June meeting: "Spontaneous Writing" with Riba Taylor.

June Meeting

Presenter: Riba Taylor

Riba Taylor earned her M.A. in English from Sonoma State in 2001. She teaches creative writing online for Mendocino College and has taught English there and for other California community colleges for 18 years. Her short story "Between My Ribs" won first place in our annual guild contest and the 2015 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and was published in the anthology American Fiction Volume 17: The Best Unpublished Stories by New and Emerging Authors (New Rivers Press, 2019). Two of her prose poems are set to be published in Wild Gods: The Ecstatic in Contemporary American Poetry and Prose. Her memoir manuscript was a finalist for the Many Voices Project, and several pieces of her short fiction and creative nonfiction have been finalists in various contests including the Arts and Letters Creative Nonfiction Prize, the Anderbo Creative Nonfiction Prize, the Arthur Edelstein Prize for Short Fiction and the E. M. Koeppel Short Fiction Award, and two were shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize. 
https://499words.org/workshops/
https://noholdsbarred.blog/

Topic: Spontaneous Writing
As writers, we tend to work alone. But there's a kind of alchemy that can happen when we write together. During this pandemic, coming together becomes even more important. Please join us for this hands-on writing session. We'll do short timed writings from prompts, read our work out loud, give and receive feedback—words or phrases that strike us, images, thoughts or feelings the piece evokes. Because this is impromptu writing, we won't be offering suggestions for strengthening, only our honest, specific appreciation. What is alive for us in the work? These short, spontaneous explorations help us trust our own minds, bypass our critics, generate new ideas, send us in directions we may not have traveled otherwise. They provide equal benefit to beginning or experienced writers, so all are welcome. Come enjoy the process, the kind praise and the genuine camaraderie that emerges when we do this work together.

Please plan to write with pen and paper (unless, of course, a disability prevents this).

Event Contact: Mark E. Anderson mark@aquazebra.com