A Production of the South Carolina Writers Workshop
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Thank you for subscribing to The Quill and for your efforts as a member of SCWW!
October is a harvest month. Time to reap yourideas for stories. Maybe you are reflecting on a trip. As much as I love the autumn poem by Keats, I know the mellow smell of apples is only part of the past summer, the new smells cannot erase themold of the flood, the heat which spoiled some fruits, the peaches gone.
You will see in my blog recently posted that a recent journey, a road trip to Texas and back, offered up some ideas to harvest.
I hope your own summer and fall delivered you from storms and into new high ground for your own writing.
Like corn and cotton, and sugar cane, which were part of the harvest across my landscape of driving, I also saw pine trees lying prone on flat beds on their way to saw mills or paper mills. I reflected also on coffins made of pine by monks in Iowa, part of my own harvest of experience.
In a recent New York Times travel piece I read about a writer who drove from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles to gain some sense of the landscape Andy Warhol saw on his own road trip around 1963. She was thinking of the music for such a drive, John Denver's "Country Roads" maybe... I thought of Glen Campbell--now suffering with Alzheimers--and heard "The Witchita Lineman" on the ipod in my mind. Others may hear The Beach Boys or music about cars, tops down, ocean views, sounds for surfers.
There is a new exhibit in the ColumbiaArt Museum showing Georgia O'Keeffe's Works on Paper. She traveled by train to her first job as an art teacher to Abilene, where she found vast empty landscapes and few resources to share with her students. She began to form her aesthetic, her ideas about what art is and should be, there. Friends and family sent her materials to use in her classes.
What materials will we draw on this season, this month?
I had the opportunity last week to hear the poet Richard Blanco, fresh from his reading at the opening of the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba. Blanco read for President Obama's inaugural, too. His remarks at USCA focused on what HOME means to him.He was born in Cuba, lived briefly in Madrid, journeyed to New York, then grew up in Miami. He deals with family, food, Florida memories of his childhood, a strong grandmother, being gay, working as a city planner, not as a teacher of literature. He loves America. He is publishing a new memoir, after winning attention and prizes for his poetry. His story is all-American. I recommend his writing as something to harvest this season.
ML
To Our Members:
After a long run, SCWW is discontinuing The Quill. Generally statistics show that on average 22% of a targeted audience opens an emailed newsletter. Our open rate is about 28%. Besides the expense, we don't feel this is a good way to reach our membership. In this day of social media we believe The Quill's usefullness has come to an end. Our Facebook page (South Carolina Writers' Workshop SCWW) seems a more efficient method of reaching members. The page has over 600 group members, many of whom do not belong to SCWW. We hope some of them are encouraged to join the organization. Our website hosts our blog and other information.
Producing a newsletter requires many hours of effort that can now be divided into smaller amounts of time and yield better results.
The November issue of The Quillwill be our last. We hope this doesn't cause anyone to think we won't communiate with members. We feel if we concentrate our outreach efforts on our Facesbook page instead of dividing our focus three ways, as we do now--Facebook, Quill and blog--we will reach more of you.
Our Facebook group page will carry much of the same content. Members may continue to submit news items to The Quill email: for dissemination on Facebook. We'll still have Chapter Chatter and Contest Hound. No more waiting a month for announcements. They will be available in a timely manner.
Of course this means you must join our Facebook group. It's free to produce and join. Copy and paste this link:
and request to join.
We need all our SCWW membvers on board.
SCWW Board of Directors
Please Take Advantage of these Opportunities!
Guidelines for Posting toSpeakers' Bureau Page
- Send your information to; SPEAKERS’ BUREAU on the subject line; include the following as formatted above
- Genre
- Speaking Topics
- Published Work
- Location
- Travel Parameter
- Website
- Photo in jpeg file if desired
Include your website and blog addresses on the SCWW website. Go to guidelines.
What has SCWW done for you?
How many of our members were published thanks to the organization? If you are one of the many, please post your story on facebook and share.
Facebook SCWW group:
SCWW helps writers meet other writers. Many long lasting friendships were made, resources discovered, and tons of support given.
Remember when you were a new writer with only a dream and a story to tell? Remember the fear and doubt... "can I write this story?" Remember all those other questions? Where do I go for help? Where can I find others like me? How do I learn from others who share the same passion as me?
This is why SCWW MUST succeed!
PLEASE VOLUNTEER!
MEMBERS' PUBLISHED WORKS
The improvements at the members’ Published Works page are complete. Check it out. Here are the guidelines to enter your published work on the website.
Guidelines for Posting Members' Published Work
1. Email your information cate the title, author, and genre of the book on the subject line of the email. Please choose your genre from these categories:
Fiction/Historical Fiction Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Memoir/Poetry Nonfiction
Romance Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal YA/Children's
2. Book descriptions should be one or two paragraphs,100 to no more than 150 wordsin length.
3. Artwork for the book cover must be sent in a jpeg file (or a link to the artwork). Maximum file size is 15MB.
4. Include a link to your website and/or URL where your published work may be purchased if desired. It is the member's responsibilityto provide accurate links.
5. Provide a link to your website.
6. Posting is available to members in good standing. If membership expires, corresponding books will be removed from this page.
Contest Hound
Know of a great contest or competition? Share it with your SCWW friends!
PLEASE NOTE, ANY LINKS BELOW MUST BE BROKEN TO AVOID SPAM FILTERS. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GOOGLE CONTEST DETAILS.
The Jeanne M Libby Chapbook Award in Fiction, essay, or graphic narrative. Deadline: December 30. Submissions consideredd for publication in the Florida
Review.
see floridareview.cah.ucf.edu
The Evansville Review seeks ssubmissions fiction, nonfiction, flash, drama, poetry and cover art. 1 December deadline. visit Submittble page.
Charlotte Writers' Club MOOSE FLASH FICTION PRIZE
submit short fiction up to 500 words
by mail to Moose Fiction Prize
nonmembers $15.00 by Oct 20, 2015
PO Box 22094
Charlotte, NC28222
Charlotte Writers Club
see cheatriverreview.com for guidelines
fiction
flash
poetry
nonfiction
deadline is 1 Nov 2015
January 18 - 23, 2016Palm Beach Poetry Festival
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MEMBERSCENTER
SCWW Board members are always available to you!
Reach out any time.
Tibby Plants, President
Murrells Inlet /Surfside Chapter
Ginny Padgett. President Ex-Officio and Web-Master
Columbia / Columbia II Chapter
Julia Rogers Hook, Vice President
207 Wild Cherry Road
Columbia, SC29223
Donna Stone. Secretary / Chapter Liaison / grants
Jim McFarlane, Treasurer / Irene Tervo, Apprentice
Greer / Greer East Chapter
Connie Hullander, Publicity
Mike Lythgoe, QUILL Editor
Member At Large
Intermittent Board Members:
J. M. Kelly
Paula Hoffman
Jim McFarlane & Irene Tervo, Membership Co-Chairs
Trilby plants & Irene Tervo, The Petigru Review / Contest Chairs
Open Positions: Coordinator of Outreach & Moderator Online Critique Groups
Interested? Contact for information
Effective Feburary 2nd 2015... a new address
SCWW (Business address)
4711 Forest Drive, Suite 3
PMB 189
Columbia, SC29206
REFERENCES:
Contact The Quill via email at .
SCWW is dedicated to fostering and improving writing talents throughout South Carolina and is funded by the South Carolina Arts Commission which receivessupport from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Copyright 2015 South Carolina Writers Workshop.
If your address changes, please contact the membership chair at
Our membership records list you as
VirginiaPADGETT
3926 Rockbridge Road
ColumbiaSC29206
email:
chapter:Columbia II
expires:15