“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” - Dan Poynter
CONTENTS
Writers' Night In - Monday, June 20
Speaking History's Truths
A Tale of Self-Publishing Success: Virginia Woolf
Come Tweet for Us!
Writers' Night Out in July?
Open Mic Every Thursday
Calling All Book Authors! Tune-In Tuesdays
Grants Available to Low-Income Writers
Kudos
Upcoming Events
Spread Your News on the Update, Our Website, and Our Facebook Page!
|
|
WRITERS' NIGHT IN
MONDAY, JUNE 20 @ 5:30-6:30 P.M.
VIA ZOOM
Given all the crazy things going on in the world nowadays, one might feel torn between following the news and watching cats eat watermelon on YouTube.
There’s a time for both, of course. Just as there’s a time for hanging out with your NWU colleagues. What have you been working on? Reading? Watching? After watching the hearings have you been researching Tierra del Fuego’s immigration policies? “Writers’ Night In” is a chance to chat about whatever’s on your mind.
Our next virtual gathering happens next Monday the 20th, from 5:30 to 6:30. Feel free to invite friends who aren’t NWU members.
Hope you can join us...
Your NWU-Boston Steering Committee
|
|
SPEAKING HISTORY’S TRUTHS
by Charles Coe
The opposition some people have to teaching “critical race theory” in schools is a cynical and intentional misinterpretation of a term created to describe how race is discussed by academics and historians. What opponents of “critical race theory” actually don’t want taught is history. In 2015, a history textbook used in Texas public schools printed a map of the United States describing "patterns of immigration." The book characterized the Atlantic slave trade as "bringing millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations." Elsewhere in that same textbook, enslaved people were referred to as “immigrants.”
As someone on Twitter astutely commented, “The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school are now upset their grandchildren might learn about them throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school.”
As writers we have the opportunity and responsibility to support the right of school teachers to teach the truth about this country’s shameful history of abuse against black, brown, red, and yellow people. Write letters to (or run for) your local school board. Print letters and op-eds in your local newspaper. Write to your local politicians. The people who don’t want their children being taught anything “that might make them uncomfortable” are loud and extremely well-organized, and determined to intimidate teachers into silence.
As writers we need to do our part to help make sure they fail.
|
|
A STORY OF SELF-PUBLISHING SUCCESS:
VIRGINIA WOOLF
by John L. Hodge
Virginia Woolf, considered to be one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, had a terrifying fear of rejections. This was solved when she and her husband, Leonard, purchased a printing press and set it up in their living room, calling themselves Hogarth Press. Its first publication was Two Stories, containing one story by Virginia and one by Leonard, published in 1917. The first printing was 134 copies of a 31-page pamphlet, hand bound by Virginia with bright red thread. All of Virginia’s works, except for two, were initially published in England by Hogarth Press. The other two,The Voyage Out and Night and Day, were published by Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd, owned by her half-brother. Hogarth Press itself grew to become famous. It published, among many other well-known writers and works, T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and the first English translation of Sigmund Freud’s Collected Works.
|
|
COME TWEET FOR US!
We’re looking for someone Twitter-savvy to tweet for the Union. We want to have a more active presence on social media, and would like to find the right person to spread information and share our message on Twitter. Do you love to tweet, and know the ins and outs of the Twitterverse? Offer to help us! You can contact us at [email protected].
|
|
WRITERS' NIGHT OUT IN JULY?
We've been thinking about having next month's Writers' Night Out at Castle Island in South Boston. We can bring blankets and sit in open space near the old fort by the ocean, watch the planes come in and talk and enjoy each other's fellowship. We can buy food at Sullivan's restaurant.
Let us know at [email protected] what you think of the idea, pro or con. Thanks! Hope to see you in person soon, whether it's next month or not.
|
|
OPEN MIC EVERY THURSDAY
The NWU New York Chapter, which for many years hosted open mics at the Muhlenberg branch library, is now holding virtual open mics weekly: every Thursday from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.
All writers from all genres are welcome. You can read for up to seven minutes. Just RSVP on meetup.com to view the link to join.
|
|
CALLING ALL BOOK AUTHORS! TUNE-IN TUESDAYS
FIRST TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH
Royalty, Compensation & Distribution Issues for Book Authors
Join a discussion about the most pressing issues for book authors today. Share your experience and knowledge and advance your career, hosted by Book Division Chair Dan McCrory and NY Member Timothy Sheard. Planned topics for the first several sessions are listed here.
To REGISTER for the Zoom meeting program email chair Dan McCrory.
|
|
GRANTS AVAILABLE TO LOW-INCOME WRITERS
TO ATTEND CONFERENCES OR WORKSHOPS
The Boston Chapter Steering Committee is offering $100 grants to up to five NWU members in good standing. These grants are available to those who face challenging financial circumstances and would like to attend a writing conference or workshop (one of those listed below or one of your choice), or to take advantage of some other professional development opportunity.
If you would like to apply, or would like more information, please contact Steering Committee Co-Chair Willie Wideman-Pleasants.
|
|
KITTY BEER's book party launch on June 12 featured a band with singer Al Peterson, and the reading of excerpts from Marriages and Other Dilemmas: Collected Stories and a Memoir (Plainview Press).
JOHN McDAID had an interactive fiction work featured in an exhibition at the Electronic Literature Organization conference in Como, Italy, in June. The work, “We Knew The Glass Man,” was selected for a display on mentoring. (John collaborated on the piece with his son, Jack.)
Please send any news of a publication, award, or writing-related appearance that has already happened to editor Barbara Mende. (A piece on your own blog or website doesn't qualify.) Send 50 words or less, plus your name and a link to the publication, event, or website where readers can find more info about you or the happening. Don't send notices of work that will be published in the future. Do send news of future events, but see the "Upcoming Events" block for that.
|
|
Open Mic Every Thursday (see above)
Tune-In Tuesdays - First Tuesday of Every Month (see above)
SEND US NEWS OF YOUR UPCOMING READINGS, BOOK LAUNCHES, OR OTHER PUBLIC APPEARANCES. WE'LL TRY TO HELP YOU RAISE A (VIRTUAL OR IN-PERSON) CROWD.
|
|
USE THE UPDATE, OUR WEBSITE, OUR FACEBOOK PAGE TO SPREAD YOUR NEWS
Are you speaking or reading from your work in the near future? Do you want to publicize an event that writers would be interested in zooming in to? Can you provide a service, such as editing or indexing or publicity, for your fellow union members? Do you just want to introduce yourself to the NWU membership?
Our Boston Chapter website, which you can reach at
nwu.org/chapters/boston/ or www.nwuboston.org, is here for you to use. Not only that, but if you send us an announcement of a specific event by the second Monday of each month, we'll try to include it in these updates.
Please send us news of any upcoming events that you'd like us to publicize, along with Zoom links or PDF posters if you have them. If you'd like to promote your services, plug your latest book, tell us about something writing-related that happened to you, or post anything else you can think of, we'll try to give it a place on the website.
Be sure to like the NWU Boston Facebook page, and visit it often.
And we'd love to hear from you if you'd like to contribute to these updates. Do you have information or a viewpoint on some phase of writing or publishing that you'd like to pass along? Do you have tips that you'd like to share with your fellow writers? Send them in! And don't forget, if you've published something or participated in an event or made an appearance, we'll post it under Kudos.
Send all your news for the Update and website to your webmaster.
|
|
Co-Chairs: Jeanne Cosmos and Willie Wideman-Pleasants
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
