Over twenty-five members and their guests attended WNBA-Boston's free "Meet & Greet" at More Than Words bookstore café in Waltham, where attendees toured the facilities of this unique and inspiring youth program. The chapter's members-only book club, led by member Cynthia Biron, met to discuss The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, and What is the What by Dave Eggers.

Co-president Dawn Rennert held a Luncheon with the Author at her home in Concord, where Nichole Bernier spoke about fiction writing and her novel The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.

A database has been started of member-authors available to meet/Skype with book clubs.  Interested Boston members should contact Anne Ipsen at anne at anneipsen dot com.

Member News

Nichole Bernier, whose novel The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. has now been reissued in paperback, was a featured author at "Booktopia," a readers' retreat sponsored by the Books on the Nightstand podcast.

JoeAnn Hart published the novel Float. 

Daphne Kalotay's article "The Calm Before the Calm: Silence and the Creative Writer" was published in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers.

Amy Kwei's book, A Concubine for the Family, has  been short-listed for the "Best Book Award" by the Chinese-American Librarians' Association.

Randy Susan Meyer's novel The Comfort of Lies made The Boston Globe's bestseller list.

Maryanne O'Hara's novel Cascade has just been released in paperback.

Karyn Polewaczyk has a permanent column in the Weekly Dig called "Freelance Lady," and will cover the writing life from a woman's perspective. And on Jezebel.com she published a new article, Stop Apologizing! Why Are Women So 'Sorry' All The Time?.

Henriette Power has published her debut novel, The Clover House, which made The Boston Globe bestseller list.

Tracy Strauss published an article,
My Deep, Dark Secret, in Salon.com.

Nancy Rubin Stuart has published a new nonfiction book, Defiant Brides:  The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married, about the wives of political radicals Henry Knox and Benedict Arnold.

Gilmore Tamny's novel My Days with Millicent is being published in serialized form on OhioEdit.com. 

Kim Triedman published a new collection of poetry, Plum(b).

Literary Tea 

On April 28, chapter members and friends gathered at the home of longtime member Joan Jackson, for the third "Literary Tea." Originally started as an annual tea, it has become such a successful event that plans are to hold three per year. Attendees drank tea, enjoyed tea cakes and desserts, and listened to three incredible authors speak and read from their books.  

The authors were Lydia Crichton (Grains of Truth, a romantic thriller set in Egypt); Susan Sherman (The Little Russian, a historical fiction novel chosen by People magazine for "Great New Reads in Fiction"): and Helen Sedwick (Coyote Winds, a young adult novel of true tales about coming of age during the Dust Bowl). Julia Drake, WNBA-LA immediate past president and owner of Julia Drake Public Relations, scheduled the authors, and chapter member Jeff Slottow played the piano.

Lindsay Lees, a new member, is spearheading the organization of the chapter's first writing critique group. WNBA-LA has publicized it and gotten a very good response. The first meeting took place in May.

Member News

Lisa-Catherine Cohen performed at the M Bar for LA Women in Music (LAWiM) on March 13. Backing her was a fantastic band led by producer/composer, percussionist, Steve Reid, who has played with the likes of Miles Davis, Supertramp, and who cofounded the Rippingtons--and has played on over 700 albums.   

Allison Pescosolido, M.A., and her business Divorce Detox, were on the cover of the New York Time's Style Section in December. The article profiles how a New York Times reporter flew to Los Angeles to get a Divorce Detox from Mrs. Pescosolido. Her success in helping clients with relationships and divorce has led her to become one of the nation's leading relationship experts.

Alva Sachs, board member of Reading Is Fundamental of Southern California (RIFSoCal) and award-winning children's author, shared a special day with the LA Kings Stanley Cup Champions celebrating reading and literacy. RIFSoCal and the LA Kings joined together at the Staples Center to collect books, raise money, and raffle a signed team hockey stick, all for the love of books and kids!  

Barbara Schiffman signed her book The Akashic Muse: Collaborating With Your Soul & The Akashic Records for Writing & Other Creative Endeavors on April 4 at Ascension New Age Bookstore & Cafe in Bonsall, CA, and led a free mini workshop on enhancing creativity. On April 7, Barbara taught a class there on accessing your own Akashic Records. More here.

Kim Gottlieb-Walker's coffee table photo book  

Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae has entered a second printing and is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all good bookstores. There is also a French language edition entitled "Bob Marley, Portrait Inedit en Photo, 1975-1976, Photographies de Kim Gottlieb-Walker. 

 www.wnba-nyc.org

Career Skills Panel  

WNBA-NYC's "Career Skills Panel" event took place at the Time and Life building, March 10. Moderated by Andrea Baron, WNBA-NYC Student/Young Professional Outreach Chair and Adjunct Professor, Pace University MS in Publishing Program, a panel of experts including Angela Bole, Deputy Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group, Inc. and Alexis Bressler, Human Resources Specialist, Macmillan Publishers, discussed the new realities of the publishing industry. This year's "Query Roulette" was the chapter's most successful ever. Organized by Kathryn Bild and Rachel Weiss-Feldman, it was held at the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and featured 11 literary agents, 24 writers and 110 meetings.(Thank-you to the AAP's Tina Jordan and Becca Washington!) NYC's second "Independent Bookstore Crawl" took place on May 9, and this year featured Crawford Doyle, Kitchen Arts & Letters, and the literary mecca of the Upper East Side, The Corner Bookstore. Those attending adjourned to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner.

"Spring Brunch" took place on April 28 at the home of member Diana Altman. Animated discussion, networking, and enjoying wonderful food with fellow WNBA-ers was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon in New York. Thank-you to Diana for once again hosting this event in her home!

Kit Grindstaff's middle grade fantasy The Flame in the Mist is now out! See the trailer here on Kit's website. "Fast, creepy fun."--Stefan Bachmann, author of The Peculiar. Connect with Kit on Facebook and Twitter.

Masha Hamilton, winner of the WNBA Award in 2010, has just published her new book,  What Changes Everything.    

Amy Hill Hearth's Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society is a book club pick for Simon & Schuster, a Reader's Digest Select Edition, and a main selection of the Pulpwood Queens, a book club with 550 chapters. 

Lucine Kasbarian's The Greedy Sparrow: An Armenian Tale won the 2013 Nautilus Silver Award in the Children's Picture Book category.

Pamela Milam's Premarital Counseling for Gays and Lesbians was released in March. In June, Pamela signed a contract with the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency for her second book.

Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, recently reviewed in The New York Times, is the story of a 16-year-old Japanese girl named Nao, whose diary washes ashore on a small Canadian island off the coast of BC. http://www.ruthozeki.com.

Joan Regen-Ramirez had a story, The Last Hurrah of General Jackson, published in www.short-story.me.

Melissa A. Rosati, CPCC now represents the Institut Van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise, France, as the Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships, USA. She is organizing a $50M campaign titled "Van Gogh's Dream", for the U.S. market.

Harriet Shenkman, WNBA-NYC's Academic Liaison, had a poem, Unrequited Love, featured on the web site BoomerCafe.org. Two of her other poems, Lost in Egypt and Riff on Coupling, have been published in the online literary journal www.booksbywomen.org.

Harikleia Sirmans was awarded the George Gaumond Award for exemplary scholarship and service as MLIS graduate student at Valdosta State University. 

Stephanie A. Smith's Baby Rocket, the second in a trilogy, was published in June by Thames River Press. www.stephanieasmith.net.

Valerie Tomaselli, WNBA national  president, announces that City of the Dead, the first book in MTM's middle grade series, Horrors of History, earned a Junior Library Guild citation.  

Third Annual Detroit Publishing Panel 

Sign Language, a novel drawing on the experience of losing her father at a

(L to R back row)  Amy Ackley, Ari Berk. (L to R front row) Tracy Bilen, Hannah Harrington.

young age. It won the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for Young Adult fiction. Hannah Harrington is the 26-year-old author of

"The Detroit Metro Book & Author Society Luncheon" gathered a crowd of almost 1,500, one of the largest book events in the country. WNBA Detroit has sent representatives to this Board and is instrumental in the PR and volunteering to make it a successful twice-a-year event. Authors this year were Debbie Macomber, the best-selling author of over 150 romance novels and contemporary women's fiction. Over 140 million copies of her books are in print and four have become made-for-TV movies; Brad Thor, often called the "master of thrillers," his internationally published best sellers include The First Commandment and Lions of Lucerne, whose latest novel is Black List. Also attending this year were Paul French, an acclaimed British historian and China expert, his best-selling true crime novel is Midnight in Peking; William Kent Krueger, an award-winning crime writer known for his Cork O'Connor series of books, set in Minnesota, his new mystery novel is called Ordinary Grace; and Richard Snow, a popular historian whose new book, I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford, the story of the model T--the machine that transformed America--and of Ford himself. The next "Book & Author Luncheon" will be held on October 21.

May also brought members together to honor the board and cheer on the incoming board members at the annual business meeting dinner held in the beautiful upper rooms of Redford Public Library. There were many short book talks by members and trading of books, too. A drawing for a board-donated goodie bag capped the evening--always entertaining in its own right! Of course, marvelous dessert is a must.  

To draw WNBA Detroit's far-flung membership together during the rest of the year, Tanya Davidson, the new Social Media/PR chair, has begun a WNBA Detroit Book Club, beginning this summer with The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. The chapter is looking forward to getting to know each other and sharing their passion for books and reading. Titles the group will read will be voted on. Anyone interested in joining, either in person or via the virtual world, is welcome!

Author Event at Parkplace Books  

The evening of April 29 found Seattle WNBA hosting a social gathering of members and potential members at Purple Café and Wine Bar, a fun restaurant that is convenient to one of our favorite independent bookstores, Parkplace Books, where we later migrated for a wonderful author event.

Over wine and nibbles at Purple we got to know several new faces--women who write, read, are active in reading groups, and/or otherwise love books, and came to learn about the Women's National Book Association. Much interest in joining was expressed and we are looking forward to seeing more of these ladies in the near future.

The author event at Parkplace Books was a delight--actually a double delight--as two members of Seattle7Writers (a collective of well-published Northwest authors devoted to promoting literacy in their communities) read from their latest novels, answered questions, and chatted about their writing processes. 

(L to R) Erica Bauermeister, Linda Gray, Judy Solberg, Leslie Adams, Jennie Shortridge.

Jennie Shortridge (Love, Water, Memory), and Erica Bauermeister (The Lost Art of Mixing), are both bestselling authors who often do tandem readings. These two women write differently from each other, but have deep respect for the other's process and writing style. Both are accomplished in another creative endeavor that informs their writing significantly: Jennie in singing, and Erica in cooking.  

Both emphasized how much they have learned not only from each other, but from the critique group they've formed with some of the other Seattle7Writers, and how their writing has grown in ways they would never have imagined without that interaction. The readings were riveting, and attendees lined up afterward to have their copies of the new books signed by the authors.

WNBA-DC hosted a Poetry Month program at popular DC venue Busboys & Poets. The panel of five women poets addressed the issues of "The Culture of Rape and the War on Women." A word about the panelists: Cynthia Atkins was born and raised in Chicago and received a BFA and an MA from the University of Illinois and an MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts. She is the author of Psyche's Weathers and the forthcoming collection, In the Event of Full Disclosure (Wordtech, 2013), with themes of mental illness/wellness and family life. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and were nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Her honors include residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She currently teaches English at Virginia Western Community College. She was the founder and for eight years the artistic director of Writers@Jordan House/FAIR. Atkins currently lives on the Maury River of Rockbridge County, VA, with artist Phillip Welch.

(L to R) Moderator Michelle Sewell, Riggin Waugh, Cynthia Atkins, Martiza Rivera, Katherine Young, and Beth Konkoski, posing against a backdrop, in the Langston Room, of people who struggled for peace. Photo by Meredith Pond

Beth Konkoski is a writer with roots in the Adirondacks and a life with her husband and two children in northern Virginia. Her chapbook of poetry, Noticing the Splash, was published in 2009 by BoneWorld Press. Her poetry and fiction have been published in numerous literary journals. She has a piece forthcoming in Smokelong Quarterly.

Maritza Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet and army veteran who has lived in Rockville, MD since 1994. Maritza is the creator of a short form of poetry called Blackjack and her work appears in literary magazines, anthologies, and online publications. She is the author of About You, a collection of poetry "for women and the men they love" and A Mother's War, written during her son's two tours in Iraq to make the intensity of war a reality for everyone. Maritza participates in the Warrior Poetry Project at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD and serves on the board of directors of Split This Rock in Washington, DC.

Tote bag-winning writer Riggin Waugh lives in Takoma Park. She is the editor of two anthologies--Dykes With Baggage: The Lighter Side of Lesbians in Therapy and Ex-Lover Weird Shit: A Collection of Short Fiction, Poetry, and Cartoons by Lesbians and Gay Men. Her poetry, short fiction, personal essays, and interviews have appeared in many anthologies and literary journals and on the occasional bathroom wall.

Katherine E. Young is the author of Day of the Border Guards, which is forthcoming from the University of Arkansas Poetry Series. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, Shenandoah, and many other literary magazines. Her translations of Russian poet Inna Kabysh were awarded a share of the 2011 Joseph Brodsky-Stephen Spender Prize.

Moderator Michelle Sewell kept things moving. Each poet was introduced, and then had ten minutes to read her work, after which the floor was open to questions from the audience.