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ONLINE—Hopefully you've been taking some time during quarantine to submit to literary journals, anthologies, and contests. Maybe you even have a manuscript you feel is ready for a publisher!
On Tuesday, August 25, at 7:00 pm EST, the North Carolina Writers' Network will host "BYO Query: An Open Source Event."
This event is free and open to the public; one does not need to be a member of NCWN to attend. However, space is limited.
Registration is closed.
Once you've registered, you'll receive the official event invitation, including log-in information, by e-mail.
"BYO Query: An Open Source Event" will be broken into two 45-minute sessions. During Part I, attendees can read their query-letters-in-progress to the group and receive "open-source" feedback on what's working and what might still need a little help. Part II will be a free-flowing conversation about submissions in general. Got a question about something you've run into, or a question about best practices? Someone may have the answer.
The event will be moderated by NCWN staff. Anyone with an internet connection can participate, or you can even read and listen over the phone!
NCWN launched its online series in 2017. These ninety-minute events have proven surprisingly effective in terms of bringing writers together from all over the state of North Carolina and beyond. In fact, during an online reading in July, NCWN had our first international participant join us all the way from Brazil!
The non-profit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
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WINSTON-SALEM—The North Carolina Writers' Network Board of Directors has elected two new trustees: Stephanie Andrea Allen and Mike Wiley.
Both were elected unanimously. They will be seated at the next Board Meeting, in September.
Stephanie Andrea Allen, Ph.D, is a native Southerner and out Black lesbian writer, scholar, and educator. She founded BLF Press in 2014 while she was still in graduate school, realizing that the challenges that women faced in regards to publishing still existed, (lack of diversity in publishing; the [false] notion that lesbian literature was now “mainstream;” lack of access to agents, editors, and other publishing professionals; and more than anything, the notion that their stories were somehow unworthy or had no literary merit), and decided that she could do something about that.
Stephanie recently co-founded the Black Lesbian Literary Collective, a not-for-profit collective collaborative focused on creating a nurturing and sustainable environment for Black lesbian and queer women of color writers.
Stephanie holds a Ph.D in American Studies from Purdue University; an M.A. in English from Auburn University; and a B.A. in English from Columbus State University. Her scholarship examines the marginalization of Black lesbian cultural productions and the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality that contribute to the invisibility of Black lesbians in popular and literary culture.
You can learn more about Stephanie at www.stephanieandreaallen.com.
Acclaimed actor and playwright Mike Wiley has spent the last decade fulfilling his mission to bring educational theatre to young audiences and communities across the country. In the early days of his career, Wiley found few theatrical resources to shine a light on key events and figures in African-American history. To bring these stories to life, he started his own production company.
Through his performances, Wiley has introduced countless students and communities to the legacies of Emmett Till, Henry “Box” Brown and more. His recent works include a one-man play based on Tim Tyson’s memoir Blood Done Sign My Name and The Parchman Hour, an ensemble production celebrating the bravery and determination of the Freedom Riders who risked their lives to desegregate Southern interstate bus travel in 1961.
Mike Wiley has a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the 2010 and 2014 Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to his numerous school and community performances, he has also appeared on Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and National Geographic Channel and has been featured in Our State magazine and on PBS’ North Carolina Now and WUNC’s The State of Things.
NCWN trustees are required to be members of the North Carolina Writers' Network. They serve three-year, renewable terms.
For a full list of Board members, click here.
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WINSTON-SALEM—Registration for the NCWN Squire Online Summer Writing Workshops ends June 29 at 12:00 pm (noon).
Registration is closed. For more information, click here.
The first-ever Squire Online 2020 runs July 9-12.
The weekend includes three 90-minute workshop sessions; craft lectures; and an "Evening Introduction" on Thursday which will help writers to get to know one another before embarking on an immersive, creatively fulfilling weekend devoted to the craft of writing.
Each workshop is limited to twelve participants. Registrants should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the workshop.
"In three and half days, we shared the equivalent of a week of class time," reflects Bo Bowden, who's attended several summer workshops. "The comradery built was unique to this NCWN event—for me, it's where the 'network' came to life!"
Patrice Gopo will lead the workshop "But It Really Happened Just Like That: Our Stories, Our Truth: Creative Nonfiction."
Have you ever written a story from your life, only to discover the details created a dull tale on the page? Or perhaps you wonder if the story you’ve lived, the story you are here to tell, will hold a reader’s attention and matter in this vast world steeped in a multitude of words? In this creative nonfiction workshop, we’ll use the personal essay as our springboard for discussion about how we write creative nonfiction that rises above anecdote and moves forward with unstoppable momentum.
Workshop participants will submit essays or excerpts up to 1,200 words when they register. We’ll intentionally use these contributions to move us into fruitful conversations about craft—both general and specific to creative nonfiction.
Patrice Gopo was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and she is the child of Jamaican immigrants. Her writing often considers racial identity formation, race relations, and the search for a sense of belonging. Her essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Catapult, Creative Nonfiction, and online in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the recipient of an NC Arts Council Literature Fellowship, and her essay collection, All the Colors We Will See, was a Fall 2018 B&N Discover Great New Writers selection. When she’s not writing, she enjoys speaking to groups about the power of personal storytelling. She lives with her family in Charlotte: www.patricegopo.com.
"Courting the Muse, Finding Your Voice and Other Good Things that Don't Happen without Applying the Elbow Grease: Poetry" will be led by Dannye Romine Powell.
Using the three poems each participant submits with his or her registration, we will look at ways to improve each poem. Is each poem saying what the poet intended? Extra words? Enough music? Cliches? Does the poem make an emotional connection with the reader and with the poet herself?
Using poems by widely published poets as examples, we will look at how mystery works throughout a poem, how sound creates emotion, how repetition appeals to the ear, how dreams can spark poems, how emotion connects the poet to the reader. Also, the tricks of the trade. Respecting the muse. Showing up to write. Reading aloud. Taking care of that fascinating organ called the brain.
Dannye Romine Powell's fifth collection, In the Sunroom with Raymond Carver, is out now. She has won fellowships in poetry from the NEA, the NC Arts Council, and Yaddo. Her poems have appeared over the years in The Paris Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, Southern Review, Harvard Review Online, Beloit Journal, 32 Poems, and many others. She is also the author of Parting the Curtains: Interviews with Southern Writers. For many years, she was the book editor of the Charlotte Observer.
"Imagine, if you can, a room full of thoughtful readers who have all read your manuscript with the precision of a good editor and are ready to get you on your way to publication," says author Pam Van Dyk. "If you can imagine this, then you will be at home at the NC Writer’s Squire Workshops."
Bryn Chancellor, author of Sycamore, a Southwest Book of the Year, and the story collection When Are You Coming Home?, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, will lead the fiction workshop. That workshop is closed for registration.
Squire Online 2020 is made possible with support from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, and the family of Chick and Elizabeth Daniels Squire.