Knoxville Writers' Guild 
Knoxville Writers' Guild
To become a Knoxville Writers' Guild member or to renew your membership, go to www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/member.htm.  Membership is $30/year, $15/students.
Announcements 

January 2011

 

Master Class Writers' Retreat for Women!
February 25-27, 2011
Get inspiration. Get guidance. Get published!


The retreat is a weekend long training program located in a beautiful facility in upstate New York. In a long weekend of writing instruction and one-on-one critique, participants gain fundamental knowledge of developing, marketing and pitching works of fiction/nonfiction.

This is a fantastic opportunity for women of all ages who are interested in writing and publishing! Surprisingly, many otherwise talented fiction/non-fiction writers have never been taught the basic skill of organizing their material - their narrative or their argument - along the lines of a coherent and clear outline. This workshop will provide participants with skills such as jumpstarting your creativity, connecting with an agent, and identifying a winning idea.

We are privileged to have this retreat led by awarding-winning and best-selling authors Barbara Victor and Christina Baker Kline.

Barbara Victor is a journalist who has covered the Middle East for most of her career. She worked for CBS television for fifteen years, has worked at U.S. News and World Report, Elle, Femme and Madame Figaro. She was the first person to interview Moammar Ghadaffi after the American bombing of Libya in 1986, and has interviewed many major political figures in the U.S. and the Middle East. Barbara is the author of five novels and seven non-fiction books.

Christina Baker Kline is the author of four novels, including, most recently, Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be. She has taught creative writing and literature at Yale, NYU, Drew, and UVA, and is currently Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University. She is an editor on staff at the social networking site SheWrites and her blog is "A Writing Life: Notes on Craft & the Creative Process."

APPLY TODAY!


*The Woodhull Institute is committed to making it possible for all women to participate in our powerful leadership trainings. We offer flexible payment plans, limited scholarships, and need-based financial aid.

Rebecca Marcus
Program Coordinator
The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership
1551 Kellum Place
Mineola, NY 11501

Tel-
646.435.0837
Fax- 646.290.5709
www.woodhull.org

Pamela Schoenewaldt, author of When We Were StrangersFebruary 3

Fiction writer and playwright Pamela Schoenewaldt

 

 

Fiction writer and playwright Pamela Schoenewaldt will discuss her new novel, When We Were Strangers at the Thursday, February 3rd meeting of the Knoxville Writers' Guild. Pamela will speak about the crafting of this story of a 19th century Italian woman who is forced to leave Italy and find work in the United States, which included her ten years spent in Italy.

 

The meeting, open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. at the Laurel Theater, corner of Laurel Ave. and 16th St. (in Fort Sanders). A $1 donation is requested at the door. The building is handicapped accessible.

 

When We Were Strangers is Schoenewaldt's debut novel. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary publications in England, Italy, France and the United States. Her play, "Espresso con mia madre" (Espresso with my mother), was performed at Teatro Cilea in Naples, Italy.

 

Pamela lived in a small town outside Naples from 1990-2000, and she credits this experience as a major inspiration for her novel. After a cross-country skiing trip in Opi, a small village in Abruzzo, Schoenewaldt began to imagine the story of an Italian immigrant from Opi, a woman limited by her location and status. Pamela believes there is a parallel between Irma Vitale, her protagonist, and women in some parts of the United States who experience similar circumstances.

 

Pamela's ability to connect her foreign experiences with her life in America has allowed her to compose a novel with characters whose struggles are at once identifiable. Michael Knight, author of The Typist, says, "When We Were Strangers transports you convincingly into Irma Vitale's life as she journeys toward self-discovery, toward a place to belong, toward love."

In addition to considering the difficulties women immigrants faced in the 19th century, the novel also tackles themes such as linguistic isolation, isolation within specific immigrant groups and the fear of being so far away from home.

 

Pamela Schoenewaldt taught English at the University of Maryland, upon her return to the United States. She was later a writer-in-residence at the University of Tennessee's library system. These experiences allowed the author the time and resources to research and craft her novel.

 

Pamela considers essential her time participating in the Knoxville Writers' Guild short fiction workshop, saying her novel would not have been possible without the incredible support and critique she received from the group.

 

When We Were Strangers is a Spring 2011 selection for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. January is seeing it featured as a Book-of-the-Month Club and Doubleday Book Club alternate selection.

 

Pamela is currently working on another novel, set in the 1100s. Readers interested in learning more about the writer's work, her blog and her upcoming events can visit her website at www.pamelaschoenewaldt.com.

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Social Media for Writers Workshop: Feb. 19 Dale Mackey

The Knoxville Writers' Guild is sponsoring the workshop "Social Media for Writers" from 1:oo to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19 at the Redeemer Church of Knoxville, 1642 Highland Ave. Taught by Dale Mackey of Community Television, the workshop costs $15 for Guild members; $20 for nonmembers.

Mackey will introduce writers to accessible tools for maintaining an online presence and will explore the use of social media to enlarge one's readership.

 

"It's going to be casual and laid back," Mackey said. "We're going to be covering a lot of information, so it will be a general overview of different online tools for outreach that workshop attendees can choose to further investigate, based on their needs and goals."

Topics will include self-branding, creating a personal website, maintaining a mailing list, blogging, Facebook, Twitter and integrating media.

 

"I'm going to go over some easy ways to capture video and images of readings and other events authors might want to share - and ways to share them, including Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and other sites," Mackey added.

 

An Illinois native, Mackey receive a degree in Women's Literary Studies at Iowa's Grinnell College. In addition to serving as Youth Program Coordinator for CTV, she has worked as Outreach Coordinator for Appalshop Art and Media Center in Whitesburg, Ky, and has taught creative writing classes at a women's prison. She co-founded Artistic License, an organization dedicated to fostering creative collaborations in the Knoxville community. An upcoming project will pair visual artists with Alzheimer's patients to create pieces of art based on the patient's memories.

 

To sign up, go to www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/orderpaypal or send your check to KWG Workshops, P.O. Box 10326, Knoxville TN 37939-0326.

 

For further information, call Terry Shaw at 865.963.7633.

Dominoes2011 Guild Contest adds new Genres: Novel Excerpts, Flash Fiction and Blog Writing!

  

The Knoxville Writers' Guild sponsors the following annual literary contests with more than $1,200 in prizes for poetry, fiction, and essays.   Enter as many of these contests as you like: The newly extended deadline is midnight April 30 for these writing contests from the Knoxville Writers' Guild. Previous contest winners can be viewed on the Career Achievement Award page for each year.

 

The following contests will share a new deadline of midnight April 30.

 

Poetry, in honor of Libba Moore Gray
Fiction, in honor of Leslie Garrett 
Young Writers' Prize in Poetry
Creative Nonfiction
Novel Excerpts
Flash Fiction
Blog Writing

 

For guidelines, visit http://www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/contests.htm

Call for Submissions
Knoxville Writers' Guild - 2011 Literary Anthology


Seeking fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, interviews, song lyrics, art and photography from
residents of East Tennessee and others with close ties to this area.

Theme: The broad diversity of people in East Tennessee
Working Title: A Tapestry of Voices

 

All genres will be considered, provided that "diversity" is referenced or illuminated in the works. Submissions may address the theme directly or indirectly, but "diversity" should figure significantly and artfully in the piece. The concept of "diversity" may be interpreted in any way the writer, photographer, or artist sees fit.

 

Submission Guidelines
-up to 3 submissions per entrant in any combination of categories
1. Poems and song lyrics-maximum of 5 pages
2. Prose (including fiction, creative nonfiction and interviews)-maximum of 2500 words
3. Photography, sketches and art in black and white
4. Submissions for cover art may be either in black and white or color
--All written submissions must be in Times New Roman, 12 point, in MS Word (.doc) or
RichText (.rtf) format.
--Prose submissions must be double-spaced. Poems and song lyrics may be single-spaced.
--Art submissions should initially be sent as JPG files with resolution set to 90-150 dpi.
--For photos selected for inclusion in the collection, higher resolution photos will be required
prior to publication. Artists who do not have access to equipment for producing JPG files may mail hard copies of their submissions.
--Do not submit previously published material, including material published online.

 

Deadline and Means of Submission
----All submissions must be e-mailed or postmarked by midnight February 15, 2011.
Late submissions will not be considered.
--Submissions may be e-mailed to [email protected]
or mailed to KWG Anthology, PO Box 10326, Knoxville, TN 37939-0326. Upon acceptance,
authors who submitted copies by mail must provide an electronic copy of the submission.
--All available author/artist contact information (name, phone numbers, mailing address and email address) must be included with each submission on a separate page that lists the title(s) of the submission(s).
--Acceptances will be notified by early May 2011. No rejection notices will be sent.
--Publication is slated for fall 2011. Editors are Kay Newton and Doris Ivie.
--In case of acceptance, authors/artists should be prepared to submit a 50-60 word biographical note to appear in the Contributors' section of the anthology. The biographical sketch may be submitted upon notice of acceptance or with the original submission.
Contributors' Perks
--Each contributor whose work is accepted will receive one free copy of the anthology. In
addition, each contributor will be entitled to a pre-publication discount on an unlimited number of copies. Discounted copies must be ordered and paid for prior to the anthology launch and must be picked up at time of the anthology launch if at all possible.

*ball and jacksIs your Guild membership current?
Life gets busy, and sometimes we forget.  Please update your Guild membership and rejoin your Knoxville-area circle of writers, publishers, poets, and performers. To renew, please visit
http://www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/orderpaypal.htm

If you are unsure about your membership status, please contact the Guild's Membership Coordinator. Click here.

* Many of those individuals listed in the Guild's Speakers' Bureau are no longer Guild members. If your membership has lapsed, your name, photo, and bio will be removed from the Bureau's page. http://www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/speakersbureau.html 
Disclaimer: As a service to members, KWG shares announcements of literary competitions and publishing opportunities. If you have any questions about the listings, please contact the sponsor. Unless specifically noted, these are not KWG-sponsored projects.
 
The Knoxville Writers' Guild meets the first Thursday of each month at the Laurel Theatre, 16 St. and Laurel Ave., Knoxville, TN at 7:00pm. For more information about the Guild, visit www.knoxvillewritersguild.org.
 
 To become a Knoxville Writers' Guild member or to renew your membership, go to www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/member.htm.  Membership is $30/year, $15/students.