Windmill Writers present their first anthology, 'Stringing Words'

The Windmill Writers wrack their minds weekly for the right words at their Wednesday writing workshops. And they love lots of alliteration.

Under the tutelage of Carla Riccio, an East Hampton resident and former editor for the book publisher Dial Press, the three-year-old local literary group gathers at the Cooper House of the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton Village, where they delve into drafts of personal essays and memoirs, searching for authentic voices of their own.

Many of the dozen regular writers hold English degrees or have backgrounds in writing, publishing or library science, but they are mostly amateurs in creative writing. They come from all points between Sag Harbor and East Quogue to hone their craft for two hours every week from September through May. Though Ms. Riccio—as workshop facilitator—stresses that the writing is always a “work in progress” and encourages everyone to write multiple drafts and not be afraid to take risks, 16 writers in the workshop, who adopted the name “Windmill Writers,” published their first book this fall.

“Stringing Words” is the Windmill Writers’ anthology of personal essays, published in November on-demand by The Writing Life Press, a name the proud authors themselves selected. Ms. Riccio considers the book a demonstration of the evolution of her writers, who started out as a “random collection of hopeful scribblers and closet journalers,” as she explains in the book’s introduction.

Area residents will have an opportunity this Saturday, March 13, at 2 p.m. to hear the works read aloud by the authors at a reading and book signing in the skylighted music room of the Rogers Mansion at the Southampton Historical Museum on Meeting House Lane in Southampton. The program is co-sponsored by the library and the museum as part of the latter’s “Southampton Women Who Made a Difference” exhibit for National Women’s History Month. Though not all of the 16 authors of “Stringing Words” are female, most of them are.

The book is available for purchase online at amazon.com, as well as locally at BookHampton.

The topics of the book’s essays and occasional poems run the gamut, with some comical, others more poignant and many offbeat, with topics ranging from roadside turnip stands to breakfast in Denmark with dark, heavy-grained bread to trying to escape the scent of lavender to swimming in the sea.

“Carla’s leadership and the group discussions brought our essays from simple black and white pieces to a kaleidoscope of colorful and unusual views on life and events,” explained Mary O’Brien, one of the book’s four editors.

Ms. O’Brien, who hails from East Quogue, also did the photography and design for the book. She explained that she recycled some pages from a discarded 1800s dictionary that she found in the library to design the book’s cover, which shows a literal interpretation of the book’s title: snippets of dictionary entries looped together with string.

“An essay has a universal point,” explained fellow editor Jane Andrews, a retired college administrator, who recently moved to the North Fork. Ms. Andrews, whose husband. Fred, a former New York Times editor, also contributed to the book, noted that writing can lead to understanding more 
about oneself. One of her works, “Chef’s Helper,” involves her watching her adult son cook a meal. Watching his “culinary ballet,” she said, enabled her to 
“stand outside” herself—an experience that she believes will resonate with readers.

“When I first started writing, I was a little intimidated,” explained Lynn DiGiacomo of Hampton Bays, another editor who was formerly a proofreader for several publishing houses, “But then I was told that somebody who plays the piano doesn’t expect to be playing at Carnegie Hall right away, but people who write seem to think that they should write at that level right away.”

Ms. DiGiacomo, an avid reader who naturally transitioned into writing, said the liberation that came from this realization “freed” her to develop as a writer, a common theme among the Windmill Writers.

“Every week when we write, we create ourselves anew,” explained editor Joan Mazzu, a retired librarian from North Sea, “Reading to each other every week has bonded us, made us close. In a way, our writing has strung us together.”

The Windmill Writers will read from their work and sign copies of their anthology, “Stringing Words,” on Saturday, March 13, at 2 p.m. at the Southampton Historical Museum on Meeting House Lane in Southampton. For more information, call 283-2494.