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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.
Refined (after drawings by Picasso), it is modern in style and engaging. It invites the viewer to come share thoughts. To come hear thoughts.
To engage, to grow, to imagine."
Designer, Gordon Smith.
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December 2020 Volume 28 Issue 4
CWC Mission Statement:
Charlotte Writers Club supports local writers and promotes their development through education, recognition, and community.
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Virtual Writing Salon & Social Time |
Join Tiffany Grantham via Zoom on Monday, December 14 from 7:00-8:30 pm, for your next opportunity to write spontaneously to given prompts and to maybe share what you've written (No pressure).
It's great fun--You may unearth a memory or meet new characters or a familiar character which may surprise you. To Learn more and to receive the Zoom link REGISTER HERE
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December is....
Jólabókaflóð – which translated means
“The Book Flood of Christmas”
4-National Cookie Day
21-National Short Story Day
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Curl up with a Good Short Story
Tenth of December by George Saunders
A Good Man is Hard to Find
by Flannery O'Connor
The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin
Tiny Smiling Daddy by Mary Gaitskill
Absit by Angélica Gorodischer
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Check this out!
Our Nonfiction Contest is open; enter your 750-2,000 word articles, essays and nonfiction stories now through
January 2, 2021 CWC's own
Judy Goldman is the judge.
Winners will be announced at the meeting on February 16, 2021.
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A Message from the President:
- About 50 logged on for our most recent Zoom meeting. We pulled off a bit of tech magic to give the three publicists and the moderator center stage.
- The passion for Author Publicity and Marketing was electric and the chat was filled with questions from the audience and links the publicists shared. Visit the Meeting Recap page and Facebook for more.
- Before we reduced the checkerboard square of faces for the program, we welcomed two new members and three members showed off new book covers. Fresh ink! Those accomplishments sparkled in their eyes as they spoke.
This is what makes CWC unique in our writing community. We have been meeting and celebrating good publishing news for almost 100 years. Our venues have changed over the club's lifetime and now we're online for as long as dictated by the pandemic. The words we use have also changed but the sentiment of our founder Adelia Kimball still resonates in our mission statement "Charlotte Writers Club supports local writers and promotes their development through education, recognition, and community."
Thank you for enriching this community with your story!
I hope you see you for our next meeting, and that you have joy
and peace this yuletide season!
Stay Healthy and Keep Writing!
Caroline
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Join Us on Tuesday December 15, 2020, 6:30-8:30 pm via Zoom for our next general meeting |
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Charlotte Poet Diana Pinckney is our guest speaker. Her topic,
is Releasing the Tiger in The Poem. Her focus is on the tools poets use to write their way into the heart of a poem, because the process of creating poetry asks us to go deeper. Diana sees this act as "unexpected, out of the dark jungle of our hearts and minds." She will explore these ideas and discuss how the poet can meet up with their tiger to see what imaginative paths emerge. Visit the Calendar of Events page to learn more about our presenter and her subject.
Meetings are open to writers of all genres. Be our guest, email Axel Dahlberg, VP of Membership, for the link. CWC members will receive an announcement with the Zoom link. When you receive your invitation, please RSVP to get reminders with the meeting link and to let us know you'll be logging on.
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Meet-a-Member
Tiffany Grantham
Bio:
Tiffany is a Children’s Service Specialist for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, a short story-fiction writer, and secretary for CWC’s executive board. A native of Goldsboro, NC who has called Charlotte home for the past ten years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from North Carolina A&T State University, and an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University. In her spare time, Tiffany collects books to add to her in-home library.
When and where do I write the best?
Early in the morning, around 5:30 a.m. in my studio.
Favorite writing tool?
Good ol' fashion pencil and paper (notebook). I actually have to keep myself from buying a new notebook every time I go shopping--I wasn't too successful last time.
A favorite writing resource
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
Best Writing advice you’ve received and actually taken?
Your favorite author has an editor for a reason--you can not be a writer and editor at the same time.
One thing I would like help with?
Because I'm a big music lover, sharing how music can help with the writing process albeit, character development, plot or dialogue is what I hope to help other writers with.
To start a conversation with Tiffany, send her a message through the Member Directory
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Help Wanted: Co-Contest Chair |
We are looking for a Co-Contest Chair to fill the seat of Mack Staton who is stepping down after a year on the advisory board. Thank you Mack for your service to the club and best of luck on your new project.
Overseeing our contests is a shared position and a good way to dip your toe if you are interested in serving on the leadership team. Duties include: setting up and monitoring contests on Submittable; selecting qualified judges and shepherding through the judging process and reporting the results to winners and the club.
You'll have plenty of help from Immediate Past President and tech guru Debra Wallin and Co-chair Darrell Horwitz. You can reach out to president, Caroline Kenna, or to Mack through our Members Directory or contact Anshu Gupta, the Vice President of Nominations. |
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Seats are still open for our January Intensive with Sarah Creech
Start 2021 with a month long look at a fundamental of creative writing, the scene.
Building Better Scenes: A Four Session Course with Sarah Creech, 10 am-noon Saturday mornings in January (9, 16, 23, 30) via Zoom.
When you register, you will receive the Zoom link in your reminder emails.
The cost of this course is $120 for CWC members, $160 for non members.
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Calling all Poets: CWC's Poetry Contest Will Open on December 15th.
Enter your best poetry of fewer than 50 lines; haiku excluded, until February 16, 2021. The judge is Ashley Lumpkin. She is a Georgia-raised, Carolina-based writer, editor, actor, and educator and author of five collections of poetry. Learn more about Ashley Lumpkin.
The winners will be announced at our
April 20, 2021 meeting.
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Don't Forget Open Mic Night!
December 18, 2020, 6:30 to 9 pm, is the last chance this year to log on and hear fellow club members read from their work. If you are a member, you will find the Zoom link in the email that announces this event.
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Enter NCPS Pinesong
2021 Awards Contests
Now through January 9, 2021, the North Carolina Poetry Society is accepting submissions for the 11 contests that comprise the adult portion of the Pinesong Awards for 2021. Contest rules and instructions.
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Celebrate those prose and poetry projects you've labored over.
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Honoring Anthony S. “Tony” Abbott’s
Life and His Last Book of Poems
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Thursday January 7, 2021 at 7pm
CWC North and Main Street Books in Davidson will cohost a virtual event to celebrate the life of Tony Abbott and the release of his final collection of poems, Dark Side of North published by Press 53. Family, students, colleagues and friends of Abbott will read selections of his poetry and there will be an opportunity to purchase his new book.
Abbott had a true servant’s heart and was beloved by our literary community across the state and beyond. He passed away October 3, 2020. He was the author of eight books of poetry, two novels and four books of literary criticism. Abbott was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in October of 2020. At the time of his death, he was the Charles A. Dana Professor of English Emeritus at Davidson College. In 2015, he won the North Carolina Award for Literature, the highest civilian honor given by the state in recognition of his significant contributions in literature and public service.
Learn more about Abbott's life and works online.
This event is co-hosted by Charlotte Writers’ Club North and Main Street Books. Registration is required to attend this Zoom event. Sign up here to receive the link. After registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting (including a direct link).
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CWC North: Save these Dates for February
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Thursday February 4, 2021 at 7pm
CWC North and Main Street Books will cohost a reading and conversation about a memoir with Rebecca McClanahan and Gilda Morina Syverson.
will be available closer to each event.
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Flash forward/Flash back
Begin with a significant scene that takes your reader forwards or backwards in the timescale of the story.
Dialogue
Hook your reader with a significant line of dialogue.
Shock
Grab the reader’s attention with something dramatic and arresting.
Seduction
The softly-softly approach – draw the reader into your story by snaring them with a suggestion of what’s to come.
In media res (In the Midst of Things)
Plunge straight into your story by starting in the middle of things, with a crucial situation linked to the rest of the narrative.
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Encouragement Quote
You can always edit a page.
You can't edit a blank page.
Jodi Picoult
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Saturday February 27, 2021, 2 to 3:30 pm
Elizabeth Searle will present a workshop hosted by CWC North via Zoom. Registration is now open for ACT ONE: Playwriting Basics for Beginners, learn more and
When you sign up for this workshop, you will receive the Zoom link in your reminder emails.
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North Carolina Writers' Network Prose Contests Now Open
JACOBS/JONES AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERARY PRIZE Deadline for submission,
is January 2, 2021
It is sponsored by NCWN and administered by the Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, and open to any African-American writer whose primary residence is in North Carolina.
Entries may be fiction or creative nonfiction, but must not have been published before (including on any website, blog, or social media), and must be no more than 3,000 words.
Submissions accepted:
December 1 – January 30, 2021
Honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist, Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review.
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More Opportunities...
- Guerilla Poets are offering Free, virtual poetry, music and art workshops. Check out the list Here.
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Resources, grants and places to submit your work at NCArts.org.
- Luck & Opportunity: A Call for Your Personal Stories: Randell Jones' 4th anthology will feature essays on the subject of Luck and Opportunity. DEADLINE entry date for your 750-800 word stories is December 15, 2020. Learn more at the 2021 Personal Essay Publishing Project.
- The Writers Workshop of Asheville TWWOA
- North Carolina Poetry Society emuse at NCPS.
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It’s Winter Reading time at your Rowan County Public Library!
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Did You Know
A study found that you are 2 ½ times less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in later life if you read regularly.
The Holy Bible, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and Harry Potter are the 3 most read books in the world.
Lord of the Ring author, J.R.R Tolkien typed the whole trilogy with just two fingers!
The earliest known written existence of the word ‘book’ is in a book by Alfred the Great.
On estimate, there are over 900,000 new books published each year.
There is an actual word for loving the smell of old books, it’s Bibliosmia.
Mark Twain’s, Adventure of Tom Sawyer is said to be the first novel written on a typewriter.
Just thought you'd like to know.
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- Which Stephen King novel takes place mostly in fictional Overlook Hotel?
- What novel begins with call me Ishmael?
- What kind of animal is Boxer in George Orwell's Animal Farm?
- What writer coined the phrase, "ships in the night?"
Look for answers in the lower right column
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December lights shining bright colors in every hue
Trees decorated with white, red, green and yellow too; candles lit with Hanukkah blue commemorating a miracle that even today still holds true.
So as the year ends and fades away, may the New Year ring in peace, joy and harmony, and, of course, good writing from each of you.
Teresa G.S. Taylor
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Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
~Marianne Williamson, Author of A Return To Love
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Barnes and Noble
Morrison
Virtual Events
Jess Walter discusses
The Cold Millions with Richard Russo in Charlotte on
December 1, 2020
Tuesday 7 PM EST
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Join New York Times bestselling author,
Holly Black as she discusses the newest release in the Folk of Air series,
HOW THE KING OF ELFHAME LEARNED TO HATE STORIES.
A conversation with Leigh Bardugo on
Friday, December 4
7PM EST.
These events will air on the Barnes & Noble Facebook and videos will be available on the Barnes & Noble YouTube Channel.
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Sign Up for on-going events in cyberspace like these:
The 1st Tuesday of the month at 12pm is WBL Book Club! In December we will discuss
"The Confessions of Frannie Langton" by Sara Collins.
Write Like You Mean It, Thursdays 10:00 – 11:30 am Join from the comfort of your space to write and share our work. Contact Pam Turner
Poetry In Pajamas, 2020, 12:00 PM – 1:00 pm
Every other Wednesday of the month. Poets of all experience levels are welcome.For more information please contact
Prolific Pens Writing Group 11:00 am– 1:00 pm
The first and third Saturdays of the month with the exception of holidays to learn more contact Sally Deason
North County Regional Wordsmiths, Thursdays, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Writers of poetry and prose, all experience and skill levels are invited to meet every-three weeks for Thursday Group contact Darcey Mesaris
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Trivia Answers:
- The Shining
- Moby Dick
- Horse
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Happy Holidays to you and your family
May 2021 bring you new thoughts to think, more words to write, and more time to enjoy them both.
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Support CWC Members & Community Partners
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FEATURED LIT EVENT: PEN TO PAPER. |
Join on Tuesdays from 9:30-10:30 a.m. for a mini-lesson, writing prompt, writing time, and sharing. Free
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Seven seasons,150 episodes and counting! Check out what's new HERE along with host and podcast producer Landis Wade you may be surprised at how many other CWC members voices you recognize.
And don't forget this Special Episode celebrating our Spring 2019 contests winners. Becky Aijala and Lucinda Trew, for the Poetry Contest and for the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Contest, Janet Ford and Gary Powell.
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Finding Your Voice, (Fiction)
a part of the 2020-2021 Online Series
Life is full of changes, and the same should be true in our fiction. Change sparks action which sparks conflict which sparks reader interest. Jacinda Townsend is teaching this workshop on Wednesday, December 9 at 7 pm. Seats are limited. Register Here
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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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Charlotte Writers' Club PO Box 220954, Charlotte NC 28222
Please "LIKE" our Facebook page to encourage discussion among fellow
writers and keep up with the club offerings.
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