BRATTLEBORO — At the darkest time of the year, human beings have a tendency to slip into dark meditations and ruminative thinking.
Write Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting writing and writers in southern Vermont, invites people instead to meditate on the theme of mercy, and to write a poem, a piece of fiction, or nonfiction prose with that virtue as a theme. All works must be 500 words or fewer.
At the time of the solstice, people around the world have a tradition of coming together to celebrate the return of the light. Write Action's deadline for submission of work of Dec 21, marks the start of winter.
During the new year, writers of these pieces will gather and read aloud their works on mercy at the Blue Dot Studio in the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery at 139 Main Street in Brattleboro. The exact time and date of this gathering will be announced closer to the event.
Write Action organizers hope to collect some of these stories, essays, and poems, and to print them as short works on the virtues. In 2014, the organization organized a similar event on the theme of hope.
Those interested can send a work of 500 words or fewer to booksfromvermont@yahoo.com with “Mercy” in the subject line.