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Mon: 5 p.m. - 9 p .m.
Tues: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Wed: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Thurs: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Fri: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sat: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.



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Support Our Work in the Rochester Community

Now you can contribute to our annual fund online. Just click here to add your contribution to your shopping cart.

 WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO KEEP
THE WRITTEN WORD ALIVE?

Dear Friend of Writers & Books,

We’ve all heard about magazines and newspapers recently closing down because of reduced readership.  Perhaps one of your favorite publications has disappeared. In fact, we are now faced with the possibility of major American cities, such as Philadelphia and Denver, not having a daily newspaper. It is also true that publishers are printing fewer books and writers are having a harder time reaching an audience.

On the other hand, I’m sure you’d find it hard to imagine your life without reading and writing.  There are the many personal stories, perhaps even one of your own, of how a certain book or poem changed someone’s life. We know the written word is crucial not only to our lives, but also to our community, our country, and to people around the world.

So, with the circulation of newspapers dwindling across the country, established magazines going out of business and publishing houses shutting down, what does it take to keep the written word alive?

It takes an organization working 365 days a year to promote reading, writing, literacy and the spoken word right here in the greater Rochester area. An organization that offers to this community:

•          over 200 writing classes for young people, adults and seniors in non-fiction, journalism, business writing, fiction writing, poetry, screenwriting and more

•          SummerWrite creative camp for children ages 6 – 19, held from June through August, offering 70 different classes that teach and inspire a love of reading and writing

•          scholarships for children and adults that make it possible for ANYONE to participate in our programs

•          a reading series featuring both local and visiting authors

•          two community-wide reading programs-The Big Read and If All of Rochester Read the Same Book-that reach 25,000 people twice a year

•          writing retreats for new and already established writers at The Gell Center of the Finger Lakes-our rural writers retreat in South Bristol

•          community engagement with partners such as the Memorial Art Gallery, Valley Manor Senior Living Center, The George Eastman House, The Red Cross,  Rochester Young Professionals, the Susan B. Anthony House, the Jewish Community Center and many others

But to continue our work, we need your help! With the support of friends like you, Writers & Books has been an important part of the Rochester cultural landscape for the past 28 years. During that time we have grown into one of the country’s largest community literary centers with the highest per capita participation in the United States.

Won’t you consider becoming a Friend of Writers & Books today and contributing to our 2009-2010 annual fund drive? Your tax-deductible contribution will make a significant impact. We don’t need $700 billion to do what we do well. Send us just $70 – a mere .00000001% of what Wall Street needed and watch what we do with it! (Of course, we would be happy to accept more…) That money will be used for many remarkable things.

But your gift can do another very special thing. It can express your thanks to a writer or book that changed your life. When you make your contribution we encourage you to tell us the name of the writer or book that made a difference in your life. 

You never know whose life you will touch–or change–through your contribution.

YOU CAN HELP KEEP THE WRITTEN WORD ALIVE.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE WRITERS & BOOKS 2009-2010 ANNUAL FUND DRIVE.

Sincerely,

Joe Flaherty

Executive Director

Contribution Levels

  • up to $99 (Poet)
  • $100-$249 (Editor)
  • $250-$499 (Novelist)
  • $500-$999 (Publisher)
  • $1,000-$4,999 (Muse)
  • $5,000+ (Godsend)

NEW!!!

Now you can contribute to our annual fund online. Just click here to add your contribution to your shopping cart.

 

 
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The Beautiful Necessity: The Regulating Lines of Claude Bragdon’s Transcendental Architecture

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 7 p.m.
$3 W&B members / $6 general public

“In nature, in number, in geometry, in music, also, there is but one law, a law infinitely simple, infinitely subtle, incommunicable, evanescent. It is what Emerson calls the Beautiful Necessity. Gentlemen, let us build altars to that Beautiful Necessity.”
-- Claude Bragdon, “Mysticism and Architecture.”
Join us for an exciting presentation by Eugenia Victoria Ellis, PhD, AIA, who with Andrea G. Reithmayr is editor of The Beautiful Necessity.

First Fridays / Wide Open Mic

Hosted by Norm Davis
Fri., August 6
Admission is free.

Along with other local galleries and performance spaces, W&B will be open on the first Friday evenings of each month hosting Wide Open Mic, and a series of other readings and performances in our Verb Café and Performance Space. Known for its eclectic mix, Wide Open Mic welcomes poets, performers, and writers of all kinds. It is Rochester’s longer-running open mic, hosted by Norm Davis, poet and editor of HazMat Review.

Genesee Reading Series

Hosted by Wanda Schubmehl
August 10: James Cook & Sally Bittner Bonn
$3 W&B members / $6 general public, 7:30 p.m

Now in its 26th year, the Genesee Reading Series presents writers from the greater Genesee Valley region reading in the W&B Performance Space.

Senior Reading Group

Hosted by Norm Davis
Tues. August 10
Free and open to the public. 2-4 p.m.

Share your writing with other seniors in a comfortable atmosphere at W&B.

Members Night Events

Wed., August 11th 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Adult
Free to W&B members

If you aren’t a member of W&B, here is your chance to join at the door and enjoy a special read-aloud with audience participation on August 11th.

The August Member Night will feature a poet and story teller, sharing the oral arts of reading aloud with a chance for audience participation.  Come listen and see how words come alive in the throat, and a chance to taste them yourself.

The Bertrand Russell Society

Hosted by David White
Thurs., August 12
Free to W&B members, $3 general public, 7 p.m., W&B

The Bertrand Russell Society was formed shortly after Russell’s death in 1970. Russell was born in 1872 and worked in fields such as mathematical logic; philosophy; social, religious, and educational reform; anti-war protests and politics. An accomplished writer, Russell received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. This ongoing lecture series promises to enlighten and entertain. Monthly meetings are open to everyone, not just to members of the society.

 

 

Click here for more August Events...

 

 

Writers & Books, Rochester's community literary center, inspires and instructs over 25,000 people each year through a wide array of offerings in nearly every literary genre. Believing that the written and spoken word are central to our lives and culture, Writers & Books celebrates, promotes and works to make them available to all. Writers & Books is located at 740 University Avenue, near Atlantic Avenue in the Neighborhood of the Arts.