Summer is finally here! Three creative writing pop up events in the garden this July

 Summer is finally here! Join us in the garden for a beautiful summer evening of inspiration and writing:

 Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop pop-up in-person - RSVP by phone or email

July 11th and 18th 6:30-8 pm $30/workshop

 
For fiction, nonfiction, poetry, blogging, journaling. All levels of experience. Generate new material with creative prompts and develop writing skills in a supportive community of writers. Includes tea and chocolate.

 

Literary Submissions Garden Party  

Thursday, July 14th 5-8 pm in-person / $45 

RSVP by phone or email

In a supportive community of writers, learn tips and venues for submitting your work out into the world. Learn where to research resources for finding the best venue for your poems, essays, and stories, and how to prepare a manuscript for submission. Gain confidence in a writing community. Bring your specific questions to the workshops. If you are ready, push the SUBMIT button! 

 

Writing workshops are in-person once again! Sign up now for May 2nd

 

Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop 6 wk Series - sign up now!

 

The poet Myung Mi Kim in Commons wrote, "The poem may be said...to mobilize the notion of our responsibility to one another in a social space." 

 

I’ve always been guided by this idea that a poem is not complete without its reader. The writer, the speaker, and the reader collaborate in a created social space.  These past two plus years, I've been grateful for my writing community and the connections I've kept close and built up through Zoom and online work. I know myself better now, recognize I'm more extrovert than introvert. As writers, we need quiet time of isolation and introspection. Some of us also gain more inspirational energy from the presence and physical connection with other writers and artists. I'm excited to open my home again to these generative and supportive writing workshops. Please join me in building a thriving community of artists.

 

This new series starting May 2 will focus on imagination, form, and language in poetry, fiction, and memoir. Over the course of 6 Monday nights, we will write prompts that start and develop six different short stories, poems, or personal essays. Of course, each writer can tweak these goals to fit their own writing inspirations - the prompts will be flexible.

 

Workshop: 6 week series in person downtown Truckee 

May 2- June 13 from 6:30-8 pm Monday nights

 

This creative series is the most popular and longest-running workshop I offer. A fun and generative workshop for artists, writers, journalers, journalists, bloggers, beginners and experienced writers alike. Do you wish you wrote more? Want to feel a sense of community when you write? A kick in the butt for your writing life! 

 

Cost is $180

How do writers get together? An incomplete list of local writer resources

 

I was talking with some of you after the Submissions and Publication workshop last night (thank you to all who participated and presented!) and realized there are some local writer resources I did not emphasize in the notes. Here are some local writing groups, services, magazines to submit to, and publishers in California and Nevada. As I gather this incomplete list, I realize there are many gaps and opportunities for us all. Do you have any resources to add to this list? Please share it in the comments!

Tahoe Writers Works in South Lake meets monthly to workshop members' writing (online right now), as well as hosts and promotes other writing events:

https://tahoewritersworks.com/writing-events-calendar/

Here's a great article by Ingrid Keriotis (Grass Valley) about critique groups and how to start one. http://sierrawritersnevadacounty.blogspot.com/p/writing-critique-group.html

She is also a member of the Sierra Writers:

http://sierrawritersnevadacounty.blogspot.com/

It looks like unfortunately they are in a transition period. Not sure when their monthly meetings will resume.

High Sierra Writers meets monthly in Reno and has on the agenda "shameless self promotion" which I love. http://highsierrawriters.org/

WritebyNight and Atmosphere Press are a publication service and hybrid publisher collaboration in Nevada https://www.writebynight.net/publication-services/

The California Writers Club (CWC) is one of the oldest and largest writers’ clubs in America.  We have a proud heritage going back to our founding in 1909. Organized into local branches, the club has over 1,800 members in 22 branches spread across California It looks like we need to start a new chapter here in the Sierra/Tahoe/Nevada County area! https://calwriters.org/

• https://calwriters.org/news/san-francisco-writers-conference-moved-to-july-21-24/
• Originally planned for February 17-20, the San Francisco Writers Conference has rescheduled to July 21-24
• The submission window has opened for CWC’s 2022 Literary Review, our annual anthology of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written entirely by members.

Brushfire accepts submissions year-round. However, the cut-off date for submissions to be considered for the Fall edition is October 14, while the cut-off date for the Spring edition is March 14. For the sake of time, we only review art submitted through our website.Though Brushfire is a student-run publication at the University of Nevada, Reno, we do accept and publish submissions from anyone, anywhere on earth. https://brushfire.submittable.com/submit

Red Rock Review is a biannual literary journal that publishes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by emerging and established writers. Founded in 1996, Red Rock Review is housed and supported by The College of Southern Nevada. Publication of Red Rock Review is made possible by the School of Arts and Letters, the arts organizations of Nevada, and the generosity of the community members of Las Vegas. https://www.csn.edu/redrockreview

The Meadow publishes work each spring from beginning and experienced writers and artists.Between September 1 and February 1 of each year, we accept poetry, fiction, nonfiction, cover artwork, and black and white comics. https://www.tmcc.edu/meadow

Writers in the Woods Reading Series Intimate readings and workshops in all genres open to all!  https://www.sierranevada.edu/academics/humanities-social-sciences/english/writer-woods/

Tangled Roots Writing is happy to be part of this list of community builders.

2022, instant tests, big storms, and how to understand our intimate relationship with writing

All week I've been carrying around the three folded up pages I printed out New Year's Eve from the New York Times. The article, Making These Resolutions Can Improve a Relationship, seems to outline exactly the kinds of questions I want to write from as I assess this past year. 

But conversations with friends about how many instant Covid tests they have at home or when the next shipment arrives at CVS or who thinks they have an exposure have dominated my attention. And then we were blessed with those beautiful fierce storms so I could shovel instead of write. I love that feeling of satisfied exhaustion after a day spent playing in the snow, shoveling, meeting new neighbors, and helping them get their cars unstuck. Nothing better than curling up in a storm on the sofa with Netflix.

Here's some of those questions about this past year from the article:

• What were the highlights or big moments of joy you experienced? 
• What were the lowest points and what was that like for you? 
• How can we make meaning from what we've gone through?  
• How do you want to reconnect with family and friends you might not have seen because of the pandemic?
• What are your financial objectives and purchases?

Although the article specifically focuses on romantic relationships, whose to say our relationship to writing as writers is not an intimacy or a romance? 

So join me if you want in journaling on these questions above and consider that your writing practice or your writing is your partner. The final part of the article suggests creating rituals that create positive emotions you can associate with your partner. Most of my writing rituals have been tossed out the window with the pandemic, so one of my resolutions is to find just one or two rituals I can create. A ritual can be simply a repeated activity. 

Here are some of my writing rituals:

• spend a few minutes reading a real book in bed before I go to sleep
• write in my journal in the morning for a few minutes before I begin scrolling social media or the news
• find a supportive writing group to meet with regularly that can provide some accountability and inspiration
• read poetry in the bathroom!
  

Hello 2021!

Yesterday I ski-ed up Sagehen way, a chilly and breathtaking late afternoon in the quiet forest. A John Haines kind of snowy wilderness feel, the mystery around the how of it all. 

I was turned on to Haines' poetry at a reading in honor of his work at an AWP conference years ago. Baron Wormser presented a great teaching of The Long Rain at a workshop at Sierra Nevada University. Haines' poems are spare, with wide open spaces. They hold plenty of room for me.

Another book that welcomes me into wide clean spaces is A Door in the Mountain by Jean Valentine, who passed from our world last night. She wrote her poem Sanctuary, a poem eerily relevant in the new context of 2020, in 2004. The lines in this poem are abbreviated, interrupted, a bit lost, questioning - and brave. Her poem makes me feel better about my own experiences with isolation in the time of Covid.

Tangled Roots Writing offers a new winter schedule of workshops beginning in January 2021:

• Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop 6 week series: 2/1 - 3/8 and 3/15 - 4/19
  
• Second Thursdays Master Class in Revision for Fiction and Nonfiction:1/7, 2/11, 3/11, 4/8, 5/13, and 6/10
• First Thursdays Master Class in Revision for Fiction and Nonfiction: 2/4, 3/4, 4/1, 5/6, and 6/3
  
• new 3 hour  themed workshops

I offer customized manuscript review, workshops, developmental editing, and individual writing coaching for book projects and business writing, including editing and coaching for blogs, newsletters, website content, and social media.

Literary events in our community:

Nevada County Arts hosts events, workshops, informative sessions, and supports artists throughout Nevada County.

This year the Sierra Writers Conference features two keynote speakers, James Mc Bride and Dr. Bettina Love. The 2021 Sierra Writers Conference theme—Empowering Voices—and Owl butterfly symbol speak to rebirth after a year of tumultuous change and the process by which we develop as writers.

Sierra Nevada College’s Writers in the Woods brings well-known poets and writers from all over the country to the campus for intimate readings and workshops, where audience members can meet and exchange ideas with the guest writers.

Word After Word bookshop presents open mics, workshops, author readings, and the best book recommendations ever - go talk with one of their booksellers. They are between the fudge shop and the wine shop in downtown Truckee.

The Community of Writers offers a virtual valley of events this summer so take a look at their website - don't miss out!

Please read my blog for more information on the latest workshops with Tangled Roots Writing, or call me at 530-386-3901 to chat about your writing goals. I would love to help you reach them.

Happy writing!
Karen Terrey

Literary Submissions, Artist Residencies, and Publication Workshops: Tips and Trends in an era of physical distancing

A Series of Virtual Workshops

In a supportive community of writers, discuss tips and trends for submitting your work out into the world. Learn where to research resources for finding the best venue for a writing project and how to prepare a manuscript. If you are ready, push the SUBMIT button!  

$65 for all 3, otherwise $25 each

The workshop series will include the latest info in this new environment of physical distancing:

• where to find the resources you need to get published in all genres
•  guidance from an editor
• discussion of your specific questions
• detailed notes for each workshop
•  the power of joining a community of writers

Workshop #1 Wednesday 5/6 6:30 pm – 8 pm

Literary magazine submissions, chapbooks, and contests for all genres

Workshop #2 Saturday 5/16 10:00 am -11:30 am

Writer residencies, conferences, and workshop opportunities in the era of physical distancing for all genres

Workshop #3 Wednesday 5/20 6:30 pm – 8 pm

Author Platform and Options for Publication for all genres