Lesley Bannatyne

Somerville resident Lesley Bannatyne received the 2024 Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). Her manuscript, Lake Song was selected by judge Deesha Philyaw, award-winning author of The Secret Life of Church Ladies. Bannatyne’s manuscript will be published by Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press in fall of 2025.

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A day in the life … I usually leave my home in Somerville around 5:30 AM because my classes at Endicott College start at 8AM, and I like to get my work finished, and chew the fat with a colleague of mine. Now, most who know me associate me with bagels and poetry. I discovered years ago that there was a Finagle-a Bagel on campus. And Finagle-a-Bagel was the first place the Bagel Bards literary group met in Harvard Square some 20 years ago. Anyway … for the last 15 years I have been getting a whole wheat bagel (a concession to age) with tomato and hummus. On a Tuesday, I walked in the shop, and they had everything prepared for me in advance. I assume this a great campus honor – my ritual, my hunger for this doughy treat, my Stendhal Syndrome Swoon in the face of its beauty. The counterwomen said (laughing):” If you call in sick … you must notify us.” I told my dean about this, and he laughed, “Doug you have finally arrived.” Excuse me … I think my bagel is waiting for me.

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Miriam Sagan is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. Her most recent include Castaway (Red Mountain, 2023) and A Hundred Cups of Coffee (Tres Chicas, 2019). She is a two-time winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards as well as a recipient of the City of Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a New Mexico Literary Arts Gratitude Award. She has been a writer in residence in four national parks, Yaddo, MacDowell, Gullkistan in Iceland, Kura Studio in Japan, and a dozen more remote and interesting places. She works with text and sculptural installation as part of the mother/daughter creative team Maternal Mitochondria (with Isabel Winson-Sagan) in venues ranging from RV parks to galleries. She founded and directed the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College until her retirement. Her poetry was set to music for the Santa Fe Women’s Chorus, incised on stoneware for two haiku pathways, and projected as video inside an abandoned building during the pandemic under the auspices of Vital Spaces.

Songwriters in the Round is held at the Armory Café, a warm, welcoming place where people can enjoy food and drink as well as chance meetings and conversation. But everyone becomes quiet when four songwriters take the stage to take turns playing songs.

Supported in part by the Somerville Arts Council, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The event is free but you may want to donate $10-$20 for the performers.

Following the release of statewide MCAS scores this week, the Somerville Public Schools (SPS) has seen relatively stable MCAS scores compared to the previous school year. Overall, the district saw improvements in 5th grade and 8th grade science compared to last year, a particular highlight for SPS given recent investments in science and computer science curriculum and enrichment. We also saw an increase in the percentage of 8th grade students meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA and Math compared to last year. In both Math and ELA, percentages were similar to 2023, and ELA scores for grades 3 – 8 combined are on par with the state average.