A Year of Sensational Writing:
Month Five – January
On Sunday, January 20, 2019 from 1-3 p.m., meet us in the Riverview Room at Burpee Museum of Natural History.
Bring new writing that focuses on “senses in a late winter setting.” Consider how you are using your words to evoke different feelings and settings. Rehearse, then share writing with group. Prose must be 1300 words or less. Poetry—50 lines or less. We encourage creativity! Be thoughtful, serious, joyful, or whatever. James Marshall will lead a literary discussion around your work and conduct a cash writing contest.
Recap of the Year of Sensational Writing: In September, writers brought famous writing that highlighted a sense. In October, writers returned with their own writing about that same sense. We are building off this pattern throughout the year. We will culminate with a sense-themed Un-Gala in July 2019. If you miss a meeting, just “catch up” and participate whenever you can.
Date & Venue Change for April Meeting: Per the Guild’s Constitution, we meet every third Sunday of the month except in August, which is our month off. Because Easter lands on the third Sunday of April, we are moving our April meeting to the FOURTH Sunday of the month. That means we will be celebrating National Poetry Month at Severson Dells Nature Center on Sunday, April 28, 2019 from 1-3. Meet us on the porch for one of the most popular meetings of the year.
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Embellish/Unembellish Writers,
We received forty-eight submissions for the Embellish/Unembellish Rush Writing Request. Our original intention was to select one for the back cover, but we received so many great interpretations, we decided to add several pages to the 2019 winter-spring edition of The Rockford Review. The journal was supposed to be 100 pages long, but we extended it to fit the following writer’s poems and stories:
Marie Asner of Overland Park, KS for 24 Hours (embellishment of day and night), Event Planner (embellishment of nature), and Lost (not finding embellishment)
Maureen (Dailey) Baldwin of Bradenton, FL for Embellished Free Spirit
Mike Bayles of Davenport, IA for Planted Field
Ryan Dowling of Sycamore, IL for Not Your Average Cup of Coffee
Eunice Fisher of St. Petersburg, FL for Embellished or Unembellished, That Is the Question
Susan Brazas Goldberg of Rockford, IL for The Job Interview
Cindy Guentherman of Loves Park, IL for Embellish
Sally Hewitt of Glacier, WA for Bare Necessities, Candles, and Without Adornments
John Kalkirtz of Beloit, WI for Unembellished
Travis Morgan of Roscoe, IL for Disposable
Sharon Nesbit-Davis of Rockford, IL for Untitled
June Thompson of Neillsville, WI for Embellishments
Larry Wahler of Rockford, IL for To Embellish…Or Not!
So what is going on the back cover? Instead of a single poem, we are publishing the names of the authors and writers who are published or reviewed in the journal. -Connie
REMINDER: Winners of “Embellish/Unembellish” Writing Contest, “Vote” Prose Contest, and “Judge” Writing Contest are invited to share their work at the January meeting. And all of these poems and stories will appear in The Rockford Review, which will be released at the February Guild meeting.
RWG Good News
If you would like your literary good news published in the newsletter, email your news to Connie Kuntz at editor@rockfordwritersguild.org every month. Email Blast items go to email director Wilda Morris at rockfordwritersguild@gmail.com.
Writers on the Avenue posted one of Mike Bayles’ short stories on writersontheavenue.wordpress.com. Recently, The Brewed Book in Davenport started selling copies of his book, Breakfast at the Good Hope Home. Mike continues doing poetry readings in the Quad Cities, Muscatine, and Iowa City.
Fifty years ago, Kandie Bott gave birth to a secret. Her “secret” was a baby boy and she put him up for adoption. Through modern day technology, the two have joyfully reunited. Kandie will share her experience through her (and her son’s) writing in the 2019 summer-fall “members only” edition of The Rockford Review.
Charlotte Digregorio of Winnetka, IL has her haiga (a haiku sequence combined with art) exhibited through March 4 at City Hall in Highland Park, IL. In other news, she took Second Place in the Modern Haiku Category of the Illinois State Poetry Society Contest. And, she had a feature article published in The Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, IL.
Kelly Epperson is hosting the Vision Your Life Workshop on January 5. Visit www.kellyepperson.com for details about registering to participate either in person or online via Zoom. She also offers a free online book club (also through Zoom).
Hana Ferguson’s debut novel The Sound of Rain, about a blind girl and her mysterious discovery of life and how the universe comes together, is available on Amazon, through CreateSpace publishing, for $14. She plans to sell copies at the January meeting for the discounted price of $10 each!
Rhonda Parsons has a Q & A in the latest issue of Lone Stars Magazine. She is one of two featured poets. She says she talks about one of her more current poems, “Claim Your Nobility and that you can read a snippet of the poem alongside the interview.”
Terence Gallagher’s short story, “Steps” appears online at Two Hawks Quarterly.
That’s it for now. Thank you for reading. Now…go write! -Connie Kuntz