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"This mark is like a mirror held up in front of the viewer. It reflects where inspiration, thoughts, ideas, and stories originate—
in the mind."
Designer, Gordon Smith
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May 1, 2022,
Volume 29 Issue 13
Word by Word ... 100 Years!
Our mission: to support local writers and promote their development through education, recognition, and community.
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President's Message
You Are Invited....
In 1922, Adelia Kimball took fate in her hands when she decided to bloom where she was newly planted, she needed other writers to feel welcome, to help her put down roots.
Perhaps our founder used the word "invited", or something similar, in the newspaper ad for the story writing class she taught to meet a handful of writers who enrolled to sharpen their skills.
This month, you are invited to celebrate that a transplant from Massachusetts and a handful of mostly women and men from Charlotte and Gastonia connected a century ago. That Adelia's idea, that first class, has grown into this welcoming community of writers who write for all kinds of reasons and to celebrate you and your love of writing and of words.
May 17th-22nd, is Centennial Week!
We'll start on Tuesday by honoring past leaders with Founders Awards (watch the website and your inbox for more) and our 100 Years of Words continues Sunday afternoon and evening at Mint Museum on Randolph. Check out the block below to volunteer an hour to help with festivities. Don't miss the bullet-points in the middle of Centennial block.
A word about what to wear-- Let's be Dressy Causal--google says that's a go to for fundraisers and networking events, we're writers after all. We want you to be comfortable, to express yourself and to look good in the pictures.
Join us, if you are a former member, this is a great time to re-up, here's how, visit the CWC Membership page.
Keep Writing!
Caroline
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In case you missed the April 19th meeting: above are the winners of the 2022 Poetry Contest (left to right) Elizabeth Ouzts, third place; Darian Kiener first place, and Second Place Nathan Nicolau. Elizabeth and Nathan are CWC poets. Congratulations! Visit the April Meeting Recap page for titles of the poems and comments from judge David Radavich. You will also find pictures and context from speaker Lea Graham and her presentation on organizing a book of poems. | |
Final Meeting of the 2021-2022 Program Year | |
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We're Springing Ahead 15 Minutes!
On May 17th, with so much to celebrate we are skipping the pre-meeting social time and jumping right in to the business of wrapping up an amazing program year on site and online.
We are celebrating our speaker and her new memoir; celebrating writing contests winners, students and adults who will read from their fiction pieces. And kicking off centennial week with Founders Awards.
Join us at the Tyvola Senior Center we're having a cake!
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Tuesday, May 17, 2022
6:15-Doors Open
The meeting time is 6:30 pm-8:15 p.m.
on site & via Zoom contact the CWC Membership Guru for your link.
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CWC's own
Judy Goldman, an award winning memoirist on:
Conquering Self-Doubt When You Sit Down to Write
Whether you’re writing memoir or essays, fiction or poetry—whether you’re a beginning writer or have been writing for years—you’ve probably experienced, at some point, almost debilitating doubts. Suddenly, you think, “I’m just not a writer. I can’t do it.” Though she has been writing for 55 years and has seven books to her credit, Judy Goldman knows that feeling.
What she has discovered is that self-doubt is a sign your work is taking on its own life, becoming bigger than what you had imagined. Judy will talk about the tricks she has learned to turn self-doubt into writing success. She’ll talk about pushing on, knowing you can’t actually get everything right. You do your work in the hopes of coming close. She’ll explain how to discover what makes your writing different from anything else you’ve ever read, how to write the story only you can write.
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Visit the CWC Calendar of Events page for more on her presentation.
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On the 3rd Tuesday of the month
(May 17), the door opens at opens at 6:15 pm and business begins at 6:30 pm.
We're skipping the pre-meeting social time but if we get finished before 8:30pm you can chat as we clean up.
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This is the power of gathering. It inspires us-delighfully-to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughful-in a word, more alive."
Alice Waters
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Community
Create the circle and step into the center in unison, the space that we tend will hold us all.
Now let life unfurl here, the lessons of our past to guide us onward into true togetherness.
A trusted ancient remedy, our community rises like a healer.
J. Suskin
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Join Us...
We'll be waiting for you
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We Are Here at the Tyvola Senior Center,
2225 Tyvola Road
Charlotte
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Since COVID and its spawn remain part of the plot, we need your help to keep us all safe.
We ask that you provide proof of full COVID vaccination and while in the building to continue to social distance--without a mask, or with a mask--as fits your comfort level now that state and county mandates have been lifted and we lean into this new level of normal.
Members and guests, when you RSVP, you will be prompted to take a photo of your vaccination card and email it to
MembershipCWC@yahoo.com.
You’ll only have to do it once and we will have you on our VIP List. As you arrive for the meeting, we will check you off the list.
We will also accept showing vaccination cards at the door as a last-minute emergency—though prefer not to have to do this because we don’t want to have to turn anyone away.
If you have questions, concerns, or thoughts please CONTACT US.
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Fiction Contest Winners to be Revealed & Celebrated!
The 2022 Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Contest
Contests Chair Darrell Horwitz will do the honors for the winners of our most prestigious contest. The top three will be in in the house to collect their awards and read from their winning stories. Bryn Chancellor is this year's judge of the 1,500 to 4,000 word short story contest.
The Six Student Voices of Our Best Ever-Story Contest
The Top Three in two categories will be unveiled, awarded and they will read their stories. Amber Smith judged this years entries, 5-12th graders submitted their 500 to 1,000 word pieces for consideration.
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PEER REVIEW GROUPS
Members are you looking for a Critique Group?
Here is a list of are the current groups OPEN to additional voices; NEW groups that are forming and writers looking for support with specific needs like genre, meeting location (in person or online) or time (day or evening)
- Dilworth:Mixed genre group
- Plaza Midwood: Non genre specific. Newcomers to the club are welcome.
- Gaston County: (leader is wiiling to travel). Prose/Fiction group
- Huntersville:Poetry
- Online: Poetry
- Twilight Muses:Fiction fantasy/paranormal will consider other genres
**Member writing YA looking to
connect with others writing for young adult readers
**Member looking for support from an online fiction group
**First time member looking for a fiction group that meets during the day.
**Members looking to connect with a group whose genre is children's/picture books.
Contact Caroline to learn more.
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"Writing is the only way to talk without being interrupted."
Jules Renard
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THE PLOT Thickens--
SCREENWRITING & PLAYWRITING Workshop
Click on The Plot Thickens Flyer for how to register and more.
William R. Duell, an award-winning playwright, has teamed up with Tanya Besmehn, Screenwriter and Creative Director of Bezuki Creative Services, to offer a comprehensive two day screenwriting and play-writing workshop
Saturday & Sunday June 4th and 5th, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
at the Heartstone Lodge and Retreat in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
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Challenge Yourself
"I'm writing my first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles."
Shannon Hale
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This is a copy of Sylvia Path's first draft of Stings
It's OK to scribble.
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Virtual Writing Salon & Social Time
is back the next date is May 9, 2022.
Tiffany Grantham's prompts will spark writings that amaze you. Drop in and check it out. Be inspired to make it a habit by writers who have discovered the zen of this monthly write and social time.
This is your opportunity to
take 75 minutes to write. Shake the dust off the day and join in to see where the prompts take you!
There will be time to share if you wish, no pressure, no angst, just writing fun! Hope to see you there!
*Please register for this event.
Check out the details and how to register at Calendar of Events page.
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"You can make anything by writing."
C.S. Lewis
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The year 1922 was a watershed in literature. Modernism took the place of realism, and reigned unchallenged for almost the next 50 years. In literature, 1922 is now considered to have witnessed a revolution in fiction and poetry. More than a decade later, the writer Willa Cather called 1922 “the year the world broke in two,” and that sentiment has been borrowed for the title of one of two recent books on what happened in the literary world that year—events that still affect literature almost 100 years later.
In The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year That Changed Literature, author Bill Goldstein considers the four authors, what they were dealing with in their private and literary lives, and how they shaped significant literary events in 1922. In Constellation of Genius: 1922 Modernism Year One, Kevin Jackson brackets the year with James Joyce and Eliot. Joyce’s Ulysses was published in early February of 1922, and Eliot’s The Waste Land in October. The other writers are mentioned and discussed, but for Jackson, Joyce and Eliot are the literary revolution of 1922.
But what both authors understand and describe is what happened to literature in 1922. Joyce and Eliot, in fiction and poetry respectively, gave birth to modernism in literature, and changed both genres permanently.
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Get a Cool T-shirt
& Support CWC
Who doesn't love a cool t-shirt and the opportunity to show the world you are a writer who belongs to a 100 year old writing community where words count.
Especially when the shirt has our amazing logo and tagline on it; and part of your purchase will help us keep supporting, educating, and celebrating writers like you.
Watch your inbox for the opportunity to buy one and get your order in.
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Book Launch in Davidson for Judy Goldman's memoir Child
Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 4:00 p.m.
Co-hosted by Charlotte Writers Club-North & Main Street Books of Davidson
Outdoor Stage behind Summit Coffee, 128 S. Main St
Visit the CWC North Events Page for more on this CWC author and her newest release.
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MEET-A-MEMBER: Donald Fidler, MD, FRCP-I | |
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A native of the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains, DC Fidler has combined a career in academic psychiatry and cultural psychiatry with a lifetime of playwriting, acting, directing, composing music, and teaching creative writing and the dramatic arts. He studied theatre, writing, medicine, and psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served on the faculty. He later served on the faculty at West Virginia University and also practiced psychiatry in Australia and New Zealand. He began his acting career in outdoor dramas, summer stock theatre, and local films and television at age ten. He has written scripts and composed music for over fifty medical educational videos and his numerous plays have been produced in community theatres, at universities, and in professional theatres in North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Alaska, St. Louis, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and New York City. His play: Boogieban, won the 2018 Cleveland Critics Circle Award for the Best Premier of a New Play, and moved onward to Chicago and to Off-Broadway in New York City in 2019. He consulted and appeared in educational productions for HBO, ABC, and PBS and performed in stage plays including: Hope is the Thing with Feathers, Night of January 16th, Thieves’ Carnival, Blood Wedding, Our Town, A Life in the Theatre, and Fool for Love. DC Fidler is an active member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Charlotte Writers’ Club. Fidler previously chaired the Video Committee for the American Psychiatric Association and served as President of the Association for Academic Psychiatry, promoting the use of arts in psychiatry. He was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and serves on the Arts and Humanities Committee for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, co-producing a video series on the History of Psychiatry. DC Fidler lived and worked with the Alutiiq tribe in Akhiok, Alaska, the Al Moqbali Bedouin tribe near Sohar, Oman, the Kalkadoon Tribe in the outback of Queensland, Australia, and the Te Tau Ihu Maori Tribes on the South Island of New Zealand. He is author of the textbook, Psychiatry for Actors: Building a Character Using Psychiatric Principles, and author of the novels, Boogieban and Wood Whisperers.
Please check out Don's plays and books at Amazon.com.
To start a conversation with Donald
send him a message through the Member Directory.
Login first, then go to Member Directory.
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"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
Helen Keller
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Why Join a Writing Group
Join Us
As a writer, it helps to be thick-skinned. Once you put your work out there, people will judge, review, and criticize it. But critiques are more helpful when they are received long before publication. In fact, critiques are one of the best ways to improve your writing.
Many writers who want critiques that will help them improve their work will find a writing partner or critique group, which is a reciprocal relationship. You won’t only be receiving critiques — you’ll be providing them too! Fortunately, the process of critiquing other writers’ work thoughtfully and intelligently will strengthen your own writing.
There’s an art to providing well-constructed and thoughtful criticism that helps a writer improve the work and that recognizes the fine line between personal preference and the objective quality of the work.
Constructive criticism involves a little compassion. If someone cares enough about their work to show it around and invite feedback, then it’s probably something in which they are emotionally invested. If you are the person they feel is qualified to provide that feedback, then embrace the invitation as an honor, and approach it with respect.
So for all CWC members and members to be, we invite you to become a part of a family of great people and writers of all genres and skills..
TO JOIN
Click on JOIN US
We're waiting for you!
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Never Give Up
Never give up on something you really want. It's difficult to wait, but more difficult to regret.
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I know life is hard, nothing goes the way we plan.
But we should never give up at the challenges that come our way.
We need to keep fighting for our goals and dreams soon will come true.
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Donald says:
When and Where Do I Write?
Favorite writing tool?
I usually wake in the morning and immediately sit at my dining room table with my yogurt and coffee and begin proofing and/or editing for several hours. Later, I go to a restaurant or coffee shop and write. I do my best writing when around groups of people making some noise with music playing as a background. When traveling, I write well in airports and train stations and on planes and trains. I average writing about nine hours per day.
A favorite writing tool?
I usually write by hand in Barnes-Noble blank page notebooks. Later in a day, I type what I wrote using either my large-screen computer in my home office or my smaller laptop in public venues. At night, I print out what I typed so I can proof and edit the next day, making changes by hand on the typed pages. As I make changes, I use different color pens for several rounds of editing before printing out pages again. Once I have a full first draft, I design a cover and have Amazon print out a proof copy for me. I make changes by hand on the paperback-version pages, type those changes, and repeat submitting another proof copy to be printed by Amazon.
A favorite writing resource:
Since I am always striving for specificity, I treasure using the online Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, sometimes referring to my New Zealand paperback thesaurus. I am a big fan of Saving the Cat! The Last book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder, and On Writing by Stephen King. I also treasure review comments by knowledgeable friends such as Sandi Constantino-Thompson in Matthews, NC and my frequent co-writers RJ Casey and Travis Teffner.
Best writing advice received and ever taken?
“Get rid of adverbs.” Adverbs describe rather than show. In the rough draft of my novel Wood Whisperers, I had the sentence, “Matthias rushed starboard and vomited voluminously.” Upon rewriting and dropping the adverb, I was forced “to show.” The sentence became, “Mattias rushed starboard and chucked up undigested cod and hardtack.” Hopefully, readers can better view and smell chum spoiling the ocean’s dark surface. When I had first used the adverb, readers experienced nothing sensual. Experiencing the lives of our characters sensually is what makes reading and imagining fun. Or sickening. Or frightening. Or loving. When I taught playwriting, I assigned students to use a method David Mamet favored for learning to write dialogue. He sat in restaurants, coffee shops, and other public venues and eavesdropped. He scribed the actual conversations he heard.as play dialogue. I then had my students read to the class what they had heard and written. Every time, my students and I were intrigued both by content and the natural flow of their lines on the pages. For a second assignment, I assigned students to raise the stakes of what they had written. Perhaps they had written, “I don’t like Tonya.” After raising the stakes, they may have written, “I’m thinking about filling Tonya’s gas tank with water so when she stalls, I’ll ambush her with her boyfriend’s—my ex-boyfriend’s baseball bat.” As Travis Teffner said to me about writing, “Lack of conflict is uninteresting.”
One thing I would like help with?
I have 23 plays, two novels, and one short story self-published on Amazon. I wanted to produce a body of works before pursuing the attention of readers. I have little idea how to “market.” I have had more luck with my plays, since they have almost all been produced, but I still need my plays as well as my other works to reach more audiences.
If you'd like to participate in Meet-a-Member please contact the newsletter editor,
Teresa Taylor or President Caroline Kenna.
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If you're like me sometimes I feel as though my favorite writers just burst from the womb fully-formed slinging wisdom and polished drafts from the crib. But I know that's not true; even the most legendary writers had to begin some where and often that some where was in the under read pages of a literary magazine. So I take heart and will keep writing, as I hope you will---your dream and my dream will become reality if we don't give up.
"Write until you have nothing left to say." Teresa
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“Everyone has a story to tell.”
Everyone is a writer, some are written in the books, and some are confined to the heart."
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“Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you."
John Wooden
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Writing
by Jeanette Telusma
There is freedom in writing
Me, my pen and journal
There are times when one thought is all that's needed.
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“Don't be afraid to be what you are, cause all you can be is you.”
― The Freedom Writers
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We Need Your Help!
We are recruiting volunteers to assist with the Sunday festivities. Sign Up Here
to Give Us a Hand for an Hour
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Did You Know?
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Edith Sitwell reportedly liked to lie in an open coffin before she began her day's writing.
- John Steinbeck used 300 pencils to write East of Eden and was known to use up to 60 pencils in a day.
- The word 'mogigraphia' means 'writer's cramp'. The word 'colygraphia' means 'writer's block'.
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Attention Playwrights:
The American Bard Theater Company
Submissions are open for the Corner
Stone Reading Series
Deadline is June 5, 2022 OR once ABTC has received 120 plays.
The top three plays selected by a panel of readers will receive a
staged reading produced by American Bard Theater Company
in the fall of 2022. Click the quill image to learn more
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Student Fiction Writing Contest is a Success! | |
What a very pleasant surprise for the Student Engagement Team of CWC; 33 students in grade 5-12 entered the fiction writing contest.
The team is overjoyed that the art of writing has touched so many students near and far. Stay tuned for more on the contest winners coming soon!
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"Writing is the painting of the voice."
Voltaire
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Last day of school for CMS June 9 2022. | | |
What's the Good Word?
Share your publishing news at MEMBERS' KUDOS
so we can celebrate too.
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We Asked, You Answered...
Lisa Otter Rose, CWC,
incoming treasurer
Elizabeth Gaines, incoming
co-workshop coordinator
with AnshuGupta
Judy Hovis and Erin VanDreason
incoming, co-program chairs
"There is no I in team, but we're sure glad there is U in our volunteers"
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We've Got You Covered!
Sixteen new book jackets and counting, including April's covers:
Rhonda Lyle, Warrior Mom, Jenna MacFarlane Hardware Stories, Laura Newell, Hope is on the Horizon, and Randell Jones,6th anthology Curious Stuff. We want to celebrate your fresh ink. Snap a selfie of your book jacket and email it to the Newsletter Editor
The deadline is May 10th for the mid-month news.
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Answer the Call for Volunteers:
Serve the Club on the Leadership Team
We need you; your ideas, your enthusiasm, your time, talents and expertise to sustain and to grow this writing community. See the job descriptions in our Policies and Procedures document and think about donating a year or more to serve our club.
Executive Board seats still open are Secretary and VP/President-Elect. The secretary position is open now.
Contact Caroline or VP/President-Elect Dave to learn more about the opportunities to serve the club on the 2022-2023 leadership team. Axel Dahlberg will stay on as Membership Guru and Student Coordinator joining Dave who will be the next president.
Below is the list of positions currently open or that will be vacated in June.
Webmaster Debra S. Wallin, will step aside in June to focus on her own writing. This is an essential service to our members. Be a part of the team with Blair Peery. She will train and be your consultant. Contact her at Webmaster.
Contest co-chair Darrell Horwitz Questions? Contact Contests.
Critique Groups Coordinator ( open now)
Social media/marketing/publicity, a co-position or a team (open now)
Please contact the current advisor or Caroline Kenna for more information.
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Tuesday, May 10 at 5 pm
happy hour conversation with Davidson alumni
Landis Wade '79 & C. Matthew Smith '97
hosted outside on the Summit Coffee Stage
free to attend.Learn more here
Saturday May 14, 5 to 6:30 pm Jennifer Weiner & The Summer Place,
conversation and book signing with Kimmery Martin, on the Summit Coffee Stage. Learn more & Purchase tickets at MSB-Events
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Reading for All The Seasons Never Lived
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Judy Hovis will be at Barnes & Noble, SouthPark area
on Saturday, May 7th
from 2:00 – 4:00, to read from her debut novel.
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In Celebration of Mother's Day | |
A Mother's love is the fuel that enable a normal human being to do the impossible."
Marion C. Carretty
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"Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers."
Wallace Stegner, American Novelist
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Charlotte Readers Podcast
Click the image to see what CWC member Landis Wade, the host and creator of Charlotte Readers Podcast has in store for us in May.
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The Sally Buckner Emerging Writers' Fellowship
The Sally Buckner Emerging Writers' Fellowship awards $500 fellowships to an emerging NC writer between the ages of 21-35 whose work shows promise of excellence to a literary career. The fellowship rotates genres every four years and this year the Fellowship will support an emerging writer of creative nonfiction or fiction.
Submissions are accepted
May-June 30 via email.
For submission information contact:
NCWNSallyBuckner Award
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Squire Summer Writing Workshops 2022 | |
July 11-14, 2022
The Squire Summer Writing Workshops offer an intensive course in a chosen genre (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry), with ten hour-and-a-half sessions over the four days of the program. Registrants work in-depth on their own manuscript samples, as well as their colleagues’, while also studying the principles of the genre with their instructor.
Other features include faculty readings, panel discussions, and open mic sessions for residents.
Registration opens on or before May 1.
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The Personal Story Publishing Project | |
Eight CWC members are among the 45 writers with stories included in “Curious Stuff,” vol. 6 in the Personal Story Publishing Project, edited by Randell Jones of Winston-Salem, also a CWC member.
Janet K. Baxter, Nikki Campo, Carlton Clayton, Cherie Cox, Doug Croft, Mary Alice Dixon, J.P. McGillicuddy, and Doug Morrison have stories in the collection.
Other CWC members’ stories have appeared in prior collections in the PSPP series.
Copies of the book and information about the Call for Personal Stories for the next collection on the theme “Twists and Turns” can be found at RandellJones.com and in the newsletter above.
You can hear the stories through “6-minute Stories” podcast.
Mary Alice Dixon’s story was released on March 30.
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Click the book cover above to visit the PSPP website.
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Open Mic Night at Mugs Coffee
Where members practice reading their work
Click the image to learn more and see who read at open mic the previous month. The Open Mic is Every fourth Friday of the month
(Only Members can register to read - all others welcome to hear great stories!)
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Click the Open Mic Image to register to read on Friday May 27th.
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MEMBERSHIP
Membership in the Charlotte Writers Club entitles you to participate in workshops, critique groups, contests, and guest speaker programs. The cost is a modest $35 per year for individuals and $20 for students.
We welcome all writers in all genres and forms to join our Charlotte-area literary community. Your membership in the Charlotte Writers' Club helps support writers, readers, and literacy at a critical time in our nation's and our city's history.
To Join or Renew click this Membership Link and follow the instructions.
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