www.carlow.edu/dobler.

Registration for our Fall 2025 creative writing workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry opens July 14th! Online workshops meet on Zoom, on campus workshops meet at Carlow University. Check out our complete workshop listings at bit.ly/fa25mad

TWIST: Building Empathy Through Literature with Colum McCann - City of Asylum Award-winning Irish novelist, Colum McCann discusses his nonprofit work and upcoming empathy-building novel 'Twist."

May 20, 6:30 EDT: Madwomen director @sarahshotland.bsky.social will be in dialogue with National Book Award winner Colum McCann as part of the @cityofasylum.bsky.social Bridges Creative Summit. Free and open to the public. RSVP for in-person or livestream: cityofasylum.org/program/twis...

Spaces still open in our Summer 2025 Zoom writing workshops! Poetry, digital storytelling, & all-genre writing. Workshops start late May/early June! Visit bit.ly/su25mad to register. #writingworkshop #digitalstorytelling #poetrycommunity #creativenonfiction #creativewriting

Summer 2025 Madwomen creative writing workshop registration opens April 30 at 1:00 p.m. EDT! Visit bit.ly/su25mad for complete workshop & registration info. Online workshops meet on Zoom, on campus workshops meet at Carlow University. #poetry #nonfiction #fiction #writingworkshop #womenwriters

At Carlow, Madwomen in the Attic program offers a safe space for "visionary" femme writers The group has been mentoring dynamic poets, writers, artists, and thinkers for almost 50 years.

The program has grown over the past four decades, continuing to uplift and inspire writers through mentorship and creative collaboration:

NEXT WEEK! The Ninth Annual Dorothy Louise Holley Memorial Reading with poet, essayist, and critic Camille T. Dungy! Thursday, April 24, 2025, 7:00 p.m. EDT, online via Zoom, free and open to the public. We hope you can join us! RSVP: holley25dungy.eventbrite.com.

Just two weeks until the Ninth Annual Dorothy Louise Holley Memorial Reading with poet, essayist, and critic Camille T. Dungy! Thursday, April 24, 2025, 7:00 p.m. EDT, online via Zoom, free and open to the public. We hope you can join us! RSVP: holley25dungy.eventbrite.com.

Join us on Thursday, April 24, 2025, for the Ninth Annual Dorothy Louise Holley Memorial Reading featuring Camille T. Dungy! RSVP for this virtual reading: holley25dungy.eventbrite.com.
7:00 p.m. EDT. Free & open to the public. Questions? madwomen@carlow.edu.

Just 1 week until the 2024 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award Reading with Jan Beatty & Andrea England! Attend in person at Carlow’s Gailliot Center or RSVP for the Zoom livestream (bit.ly/dobler24read...). April 2nd, 7:00 p.m. EDT. Free and open to the public. Questions? Email madwomen@carlow.edu.

Just 2 weeks until the 2024 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award Reading with Jan Beatty & Andrea England! Attend in person at Carlow’s Gailliot Center or RSVP for the Zoom livestream (bit.ly/dobler24read...). April 2nd, 7:00 p.m. EDT. Free and open to the public. Questions? Email madwomen@carlow.edu.

This reading is supported in part by The Dorothy Louise Holley Endowment and sponsored by @carlowuniversity’s Department of Art, Communication, & English; Creative Writing Program; and Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

As a Madwoman in the Attic, Dorothy found fellow writers and kindred spirits who shared their work and growth as published writers. While in her 80's, Dorothy published four volumes of poetry with Foothills Publishing: A Whole Quart Jar, The Garden Journals, Late Day Thoughts, and Dream Quartet.

DOROTHY HOLLEY’s creative energy and strong faith manifested itself in her love for gardening, storytelling, and writing about those things which profoundly touched her life. Dorothy’s daughter, Beth Piraino, MD, established this endowment in memory of her beloved mother.

A University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University, Dungy’s honors include the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, an Honorary Doctorate from SUNY ESF, and fellowships from the NEA in both prose and poetry.

She edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and also co-edited the From the Fishouse poetry anthology and served as assistant editor for Gathering Ground: Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade.

CAMILLE T. DUNGY is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. Dungy has also written four collections of poetry, including Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History.

Join us on Thursday, April 24, 2025, for the Ninth Annual Dorothy Louise Holley Memorial Reading featuring Camille T. Dungy! RSVP for this virtual reading: holley25dungy.eventbrite.com.
7:00 p.m. EDT. Free & open to the public. Questions? madwomen@carlow.edu.

This reading is sponsored by Carlow University’s Department of Art, Communication, and English; Creative Writing Program; and Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

The Patricia Dobler Poetry Award is an annual contest open to women writers aged 40+ who have not published a full-length book of poetry. This award is named for the late poet Patricia Dobler, who taught for many years at Carlow University and directed the Women’s Center for Creative Writing.

Andrea England is co-editor of the anthology Scientists and Poets #Resist (Brill Press, 2019) and the author of two chapbooks, Other Geographies (Creative Justice Press, 2017, winner of the Creative Justice Poetry Prize), and Inventory of a Field (Finishing Line Press, 2014).

Jan Beatty is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently Dragstripping, The Body Wars, and Jackknife: New and Selected Poems, which won the Paterson Poetry Prize. Her memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Prize.