I’ve always believed that we writers have a superpower: the ability to inhabit other personas in the form of the characters we create on the page.

Recently, I’ve had to question that belief.

Last spring, after the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide protests against racism, many privileged white people like myself suddenly opened our eyes to what has been going on around us for centuries, and to our complicity in it. For writers and artists, this self-examination extended into the art we create.

Controversies over “writing the other” were already brewing. Early in 2020, for example, Jeanine Cummins’ novel American Dirt was in the spotlight, with authors, editors, and artists wondering, as NPR put it, “When does a depiction of culture, history and identity become inauthentic? And according to whom?” In 2019, Amélie Wen Zhao had withdrawn her book Blood Heir before it was published, a result of negative pre-publication responses to its depiction of slavery. She was only one of several YA authors who found themselves swept up in the tides of so-called “cancel culture.” And lest you think the challenges are confined to literary or YA fiction, the romance category has been the subject of similar upheavals.

These are difficult issues that go to the heart of who we are as artists and as human beings. And yet I find myself resisting the idea that I can’t “write the other.” As a straight white female, I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t write a character who is a man, or a lesbian, or a three-headed beast, or who comes from a background different than mine. I want to find the common threads that link my emotional experience to the experiences of those who are not like me. And yet I want to do it in a way that tells the truth of my experience without denying the truths of others.

It’s a tall order for us as writers.

Last spring, the CWC SF Peninsula board began exploring how we could help our members grapple with these issues. Thanks to the hard work and persistence of past branch president Lisa Meltzer Penn, we began putting together a panel to bring some much-needed practical ideas to writers on this topic. And thanks to Shuffle Collective, a new online literary community, we now have an offering on tap that we hope will help all of us as we apply our imaginations to worlds beyond our own.

Don’t miss the results of our efforts. The Inclusion, Confusion and Authenticity in Writing panel discussion will be on February 24 at 6 p.m. PST. It’s offered at no charge and it’s open to all, so please invite any writer friends who may want insights into these issues.

Audrey

Registration for this meeting is required.

We are appealing to people's inclination to do what's right. Instead of requiring payment before registration, we respectfully request upon confirmation of your registration that you pay $5 (CWC members, any branch), $10 (non-members), or an amount of your choosing.

Note that our main meeting and Think Tank are shifted slightly later to accommodate speaker availability.

CJ Verburg presents

Traditional, Self-Published, and Both:

led by Nancy Branka

After 20 years in traditional publishing, CJ embraced the indie revolution. Her own imprint, Boom-Books, has published three Regency romance novellas (ebook and audiobook), two multimedia biographies (print and ebook), and four mystery novels, including the international rock-n-roll musical adventure Another Number for the Road. Her stories appear in several commercially published anthologies and e-zines.

In April, the national Malice Domestic mystery conference will publish CJ's newest story, "A Terrible Tragedy," and Boom-Books will publish her newest novella, Scalped, or The Toastrack Enigma.

Like her long-time friend and collaborator Edward Gorey, who also published traditionally and through his own press, CJ views format as offering a dazzling range of possibilities to creative writers.

CJ Verburg is an award-winning playwright and theater director, editor of two international literature collections, and the author of two crime-fiction series.

There are a number of new tools (and a few that have been around a while but are now significantly improved) that Nancy has found to be really helpful in the writing process (and fun to try out!).

Nancy Branka is a writer, editor, and founder of Startup Decoder, a website for mid- and late-career employees in startups and tech. Prior, she served for four years as chief content officer for Bizly, a startup in the meetings/events space, and 14 years as managing editor of Executive Travel Magazine, a Time Inc./American Express Publishing title. She is the author of Employee 6 Is 54, a novel that sprang from her own work at a startup and her belief that older employees bring an important set of skills to the tech world.

9 FEB, TUE

09:30 – 11:15 Shut Up & Write

10 FEB, WED

19:00 – 20:00 Writers Helping Writers

(Zoom link NOT published!)

For the Zoom link, contact Cynthia McCarthy at cmccarthy@cityofsanmateo.org

16 FEB, TUE

09:30 – 11:15 Shut Up & Write

20 FEB, SAT

10:00 – 13:00 MONTHLY MEETING

23 FEB, TUE

09:30 – 11:15 Shut Up & Write

19:00 – 20:30 Open Mic

24 FEB, WED

18:00 – 19:30 Diversity Panel

The CWC SF Peninsula Branch is a member of the CWC NorCal Group of branches.

This means that, as a member in good standing of the SF Peninsula branch, you can attend other branches' events at their members' rates - no additional charges!

The NorCal CWC Group consists of the following branches:

We also invite you to visit the NorCal Group's calendar which aggregates all branches' events.

Colleen Olle and her husband published a children’s picture book, Sophia and Sinclair Go on an Adventure!

Do you have writing news you want to share? Reached a goal? Got your author website up? Have success you want to shout about? Tell us about it!

Send an email to newsletter@sfpeninsulawriters.com with "Member News" as the Subject line, and the following information in the body of the email:

Description - No more than 15 words. Be as creative as your like - prose, verse, rhyme, stream of consciousness, you name it!

Who - your name (or pen name, if you're using one)

What - the exact nature of your success (i.e., short story, novel, website, agent, event, etc)

Where - links are great, or a physical location if it's relevant - or both!

The submission window for the 2021 Literary Review has opened. See the announcement and submission guidelines on our website, calwriters.org. Please contact Managing Editor Elisabeth Tuck with any questions you might have.

Knock our socks off with your great submissions!