BRATTLEBORO — On Thursday nights, the Lounge at Duo Restaurant on Main Street in Brattleboro transforms into “The Book Lounge,” where poets, writers, and readers mingle and lean into “this beautiful profession,” according to a news release.
The Book Lounge is curated by the editors at Green Writers Press, an independent publisher located in Brattleboro, to foster a social community around the creative arts in southern Vermont. Outside writers also will be invited to participate. The group meets every Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m., with a social hour from 7 to 8 p.m. Each session will also feature writing prompts and ideas for readers and writers. The Book Lounge also will be a place to discuss what people are reading in small groups in a casual setting.
Here are the group's guests in the coming weeks:
• July 7: Local writer/editor Abigail Gehring, who is also a publisher at Skyhorse Publishing, and local author Jodi Paloni, author of the new short story collection, “They Could Live with Themselves,” and editors at Green Writers Press.
• July 14: Local prize-winning poet Diana Whitney, author of the poetry collection “Wanting It,” and editors at Green Writers Press.
• July 21: Local author Desha Peacock, author of “Sweet Spot Style Guide: The Style You Crave on a Budget You Can Afford,” and editors at Green Writers Press.
• July 28: Local author Castle Freeman Jr. and Dede Cummings, founder of Green Writers Press. Freeman was born in Texas, raised in Chicago, and educated in New York. He came to Vermont with his wife, Alice, in 1972, and has lived in Newfane for 40 years. He is the author of many stories, essays, and novels, mainly concerned in one way or another with the life of this place and its people - most recently, “The Devil in the Valley,” a novel, published last fall by Overlook Press in New York.