Director of Affiliate and Training Programs: Maureen Buchanan Jones
Maureen Buchanan Jones is the Director of AWA’s Affiliate and Training Programs. She is an AWA Affiliate, trained and mentored by Pat Schneider, and leads weekly workshops in Amherst, Massachusetts, as well as weekend retreats. She leads a bi-monthly manuscript group, is a freelance editor for fiction, non-fiction and memoir, and has led workshops with women who have experienced domestic violence. Maureen has been an AWA instructor for the AWA workshop leadership trainings for eight years in Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Oregon, New York, Illinois, North Carolina, Ontario and Ireland. She won the 1986 Fellowship from the American Society for Theatre Research as well as the 1991 University of Massachusetts Spectrum Graduate Poetry Award. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts and taught literature, creative writing and technical writing for 17 years at the University of Massachusetts, Holyoke Community College, Westfield State College and the Conway School of Landscape Design, where she oversaw Masters theses, developed an inter-subject curriculum, participated in accreditation reviews and sat on the admissions review committee. She is a Phi Beta Kappa. Her poetry has appeared in Woman in Natural Resources, 13th Moon, Peregrine, North Dakota Quarterly Review, Letters from Daughters to Fathers, WriterAdvice, Equinox and Calyx. Her middle grade novel is represented by Brianne Johnson of Writers House Literary Agency. She is at work on a sequel. Her prose has appeared in Orion and on WFCR-NPR. Her book of poems, blessed are the menial chores, was published in 2012 by AWA Press.
Managing Director: Katie Frank
info@amherstwriters.org
Katie is the Managing Director of Amherst Writers & Artists. She is an AWA Affiliate and Hampshire College alumnus. Born and raised in Oregon, she took the Initial Workshop Leadership Training in Corvallis and has since led workshops in rural libraries across her home state and with SAGE in Portland. In the past, she has worked for CALYX, Inc. and the Jones Library. She is a poet and performer. In 2010, while running a weekly open mic and poetry reading at Hampshire, Kate coached and competed with the only college team to attend the National Poetry Slam. In 2012 Kate produced, wrote, and performed in The Joy Experiments, a solo show which has since traveled to The Carriage House in Michigan and SoloFest in New Mexico. Her current project is adapting The Joy Experiments from a performance text into a poetry manuscript. Her poems have appeared in Whiskey Island, Crab Creek Review, Phantom Kangaroo, and The Legendary.