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Members Only
Interested in reviewing books? Contact us at
member@writersleague.org with "Members Review" in the subject line and we will respond with more details.
Click
HERE to read WLT member
Tony Burnett's review of
Good As Gone
by Amy Gentry.
"Meet the Members"
Want to be profiled on our blog? We are looking for willing subjects for our weekly Q&A posts with current members. If interested, write us at
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Member News
Sheila Allee (Austin) is offering a six-session "Free to Write" workshop for people who want to write their life stories. Participants meet
Saturday mornings beginning January 28 and write with writing prompts. At the conclusion, writers will have a collection of personal stories to keep or share with family/friends. Sign up
here.
Len Bourland (Dallas) author of
Normal's Just a Cycle on a Washing Machine is offering three Tuesday evening classes with tips on self publishing to get your manuscript out there quickly, economically, and professionally. Register
here. Call Len at 214-926-9346 if registration is full.
Kathryn Lane (The Woodlands)
recently published her first novel, Waking Up in Medellin, part of her Nikki Garcia thriller series. Available on Amazon kindle and paperback. Her next novel is a work in progress. Kathryn recently received a Montie award for her pursuit of excellence in the arts. Visit her website here.
David Eric Tomlinson
(Dallas) just published his debut
novel
The Midnight Man,
a story about five strangers who overcome racial, social, and political differences in the year preceding the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Read more about the novel at David's websit
e
here
.
Kristin Shaw (Austin) invites you to submit stories to the seventh and final Austin Listen To Your Mother show and will take submissions through February 2.
Invitations to audition will be sent on or before February 18. More info
here.
Are you a current WLT member interested in submitting to Member News? Email your 50-word blurb (including links and your city of residence) to member@writersleague.org. Please make sure to follow the third-person format used in our announcements. For a full list of guidelines, click here.
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Featured Speakers:
Charlotte Gullick and Suzy Spencer.
For the full 2016/2017 schedule, visit the
Texas Writes page on our website.
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Johnson City Library's 9th Annual Writers Conference
February 22, 2017
10 am - 2 pm
First United Methodist Church,
Johnson City, TX
The Johnson City Library is proud to announce its 9th consecutive annual Writers Conference sponsored by the Johnson City Library Friends of the Library.
This year's theme is "Agents, Editors and Authors." WLT
Program Director Michael Noll will moderate the morning roundtable discussion with panelists Jennifer Canzoneri, Bill Cotter, and Mark Falkin. Find more information and registration details here.
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Bess Whitehead Scott Scholarship Fund
To learn more about the scholarships and apply online, visit their website.
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Open Office Hours - February 2
Registration closes
February 1 at 12 pm
Members can meet one-on-one with a WLT staffer (in person or call in). This option is available to all members regardless of their city of residence!
Click
here for guidelines and to sign up. Current members only.
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January Third Thursday
January Third Thursday:
Become A More-Involved Literary Citizen
How to Create Literary Discussions and Support Journals and Literary Events
Thursday, January 19, 2017
7 PM
BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
Every month, Writers' League members and friends gather at BookPeople in Austin for a panel discussion on topics related to the craft and business of writing. These events are the highlight of our month at WLT; we love meeting our members, connecting with fellow writers, and fostering positive conversation and growth in the Austin literary community and beyond. We also record these conversations for our
podcast so that writers everywhere can join us, regardless of their location.
At this month's Third Thursday,
we're excited to explore how everyone can join and participate in the literary community, with four panelists:
 Joe Brundidge is an author, host, and public speaker living in Austin, Texas. He has hosted a number of open mics for almost 20 years including his own show, "Spoken&Heard" at Kick Butt Coffee. He also served as the Director of the Austin International Poetry Festival from 2012-2015. He currently co-hosts KOOP 91.7 FM's "Writing on the Air."
Nora Comstock is the National Founder of Las Comadres Para Las Americas, Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Club/Teleconference Series, and Las Comadres Para Las Americas compiled anthology. The National Book Foundation awarded the Book Club the Innovations in Reading in 2014. She was a partner in creating the Comadres/Compadres Writers Conference, which takes place in New York City at The New School. The first conference was held in 2012. In 2015 they held their first Writing Master Class. She has recently been elected to a six-year term (unpaid) of the Austin Community College Board of Trustees.
 Rebecca Markovits
was born in Austin and grew up in Texas, London, and Berlin. She has been the co-editor of the literary magazine
American Short Fiction
since 2012. Before joining
ASF
, Markovits was the executive editor and co-author of
The Fearless Critic: A Guide to Austin's Restaurants
(Workman). She has been a regular book reviewer for the
Austin-American Statesman
, and her essays and reviews have appeared, among other places, in the
Texas Observer
and
Texas Monthly
. She has also taught writing and literature to college students. Her book about public spaces in the American city, tentatively titled
American Urban
, is forthcoming from George F. Thompson Publishing. She lives in Austin with her husband and their dog.
 Richard Santos teaches English at Cedars International Academy in Austin and writes book reviews for Kirkus Reviews. His work has been published at The San Antonio Express News, The Huffington Post, The Texas Observer, Kirkus Magazine, and The Rumpus. He's a member of the National Book Critics Circle and PEN America.
In a previous career, Richard worked for some of the nation's top political consulting firms, national campaigns, and labor unions.
Read more about the panelists on our
website and join the
Facebook event for updates. Hope to see you there
!
***NOTE: This month's event will take place on the 2nd floor of BookPeople.***
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2017 A&E Conference Registration Now Open!
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Novel Writing Online Class
Does Your Novel
Feel Stuck?
Have a great idea for a novel but aren't sure how to dive in?
Tired of giving up on novel drafts when they hit the wall?
No matter the type of novel, this class will increase students' skills and confidence to jump in head first. Discussion will explore the following areas:
- Foundational pre-writing, getting a clearer sense of characters and their problems
- Roadmaps, whether they be detailed outlines or a handful of bullet points
- Crafting effective opening chapters
- Using craft elements to expand drafts: stakes, theme, and setting
This online class is designed for students ready for their novels to crack open their shells, grow and fly to completion.
What our members are saying about the class:
"I'm on my fifth novel attempt. I've quit four novels, all around the 100-150 page mark. I liked the focus on outlining. I've heard too often that outlining is bad and kills creativity. After this class, I'm really going to give it a try. I also liked the idea that writing is not just drafting my scenes. I've been writing every day, but that has meant I'll work on scenes even if it's like pulling teeth. And when I force it, it shows. Finally, the idea of writing a scene summary first really resonated with me. When I don't have a clear plan, I go off on so many tangents. I'll be looking into this further."
For more details and registration, click
here.
Last chance! Registration closes Wednesday, January 18 at noon.
Stacey Swann's fiction has appeared in Epoch, Memorious, Versal
, and other journals. A former Stegner Fellow, she teaches with Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio. She's at work on Olympus, TX
, a novel-in-progress she is whittling down from Texas-sized to a more modest Montana or New Mexico size.
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Improve Your Writing Through Poetry
Make Your Prose More Powerful
Does your own prose feel flat or uninspired?
Want to learn to create more powerful images and sentences?
Have you ever admired a novel or memoir's language and said, "It's almost like poetry"?
Poetry's economy of language and use of powerful images offers creative, succinct points of divergence for writers of all genres. This workshop will focus on specific poetic tools such as rhythm, repetition and alliteration to seed, deepen, and refine new and in-progress writing. Students will study 3-5 poems and essays that engage poetic techniques and generate new material to incorporate into a current project or begin a new one.
From novice to rising novelist, to seasoned, successful writers and screenwriters, this workshop will provide a broad spectrum of perspectives on poetry's richness as foundation, catalyst and lively companion.
Students are encouraged to bring a copy of a favorite poem.
What our members are saying about the instructor:
- "I was mesmerized."
- "Seriously, best writing class ever."
- "I scribbled down every word she said. She was funny, warm, inspiring about what it means to be a writer and how the writing process works, and had such practical advice, exercises, and tools to bring home. She is one of the most gifted instructors I've ever met."
For more details and registration, click
here.
Last chance! Online registration will close at the end of Thursday, January 19.
Charlotte Gullick is a novelist, essayist, editor, educator, and Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. A first-generation college graduate, she recently earned a MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Charlotte's first novel, By Way of Water
, was chosen by Jayne Anne Phillips as the Grand Prize winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Program, and a special author's edition was reissued by the Santa Fe Writers Project in November of 2013. Charlotte's other awards include a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship for Fiction, a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, a MacDowell Colony Residency, Faculty of Year from College of the Redwoods as well as the Evergreen State College 2012 Teacher Excellence Award.
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Class on Submitting to Journals
How to Submit to Journals
--And Succeed!
Ready to submit your short stories, essays, and poems to journals?
Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of them?
Want to find the right journal for your work?
Good
writing springs from both art and craft. However, finding a good home for your stories, essays, and poems takes a significant amount of effort of a different sort. This class course will walk students through the essential steps of submitting to journals and magazines and explore the following areas:
- Exploring the shape and dynamics of the literary journal market
- How to match your work to publications with aesthetics similar to your own
- Cover letters and tracking submissions
- The importance of the first page, including in-class discussions of participants' work
If you're ready to send your short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry out into the world, this class will help you arrive at that elusive understanding: what editors really value and expect.
For more details and registration, click
here.
Stacey Swann's fiction has appeared in Epoch, Memorious, Versal
, and other journals. A former Stegner Fellow, she teaches with Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio. She's at work on Olympus, TX
, a novel-in-progress she is whittling down from Texas-sized to a more modest Montana or New Mexico size.
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