John Hay Writing Studio Program Participants To Present Their Work

BREWSTER – Twenty-three writers spent the summer using the iconic John Hay writing studio as a daytime retreat. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, 12 of the program participants will share excerpts of the work they wrote in residence to an audience at the Brewster Ladies’ Library. 

Last year, the Brewster Conservation Trust, owner and operator of the John Hay writing studio, launched a program for writers to experience the simplicity, quiet and inspiring nature of the studio while writing their next piece. In its second year, the BCT welcomed 23 writers who wrote an array of different stories, in different formats, centered around different subjects. 

Hay was a nature author who celebrated conservation and the natural world. He was a co-founder of Brewster’s Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and kept his rustic, one-room writing studio atop Dry Hill, where the BCT headquarters is located. Hay passed away in 2011 at the age of 95. 

Participants scheduled to share their work at the reading event include Carol Panasci, Eir Lindstrom-Holmy, Kim Conchran, John Bonanni, Cynthia Mitchell, Ellen Chahey, Lauren Wolk, Brett Warren, Rose Auslander, Lisa Forte-Doyle, Rosemary Dunn Moeller and Mary Clare Casey. 

The subjects of the work ranged from Hay’s own inspiration to a variety of topics including Cape Cod, the moon, wild animals, the human dilemma, life and death. 

Mary Richmond, who writes The Chronicle’ Nature Connection column and participated in the program this summer, published a piece titled about the experience in a previous edition of the paper about her time in the writing studio. 

Monomoy Regional High School teacher Lisa Forte-Doyle created two “found poems,” piecing together lines from an essay of Hay’s. 

Some authors like James McGuane came with a decade’s worth of interviews and notes, and a plan to work on an upcoming book. Some writers let inspiration strike once they had arrived. 

Registration is required for the event, which will run from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the library. To sign up, visit brewsterladieslibrary.org.