By Hanna Tadesse
SUNY Oneonta/Institute for Local News
HOBART – The Hobart Festival of Women Writers will return to the village of Hobart from June 5–7, offering three days of workshops, free public readings and community gatherings that celebrate women’s literary voices in the heart of the Catskills.
Now in its 14th year, the festival brings together established and emerging writers from a range of genres, along with readers and literary enthusiasts. Events take place throughout Hobart’s independent bookstores and community spaces, reinforcing the village’s long-standing identity as a literary destination, the “Hobart Book Village of the Catskills.”
Founded in 2013 by Breena Clarke, Cheryl Clarke and Barbara Balliet, the festival was inspired by Breena Clarke’s vision to pair writers with Hobart’s bookstores and scenery while supporting local businesses. From the beginning, the festival has focused on creating a welcoming and inclusive space for women in literature.
“Even though women are overrepresented as readers, they are underrepresented as writers still, even today,” said Barbara Balliet, owner of Hobart’s Blenheim Hill Books and a former professor and administrator at Rutgers University.
“So, part of why we wanted to do this was to provide a platform for both emerging and established writers, where they could come together and share their ideas, their expertise.”
Balliet added, “Women still need spaces where they can be the point. It frequently is not the case that women are the center, so the idea was to center women and women’s work”
This year’s lineup includes writers working across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Featured presenters include New York City writer Stephanie Nikolopoulos, co-author of “Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road,” who will offer the workshop “Marketing Your Book in a Crowded Marketplace.” Stephanie Cotsirilos, author of the novella “My Xanthi,” will lead “Writing Later in Life: Secrets and the Sacred.” First-time Hobart presenter Lyndsey Ellis, author of the novel “Bone Broth,” will offer “Writing Real Without Forfeiting Care.”
The festival will also feature Bertha Rogers’ children’s and family workshop, “Family Poetry/Art Project,” as well as the popular “Good Stories” intensive workshop with New York City-based poet and novelist Esther Cohen.
“Every year there’s a group of women who really are eager to take that intensive six-hour workshop to get to work with Esther,” Breena Clarke said about Cohen’s “Good Stories” session.
Festival organizers emphasize that the weekend’s programming is designed to be accessible and welcoming, regardless of experience level.
Workshops are designed to create a level playing field, where there is “something for everybody and they can feel welcome,” Breena Clarke said.
Esther Cohen, whose latest book “All of Us: Stories and Poems Along Route 17” is set in upstate New York, contrasted Hobart’s approach with the structure of some traditional writing programs.
“In a way, many writers’ workshops are very hierarchical and elite, and some people are better than other people,” the author said. “And it’s not a big mix of race, class, and age [like what] you see in Hobart.” Cohen praised the Hobart festival for creating a true community.
According to Cohen, the connections formed during the weekend often extend well beyond the festival itself.
“This community is life changing. It really is life changing,” Cohen declared. “And the women – I’m touched every year because the women have stayed together in contact with each other because of the community and the effort that they’ve done in Hobart.”
Free public readings, held throughout the weekend, are a highlight for both writers and audiences and do not require registration.
“There is a feeling of camaraderie that many people really do come to the festival for,” Cheryl Clarke explained. “They enjoy it – readers, people who come who are not writers but who enjoy literature and who come to listen to the readings.” Clarke, a prolific Black lesbian poet, writer, scholar, and activist and educator at Rutgers University, added, “And of course, they’re open to everybody.”
Now a program of Performance Plus of Stamford NY, a regional nonprofit organization, the Hobart Festival of Women Writers pays its presenters and offers scholarships, with ongoing support from volunteers, local businesses and community members.
Registration will open soon. Additional information is available at hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog.
This story was created by student reporters through the OnNY Community Media Lab, a program of SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY Institute for Local News.
