Book Release Party for Heels in the Soil: Stories & Poems Resisting the Silence.

An intimate virtual engagement featuring the International Women's Writing Guild Mentorship program authors. Book foreword written by Boston Globe Culture Columnist Jenee Osterheldt.

This event is open to the public.

A special Hanukkah Zoom poetry reading featuring poets who contributed to 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium, including Leslie Neustadt who will be reading her poem, “Migration at Rosh Hashanah” from the anthology. The book focuses on poems about Jewish themes that affect people in the Third Millennium. It includes poets who are Jewish and non-Jewish, American and not, featuring poems by Ellen Bass, Ed Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Ilya Kaminsky, David Lehman, and many more!

Whether you are religious or believe in the sacred, our turbulent time is a fitting one to write poems as prayers, invocations, blessings, odes and litanies. They can carry our deepest longings. Poems of prayer are often more powerful when they contain praise and lamentation. Odes, praise poems and litanies can hold anger as well as curses. Litany (a series of petitions), and anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses), can give resonance to our poems.

Presented by the International Women’s Writing Guild as part of their Summer Picnic for Writers series.

Join host Jackie Craven, Leslie Neustadt, Judith Prest and other writers, poets, and artists who will share their work during open mic night at C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios. Sign up for open mic starts at 7:00. Reading starts at 7:30.

Leslie will address a meeting of the Women's Community Leadership Network of Schenectady on the topic of women helping women and the Me Too Movement.

LOCATION: Proctors Theater, 2nd Floor Guild Room.

Leslie and other women poets will read recent workshop poems. C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios. Sign up for open mic starts at 7:00. Reading starts at 7:30.

Local poets including Leslie Neustadt will read their poems interspersed with music played by Lycaeides. This will include Renaissance, Modern and World Music, played on early music instruments including recorders, viol, guitar, laouto and percussion.

LOCATION: Schenectady Central Library, McChesney Room

Celebrate the opening of the spring 2018 Women Writers & Artists Matrix with a reading by the Women of WWAM. Leslie B. Neustadt, Dorothy Randall Gray, Zipporah Harris, Marea Gordett, Deborah Bogosian, Ingrid Bruck, and Barbara D. Hall will all share new work.

WWAM is an organization of kindred creative women dedicated to shifting the paradigm through art and writing. The group holds retreats at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY on the first weekends of May and November. For info about WWAM's retreat May 4-6 visit www.WWAMatrix.com or email WriteArtMatrix@aol.com. In November 2018 WWAM will celebrate their 9th year of art & writing workshops.

The Amsterdam Free Library and Foothills Art Council collaborated on this special event during Poetry Month! Leslie Neustadt will join fellow poets and writers on Saturday, April 28, 2018, from 12:00 to 2:30 PM as they share their personal Survivor Stories.

Hear from Leslie and others who have made the climb up out of the crater left in their lives by a traumatic event, who have wrestled with their demons and have learned how to live in new ways in the aftermath. Stories of resilience and redemption… what has emerged in the healing process. In short, the story of the journey from loss or trauma to a “new normal” and what was learned along the way.

For more information, call the library at (518) 842-1080. This event is free to the public.

Lycaeides presents a program titled “Poems and Pavanes” at the library in the McChesney Room. Local poets will read their poems interspersed with music played by Lycaeides. This will include Renaissance, Modern and World Music, played on early music instruments including recorders, viol, guitar, laouto and percussion. They will be joined by Barbara MacLean and Bob Schulz, local Balkan musicians and dancers, and Laura Hagen, recorder performer and teacher.

Leslie will be the featured poet on September 14th at Arthur's Market & Historical Coffee House as part of a new poetry and spoken word series in Schenectady’s historic Stockade District. Sign-up for the open mic starts at 7 p.m. with Leslie's featured poet reading beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Leslie will moderate a panel on treatment with the drug Bendamustine at the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation's (IWMF's) annual Educational Forum the weekend of June 10-12 in Providence, RI.

The IWMF's annual Educational Forum presents a unique opportunity for patients and caregivers to learn about our disease from specialists in Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM) who are involved in many areas of clinical practice and research. Held in a different part of the United States every year, the “Ed Forum” offers something for everyone, no matter what your experience or level of knowledge.

Presentations aimed at the layperson address symptoms and complications of the disease, current treatment options, new therapies on the horizon, and recent research findings that may someday lead to a cure. Breakout sessions permit in-depth exploration of specialized topics and opportunities for patients and caregivers to share their experiences in a safe and supportive environment.

For more information or to register, CLICK HERE.

Leslie will lead a collage workshop for artists with disabilities at the Schenectady Jewish Community Center's Third Annual Capital Capabilities. For more information phone Judy at 518-377-8803 or CLICK HERE.

Organized by New York Oncology Hematology, Leslie will participate on a patient panel to address the issue of living with progressive illness at the Spring to Life Conference on Hematologic Malignancies, Saturday, April 16, 2016 at the Hilton Albany, 40 Lodge Street in Albany, NY.

Spring to Life™ is a free half-day program for people living with a plasma cell disorder or other cancer, as well as families, companions, and caregivers. Patients and their loved ones will join national experts, community oncologists/hematologists, and social workers to share stories and improve understanding in an informative and supportive environment.

For more information or to register, CLICK HERE.

Congregation Agudat Achim is hosting the sixth annual Community of Jewish Writers program. This year we are fortunate to have three preeminent poets read - Susan Comninos, Jay Rogoff and Barbara Ungar. The program will take place on Sunday, June 14, 2015 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM in the social hall. There will be a poetry reading, panel discussion, book sale and reception. The program is free and open to the public. As You Like It Catering will have pastries for sale in addition to serving them at the reception.  

"We are so fortunate that the Program Committee is once again hosting the Community of Jewish Writers event," noted Leslie Neustadt, co-chair of the program. "The program has enabled the community to become familiar with highly regarded Jewish poets and writers in our region. We will listen to their poetry and discuss how their heritage informs their writing."

For More Information Call: 518-393-9211

Admission to this event is FREE.

Leslie will be at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany on October 30th. Proceeds from sale of the book at the event will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Upstate New York/Vermont Chapter. Free literature about the nonprofit organization and resources for patients and families living with blood cancer will also be available. Call 518.489.4761 for more information. Download the event flyer now.

Leslie will discuss and read from her new book, Bearing Fruit: A Poetic Journey, in a presentation on Saturday, October 18th at the Niskayuna Branch Library in Schenectady, NY. The presentation will be followed by a book signing and, for those wishing to linger, an opportunity for interaction and exploration during a group writing exercise facilitated by Neustadt. The exercise will include writing prompts offered by the author to get participants started on their own original piece of poetry or short prose, in an informal and encouraging environment. FMI contact the library at (518) 386-2249. Download the event flyer now.