Events
Almost everything we do is open to the public and free to attend. Members get advance notice and a seat when a session fills up.
Schedule for 2026–27 is being finalized. Exact dates, times, and locations are confirmed a few weeks ahead. Join the mailing list and you will get them first.
Our first public workday, held the weekend after the Applebutter Fest brings tens of thousands of people through the village. Bags, gloves, and a truck provided; bring boots you do not care about. Two hours on the banks below the rapids, then pizza from Wild Side for everyone who shows up. Date being confirmed.
Grand Rapids, Ohio
A public evening introducing River Craft Press, Black Swamp Press, and Great Lakes Books — what each imprint is for, what we intend to publish, the author terms, and how the first reading periods will work. Story nominations taken on the spot.
Location to be announced
Scheduled forty-five-minute sessions with volunteer interviewers, recorded properly and added to the archive with your permission. Bring a relative. Sign-up opens closer to the date.
Location to be announced
Readings from writers working in this valley, including the launch of a new memoir set in northwest Ohio. Free to attend; book sales support the Collective. Date being confirmed.
Wild Side Brewing Co., Grand Rapids
Open to all members. We present the first-year numbers, introduce the board, and take questions on the record.
Location to be announced
Target date for River Craft Press to begin reading unsolicited nonfiction proposals, assuming the editorial board is seated and the contracts are ready. Watch the submissions page.
Online
Native plantings along a streambank and invasive removal in a marsh margin, with a partner organization. Training provided on site.
Western Lake Erie basin
If you are in Waterville, Perrysburg, Maumee, Napoleon, Defiance, Toledo, or anywhere else along the river and you want a cleanup or a recording day on your stretch, we will come. Local hosts make these work.
One short email a month: what is coming up, what we found on the last workday, and who we recorded. No fundraising appeals disguised as newsletters.
Get involved
Come to a workday or a recording session as a guest. If it is your kind of thing, join afterward.