Manor Mill Writers Guild Prose Night
Monday, November 18 Featured Author
Richard Chizmar
Richard is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author.
He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy’s Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award.
Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little.
Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, Stephen King Revisited. His fourth short story collection, The Long Way Home, was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of the acclaimed Dark Screams horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra.
His latest book, The Girl on the Porch, was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and Widow’s Point, a chilling novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, W.H. Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film.
Writer’s Retreat
Save the date and summon your muse! The Manor Mill Writers’ Guild is hosting a day-long writing retreat on Saturday, November 16.
Join us for a monthly prose night at the Manor Mill! We will start with a reading by a published author, follow with a brief Q&A about the author’s work and journey as a writer, and then we will open up the floor for a prose open mic. Come and meet fellow writers and share your work! Snacks will be provided and BYOB.
Schedule
Doors open at 6:45 PM and readings start 7:00 PM up in The Loft and on the second floor when the weather gets cold.
Prose nights are the third Monday of every month.
Open mic readings have a suggested time limit of 7 minutes. Open mic is limited to the first six readers who sign up at the door. Anyone who signs up after that will get priority at the next Prose night. Priority may also be given to new comers.
Open Mic Information
Open mic readings have a suggested time limit of 7 minutes.
Open mic will be limited to the first eight readers who sign up at the door, and anyone who signs up after that will get priority at the next Prose night.
We encourage open mic readers to:
*Rehearse their pieces at home before coming to open mic. Rehearsing at home, out loud and at full volume, will help ensure your piece is within the 7-minute time limit. (Often, reading out loud and at full volume extends the time of a reading.)
*Mark up the pages before you bring them, where to slow down, where to pause to be dramatic, etc.
*Remember that 7 minutes is the maximum time, and stories that are only a few minutes long are welcome!
*Speak slowly, almost as if you are reading in a language foreign to the audience, so that the audience can fully digest your piece. Ears respond more slowly than eyes when taking in words!
Learn more about Manor Mill’s Writer’s Retreat, Saturday, November 16!
2024 UPCOMING Authors
Monday, November 18:
Richard Chizmar will read from his new novel, Memorials.
Tell us you’re coming!
monday, December 2:
No featured author. This month we’ll be combining forces with the Poetry Night folks for an extended time of open mic, food and fellowship.
If you wish to read, please come prepared with one piece of writing - poetry or prose - of a maximum of five minutes in length.
Doors open 6:15pm, poetry & prose open mic begins 6:30pm with a break in the middle to eat, drink and mingle!
Tell us you’re coming!
2025 Upcoming Authors
Monday, January 20:
Antje Rauwerda, Professor of British and Postcolonial Literatures at Goucher College.
She will read from her novel, Slow Time
Monday, February 17:
Matthew Norman
He will read from his latest novel, Charm City Rocks.
Monday, March 17:
Florence Martin, Dean John Blackford Van Meter Professor of French Transnational Studies at Goucher College.
She will read from latest book, Farida Benlyazid and Moroccan Cinema
Monday, April 21:
Katie Kitamura, author and creative writing professor.
Katie will read from her new novel, Audition
Monday, May 19:
Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
She will read from her forthcoming book, Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free.
Monday, June 16:
Christine Merriman
She will read from the first two books in the Lissa Power series: At the Far End of Nowhere and Traveling a Slant Rhyme: 1973-1974. She will sell her books for $20.
“Prose Night has been one of my favorite book events for Swimming with Ghosts! Susan is a warm and welcoming host, and what a terrific audience! I love how you combined the event with an open mic. Brilliant. And the space is just gorgeous.”
- Michelle Brafman
If you would like to learn more about the Guild meet-ups or have any other inquiries regarding readings at Manor Mill, Please submit the form below!
Susan Keatley, Prose Night Host
Meet Guild Prose Host, Susan Keatley
Susan Keatley is a writer living in Phoenix, Maryland. While getting her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she would look longingly at copies of Science magazine and wish not to be published in the research section, but in the section upfront where someone wrote about what the research meant. Susan has written about science and other topics for the New York Times, the Simons Foundation, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly, and has been a moderator at the Newburyport Literary Festival in her hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts. She is also at work on a novel. She loves meeting and talking to writers and is thrilled to host the Manor Mill Writers Guild Prose night.