Pagoda Writers Circle

Past Events (current year)

February 10, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Lee Bukowski on The Write Path: From Contemplation to Publication

We had a presentation by Lee Bukowski, author of the fiction novel, A Week of Warm Weather. Lee looks forward to engaging with attendees about their writing goals. She will discuss her journey turning the page from seventh grade English teacher to published novelist—and all the plot twists along the way.

Lee Bukowski is a lifelong resident of Berks County. A former junior high English teacher, she lives in Exeter and teaches freshman writing at Alvernia University. "A Week of Warm Weather" is her debut novel. Lee is currently working on her second novel.

When she’s not teaching or writing, Lee loves reading and traveling, especially visiting her grown daughters in Boston and Fort Lauderdale. She’s also a self-proclaimed Billy Joel superfan with a live concert count of forty-nine shows.

Gregory Aulenbach on Whatever the Dream - Give Her Wings and Let Her Fly

If you ever had a dream ... one that was never fulfilled, this workshop is for you. This workshop is about going past your self-made limiting thoughts into the realm of Infinity. Greg will share with you some of his favorite books and ideas that have inspired him and changed the way he thinks. It will be an exercise in finding your inner voice, connecting to spirit, and creating from a place that is much greater than yourself.

As with many passion projects, Greg's book was a collaborative effort. Several people from the Pagoda Writers group contributed. Every person who worked on this project freely gave their time and talents.

Greg Aulenbach is a dreamer, an artist, a dentist and a visionary, with a love of animals, photography, antiques, architecture, and art. A couple of years ago, Infinity pulled all of his favorite passions together and the book, Dogs in Doors, was born. The genesis of the book was in the fall of 2020, just 6 months into the pandemic. There was a general feeling of hopelessness and despair. He thought, who better can give a message of resiliency than rescue dogs? It is a book of hope and inspiration as the dogs tell their story in the first person and then share what they learned from the journey. It was created to meet three main objectives: 1) raise funds for animal rescue organizations 2) raise awareness of the need to rescue these amazing creatures 3) and remind us of valuable forgotten moral lessons.

Greg considers himself "a photographer with no credentials, a writer with no credentials" and believes that our greatest treasures in life find us, rather than the other way around.

March 16, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Elizabeth Clark on Who Wants to Hear From Me Anyway?

One of the greatest challenges for writers is to get out of our own way and our own doubts in order to let our stories shine! This workshop will explore writing to be published starting with the basic questions of “Why do I write?” and “Who am I writing for?” We will discuss support networks, coalition building and the process of manifesting to bring more joy into the creative process.

Elizabeth (Liz) Clark was raised in the suburbs of New Jersey. A Penn State University graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, she has enjoyed an eclectic career with stints as a Nuclear Engineer, Construction Project Manager, Strategic Planner, Quality and Healthcare Regulatory Director and Change Management Consultant. She settled into northern Berks County in the year 2000 when she got what she thought was a great deal on an eighteenth century, thirty-four acre farm. (That was before she found out about the ghosts.) Learning the peculiarities of country life and bringing the house and outbuildings back from the brink of decay and destruction has been a labor of love for the past twenty four years.

Her writing credits include her book, Lessons From the Hoghouse, a humorous account of her adventures as an enthusiastic and somewhat naïve first time farm owner surviving the wilds of Berks County. She has written for the local theatre group, Reading Theatre Project, co-authoring the full length play, “Dead of Winter: A Berks Haunting” with Sue Lange and Joel Gori, and “Jar of Olives” a short play for the RTP Plays on Fear Collection. Liz is also a published poet.

In love with all things Country, Liz is an avid canner and perennial gardener. Flower Hill Farm was recently recognized as a pollinator friendly garden by the Penn State Master Gardeners. The Farm is also home to a small Thoroughbred and Dutch Warmblood horse breeding operation. The program has produced multiple champions in the Hunter and Jumper disciplines.

April 27, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Heather H. Thomas on Power of Story . . . Power of a Word

If fiction writers are driven by the power of story, poets are driven by the power of a word. “A word opens a door,” wrote the poet H.D. A door to the place “where our living inheritance is stored . . . . buried under the accumulated rubble of prescribed thinking, of inevitable social pruning and trimming of emotion and imagination.” In that place we discover that a poem is not like anything else. “It is the very lining of the inner life,” as poet C.D. Wright wrote. In this workshop we spiraled into language, made a word sculpture or word bank, played with sound, color, or the naming of parts. We may find resemblances among strangers. We will discuss the ways in which writing a poem may strengthen your work in prose fiction. Considering that “style is rhythm,” as the 20th century prose stylist Virginia Woolf said, may be one discovery.

Heather H. Thomas is the author of Vortex Street (FutureCycle Press, 2018) and eight other poetry books, including two bilingual collections. Her work won honors in the 2022 Joy Harjo Prize, the 2014 Rita Dove Prize, from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, and as a National Poetry Series finalist. Recent poems are published in Barrow Street; New Verse News; Pedestal Magazine; Persimmon Tree; The Wallace Stevens Journal; and the anthology Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate for Social Justice (Michigan State U Press). New work is forthcoming in Quartet Journal. Heather’s poems are translated into six languages, including Arabic, and widely anthologized, most recently in Featured Poets 2023 (Moonstone Press). Also published as H.T. Harrison, Heather has read her poems nationally and internationally in countries including Argentina, Russia, Israel, and Egypt. An emerita professor at Kutztown University, where she taught creative writing, poetry, and literature for 25 years, she also taught at Cedar Crest College. Heather served as Berks County Poet Laureate, 2008-2010. She began her career as a journalist, working 13 years as a reporter and editor for the Reading Eagle before pursuing her doctorate in English from Temple University. She lives along the Schuylkill River in Reading, Pennsylvania, with her cat, Lilibet. Her website is www.HeatherHThomas.com.

May 18, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Christina Scornavacchi on Accessing the Wisdom of Your Inner Child to Calm the Noise and Release Your Creative Shadows

Inspiration and intention drive our writing process. Sometimes, we get in our own way, blocking creativity. With a little compassion for ourselves we can better ignite passion for our writing and creative projects. Tina shared how her books were inspired by her work over the years with very young children, special needs youth, troubled adolescents and adults--all traversing growing pains. She found that the methods for restoring calm and reawakening the mind/heart connection can work across all ages and opens a gateway to creative energy. You can use these methods to calm and clear your mind, allow your muse to reconnect when life gets in the way.

Christina "Tina" Scornavacchi is an advanced addictions counselor and an ordained minister through the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. Tina has worked at Caron Foundation since 2002, first as a behavioral health technician and then as a life skills counselor. After attending seminary for two years she moved into her current role as a spiritual counselor and behavior technician. Prior to working at Caron, Tina was a Montessori teacher. During this time she created an infant/toddler program for the school. She has written two books for children, Star Kisses for You and Sun Kisses for You, which offer hope and inspiration for children of all ages and faith traditions. The books are used at Caron in the Satell Family Children and Teens Program.

Tina is a lifelong Berks County native, raising two daughters, Noelle and Rachael, with husband, Tom. Currently residing in Robesonia, she enjoys her 3 grandchildren, devotes time to Common Ground Community and actively supports the LGBTQ community.

June 8, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Trudy E. Moore on Getting the Creative Juices Flowing!

This workshop will provide incentives for potential writers to work inside and outside the box. To write with and without definite purpose.

Trudy has a Master's Degree in English and was an English teacher for 32 years and Department Chair for 16 of those years. Her writing experiences were mostly in professional journals and magazines. However, she taught many students how to write more effectively and taught creative writing seminars throughout her career. The idea was to write the "Great American Novel" when she retired, but she moved to Berks County only to become enamored with the art world , specifically painting and photography. However, even at her advanced age, Trudy still thinks of writing a novel, but probably not the "great one."

Trudy notes, "Family-wise, I am one of two people born and raised in the US. My background is European and education of prime importance. I had a long career in teaching but also found time to become an avid sailor and cross-country skier, with much time spent in the Caribbean and upstate New York. Many years were spent in the Adirondack wilderness learning about wildlife and building houses and still finding time to be a caretaker for 30 + years and to raise a wonderful daughter. I have a strong belief in staying active...until you can't."

July 20, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Nancy A. Hughes on Mystery Writer Shares Shady Secrets

It was a mystery, so if you wanted to know what she talked about, you had to attend! Secrets have their price. Many shared writing secrets, as well.

Nancy A. Hughes, a Penn State communications graduate, followed her dream from business writing to a life of crime—fiction that is. She has published seven suspense novels since 2016—The Dying Hour and its sequel, The Innocent Hour; and Trust Series: A Matter of Trust, Redeeming Trust, Vanished, and Buried Trust; and By Rook or By Crook in 2024. Nancy is a Reading Hospital and Lebanon VA volunteer, and a devoted shade gardener. Nibbling deer and bunnies are just as distracting as big-city blaring horns. She shares her “big green cathedral” with her husband in Spring Township. Nancy is a member of MWA, ITW, SinC, and Penn Writers.

September 14, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

Andrew J. Farrara on The Modern Divine Comedy in 8-Books

Andrew did an interactive presentation of his book series with questions & comments from the group.

Andy was born and educated in Reading, PA. Coming-of-age in then-industrial Pennsylvania gave him an insatiable wanderlust and still lives in Reading. He has visited all Seven Continents, including Antarctica, every State of the United States except North Dakota, and has conducted three around-the-world backpacking expeditions; for 8 weeks in 1983; 220 days in 1987-88; and 5 weeks in 2018. Andrew J. Farrara works locally as an insurance agent, and is a self-described world traveler, writer, adventurer, entrepreneur, artist, romantic poet, Italian opera affezionato, ex-rugby player, and political animal! In 2004, he wrote a book entitled, Around the World in 220 Days: Notes of an American Traveler Abroad, published by Infinity Press, about his 22-country personal voyage. In 2022, the author wrote an 8-Part Book Series entitled, The Modern Divine Comedy, about an American Journalist who in a dream takes a guided tour of the afterlife with Zarathustra, his Persian Prophet guide in 1896, much of which is based on The Divine Comedy of the Italian Dante of the 14th century. In 2023 he completed his third set of Books entitled, The 1896 Grand Tour of Italy and Sicily in 7 Volumes.

October 12, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Barnes and Noble in Wyomissing, PA

John Yamrus on New Book Present Tense including "My Friend Ted"

John Yamrus, one of our favorite speaker/authors, has written a new book, PRESENT TENSE. It is a book of all new poems, and one of the Poems is about our beloved Ted Thomas (Linda's late husband). The poem is called "My Friend Ted".

The Boyertown Expression (online) has done a feature on John that reprints an earlier article he wrote for them, along with a new article and information on (and photos of) both of his recent Anxiety Press books. Click here to read the article.

Bio: In a career spanning more than 50 years as a working writer, John Yamrus has become widely recognized as master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry. He has had more than 3,500 poems published in books, magazines and anthologies around the world. A number of his books and poems are taught in college and university courses. Three of his books have been published in translation.

November 9, 2024 at 11:00 AM at Yokum Institute, West Lawn, PA

Santo Marabello on Finding My Place at the Table

Santo will talk about his current project, Il Mio Posto a Tavola, a first-person documentary that he is producing. He and his creative team returned from filming in his birthplace, Aosta, Italy, in September. The film, now in post production, will be released in early 2025.

BIO: Santo D. Marabella, MBA, DSW, The Practical Prof® and the 2018 Reading Eagle Entertainment Newsmaker of the Year, is an author, playwright, filmmaker, speaker and educator with writing, directing and/or producing credits that include books, television pilots, a musical, short films and plays. He was a producer of This Is Reading by Lynn Nottage. He co-founded and executive produced ReadingFilmFEST (2015 through 2017), as well as co-founded and served as Film Commissioner, ReadingFilm (2006 to 2018).

Current projects include: executive producer, Il Mio Posto a Tavolo (My Seat at the Table), documentary film, shooting in 2024; writer/director, Rocky Road Ain’t Always Sweet (production of one act plays), scheduled for May 2024.

Past projects include: producer, “Ava” feature film (October 2023); and, producer, “Flashlight” feature film (December 2023); director/co-producer, workshop for “Love Is Afoot!”, an original musical (August 2023); producer, “Take Five on 5th” visual arts show (March 2023); writer/producer/director, “The Caregiver”, short film (August 2022); director/producer, “This Machine”, video/audio play (September 2021); and, writer/producer/creator, “Franklin Street Station” TV pilot (May 2018). Non-produced projects: writer, “Barbara Saves Herself” feature screenplay; and writer/creator, “Raising the ‘Rents”, TV pilot.

Marabella is Professor Emeritus of Management, Moravian University where he continues to teach part time. He is a member of The Lambs®, The Dramatists Guild of America and Theatre Communications Group. More information can be found on his IMDB profile. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Villanova University; an MBA from St. Joseph's University; and, a doctorate in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.