Local Writers Get Creative at Gordon College's Five Ponds Creative Writing Festival

Kristen Harnisch immediately said yes to participating in Gordon College’s Five Ponds Creative Writing Festival when her husband pointed it out in the paper.

On March 28, writing enthusiasts congregated at Gordon College for the TKT annual Five Ponds Creative Writing Festival.

The Writing Festival was launched in 2021 by Gordon College’s English Professor Mark Stevick.

“The festival exists to celebrate North Shore writers, to nourish that community, to encourage them to create new works and bring them new audiences,” Stevick said.

The all-day event took place on campus and online, providing four writing workshops with writing prompts that included music and food.

“Anytime you get local writers together, it encourages creativity. Writing is a beautiful world,” said Mark Longhurst, an author and minister.

I agree with that. Writing has always been one of my favorite pastimes. Lately, I felt that I haven’t focused on it enough, and this day reminded me of my passion for it.

My favorite workshops included: ‘Listen Up: Music as a Way to Tap into the Primal in Writing,’ taught by Gordon professor Bryan Parys, and ‘Taste and See,’ taught by Jen Christianson, A Gordon College alum.

You never know how inspiration strikes from music or conversation from a meal. Each writing workshop made participants realize something new about their writing style.

Melissa Tucker, of Beverly, took a class titled “Finding the Line: Writing from Memory, Place and Joy.” It was taught by poet and Salem State University English professor January Gill O’Neil, who was also a presenter at the festival.

“I liked the wide variety of poems she [O’Neil] gave examples of, and now I want to go back and study them,” Tucker said. “She encouraged us to be in the flow and write regularly.”

Tucker and her friend Jennifer Drummond have a writing group of their own and thought attending the festival would be a good way to branch out.

“It’s magical when you are in a group and listening to them read,” Drummond, from Asbury

Grove in Hamilton, said. “It’s fun to reconnect and feel like I’m sitting in a workshop.”

One of my favorite parts of this day was making new connections with fellow writers. During the day, there were several opportunities for participants to chat, discussing what they liked to write about and their favorite authors.

The festival featured three local authors—O’Neil, novelist Paul Harding, and translator Alan Smith Soto. Each read poems they had written and answered questions from the audience.

“This occasion to talk and share about literature and poetry is what we need,” O’Neil said. “We are living in a time where not every story is heard, and this [festival] is a perfect example of how we can stay open to discussion and empathy.”

In the lobby, tables were set up for authors selling their books. Participants could drink a cup of coffee, eat a pastry, and share a conversation.

The festival ended with a keynote reading from Paul Mariani. He read poems about his youth, young adulthood, and old age. Mariani teared up when presenting a poem on his late mother.

“I wrote a song about what women and a wife go through,” Mariani said. “You realize what sacrifices and what love they’ve given.”

The Five Ponds Creative Writing Festival offered an opportunity for writing enthusiasts to refine their craft.

“Heartening.” This is the word that Darcy Borowitz, a Gordon College graduate from the Class of 2011, used to describe the day. She said she had not written in a very long time.

“The festival was very rich, robust, and had lots of variety,” Hamilton resident Margaret Leslie said. “What impressed me was how many ideas we could draw on.”