FEBRUARY 20,  VOLUME 24, ISSUE 6
GENERAL MEETING: February 20, 2018, 7:00 p.m.
Providence United Methodist Church, room 104
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28211

EDITORIAL
As writers, we carry a special burden these days. The language is constantly being abused by - as Shakespeare might have said - "goatish, clay-brained fustilarians."  This trend is particularly egregious among the flap-mouthed, dog-hearted political class. These churlish, fool-born miscreants, these addle-pated bugbears, are constantly twisting the English language out of shape.
 
Red and blue were once colors; left and right were directions.  Compromise now seems to mean  capitulate Liberal could be either  generous or  licentious . A trump is a tricky card, to trump up means to defraud , and trumpery is worthless nonsense. So please, set a good example. Choose your words carefully. Don't let these brazen-faced popinjays abuse our language.          DDC

PROGRAM FOR FEBRUARY 20
BRYN CHANCELLOR
Bryn Chancellor has an MFA in fiction from Vanderbilt University and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her critically lauded debut novel,Sycamore, is a coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a moving exploration of the elemental forces that drive human nature-desire, loneliness, grief, love, forgiveness, and hope-as witnessed through the inhabitants of one small Arizona town. She has also published a short story collection, When Are You Coming Home? which won the 2014 Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and her short fiction has appeared in a range of publications, including Gulf Coast,  Blackbird, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, and Phoebe. She was also awarded the 2014 Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award in fiction, and literary fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Arizona Commission on the Arts.
 
Dialogue from the Ground Up: Amplifying Place and the Sensory World
We'll explore how to enrich and intensify dialogue especially through setting, drawing from Elizabeth Bowen's assertion that "nothing happens nowhere ... the locale of the happening always colors the happening, and often, to a degree, shapes it."

FUTURE NEWS ALERT
WORKSHOPS AND CONTESTS
A CWC NORTH EVENT
Thursday, February 8, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.,
Please Join Us for Immigration Then & Now.
Charlotte Writers' Club North and Main Street Books is co-hosting this free event on Thursday evening February 8, at Main Street Books, 126 South Main Street, in Davidson. The conversation begins at 7 p.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m. and features three Charlotte Writers' Club North members: Paula Pederson Palmer, Carolyn F. Noell and Gilda Morina Syverson. Paula's book is Mysterious Builder of Seattle Landmarks: Searching for My Father, (VIE Publishing-VIE Communications, October, 2017), Carolyn has written The Medicine Man's Daughter, (The Bridge, 2014) and Gilda's memoir is My Father's Daughter From Rome to Sicily, (Divine Phoenix/Pegasus Books. For more information about the participating authors visit Main Street Books
We hope to see you there! 

JOHN AMEN POETRY WORKSHOP
THE PULSE OF OUR LIVES
 John Amen leads a poetry workshop that will help pinpoint the central images and narratives of your life. "Tapping these emotional reservoirs brings a sense of urgency to the work," Amen says. "And in this process, conveyance becomes seeking and the commonplace becomes epic; our verses leap from the page." The Charlotte poet is founder/editor of The Pedestal Magazine. He has written several collections of poetry. Work from the latest, Illusion of an Overwhelm (New York Quarterly Books, 2017), was a finalist for the Dana Award. Learn more at his website www.johnamen.com.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, February 10, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Providence United Methodist Church, Room 104, 2810 Providence Road, Charlotte.
The cost is $30 for CWC members, $40 for non-members. Visit our Workshop page for information on how to register and pay for the workshop fee. You can pay using Paypal or mail a check to Charlotte Writers' Club, P.O.Box 220954, Charlotte, NC 28222.
AND ANOTHER CWC-NORTH EVENT
Waterbean Poetry Night at the Mic
 
Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Free event, open to the public
Where? 
Waterbean Coffee, NorthCross Shopping Center
9705 Sam Furr Rd. (NC-73), Suite A, Huntersville, NC 
(near the fountain pond, behind Verizon Wireless store)

Host Leslie M. Rupracht proudly presents this month's feature: Contributing poets and artists  from the anthology, Kakalak 2017 . Editors Anne Kaylor and David Radavich will guest co-host.

Kakalak
Anticipated featured readers include:  Joyce Compton Brown, Caroline Kane Kenna (CWC's vice president), Valerie Macon, Jordan Makant, Douglas Anne McHargue, Ione ("Tootsie") O'Hara, David Poston, Tim Sanborn (poem/art), Eric Sbarge, and Martin Settle (poem/art). Lineup is subject to change.
 
Open Mic:  Sign up by 7:00 PM. Contributors from past issues of Kakalak are encouraged to share their work during this segment, which follows the featured readers and a 15-minute break. Please bring your own Kakalak past issue(s) for reading. Non-Kakalak poets are also welcomed to participate during Open Mic, time permitting. Readers are each limited to five (5) minutes at the mic (time limit may be adjusted at hosts' discretion).
 
Copies of Kakalak 2017 will be available for purchase and signing by featured poets and editors.
 
Waterbean Poetry Night at the Mic occurs monthly on 4th Wednesdays. As of January 2018, this poetry reading series is hosted and produced by its co-founder, Leslie M. Rupracht (previously co-host with Jonathan K. Rice, as editors of Iodine Poetry Journal). Poets and guests love locally-owned and operated Waterbean Coffee! Enjoy their fantastic variety of coffee, tea, wine, beer, smoothies, sandwiches and desserts-your purchases support the venue and help make this literary community event series possible.
 
CONTACT: Leslie M. Rupracht with questions via email: Hawkpoetic@gmail.com.

David Radavich Poetry Workshop
The great David Radavich will lead a workshop called "Poetry as Political Speech" on Wednesday,  March 14, from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Charlotte Lit, 1817 Central Avenue, Suite 302, in Charlotte, NC.  Participants will discuss what makes a poem political, look at socially engaged poetry past and present, and generate new work based on today's headlines.  For information about the class, click on:   Speaking Out: Poetry as Political Speech  To register click on:  Charlotte Lit Course Catalog.

SHORT STORY WORKSHOP
 WITH BRYN CHANCELLOR

Mark your calendars now!
 
OUR FEBRUARY SPEAKER WILL HOLD A SHORT STORY WORKSHOP ON APRIL 7TH, 10 a.m. to 12:30. Cost is $30 for CWC members and $40 for non-members. Room 104, Providence United Methodist Church.

Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, Inc.-"Charlotte Lit"-is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center dedicated to elevating and celebrating the literary arts in our community.
We offer more than 50 craft classes each year, book discussions, themed readings,  a curated literary events calendar,   and much more.
Charlotte Lit's co-founders are writers Kathie Collins and Paul Reali, who also serve on the CWC's board of directors.    Learn more and sign up for Charlotte Lit's weekly newsletter, just click the link.
For more information, check out our Charlotte Lit website.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership in the Charlotte Writers' Club entitles you to participate in workshops, critique groups, contests, and guest speaker programs. The cost is a modest $35 per year for singles, $ 50 for couples, and $20 for students. 
We welcome writers in all genres and forms to join our Charlotte-area literary community. Your membership in the Charlotte Writers' Club helps support writers, readers, and literacy at a critical time in our nation's and our city's history. Join here.
To Join or Renew click this  Membership Link and follow the instructions. 

Charlotte Writers' Club 
P.O. Box 220954
Charlotte, NC 28222


In This Issue
General Meeting Location
Providence United Methodist Church
2810 Providence Rd.

Click here for a map of the location.
Quick Links
  


  

Please "LIKE" our Facebook page to encourage discussion among fellow writers and keep up with the club offerings.
Gone Dogs!
 
Gone Dogs is a book written by dog lovers, for dog lovers.
 
For more information on how to submit your story visit the Gone Dogs Submission Page.  

INSPIRATION STATION
"The hard part is putting one word after another." 
Jo Linsdell

"A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." 
Thomas Mann 

"Why is truth stranger than fiction? Because truth is what happened. Fiction is what happens." 
DDC 

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." Goethe

"Writing is something you do alone. It's a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it." 
John Green

"There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you." 
  Beatrix Potter

"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's." 
  Stephen King

"Something is wrong with a sentence when you can delete words and not sense the loss." 
  Sylvan Barnet


Contest Information
The poetry contest is now open. It closes on March 20, with winners announced at our regular meeting on May 15.

The Elizabeth Simpson Smith short story contest opens on March 20, and closes on May 15, with winners announced at our regular meeting on September 18.

For details on these contests, visit our Contests page.