Nita Sweeney


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    WRITE NOW NEWSLETTER - MARCH 2010

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    SUMMARY OF EVENTS

    1. Rebecca Skloot Reading - March 4
    2. Thomas Kaufman (Fiction) Reading - March 6
    3. The Poetry Forum Annual Fundraiser & Readings - begins March 8
    4. The Joy of Journaling with Jen “Pen” Richards - begins March 9
    5. OSU Student/Faculty Reading - March 11
    6. Carol Goodman Reads Arcadia Falls - March 15
    7. Writer’s Bloc: An Experience in Self-Publishing with Gretchen Hirsch - March 18
    8. Poet Denise Duhamel Reading - March 19
    9. Poet Erica Dawson Reading - March 24
    10. Margot Singer (Fiction) Reading - March 25
    11. Peripatetic Poets - March 28
    12. “Writing and Other Careers” with Katy Lederer & Martha Moody - March 30
    13. Katy Lederer Readings - March 30 and April 1
    14. Christopher Moore Reading - April 1
    15. Write To The Finish with Sean Murphy & Tania Casselle - begins on-line April 10
    16. Ann Patchett Lecture & Signing - April 14
    17. Write On Writers Conference - April 24
    18. Columbus State Community College Annual Writers Conference - May 1
    19. Lee K. Abbott Workshop & Master Class - May 22 & 23

    EVENTS
     
    1. REBECCA SKLOOT READING

    Thursday, March 4 - 7PM
    The Ohio State University
    Morehouse Auditorium
    2050 Kenny Road
    No Charge

    Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer whose articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; Prevention; Glamour; and others. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s Radio Lab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW, and is a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine. Her work has been anthologized in several collections, including The Best Food Writing and The Best Creative Nonfiction. She is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle, and she blogs about science, life, and writing at Culture Dish, hosted by Seed magazine. Skloot has taught creative nonfiction at the University of Memphis and the University of Pittsburgh, and science journalism at NYU’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was published in February, 2010 by Cown. For more information, visit http://www.rebeccaskloot.com.
     
     
    2. THOMAS KAUFMAN READS DRINK THE TEA

    Saturday, March 6 at 2PM
    Foul Play Mystery Book Shop
    27 E. College Ave. (Westerville)

    Kaufman is a winner of a best first private-eye novel from the Private Eye Writers of America for his suspense novel Drink the Tea. He is also a film director and cameraman and has won the Gordon Parks Award for Cinematography and an Emmy.

    Call 614-818-2583 or visit www.foulplaybooks.com.
     
     
    3. THE POETRY FORUM ANNUAL FUNDRAISER & WEEKLY READINGS

    Each Monday of the month at 7PM
    The Rumba Cafe
    N. High St (OSU campus area)
    2507 Summit Street @ Hudson
    There’s never a fee. Please show your support by attending the fundraiser or contributing at the address below.

    • March 8 - Annual Fundraiser Featuring Scott Woods (bio below)
    • March 15 - Joshua Butts
    • March 22 - Joanna Schroeder
    • March 29 - Andrea Scarpino

    On March 8th, the Poetry Forum hosts Scott Woods at the Annual Poetry Forum Fundraiser. Woods’ work has been described as lyrical, thoughtful, smart, and often laugh-out-loud funny. He is a founder and coordinator of Writers Block which hosts weekly poetry readings at Kafe Kerouac. He has published several chapbooks, is on the Board of Poetry Slam International and has coached slam teams from Columbus at national competitions. Please support The Poetry Forum at this fundraising event. If you cannot attend, please send your support to The Poetry Forum, c/o Box 784, Worthington, OH 43085.

    For more information call 614-268-5006 or visit Poetry Calendar Columbus http://www.puddinghouse.com.
     
     
    4. THE JOY OF JOURNALING with JEN “PEN” RICHARDS

    Tuesday March 9 through Tuesday April 20 from 7PM to 8:30PM
    (No Class April 6th)
    McConnell Arts Center of Worthington
    777 Evening Street (Worthington)
    General Classroom - Lower Level
    Price: $110

    Be inspired and learn to effectively write your personal reflections. Whether in pursuit of publication or individual gratification, you will receive feedback and affirmation for your writing. Please bring your own journal and pencil to write with.

    For more information call 614.431.0329. To register visit https://www.ticketturtle.com/index.php?retail=mccac
     
     
    5. OSU STUDENT/FACULTY READING

    Thursday, March 11 - 7PM
    311 Denney Hall
    OSU Campus

    Join Jeredith Merrin, Brock Kingsley, and MaryKatherine Ramsey at this OSU sponsored reading. Call 614-292-2242 for more information.
     
     
    6. THURBER HOUSE EVENINGS WITH AUTHORS presents CARL GOODMAN reading ARCADIA FALLS

    Monday, March 15 - 7:30PM
    Columbus School for Girls
    56 S. Columbus Ave. (Bexley)
    $18.00 in advance; $20.00 at the door.

    Carol Goodman is the award-winning author of five novels, including the bestselling, The Lake of Dead Languages, and The Night Villa. Her latest novel is Arcadia Falls, a riveting tale of psychological suspense and eerie secrets about a mother and daughter who move to an isolated boarding school where everything is far more sinister than anyone can imagine.

    For more information, or to purchase tickets, call 614/464-1032 or visit www.thurberhouse.org
     
     
    7. WRITERS’ BLOCK: AN EXPERIENCE OF SELF-PUBLISHING with GRETCHEN HIRSCH

    Thursday, March 18 - 6:30PM networking; 7PM program
    Thurber Center
    77 Jefferson Avenue
    Free to members; $5 non-members; $1 for students

    Gretchen Hirsch, writer, editor, and book doctor is the author of a half dozen nonfiction books that were accepted and published in the traditional way. When Gretchen wrote her first novel, she decided to self-publish it. Find out why she made the decision and how it led to a successful launch of her book. If you’re thinking of self publishing, this is your opportunity to find out the ins and outs of the process from someone who has experienced it.

    Writer’s Bloc is a congenial group of creative dedicated writers, editors, poets, and other wordsmiths — published and unpublished — who gather six times a year for professional development, to share resources, to socialize, and to network. Our presentations and workshops bring the best authors, poets, publishers, and editors to us bi-monthly. We’d love you to join us, learn with us, and share your writings.

    Annual dues are $15 and include admission to all programs. Admission for guests and non-members to individual events is $5 with the exception of the November Potluck and Open Mic, which is free to all. Thurber House does not run Writers Bloc but sponsors us by providing space and info about it to writers. For more information, call 614-861-3394.
     
     
    8. POET DENISE DUHAMEL READING

    Friday, March 19 at Noon
    Ohio Wesleyan University
    Beeghly Library - Bayley Room
    43 Rowland Ave. (Delaware)

    Denise Duhamel was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in 1961. She received a B.F.A. degree from Emerson College and a M.F.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of numerous books and chapbooks of poetry, most recently Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh, 2009), Two and Two (2005), and Mille et un sentiments (Firewheel Editions, 2005).
     
     
    9. POET ERICA DAWSON READING

    Friday, March 24 at Noon
    Ohio Wesleyan University
    Beeghly Library - Bayley Room
    43 Rowland Ave. (Delaware)

    Erica Dawson’s collection Big-Eyed Afraid (Waywiser Press, 2007) won the 2006 Anthony Hecht Prize, and was named best debut of 2007 by Contemporary Poetry Review. Her poems are forthcoming in Alehouse Review and Best American Poetry 2008. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
     
     
    10. MARGOT SINGER (FICTION) READING

    Thursday, March 25 at 4:10PM
    Kenyon College (Gambier)
    The Cheever Room
    102 W. Wiggin St.

    Margot Singer is the author of The Pale of Settlement (University of Georgia Press, 2007), winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, and the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in such magazines as Prairie Schooner, Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, and many others. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Carter Prize for the Essay, and an honorable mention from the judges of the PEN/Hemingway Award.

    Margot has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Utah, as well as degrees from Oxford and Harvard. She currently teaches at Denison University, where she holds the Bosler Endowed Faculty Fellowship, and in the low-residency MFA program at Queens University in Charlotte, NC.

    For more information contact Marlene Landefeld at landefeldm@kenyon.edu.
     
     
    11. PERIPATETIC POETS READING AND OPEN MIC

    Sunday, March 28 - 7PM
    Areopagitica Books
    3510 North High Street - Clintonville
    All Welcome

    Featured readers Michele Castleman and Jeanni Ray followed by an open mic. For information call 614-268-5094.
     
     
    12. DENISON BECK LECTURE SERIES: PANEL DISCUSSION ON WRITING AND OTHER CAREERS with KATY LEDERER and MARTHA MOODY

    Tuesday, March 30 - 4PM
    Barney-Davis Board Room
    Denison University - Granville

    Katy Lederer was a VP at a New York City hedge fund before turning to writing full time. Lederer is the author of the poetry collections Winter Sex (Verse Press, 2002) and The Heaven-Sent Leaf (BOA Editions, 2008), as well as the memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers (Crown, 2003).

    Martha Moody practiced internal medicine for 15 years before becoming a novelist. Moody’s novels include Best Friends, The Office of Desire, and Sometimes Mine.

    Margot Singer, who was a partner with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company before coming to Denison, will moderate.

    For more information, contact Anneliese Deimel Davis 740-587-6207 or davisa@denison.edu.
     
     
    13. KATY LEDERER READINGS

    Tuesday, March 30 - 8PM
    Barney-Davis Board Room
    Denison University - Granville

    and

    Thursday, April 1 - 4:10PM
    Kenyon College
    The Cheever Room
    102 W. Wiggin St. (Gambier)

    Katy Lederer (see bio above) will read from her recent work. For information about the Denison event, contact Anneliese Deimel Davis 740-587-6207 or davisa@denison.edu. For information about the Kenyon event, contact Marlene Landefeld at landefeldm@kenyon.edu.
     
     
    14. THURBER HOUSE EVENINGS WITH AUTHORS presents CHRISTOPHER MOORE reading BITE ME, A LOVE STORY

    Thursday, April 1 - 7:30PM
    Columbus Performing Arts Center
    549 Franklin Ave.
    $18.00 in advance; $20.00 at the door.

    Ohio native Christopher Moore is the author of 12 novels including the international bestsellers, Lamb, A Dirty Job and You Suck. He will read from his latest novel, Bite Me: A Love Story, the third in his zany trilogy about vampires in love.

    For more information, or to purchase tickets, call 614/464-1032 or visit www.thurberhouse.org
     
     
    15. WRITE TO THE FINISH: FOR WRITERS WORKING ON A BROOK PROJECT

    begins Saturday, April 10
    Online/All locations
    Register by March 23.
    Space limited.

    A 9-month, online course by email & phone so you can take part wherever you are. Nobody can write your book for you, but you don’t have to be alone in the process. Write to the Finish supports you through the long-haul with craft, community, focus, and feedback. Includes manuscript critique, online seminar days, craft lessons, mentor calls with published authors. (Support on marketing too if you’re at that stage.) We welcome writers working on any book-length project, fiction or non-fiction. Led by award-winning authors Sean Murphy www.murphyzen.com and Tania Casselle www.tcwriter.com and www.WriteOnDeadine.com. Email wordworkers@juno.com for details and comments by previous participants.

    Nita’s Note: I have taken this and other courses from Sean and Tania and found them very helpful.
     
     
    16. ANN PATCHETT LECTURE & SIGNING

    Wednesday, April 14 - 7:30PM
    Bexley High School - Schottenstein Theatre
    326 South Cassingham Road (Bexley)
    $20 advance; $25 at the door;
    $15 for groups of 5 or more (in advance)

    Ann Patchett is the author of five novels, one memoir and one book-length essay. Patchett attended Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 1990, she won a residential fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. It was named a New York Times Notable Book for 1992.Patchett’s second novel, Taft, was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best work of fiction in 1994. Her third novel, The Magician’s Assistant, was short-listed for England’s Orange Prize and earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship.

    Her next novel, Bel Canto, won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named the Book Sense Book of the Year. It sold over a million copies in the United States and was translated into thirty languages. Patchett’s 2004 book Truth & Beauty, a memoir of her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy, was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly. Her fifth novel, Run, was published last year, as was her book-length essay, What Now?, based on a commencement address she gave at Sarah Lawrence College in 2006.

    Patchett was the editor for Best American Short Stories 2006. She has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Gourmet, and Vogue. She lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender.

    For more information and to buy tickets, visit http://bexleyeducationfoundation.org/BookClub.htm or call 614-338-2093. For group ticket information, please contact Nancy Rapport at 614-235-1905 or nanrap22@yahoo.com.
     
     
    17. WRITE ON WRITERS CONFERENCE

    Saturday, April 24 from 9AM to 4:30PM
    Coshocton Senior Center
    201 Brown’s Lane (Coshocton)

    Key-note address by Terry Hermsen, Ohio co-Poet of the Year, 2009. Break-out workshops on: Haiku, Ekphrastic Poetry, Narrative, Humor, Make Every Word Count, and Writing for Children.

    For complete conference brochure and more information go to
    http://www.writeonwriters.org/
     
     
    18. COLUMBUS STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ANNUAL WRITERS CONFERENCE

    Saturday, May 1 from 9AM to 5:15PM
    Columbus State Conference Center
    315 Cleveland Ave. (Discovery District)
    $60 non-students
    $20 students with ID
    Includes continental breakfast and buffet lunch
    Pre-registrations postmarked by Friday, April 23, 2010.
    Registration on the day of the event is on a space-available basis.

    Bestselling humor writer David Rakoff will deliver the conference’s keynote address, and he will conduct a small-group humor-writing workshop (reservations suggested). He will also be available for a book-signing.

    Featured workshop presenters include poets Louise Robertson and Mike Wright, screenwriter Eric Williams, adventure writer Willie Karidis, graphic novelist Abdul Rashid, ESPN sportswriter Eric Butterman, novelist Diane Kinser, playwright Vivian Lermond, children’s author Will Hillenbrand, and memoirist Julie Gregory.

    For more information and registration go to
    http://cscc.edu/writersconference/index.shtml
     
     
    19. LEE K. ABBOTT WORKSHOP & MASTER CLASS

    Saturday, May 22 & Sunday, May 23 from 10AM to 5PM
    Quest Conference Center
    8405 Pulsar Place
    $250 - Payment required by April 26th.
    Short stories are due May 1st.

    You might think you’ve heard all the writing advice you need to hear — but you haven’t heard it about the piece you’ve been working on lately. That can make all the difference. Why attend this workshop? Here’s a short list of reasons: for Lee K. Abbott’s valuable insights about your latest work; for comments and encouragement from your peers; for a roomful of actual people who will read your story with attention instead of a faceless “audience;” for the chance to read and learn from the work of your fellow writers; so you can talk about writing again among writers; for a deadline.

    Lee K. Abbott’s writing career by the numbers, to date: Short story collections: 7, Best American Short Stories awards: 2, O. Henry awards: 2, Pushcart prizes: 3, NEA fellowships: 2, Pulitzer prize nominations: 2, Universities where he has taught: 5, Years teaching at OSU: 20, Other awards, contributions to collected works, and individual short story publications: a multitude.

    For all the details including hotel accommodations, email julietcw@wowway.com.

    Last modified: March 4, 2010 @ 9:41 pm