I’m getting ready to head over to the Bombay Beach Literary Festival. I look forward to it! Here’s an article, for more information: Lit Fest to Highlight Desert Settings - Calexico Chronicle
Their aims seem lovely. As novelist/memoirist, Gina Frangello, says,
“We are all about community, egalitarianism, less differentiation between audience and performers, and just bringing together people who love literature…”
Perfect!
If you know me, you know that approach aligns with my aims.
Sunday was a blast, talking with those of you who joined the Zoom craft talk on considering audience. Thank you, for being there! Good ideas, good insights and a good time! I appreciate you.
In the upcoming weeks, I look forward to starting up a new round of writing workshop.
Pages, anyone? If you’re in Portland, this will be an in-person group. You can find information here: Writing Workshop | monicadrake
Are you working on a novel, stories, an essay collection, a single essay, a memoir?
I’ve got spots for six writers.
Participating in a workshop can accomplish a lot of things, both with words on the page and beyond. It’s about community, and being inspired by each other. It’s also about crafting a sense of audience, working with others, hearing what interests people and how your own words are received. It’s about being in conversation about and around literature, our own and that in the larger swim of the arts.
Join in!
I bring twenty-five years of teaching experience, and participation in powerhouse workshops, and I’m all for it.
I’ve had people ask about where to send out work. There are the big names, and then so many other options. I’ll start sending out a few suggestions, thoughts.
For today, one I’m interested in is the flash fiction site, Smokelong Quarterly. Always compelling work! I haven’t submitted anything to them, so I don’t know about response times yet, but I love reading what they find.
Another cool site, for other reasons, is Rejection Letters.
I love a letter form, an epistolary, in the way it focuses that voice between the central character/writer/author/narrator and an audience, real or imagined, which expands to include all readers.
Also, I appreciate the site because by the existence of it, it recognizes that rejection is part of the process. We’re in it together.
Take care, stay well, keep writing,
M
Be safe, make friends, and don't fall in!