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December 10 – You NANO’d! Now What? Post-National Novel Writing Month Session

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Friday, December 10th, 2021
You NANO’d! Now What? Post-National Novel Writing Month Session
with Award-winning author and sixteen-time NaNoWriMo winner Nita Sweeney
Noon PT/3 pm ET

 

Whether you wrote 50,00 words or simply made it through the month, Congratulations! You’ve completed National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! 

What’s next? 

In this fun lunch n’ learn, Nita Sweeney, award-winning author and sixteen-time NaNoWriMo winner will teach you how to carry the NaNoWriMo inspiration into the rest of the year.

No matter if it’s your first Nano or your sixteenth, this session will help you continue.

Nita’s first book, the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink was a multi-year NaNoWriMo project. Her second book, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving, coauthored with Brenda Knight, offers author wisdom to help you on your NaNoWriMo journey.

In this workshop Nita will discuss:

  • How to continue the NaNoWriMo momentum without burning out
  • How to finish the story if it’s not complete
  • How to think about (and do) revision and editing
  • How to continue building the community you found in November
  • Why you should NOT send your NaNo novel to agents and publishers YET
  • And much more!

About Nita:

Nita Sweeney is the award-winning wellness author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator with Brenda Knight of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving. A certified meditation leader, mental health advocate, ultramarathoner, and former assistant to writing practice originator Natalie Goldberg, Nita founded the groups Mind, Mood, and Movement to support well-being through meditation, exercise, and writing practice, and The Writer’s Mind, to share using writing practice to produce publishable work. Nita also publishes the writing resource newsletter, Write Now Columbus. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband, Ed, and their yellow Labrador retriever, Scarlet. Download your free copy of Nita’s eBook Three Ways to Heal Your Mind.

 

Join us for WNBA-SF’s Post-National Novel Writing Month Session!
Register below to receive the Zoom link:

November 30 – Five Poets Read in Celebration of Native American Heritage Month

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Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
Five Poets Read in Celebration of Native American Heritage Month
5:00 – 6:30 pm/ PT
FREE Virtual Event!

Five contributors to Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California (Scarlet Tanager Books) will read in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. California has the largest Native American population of any state, and possibly the most diverse, representing Native Nations from across the U.S. as well as those indigenous to California.

 

Poets Reading:

 

Lucille Lang Day (Wampanoag) is the author of eleven poetry collections and chapbooks, most recently Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place, and coeditor of Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California and Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California.

 

 

Jennifer Elise Foerster (Mvskoke) has two poetry collections from the University of Arizona Press: Leaving Tulsa and Bright Raft in the Afterweather. She coedited When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry with Joy Harjo and Leanne Howe.

 

 

 

Dave Holt (Ojibwe), originally from Canada, is a musician and songwriter in addition to being a poet whose book Voyages to Ancestral Islands received an Artists Embassy International Literary / Cultural Arts Award.

 

 

Linda Noel (Koyoonk’auwi), former Poet Laureate of Ukiah, has worked in When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, The Dirt is Red Here, and many other anthologies.

 

 

 

Stephen Meadows (Ohlone) is a Californian of pioneer and Ohlone descent. His first poetry collection, Releasing the Days, was published by Heyday. His new collection, Winter Work, will be out soon.

 

 

 
Join us for WNBA-SF’s Native American Heritage Month poetry event!
Register below to receive the Zoom link:

November 18 – Holiday Storytelling Fest

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Thursday, November 18, 2021
Holiday Storytelling Fest 
5:00 – 6:00 pm/ PT
FREE Virtual Event!

Join WNBA-SF Chapter in our virtual storytelling fest to celebrate the holidays as only book women writers can! Five brilliant, talented writers will share their personal stories of gratitude to bring us cheer during this wonderful season of thanksgiving and joy.

After our five presenters tell their stories of thankfulness, we’ll open it up to our virtual audience—that’s you! We want to encourage the sharing of stories during the holidays with friends and family in the spirit of deep gratitude this year.

Storytellers

Co-chair of this event and Pushcart Prize nominee Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte (she/her) is an Oakland multidisciplinary writer whose autobiographical and fictional short story collections, along with her lyrical and stunning poetry, artfully succeed in getting across deeper meanings about the politics of race and economics without breaking out of the narrative. Her writing has been variously described as “rich in vivid imagery,” “incredible,” and “great contributions to literature.” Her first novel, Betrayal on the Bayou, was published June 2020 and a poetry collection she has written with her daughter Dr. Angela M. Boutte, No Poetry No Peace, was published August 2020.  She is also a popular literary reader, presenter, storyteller, curator, and emcee. Website: www.sheryljbize-boutte.com

Co-chair and emcee of this event, Kate Farrell (she/her), storyteller, author, librarian, founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s & 70s, and Cry of the Nightbird: Writers Against Domestic Violence. Farrell’s award-winning new book, is a timely, how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. Kate offers virtual workshops for libraries and writing groups, as well as performing virtually as a storyteller. Website: https://katefarrell.net/ Blog: https://storytellingforeveryone.net/

Gini Grossenbacher (she/her), novelist, poet, certified editor, educator, publisher, founded Elk Grove Writers and Artists and JGKS Press in Sacramento County. She has thirty-six years of experience teaching English/language arts to adolescents and adults. Her debut American Madams series novel, Madam of My Heart, was a silver medalist for historical fiction in the 2018 Independent Publisher awards; Madam in Silk was runner up for historical fiction in the 2020 National Indie Excellence Awards. Her next novel, Madam in Lace, will release October 2021, and Glimpses, her first poetry collection in March 2022. As well as offering virtual fiction workshops for aspiring writers, Gini provides developmental, copyediting, and assisted publishing services to novelists and poets. Website: http://ginigrossenbacher.com/  https://www.facebook.com/ginigrossenbacherauthor

Diane LeBow (she/her) has worked for women’s rights in Afghanistan, ridden a camel through locust swarms on the Libyan Sahara, and searched for Amazon women’s descendants among Mongolian horsewomen. Her work has appeared in anthologies and publications: Salon, Via, Image, Cleis, Seal, Schocken, Travelers’ Tales, and has won many awards, including thirteen Solas Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Douglass College—Rutgers University for her writing, photojournalism, women’s rights work all over the world. She earned a Ph. D, one of the first in Women’s Studies, at the University of California. Her new travel memoir has just launched, Dancing on the Wine Dark Sea: Memoir of a trailblazing woman’s travels, adventures, and romance. Website: www.dianelebow.com Book launch 2021:  https://www.facebook.com/diane.lebow.9/videos/562680831567057

On July 17, 1955, Richelle Lee Slota (she/they) was one of 200 third graders selected to open Disneyland by running across the drawbridge into Fantasyland. She’s been running into Fantasyland ever since. She performs her one-transwoman show, Kind of a Drag under the drag name, Drama Queen. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London produced her short play, We All Walk in Shoes Too Small. Her one-act play, Famous Michael was staged by Solano Repertory Company. She has published much poetry, a novel, Stray Son, and, with co-author, Yaw Boateng, the non-fiction book, Captive Market: Commercial Kidnapping Stories from Nigeria. https://www.facebook.com/richard.slota

 

Join us for our WNBA November Holiday Storytelling Fest!
Register here to receive the Zoom link: