Dede Cummings frequently works as an event producer. Whether it is for grassroots environmental activism, author book launch events, art exhibitions, a cappella concerts, or feature films or documentaries, Cummings shares a passion with her clients for bringing art to life. Environmental activism and organizing is a major impetus for Dede, as she feels the clock is ticking on climate change, and the time is now to do everything to stop global warming. The “buy local/ride local” mantra is a way of life she hopes will be available and supported by all. Here are a few upcoming events Dede is involved in, including her book tour for To Look Out From.
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2017-2018 EVENTS
DEDE & GREEN WRITERS PRESS/GREEN PLACE & DCDESGIN BOOKS AUTHORS
September 14, 4:15 PM ~ Three Vermont Poets: James Crews, Megan Buchanan, Dede Cummings Join us for a special evening of poetry featuring three poets from Vermont: Megan Buchanan, James Crews, and Dede Cummings.
Saturday, October 14, Time TBD ~ Dede reads from her poetry at the Brattleboro Literary Festival (a long-dreamt of goal!).
October 21, 4:15 PM ~ The Northern Woodlands Conference ~ Poetry Reading and Workshop with Dede Cummings at the Hulbert Outdoor Center. GWP author, Tim Weed, will also read and do a workshop on October 21st.
Poetry Reading: To Look Out From, Poetry of Place & Environment with Dede Cummings: When asked in an interview if he was a nature poet, Vermont poet Galway Kinnell responded, “What other kind of poet is there?” Join Vermont poet and founder of Green Writers Press, Dede Cummings, on a journey through time and landscape as she reads selections of poems from her award-winning collection, To Look Out From. John Elder writes of Cummings’ new collection, “What an authentic, moving, and beautifully cadenced collection this is.”
Following the poetry reading, audience participation is encouraged to address questions such as “What role does the environment play in literature? How can instilling a vivid sense of place help literature fulfill its role as a form of solace, enrichment, and betterment for writers?”
Cummings reminds her readers that Henry David Thoreau says, so typically, It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. . . . Bring a favorite nature poem to share.
November 12, 2:00 PM ~ Vermont Voices: Dede Cummings, Megan Buchanan & James Crews. Join Dede Cummings, Megan Buchanan, and James Crews for an afternoon of poetry at Misty Valley Books in Chester, Vermont. “In To Look Out From, Dede Cummings takes good advantage of the imaginative fluidity that poetry offers. Even her poems of memory and family are driven by curiosity and enlivened by quick maneuvers and spritely turns. And she is careful never to leave the reader behind.” —Billy Collins ~ In Telling My Father, James Crews explores familial bonds, memory, and grief through a beautifully written collection of poems. This Cowles Poetry Prize winning manuscript is a risky, bold, and elegant exploration of coming of age against a backdrop of profound loss. ~ This debut poetry collection spans wild open roads, backyard vegetable gardens, Irish pubs, country dance halls, Vermont screen-porches, midnight river valleys, artist studios, and the world of waking dreams. Buchanan’s poems offer fierce evidence of what she calls “ordinary magic” –and what others might call mindfulness–discovering gratitude, the path of recovery, and a mother’s deep joy.
April 2018
Date/Tim TBD: Launch Party with Green Writers Press at Next Stage Arts Project
Brattleboro’s own Dede Cummings will host a reading from her first poetry collection, To Look Out From, winner of the 2016 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize. Dede will read a few poems and host the event: Putney’s TIM WEED, will read from his highly-anticipated, first short story collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing. Guilford’s MEGAN BUCHANAN, has a first poetry collection that she will read a few poems from entitled Clothesline Religion. Brattleboro scribe, PETER GOULD, will read from his memoir of commune tales, Horse-Drawn Yogurt: Stories from Total Loss Farm. JAMES CREWS, poetry editor of The Hopper, will read from his poetry collection, The Book of What Stays and a new chapbook.
April 2018~ Nature Poems, Favorite Poems
PoemCity, Montpelier, Vermont: Join us in exploring the poems that have influenced and inspired our lives. Diana Whitney, the poetry columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of the prizewinning poetry debut WANTING IT, and Dede Cummings, publisher and editor at Green Writers Press, will host a lively discussion of some of their favorite nature poetry. We’ll read classics like Wordsworth, Yeats, and Frost, as well as contemporary poets like Jane Kenyon and Cleopatra Mathis, and then talk openly about why and how their voices speak to us. Bring a copy of your favorite poem if you wish to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier.
Celebrate National Poetry Month with Vermont poets Dede Cummings, Megan Buchanan, and James Crews. Discover “New England poems that transcend New England” (Clarence Major), adventures in the life of an artist as young single mother, forbidden love, forbidden unions, & secret lives at an event featuring Dede Cummings’ To Look Out From, Megan Buchanan’s Clothesline Religion, & James Crews’ The Book of What Stays.
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There will be more events and workshops TK! Please call Dede at 802-380-1121 or email at dede.cummings1@gmail.com if you’d like to schedule an event, reading, workshop, class.Dede and Diana Whitney do a nature poetry workshop/discussion; Dede & Tim Weed also do a Writing Place workshop, and Dede, James & Megan (THREE VT POETS) will read anytime & travel anywhere! Our authors are a community and we often read together.
Dede Cummings 