Events & Classes
Western Colorado Writers Forum March Newsletter
First "Junction Slam”
Download the free flier here: PDF
Performance workshop will be at Colorado Mesa University in HOU 110 4-6:30 Thursday 4/18. It's free and open to all student and adult writers who'd like to learn how to perform poetry or short flash fiction pieces under 3 minutes long. Come and bring a piece of your own or another writers! We'll have a signup sheet for the Grand Junction Slam at the workshop.
The Junction Slam will start at 8:30 p.m. Friday 4/19 at the Grand Junction Art Center 1803 N. 7’th St (corner of Orchard Ave. & 7th St). Come to read or just hear the writers and SE TH's band, Art Compost and the Word Mechanics. SE TH will perform first with his band, and the musicians will be available to back up all other slam readers. Expect the band to also break into rounds of dance music during slam breaks, so bring your dancing shoes.
$10 adults/$5 high school and college students. For information or to sign up to read, email WCWF intern Vanessa Nielson, blueisgood@gmail.com.
Symbol of Place: Rafting the San Juan with Pam Houston
WCWF Raft Trip, May 31 -June 3
Heading Out
Download free flier here: pdf
Come join us with author Pam Houston on a 4-day, 3-night adventure down a beloved section of the San Juan River, Mexican Hat to Clay Hills, known as "The Little Grand Canyon" for its sandstone colors. It's a place of surreal beauty and warm water, with petroglyphs, old villages, and cave dwellings in a labyrinth of canyons, including the Moki Stairs, the Tabernacle and Second Narrows, Cedar Mesa, Cowboy Hat and Eagle Rock, and the Goosenecks of the San Juan, which zigzag over seven miles. Waterfalls and natural plunge pools to swim in, and beach camping under the desert stars. Daily writing sessions with Pam Houson at lunch, with group readings, questions and discussions around the campfire at night. Paint wildflowers and canyons if you like, kayak or row or float through it all, striped with sun and shade, with stops to explore and to hike up enticing side canyons.
Cost: $775 all inclusive (to hold a place, payments of $250 can each be made in February, March and April). For more information, email WCWF intern, Vanessa, at blueisgood@gmail.com to register, and mail registration form (available for download here) with deposit to WCWF.
“The Language of the Fantastic,” second biennial WCWF Writers’ Conference
Thurs. –Sat., Oct. 10-13
CMU Student Center & 800 Colorado
Funded by the Grand Junction Commission on Arts & Culture!
Put this on your calendar; it will be another extraordinary conference. Thursday and Friday night readings; Friday/Saturday workshops in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir with acclaimed authors at CMU student center; Saturday night community banquet at CMU ballroom with readings and music. WCWF member discount. Watch for upcoming news of visiting authors!
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Readings
Poets & Writers of Colorado Mesa University
Reading Series 2012-2013
This month Poets and Writers of Colorado Mesa University will occur on April 18’th at 7pm and we are having an open reading. So come to Planet Earth on 524 Colorado Avenue, Grand Junction, join us and feel free to bring something to read! Call 970-256-9630 for further information.
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Publication Opportunities
Sixfold
Sixfold is a collaborative, democratic, completely writer-voted journal. Upload your own fiction or poetry PDF manuscript for a $6 entry fee by April 23, 2013. Then, vote within your genre to select the three prize-winning manuscripts of $1000, $200, and $100, and all the manuscripts published in each issue of Sixfold. Full details available at http://www.sixfold.org/
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Workshops
Revision for Children’s Writers Workshop
The West Slope, Rocky Mountain Chapter, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents a Revision for Children’s Writers Workshop on Saturday, April 13th at 10 am in the Grand Junction Visitors Center, Conference Room at 740 Horizon Dr., Grand Junction. Nonmembers are welcome and nonmember registration opens March 4th. The cost is $15 paid in advance for non-members, $25 space available at the door. This event is free to current members of SCBWI. The space is limited and you must register: email dkhower(at)gmail.com or call: 970-773-7971 with your name, address, email, phone, membership, and genre for afternoon session. We are delighted to have our keynote speaker, award winning author and publisher, Sneed B. Collard III joins us from Montana. The keynote will be followed by a general session on self-editing, lunch on your own, and a fun filled afternoon work session based on your genre (picture book or chapter book through YA Novel). All presentations will be presented by SCBWI PAL (published and listed) children's authors who will help you get your work out of the slush pile and into an agent or editors hand.
Fliers for this event can be downloaded here: doc format, pdf format
A Gesture in the Making: The Art of the Small and Humble
WCWF Workshop, downtown G.J., 11-3 p.m. June 22
In this four-hour class, poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and poet/artist Wendy Videlock will guide you through an experiment that combines the writing of poetry with Alcohol Ink painting. No experience in writing or painting is necessary, just a willingness to be led by the blank page, the pen as it glides, the paint as it moves. You’ll come away with some small poems and small paintings, and perhaps a growing notion of what happens when we let the world move us. Cost includes all art supplies: $60 (WCWF members). For information, contact sandydorr@bresnan.net; to register, email WCWF intern Vanessa Nielson, blueisgood@gmail.com.
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Contests and Competitions
The Blue Light Poetry Prize
Blue Light Press is holding a chapbook competition for poets! Chapbook submissions will be accepted Feb. 1 through June 15. Guidelines for the Bluelight Press chapbook competition (The Blue Light Poetry Prize) can be found at http://bluelightpress.com/contests.php.
The American Library in Paris
The American Library in Paris is pleased to announce a new annual book award to recognize the best book in English about France or the French-American encounter. The winning author receives a $5,000 prize, accommodations and travel to Paris to attend the award ceremony in October 2013, and the opportunity to read at an appearance or writing workshop for members at the American Library in Paris. The jury for this book award will be selected from the American Library's Writers Council. This year's jury will be announced in January 2013.The deadline for book award nominations is June 1, 2013. Complete eligibility and nomination guidelines are available here:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?TheAmericanLibraryin/d61f437a17/442161a6e2/354adfc8=26 .
For media inquiries, contact Charles Trueheart, Director of the
American Library in Paris, at trueheart@americanlibraryinparis.org
Upcoming WCWF Events
***More Coming Soon***
2013 Membership Drive is on Right Now!
Join us or renew your membership for Feb. 2013 - Feb. 2014! Unless you’ve joined in the last two months, ALL MEMBERSHIPS EXPIRE IN FEBRUARY 2013. Don’t lose your membership! In this community of writers, you receive the following:
· Member meetings & networking/publishing get-togethers
· Professional directory (create a profile on our site for professional opportunities and resources)
· “Voices of the Grand Valley” volunteer training and "Writers in the Schools" training for paid residencies
· Annual Member Reading, fall, 2012; share your work in the members-only performance
· A chance to volunteer, with waived membership fees
· Online information exchange of Western Slope literary events; heads-up about upcoming visiting writers and other exclusive benefits.
This year, as a member, you can also look forward to discounts on our many upcoming events!
$25 JOURNAL (student/senior over 65)
$35 SONNET (individual)
$50 FAIRY TALE (family)
$100-250 LEGEND (business)
$251-500 SAGA (patron)
$501-2000 EPIC (benefactor)
To join or renew, leave us a message at 256-4662, or go to www.westerncoloradowriters.org/join-support/