Writers of the Mendocino Coast
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​The California Arts Council recently announced the historic return of direct funding for California's individual artists, for the first time in nearly two decades! 


Apply by April 1 for the Individual Artists Fellowship grant, supporting emerging, established, and legacy artists through unrestricted grant awards ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. 

Learn more at: 
https://arts.ca.gov/grant_program/individual-artists-fellowship/
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BECOME A VIRTUAL TUTOR FOR CHILDREN IN FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD GRADES
The Fort Bragg Unified School District invites all adults in our community to be virtual tutors for children in grades 1-3. To actively help our local teachers and families, use Google Meets to encourage a young child's reading skills. Sign up at the School District Office at 312 S. Lincoln. After free fingerprinting at the Police Department, you'll be assigned a student.
​Call Anna Russell at 961-2850 (FBUSD) with questions.


​IN ADDITION TO THE FREE 2021 ANTHOLOGY COPY YOU'LL RECEIVE:
​

Members
: Preorder 1+ copies of Erosion anthology by midnight of Jan. 16th.
Email the number of copies you'd like to 
WritersMendocinoCoast@GMail.com
Send check for $10 ea. to Writers of the Mendocino Coast, PO Box 762, Fort Bragg, CA 95437
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JANUARY 17th 2021 3:00 p.m.
 MEMBER READINGS FROM 2021
ANTHOLOGY, EROSION


Leslie Wahlquist, memoir, Just Ask Ben
✅ Audrey Joy Wells, poetry, Skeleton in Place on Hare Creek Bridge
Charles Furey, fiction, Anthracite
✅ Michelle Blackwell, fiction, Color of Patriotism

✅ Barbara MacKay, poetry, I No Longer Can
✅ Donald Shephard, fiction, The Wedgewood Bowl
✅ Doug Fortier, fiction, Cordyceps Meets T.gondii
✅ Karen Lewis, poetry, Spinning in Love

✅ Earlene Gleisner, fiction, Ellie's Memories
✅ Fran Schwartz, memoir, This Is What Matters

✅ Elizabeth Vrenios, poetry, Truth Decides to Deconstruct
✅ Elizabeth Vrenois, poetry, Diagnosis Alzheimers

✅ Ginny Rorby, fiction, Bone Dry
✅ Mike Winn, fiction, Birthday in Vienna
Karin Uphoff, poetry, Uncovered
✅ Katherine Brown, fiction, 100 Hours

✅ Orah Young, memoir, Leave-Taking
Marylyn Scott, poetry, The Year of the Metal Rat
✅ Sharon Gilligan, memoir, In This Room
✅ Shirin Leos, fiction, More Than You Can Know

✅ Naty Osa, poetry, Scatter My Ashes
Sue Gibson, memoir, A Wedding in Portugal
✅ Susan Lundgren, memoir, White Powder Blues

✅ windflower, poetry, Skin of the Earth

✅ Priscilla Comen, memoir, Fossils
✅ is registered

REGISTRATION LINK AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL
IN THE ANNOUNCEMENT SENT JAN. 10TH
AND ON THE MORNING OF JANUARY 17TH

Must register before each meeting to get
the meeting access link.

​If you haven’t “zoomed” before, you do not have to have a zoom account. Once you register for the meeting, you’ll receive a link to use for the zoom meeting. A few minutes before the meeting, click that link. If you don’t have a mic and a camera on your computer, you’ll need to phone in. Phone numbers will also be sent with the Zoom link.
READING LIMIT 5 MINUTES
​Remaining writers read on March 21st 
at the anthology release party.​

STARTING JANUARY 20TH
CREATIVE WRITING CLASSES

OFFERED BY SANTA ROSA JC VIA ZOOM

Created especially for those age 50+, but open to all adults who live in California. On-going registration. Come for all or some sessions. Contact the instructor, Stacey Dennick, for more info. sdennick@santarosa.edu. www.sdennick.com.
For information on joining a class please visit: https://older-adults.santarosa.edu/join-class

2021 SMATCHUP, "Last Night..."

FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED
Signups begin February 1st,
and close February 26th, midnight,

OR WHEN SLOTS FILL 


IMPORTANT: SEE GUIDELINES
 
Ten starters and ten finishers—WMC members
Email interest to kheimannbrown@gmail.com
Must indicate which, starter or finisher, or either
and genre, poetry or fiction.

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FEBRUARY 21st 3:00 p.m.
JODY GEHRMAN

​Keep Me in Suspense
Adding more tension to your work, regardless of genre. 

Whether you're writing fiction, memoir, drama, or poetry, we could all use more suspense in our work. How do we craft scenes and images that maximize the reader's involvement in the moment? How can we get our characters into emotionally dangerous situations, then ratchet up that tension even more? Playwright, novelist, and professor Jody Gehrman will discuss techniques to help you maximize the drama and keep the pages turning regardless of your genre or style. This talk will be formatted as an interview, followed by a question and answer period with the audience.


Jody Gehrman is a native of Northern California, where she can be found writing, teaching, reading, or obsessing over her three cats most days. She is also the author of twelve novels and numerous award-winning plays.
Her Young Adult novel, Babe in Boyland, was optioned by the Disney Channel and won the International Reading Association's Teen Choice Award. 
Her plays have been produced in Ashland, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and L.A. She and her partner, David Wolf, won the New Generation Playwrights Award for their one-act, Jake Savage, Jungle P.I.
She is a professor of English and Communications at Mendocino College.


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MCWC WINTER PUBLISHING SERIES
Our branch of the California Writers Club is not affiliated with the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. 

In response to requests for more publishing-related information, the Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference has created a series of seminars focused on publishing.
 
Saturday February 6th, 12 PM PST
"Publishing with Small Presses" with Diana Arterian

For more information and to register, please visit http://mcwc.org/winter-publishing-series.

These events constitute an important fundraiser for MCWC this year as, like so many arts organizations during COVID-19, we face a significant budget shortfall. Every registration helps them continue creating meaningful, prestigious, and high-quality literary programming for our community. Your support is appreciated.   ​



CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS TO
​DRAMA ANTHOLOGY


WMC member Phil Zwerling and his colleague, Robert Moreira, are working on a Drama in the Time of CoVid-19 anthology to be published in 2022 by FlowerSong Press. They seek dramatic works: short plays, performance pieces, monologues, etc. that speak to the deaths, isolation, social, political, and economic upheaval that have followed in the wake of this pandemic.

Go to the SUBMISSIONS PAGE for all the details. Send any questions to Philip Zwerling pzwerling@icloud.com.
http://www.philipzwerling.com

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GOT A MINUTE?
See the current schedule.  
Mendocino Theatre Company's One-Minute Radio Theatre is a two-minute spot broadcast bi-weekly on ​KZYX. Collaborate by submitting an original one-minute radio play. 
 All voices to be heard! Plays can be in English or Spanish. No fee for submission nor cash award if your play is chosen; all actors and directors give their time free of charge. 
Submit your one-minute play* (app. 150-170 words, for 1-3 actors) in the body of an email (no attachments) to mtc@mcn.org with the subject MTC One-Minute Play: [Title of your play]. Include your full name, contact information, and a brief, 50-word bio. You may submit as many one-minute plays as you wish, but only one submission per email, please. 
*NB: Play may not contain the "seven dirty words", which are prohibited by the FCC. Play must be totally original and the author's own work.


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Online Poetry
​Workshop for Youth

Professional  poets from throughout California offer creative poetry writing lessons for youth and families.   Lessons are free to everyone and require no prep.  This online workshop is growing and lessons will continue to be added throughout the pandemic. Click to start writing!



GUALALA COMMUNITY WRITING PROJECT
Mark Gross has started a writing initiative, KGUA Writers, in Gualala in collaboration with Peggy Berryhill's KGUA-FM, 88.3 radio program at 9:00 a.m. on Monday mornings.
     There is a Facebook Group Page KGUA Writers,
and a website The Town That Started Writing.


This week's prompt for written submission of 200-300 words and recorded pieces of 2 to 2:30 minutes length by January 15th, midnight. Send as a new message with the subject of Episode #38 "No one can get more out of it than what is in it" to KGUAWriters@gmail.com.

POETRY
A Tribute to Poet Diane DiPrima

Saturday, January 16, 2021 from 3 to 4:30 pm via Zoom video conference
Diane DiPrima passed away in October of 2020
To sign up for limited reading slots, contact event producer Melissa Eleftherion Carr: carrm@mendocinocounty.org


POETRY
​Rhythm Running River
1st Sunday, 3-4 p.m. and 3rd Sunday 3-5 p.m. on KZYX public radio 
To listen live: https://www.kzyx.org/
For playlists: http://www.outfarpress.com/rrr.html
To receive emails from Dan Roberts with links to listen or download, contact Dan at outfarpress@saber.net

POETRY
​Third Thursday Poetry Night in Point Arena
Featured reader: Maxima Kahn, Nevada County
Thursday, January 21, 2021 from 7 to 9 pm via Zoom
Featured reading followed by open mic

To receive an invitation contact producer Blake More at blake@snakelyone.com or 707 / 884-9189 

POETRY
​Cartwheels on the Sky ~ Poets, Poems & Discovery
 A Solstice New Now Year celebration, Jan. 2nd:
https://www.bmoreyou.net/2020/12/31/solstice-now-year-on-cartwheels-on-the-sky/
Saturdays 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Live on KGUA FM Gualala and live streaming online KGUA.org with host Blake More


Show Archive: https://www.bmoreyou.net/musings/
Highlighting a new poet in conversation each week, the show offers fresh, intelligent, living poetry and lively discussions. To be considered for future shows, contact blake@snakelyone.com

FORT BRAGG LIBRARY
FIRST THURSDAY OPEN MIC POETRY 
7 P.M.

Use this link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9748647159
Readers should limit themselves to eight minutes, for
one to four poems. For more information, contact Dan Hesse, Branch Librarian at hessed@MendocinoCounty.org or 707 / 961-2625. And see FortBraggLibrary.org.



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KELLEY HOUSE CALENDAR
Call for Writers
There are so many stories yet to tell, and they welcome your voice. Articles are 400 to 700 words and can be paired with photos or illustrations usually discovered in their database of 10,000 images. Call the Kelley House curator, Karen McGrath, at 707/937-5791 or email her at curator@kelleyhousemuseum.org.



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2020 Literary Review

​2021 LITERARY REVIEW is open for submissions
 until March 15th, 2021
"We accept excerpts from previously published work provided that you hold the copyright, and you indicate the initial source and date when submitting—not on the submission itself." 
https://calwriters.org/publications/#submit

COVID-19 UPDATE     From our branch President:
Until further notice, WMC meetings will be held via Zoom on the third Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. 
There are more than two dozen free Xfinity WiFi hotspots in Fort Bragg. At wifi.xfinity.com, type in an address, city, state, or ZIP Code to find where to access the internet.

WELCOME TO THE 
CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB
 - ​FOUNDED in 1909 -

The Mendocino Coast branch is proud to share in this legacy. Our intention is to expand the network
​and provide publishing opportunities for writers.​
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MENDOCINO WRITERS MEET 
​ONLINE ON THE THIRD SUNDAY 3:00
Members Receive Invitations
​Public May Email a Request  WritersMendocinoCoast@Gmail.com

​
​Welcome New Member

Lorrie Lagasse
​MEMBER COUNT 76
(CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB COUNT: 897
as of Jan. 11th, 2021)
See MAP of  22 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.

Writers of the Mendocino Coast
PO Box 762 Fort Bragg, CA 
95437
​
The CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB is a 501(c) (3) educational nonprofit dedicated to educating members and the public-at-large in the craft of writing and in the marketing of their work.


California Writers Club: https://calwriters.org/
CWC Northern Branches: http://cwcnorcalwriters.org/
NorCal Events: http://cwcnorcalwriters.org/events/
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Email WritersMendocinoCoast@GMail.com
We will never sell or share your email address. 



The Bulletin is now being sent to each member's email address.
​Unfortunately, in the 2020 Winter issue of the Bulletin   the Mendocino Coast branch news was conflated with news of the Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference 
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Click on image to go to flip-page view of all pages CWC 2020 Winter Bulletin

MEMBERSHIP 
NEW MEMBERS  $65 includes $20 initiation fee. More information on the website's Membership page.
YEARLY RENEWAL is $45. $25 for dual memberships when a member of another CWC branch.
Membership includes a copy of the club's recent anthology,
​copies of our state organization's Literary Review magazine, space for member biographies, and opportunities to see your writing in: 
-The annual anthology
-The Literary Review published by our parent,
California Writers Club. More info at www.calwriters.org
-The yearly collaboration, Ekphrasis,
with the Artists Co-op of Mendocino
-The annual SmatchUp blind matching of two
writers on a theme, each writing a single page.

SPONSORED MEMBERSHIPS
Financial aid is available for membership
WritersMendocinoCoast@GMail.com

 SMATCHUP 2014    SMATCHUP 2015  
SMATCHUP 2016    SMATCHUP 2017   SMATCHUP 2018
SMATCHUP 2020

WMC member Clare Zwerling ​is interested in joining or forming a poetry group—ClareBercot@iCloud.com

 M E M B E R   N E W S 
Writing newly published, receives a nomination or award, or other notable exposure? Please send a short announcement to writersmendocinocoast@gmail.com

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WMC member Clare Bercot Zwerling's poetry has recently appeared or is in these forthcoming publications: 
— Lamar University Press - Odes and Elegies: Eco-Poetry from the Texas Gulf Coast “Recuerdo”
— The Good Life Review - Issue #2 Winter 2020 “Mirror:Madonna de la Playa”
 — Poetry South - Issue 12 “1945”
— The Oakland Review - Volume XLV “The Committee”
— Beatific - Winter 2020 “Gemstones”


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​WMC member Nancy Wallace-Nelson performed "Married to Dogs – for Better or Worse" at the online venue, TheMarsh.org on Dec. 15th.
See the performance online, #4.
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WMC member windflower has had another poem and photograph, "Fire and Blood," published in the November issue of Tiny Seed Journal, in the category of Facing the Fire. This is in addition to her appearance in the October issue of Tiny Seed Journal, Through the Eyes of Nature.

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​WMC member Susan Lundgren's nonfiction piece, "Black Lives DO Matter," appears in the social justice section of the Fall 2020 issue.
https://persimmontree.org/fall-2020/justice/

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Ginny shared her insights and experiences in a TeachingBooks interview for Freeing Finch along with a short reading.

From WMC member Ginny Rorby, the author of Hurt Go Happy, winner of ALA's Schneider Family Book Award, comes Freeing Finch, the inspiring story of a transgender girl and a stray dog who overcome adversity to find love, home, and a place to belong. Voted one of the 10 of the Best LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Books That Celebrate Pride.








ROLLING RECAP OF MONTHLY MEETINGS
​See Archives tab above for details

JANUARY 2020
READINGS FROM 2020 ANTHOLOGY
Preview readings by members accepted for the 2020 anthology Red Sky
FEBRUARY 2020
"You Can Write A Song About That"
Talk by WMC member
Holly Tannen
MARCH 2020
Red Sky
Anthology Release Party
Cancelled
​APRIL 2020
​
Cancelled
MAY 2020
Canceled
JUNE 2020
READINGS FROM 2020
ANTHOLOGY

Readings by members accepted for the 2019 anthology Red Sky
JULY 2020
The participants of Ekphrasis IX exchanged writing and art with members of the Artists Co-op of Mendocino.
Readings by members participating in the 2020 SmatchUp
AUGUST 2020
Shirin Leos speaking on
"Thinking Like a Developmental Editor"
SEPTEMBER 2020
Mitali Perkins "Dialogue: Crafting Conversations in Fiction"

OCTOBER 2020
EKPHRASIS VIX READINGS
​& SLIDESHOW

Writers read their works while a slide of the artwork was shown, in collaboration with the Artists Co-Op of Mendocino

NOVEMBER 2020
SHARON BOWERS
"
Adding Humor to Your Writing"
  • View the recording​
  • Joke Writing Ref. & Worksheets

​DECEMBER 2020

Holiday Hiatus - No Meeting

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MEMBER'S COPIES OF ANTHOLOGY, RED SKY
have all been mailed, including those pre-ordered. If members haven't received their copy, please email WritersMendocinoCoast@GMail.com
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Mailed to members once a year. Contains members' juried witing.
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Click on image to go to flip-page view of all pages CWC 2020 Winter Bulletin

B R A N C H   N E W S
STATEWIDE ANTHOLOGY NOW AVAILABLE
The High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club collected and compiled fictional stories of pandemics, real or imagined, and has now published its state-wide anthology, SURVIVAL: Tales of Pandemic, which is available at amazon.com as of November 1, 2020.  This volume of tales written by members of the century-old California Writers Club is the first anthology of its kind published by the High Desert Branch.

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     Drop in to the library site for the list of recently added books and reviews by WMC member​ Priscilla Comen.


Welcome to opportunities to publish your writing, whether or not you live on the Mendocino Coast. 

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