Wrap-Up from CRNY Visiting Writer Erin Dorney

What fun it has been to serve as ACW’s Visiting Writer over the past two years. I am so grateful for the support of the Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) Artist Employment Program and the Adirondack Center for Writing as we embarked on three major collaborations together:

ACW’s Poetry Machines

Did you encounter one of our Poetry Machines to get a free poem or writing prompt? These two rehabilitated capsule machines moved around to different spots inside or near the Adirondack Park. We visited more than 15 different locations, including a diner, a movie theater, a farm store/deli, a hardware store, an ice cream shop, a convenience store, a courthouse/dmv, a coffee shop, a pharmacy, a library, and a greenhouse/produce market, bringing poetry everywhere we went.

Over the course of this project, I personally drove more than 4,000 miles to deliver the machine to different locations around the North Country. See the full map here!

3,500 poems, prompts & community writing distributed during the 2-year grant period

Wild Words Adirondack Teen Writing Anthology

With anthologies published in 2023 and 2024, Wild Words presented creative writing from teens living in the North Country of New York. We received hundreds of submissions of poems, essays, short stories, book excerpts, plays, and more from teen writers, and were pleased to publish 140 different writers over the course of two years. At our book launches, teens were invited to read their work out loud and celebrate becoming published!

To order a copy of the 2024 or 2023 Wild Words Anthology, send us an email at info@adirondackcenterforwriting.org. Suggested donation is $5 for pickup and $9 to ship.

Over 500 copies of the two anthologies have been distributed to date.

Postcard Poems Broadside Series

Postcard Poems was a broadside series featuring four poems from New York State writers, with artwork from New York State artists/designers, printed in New York. Can you tell that we love NYS?! Poems were selected through an open submission process, and we couldn’t be happier with the collaborations between artists and writers. All four broadsides were acquired by the University of Arizona Poetry Center Broadside Collection and Poets House in NYC, giving the project and all artists and writers involved even more visibility. 

Through July 7 you can purchase one or all four Postcard Poems online. 

I also had a great time coordinating the bookfair at ACW’s 2024 Kick*ss Writers Festival and developing the #ACWReads social media campaign.