by April Sullivan
I was fortunate to attend the 11th Annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference last week in San Antonio, Texas. As a visual artist, as opposed to being a writer, it was a whole new world for me. I met writers, readers, editors, marketers, students and professors, and gathered lots of great information to pass along to the writers in the Art Spark Texas community. To learn more about the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, you can visit their website. I was at the conference to promote our Veteran Writing Program.
So first, I want to remind everyone of our current and upcoming writing opportunities:
- We have our Scrivener’s Circle taking place in San Marcos. (Registration required) It’s not too late to attend that weekly evening event.
- And NEW – We have a writing workshop open to Veterans and civilians coming up May 23rd in Texarkana. Read about all the details here.
Here are some writing opportunities I learned about at the AWP conference (click links to learn more):
- Gemini Ink in San Antonio hosts a weekly Veteran’s Writing Collective every 3rd Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:30 pm.
- The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival is coming up the last full weekend in April in McAllen, Texas.
- Write Fest Houston is a week-long literary festival coming to Houston, Texas in May. It is hosted by Write Space Houston.
- Indie Lector, a bookstore for serious readers and indie authors, is hosting its 6th annual short story contest.
- Authors Marketing Guild is hosting its 9th Annual Texas Authors Book Contest.
- A book festival coming to Sequin, Texas in May.
- Grandbury Festival Books & Art 2020 A book festival coming to Granbury, Texas in July.
- An Author Extravaganza at the Llano Library in Llano, Texas in October.
- The Anhinga-Robert Dana Prize for Poetry. A $2,000 prize open to all poets.
- BWR – Black Warrior Review is accepting submissions.
As a reminder to all the writers out there, if you want to try out your most recent piece of work on a friendly audience, attend our monthly open mic The Lion and the Pirate, at Malvern Books in Austin, Texas. The next event is this Saturday, March 14th, from 7 to 9 pm. (UPDATE: this event is canceled.)
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Last week, I was interviewed about our veteran writers’ circle on the “Veteran Hour” radio show (which airs live on Mondays, 3-4:00 pm) hosted by Diesel Dee, on the San Marcos Community Radio Station KZSM 104.1FM. It was a fun and informative hour. Dee and her co-host Steve, who are both veterans, run a great show, which includes their weekly Ask a Veteran segment which is an opportunity for listeners to submit their questions. Last week’s question was “What was a good memory you had of being in the military?“. For more information and a schedule of shows, including encore airtimes for each week’s Veteran Hour, you can visit http://kzsm.org/.
April Sullivan, Artworks Director
[email protected]