EOY Roundup for 2024 - how participating as a literary citizen recharges my inspiration

This morning I'm surrounded by the remaining clutter of 2024 - unmade bed, unpacked suitcase, unopened emails. This past year's accomplishments can appear hidden when I try to look back at my work. 

To prepare for setting my goals for the new year, I've gathered a list of  public events and presentations, workshops and readings that kept me busy in our literary community in the past 12 months:

• Tangled Roots Writing offered 4 sessions of Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop 6 week series in 2024.
• In the winter of 2024, the three-part Publication Workshop Series shared with workshop participants the wisdom and advice learned along various paths to publication by nine professional writers.
• First Fridays in October 2024 through March 2025 Moments in Memoir creative writing workshop: this free workshop continues through the winter for all levels of writing experience at the Truckee Library 10031 Levon Ave, Truckee, CA 96161
• Writing Wednesdays June - September 2024 at the Truckee Library: Memoir. Community members of all ages and experience levels write their life stories. Thanks to a minigrant from Truckee Cultural District and Nevada County Arts Council. The three-part series ran every third Wednesday in July, August, and September. 10031 Levon Ave, Truckee, CA 96161
• Tahoe Literary Festival in Tahoe City Oct 11 & 12 - I read at the open mic Friday night. On Saturday I co-presented a workshop with Dr. Kim Bateman titled “Forbidden Fruit and Persephone’s Pomegranate”
• Sept 8: Presented a poetry workshop for Sierra Arts Literary Community at the Sierra Arts Foundation at 17 S Virginia St., Reno, NV.
• July 8 and Aug 26: Presented Creative Writing workshop under the stars called Writing in the Kiva: Embrace the Night Sky. Olympic Heights, Truckee
• August 15: Presented as a local artist at the Truckee Cultural District booth at Truckee Thursdays.
• Aug 3: Performed at Tahoe Literary Festival Art Salon Fundraiser open to the public. With Kim Bateman, Aimee Lowentern, Priya Hutner, Alice Osborn, and others. At a private residence in Tahoe City, CA
• June 12, July 10, Aug 14: I performed new poems each month at the Open Mic this summer at Tahoe Backyard.
  
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  June 6: Performed with other poets and singer/songwriters at Arts in the Parks event at Gatekeeper's Museum, Tahoe City.
• May 23-26: Attended Mountain Words Literary Festival, Crested Butte, Co
• April 13: Performed a new poem on stage at the Sierra Poetry Festival at the Grass Valley Center for the Arts.
• April 11: I performed new work and won a spot on the main stage as part of Community Voices at the Sierra Poetry Festival - Open Mic Slam Competition Lottery at the Iron Door in the Holbrook Hotel in Grass Valley.
  
• April 3: Creative Writing Workshop: Gratitude at the Truckee Library June Sylvester Saraceno and myself presented a poetry reading and workshop featuring Ross Gay's A Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude in connection with the Nevada County Common Read for 2024 and the Sierra Poetry Festival. 
  
• April 2: Performed a reading at Sundance Books on California Ave in Reno, NV  along with Ann Keniston and Steve Gehrke.
• March 16: Attended the Business of Art Symposium in Grass Valley on Sierra College campus.
• March 1:  I was featured in a new podcast episode about my open mic performance at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The Art Box podcast, a lively and engaging discussion about creativity and humanity in the Virgin Valley of Nevada and beyond, out of Mosquite, Nevada. You can listen: https://vvarts.podbean.com/e/the-art-box-episode-160-tangled-roots-meet-karen-terrey/.
• February 26: Open mic performance at the Spoken Views Collective Open Mic at Shim's Speakeasy. Another inspiring evening performing along with a strong showing of writers from Truckee and Tangled Roots Writing.
• February 8: Read my new essay about traveling on a family mission to northern Slovenia, Sierra Writers Conference Reading @ Sierra College, Tahoe-Truckee campus.
• January 31-Feb 4: I performed at the open mic Cowboy Poetry Gathering 2024, hosted by the Western Folklife Center in Elko, NV.