Hello, and welcome to opportunities to publish your writing  whether or not you live on the Mendocino Coast.
Please join us!
RIDE SHARING
MEMBERS SEEKING to attend upcoming meetings are asked to forward contact information, with cross streets for listing here and in future newsletters. Members living near ride-seekers may then offer to drive by contacting WritersMendocinoCoast@GMail.com

Jan Edwards - From downtown Point Arena
Offer to drive from Rancho Navarro - Ron Morita
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ― Mary Oliver "The Summer Day"

Fabulous young man, a 9th grader at FBHS needs help in English. He is quiet but highly intelligent and very appreciative of help. Thirty minutes twice a week or 60 minutes once a week​, ​probably at​ ​the Fort Bragg​ library.​​
Learn more: WritersMendocinoCoast@gmail.com​
Member Jay Frankston / Whole Loaf Publications is putting together another writers' workshop to meet twice a month for 2 hours in Little River. He welcomes anyone who may want to join. Contact him at 937-0208 or wlp@mcn.org
EKPHRASIS 2014 - VIEW PAIRINGS OF 20
LITERARY AND VISUAL ARTISTS
JANUARY 21ST
Mendocino Hotel  6:00 p.m.

READINGS FROM UPCOMING ANTHOLOGY, MIXED WATERS
Preview readings by members accepted for the 2015 Anthology
Writers of the Mendocino Coast
Mixed Waters.
The remaining writers will read on March 18th at the anthology release party.
FEBRUARY 18th
Mendocino Hotel  6:00 p.m.

Marianne Villanueva, MA, Writer in Residence at Mendocino Art Center, author of Jenalyn, Ginseng and Other Tales from Manila, finalist for the Philippines’ National Book Award, The Mayor of the Roses: Stories, and The Lost Language, will share her insights into the
TETHERED FORM: The Paradox of Flash Fiction and the Unleashed Imagination;
How choosing form lets you find new subjects. Bring paper/pencil. 
Book signing afterward

Members Open Mic

Each month, when time permits, we'll have two members read their work for 3 minutes each. Put your name in the basket for a drawing at the start of the evening, and another at the end. Please time the reading to stay within the limit. 
FIRST FRIDAY POETRY READINGS IN FORT BRAGG
 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Upstairs, 353 N. Franklin Street
Bookstore and Vinyl Cafe 
More info: Oasis 707 964-5378
The Redwood Coast Senior Center's Gazette accepts submissions: personal recipes, poems, stories, histories, anecdotes, photos, and articles of general interest. Read the Premier Issue, and see page six for more details about writing for the Gazette. With your submission, include a brief description of what you do at the Center. The deadline is the 5th of each month. The March issue is available online, as is the latest, July/Sept 2014 issue.
CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB - MENDOCINO BRANCH
MENDOCINO COAST
  WRITERS CONFERENCE
MENDOCINO
HAS FIVE WRITERS IN 
THE LATEST LITERARY REVIEW 
Ann Thomas would make it six,
but this appears to be a typo.
From 1,800+ members eligible, of 33 accepted, our branch had five: 
Charlie Furey x 2
for a Fiction & a Memoir piece,
Steve Sapontzis, Jan Edwards,
Holly Tannen, T. James Moore
LITERARY REVIEW
NEXT EDITION
SUBMISSIONS CLOSED OCT 31ST
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CREATIVE WRITING
CLASS ON SATURDAYS

Mendocino College
at the Fort Bragg Campus
A three-credit, transferable creative writing class covering fiction, non-fiction, a touch of poetry, and perhaps a drop of screenwriting for those who want to dabble. 
Classes: Saturdays, 
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
February 21st through May 16th. 
All genres and levels of writers welcome. There is a Pass/No Pass option.
For new students: Go online to www.Mendocino.edu and  fill out the Mendocino College Application.  Registration staff will also be available at the Fort Bragg campus again on Monday, January 12 for registration and answering questions. Hours are 10-3. MCC will be there again in February before classes start, but the dean of instruction does not have dates yet.  Come prepared with previous college transcripts or be ready to take a quick, painless English placement test. 
For MC students, register online at www.Mendocino.edu.
If you have questions, email Instructor Katherine Brown at kbrown@mendocino.edu
SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 22nd
WRITERS WORKSHOP
WITH JODY GEHRMAN
9am - 12pm Room 111
(old College of the Redwoods)
$25 CWC members
$35 for non-members
click on poster for more detail
Member Ron Morita's short story "What He Has to Do" appeared in the latest issue (#2) of the online/print literary journal Red Earth Review and can be viewed at: okcu.edu/english/redearthmfa/red-earth-review.
Member Norma Watkins' memoir The Last Resort got a great mention in The New York Review of Books, Dec. 18, 2014. 
Reviewing The Culinary Imagination, Patricia Storace writes:
"Food is at the center of this genre of memoir because it is an integral part of another story. Norma Watkins's powerful The Last Resort, for example, studies food because the kitchen of her family's Mississippi hotel in the segregated South is a concentration of pleasure and cruelty, of generosity and injustice, when black people cooked for white people but could never eat with them, or as well."
SANTA ROSA CONFERENCE
The Tri-Valley Writers branch of the California Writers Club invite writers on the coast to a full day conference on the art and business of writing. Held Saturday, April 18, 2015, the focus will be on craft, marketing and self-publishing. Attendees will have an opportunity to win $150 in prizes. This is a great way to network with authors, marketers and innovators who share a passion for writing. Read more...
POETRY SLAM JUDGES

For the past fifteen years, the Mendocino County branch of California Poets In the Schools has hosted two high school poetry slams. Will you judge one of our upcoming 2015 HS poetry slams? Read more...  
Member Henri Bensussen has heard from Finishing Line Press, the publisher of her forthcoming chapbook Earning Colors, that they expect to have books ready by Christmas. Originally, the publication date was to be November 15. The radio show she and member Maureen Eppstein were to have done has been re-scheduled for March 23d. Henri's Gallery reading will be in mid-January rather than Dec. 11th. For those that pre-ordered the book, Henri is hopeful that books will arrive in December. Contact her if you have questions.

Member News

When your writing is published, receives a nomination or award, or other notable exposure, please send a short announcement to writersmendocinocoast@gmail.com 
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Member Maureen Eppstein: 
Publication by Finishing Line Press of her new poetry chapbook, Earthward. 
     If you pre-ordered the book from the publisher, the books will be on their way very soon. 
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click the image for their quarterly newsletter
SEE A TYPO? DETECT AN ERROR? -> EMAIL
T H A N K   Y O U
 WHY BROKEN SLEEP IS A GOLDEN TIME FOR CREATIVITY

Winter 2012-2013

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From 1,700+ members eligible, and of 28 accepted, our branch had 4:
Steve Sapontzis, Jan Edwards, Katherine Heimann Brown, and Jay Frankston.
CONGRATULATIONS, ALL! 
Archive: Spring 2012 Inaugural Issue
MEMBER WRITING PROJECTS:
Pictureclick IMAGE to LINK
EKPHRASIS
"Art describing art" in Greek.
Twenty pairs of writers and artists of the Artists Co-op of Mendocino presented a gallery exhibit and readings during October, 2014.
ANTHOLOGY (pub 2015)
Writers of the Mendocino Coast
MIXED WATERS
Submissions closed September 1 
more...
SMATCHUP 2014
Results of fourteen writers blindly matched for a collaborative writing project with another writer.
 LITERARY REVIEW
is published by the state California Writers Club. More info at
Literary Review 2014
www.calwriters.org
Latest Issue Arrived Dec 12 Via USPS
PictureVol. 2014 No. 2 FALL/WINTER Published by the California Writers Club

  Welcome to the Mendocino Coast branch of the California Writers Club founded in 1909. We are proud to share in this legacy.
  The Writers of the Mendocino Coast meet in the Mendocino Hotel at 6:00 pm on the third Wednesday of every month. We host speakers, workshops, open mics and other yet to be discovered events and activities (link to archive.)
  Our intention is to expand the network and opportunities for writers here on the Mendocino Coast. We hope you'll join us. 
Writers of the Mendocino Coast
PO Box 762 Fort Bragg, CA 95437


MEMBER COUNT 65
WELCOME 
Ron Morita
CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB COUNT:  1,603
(January 6, 2015)

See MAP of  CWC BRANCHES
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Founding President, Molly Dwyer, invited local writers to her kitchen table in 2009 to form the Mendocino Coast branch of the California Writers club chartered in 2010.
Membership 
 
NEW MEMBERS  $65 includes $20 initiation fee. More information on the website's Membership page.
Yearly renewal is $45.
Membership includes a copy of each of the club's recent anthologies, copies of our state organization's Literary Review magazine, space for member biographies, and  opportunities to see your writing in: 
-The 2015 Anthology Writers of the Mendocino Coast  THERMALS,
submissions closed September 1, 2014 
-The Literary Review is published by the state California Writers Club. More info at  www.calwriters.org
-The yearly collaboration, Ekphrasis, with the Artists Coop of Mendocino
SPONSORED MEMBERSHIPS
Financial aid is available for membership WritersMendocinoCoast@GMail.com

Our second anthology is available at Gallery Bookshop, in Mendocino, The Bookstore and Vinyl Cafe, and Visit Mendocino, both in Fort Bragg. 
Gualala area is Four-Eyed Frog country!
GO INDIE !
To purchase by mail, send a message to WritersMendocinoCoast@Gmail.com.
RECAP OF 2014
MONTHLY MEETINGS

JANUARY
Preview readings of
anthology participants
FEBRUARY
Michelle Richmond, NY Times bestselling author, talk on craft
MARCH
Anthology release party with readings.
APRIL
Smatch-Up, one writer starts a story with one page and another ends it with one page.
MAY
Shirin Yim Bridges talk
on "Digital First"
JUNE
Panel discussion by writing group, Write Women, on "Effective Critiques and Editing"
JULY
Ekphrasis III exchange of writing and art with artists from the Artists Co-op of Mendocino
AUGUST
Cynthia Frank, publisher, Cypress House, talk on "Preparing Your Manuscript for Publication"
SEPTEMBER
"Honor Among Writers" readings by members nominated by peers
OCTOBER
Ekphrasis III readings by twenty authors while images of artwork were displayed behind them
NOVEMBER
"Poetry For Non-Poets" a workshop with Maureen Eppstein
DECEMBER
Wrapped book exchange and readings of members' writing of their best, worst, or strangest holiday.