MENTORS & THEIR WORK

Denny Caldwell ponders language

Denny Caldwell ponders language / Photo by Robert Steel

Language is never static–it’s an organism that continually evolves, reinvents itself, loops back upon itself, ties itself in knots and then unravels those knots which is why we love the concept of two mentors in each workshop, to demonstrate there is more than one answer to most language questions.   Though language defies mastery, it loves those who strive for it─whether the apprentice is ten, twenty, forty or sixty years into it.   And language always shares whatever it has, no matter how little or much. And for those willing to partake of that sharing, an unbreakable bond develops between them and the language.

These mentors have embraced that bonding and the collegial respect that comes with it.

The Monadnock New Pastoral School of Poetry & Writing

The poetry and fiction of Pam Bernard, Jim Beschta, Terry Farish, John Hodgen, Rodger Martin, Susan Roney-O’Brien, and Rebecca Rule, as well as emeritae Adelle Leiblein and Rebecca Rule, have shaped the Monadnock School of New Pastoral Poetry, now called the Monadnock Pastoral Poets and Writers. In recent years, the original members of the Monadnock Pastoral School have been joined by Maura MacNeil, Diane Mulligan, and Henry Walters.

Inhabiting the central New England region dominated by a magnificent mountain, these writers have been brought together by landscape and nature, writers who have devoted their lives to language, and who now freely share their passion and knowledge.