Burlington Writers’ Workshop Book Launch by Annalisa Parent (continued)

“It’s always great to hear something new and fresh to my ears,” Saunders said.

Though the mood was light,  the quality of the author presentations showed this is a group that takes writing seriously.  In his opening remarks, the group’s organizer, Peter Biello, pointed to the collaborative nature of the group, of its work on the anthology and on the evening itself.

“There is no feeling better than the feeling we’ve helped one another,” Biello told the gathering.

He went on to offer gifts of gratitude to the work’s editors. Amanda Vella, whose “encouragement, tact, and grace” in the weekly workshops Biello lauded; Paul Hobday, whose ability to “have the reader in mind” in his own writing Biello praised; and Martin Bock, the longest serving member of the BWW, whom Biello described as a “poet and visual artist of the highest caliber,” and whose contributions he touted as immeasurable.

“I find giving things away really gratifying,” Biello told Thread. “I was expressing deep gratitude. They deserved so much more than I am able to give.”

Six of the writers whose writing was included in the anthology read from their work at the event.

Hobday said that in his role as fiction editor he was looking for “compelling characters, original stories, and nothing too terribly long.”  The anthology also included “high quality lyric and narrative poetry.”

Biello selected photos by local photographers for inclusion.

“I wanted photos that compelled the viewer to look for the story or emotion that hovered just below the surface,” Biello said.

The anthology is part of the group’s long-term goal of building a literary journal that Biello hopes holds its own against other journals across the country. This year’s editors accepted about 20 percent of the 182 submissions made by its members — a group of 579 members that gains between twenty and thirty new members per month.

BWW members participate in weekly workshops where they share and critique each other’s writing.  Biello attributes BWW’s success to the effectiveness of these workshops.

“The feedback is very, very good,” Biello said. “Members rated the feedback as the top reason they kept coming back.”

“The workshops are great motivators,” added Hobday, who is also an active fiction writer in the process of editing a manuscript. “They have a way of taking a terrible story and helping it turn around.”

But it’s not only the critique that draws in local writers in droves.

“It’s  a great opportunity for writers to connect with other people who are writing,” Hobday said. “There’s something about being in community that fosters creativity.”

Biello couldn’t agree more. Not only is he the group’s organizer, but he shares his work bimonthly for critique in the workshops.

“I really do like the social aspect,” Biello said. “These people are my friends. I love them. Reading and responding to something your friends and colleagues have worked really hard to produce is an act of love.”

“In this ever-growing group, there’s always room for new members,” Biello said. Recalling a quote from Ernest Hemingway, he added, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes master.”

That truth, Biello explained, is not meant to discourage the aspiring writer. In fact, it is meant to provoke the opposite.

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