The Literary Social Calendar
WLT Events
Workshops and Classes
A Room of One’s Own: How to Create an Inspiring Writer’s Haven with Sonya Fehér – 1/19/2013
Many writers find it less distracting to write in coffee shops where the conversation, music, and barista steaming milk aren’t nearly as loud as the to do list, dishes in the kitchen, or voices in our head at home. A writing space can be inspiring and productive–or it can keep us from writing. Give yourself permission to take time and space to unleash your creativity by creating a writing room of your own.
More Spring classes to be announced soon. Take advantage of your membership benefits and attend all of our classes with special membership rates!
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The WLT 2013 Manuscript Contest is open for submissions!
Been slaving away on an unpublished manuscript that’s finally ready to see the light of day? Well, now’s your chance! You are invited to submit a 250-word synopsis and the first 2,500 words of your unpublished work to the League’s 13th annual Manuscript Contest. The winner in each category will meet individually with an agent at the 2013 Writers’ League of Texas Agents Conference, June 21 – 23, 2013. You do NOT have to be a member of the Writers’ League to enter this contest.
This contest gives you the chance to:
Attend a private meeting with a literary agent in your genre
Have your work professionally critiqued by a published author
Find out how your first ten pages rank against others in your genre
Be recognized at the 2013 WLT Agents Conference
For more information on the 2013 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest, visit our website.
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2013 Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards Contest
The 2013 Book Awards Contest is open to Texas authors of books published in 2011 or 2012. Authors are required to show proof of Texas residency but are NOT required to be members of the Writers’ League of Texas. This contest will be open for submissions on January 1, 2013. Check back then for instructions on how to enter! Visit our website for more information.
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CALL FOR WLT HISTORIAN
The Writer’s League has a treasure trove of memorabilia from its 31-year history – photos, scrapbooks, old newsletters,
etc. We are looking for an Austin-area member to serve as volunteer “historian” for the short term. He/she will sort through items, provide captions and identifying information for photos as possible, preserve scrapbooks and possibly compile new ones, scan pictures and articles for cloud storage, and deed certain items to the Austin History Center. No pay, but volunteer hours can earn free tickets to WLT classes and events. If you are interested in this position, please contact the League at wlt@writersleague.org or by phone at 512-499-8914.
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Big News! Chuck Sambuchino will be the Keynote Speaker for the 2013 Agents Conference! For more information on the amazing book editor, humor writer, and freelance editor, visit his website. The WLT 2013 Agents Conference is now up on the Writers’ League website. Registration is now available. Purchase your discounted rate through December 15!
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What’s going on in Alpine? The Texas Mountain Trail Writers present: “Log of the Trail” A Christmas Party Potluck! TMTW’s December meeting will be held Tuesday, December 11, 2012, at the home of Anne VanLoon in Alpine at 6:30 pm. Writing “Opportunity”: The word limit is 500 words. And note there is a specific genre for each one!
Footprints in the Snow (Mystery genre) – Faded Mistletoe (Romance genre) – Up On The Rooftop (Comedy genre) – Celebrate Christmas with the Trail Writers
“Our Christmas party will be at my house (Anne VanLoon) in Alpine on Tuesday evening, December 11th at 6:30 PM. As per the usual format, we will have a pot luck supper. When you decide which specialty you wish to bring, please email me that you are coming, how many are coming with you, and what dish you will bring. To RSVP and receive directions to my house, please email me at annevan1182@hotmail.com or TMTW at asktmtw@texasmountaintrailwriters.org. Also we exchange gifts in a different way. We steal from each other. So bring a gift of your choice and watch it make the rounds of those who covet. $20 is the gift limit. Hope you will join us!”
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2012-2013 DIY Book Festival has issued a call for entries to its 11th annual competition honoring independent book authors and publishers.
The DIY Book Festival will consider entries in non-fiction, fiction, biography/autobiography, children’s books, young adult, how-to, cookbooks, science fiction, photography/art, comics/’zines, poetry, unpulblished works, compilations/anthologies, spiritual/religious and business published on or after Jan. 1, 2009.
Our grand prize for the DIYBF Author of the Year is $1500 cash and a flight to Los Angeles for our gala awards ceremony and day festival in March, 2013 at the Roosevelt Hotel, home of the first Oscars. The event is part of the 12th annual DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books. More information is online at www.diyconvention.com.
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You and your family are cordially invited to the Johnson City Library Fourth Anniversary and Holiday Open House!
Sat. Dec. 8, 3 PM – 5 PM.
Join us for a free flint knapping demonstration, food, prizes and Fun, Fun, Fun! The Hill Country Community band plays holiday music starting at 4 PM. After touring the library, walk to see the Lights Spectacular and Living Nativity. The library is collecting new and gently used children’s books as a way to give back to the community. All books collected will go to CASA, a non-profit for children in foster care. For more information, visit their website.
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Austin Poetry Society Events
The current Texas Poet Laureate, Jan Epton Seale, is featured in our meeting on Saturday, December 15. She will talk with us on “Writing Seriously Witty Poems.” All our meetings are free and open to the public. Jan Seale is the author of seven volumes of poetry, the lastest being Nape, published by Ink Brush Press. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing. Seale teaches memoir and creative writing workshops both in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where she lives. Join us at Twin Oaks Branch Library, 1800 South 5th at West Mary, where all our meetings are scheduled from now through December, 2013.
The calendar below lists Austin poetry events worth your time. Keep on writing poems. Today you can bring into existence something good that this universe has never seen before.
December 9th, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Austin Writers Roulette is a monthly culturally diverse evening of reading and performing original written works (play excerpts, poetry, essays, etc.) Each month has a theme, and in December, it’s Circles: reoccurring themes, patterns, cycles, death-rebirth. Every second Sunday at Capoeira Evolucao Studio, 2015 E. Riverside #7B (behind Emo’s). Email Teresa the selection(s) you wish to read/perform along with the corresponding theme(s) at mathdreads@yahoo.com.
December 12, Wednesday, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. The AWESMIC Experience incarnates at Zilker Park, hosted by Carol Ann Dishon-Anyah. The Rock Garden past the Zilker Hillside Theater Rock Garden, past the theater. Live music, poetry and other entertainment, food while it lasts.
December 13, 2012 (2nd Thursdays), 7-9 p.m. Featured poets with round robin following, hosted by Cindy Huyser at BookWoman, 5501 A-105 North Lamar.
December 15, 2012, Saturday, 1:30-3:30 p.m. APS meets at Twin Oaks Branch Library, 1800 South 5th at West Mary. The present Poet Laureate of Texas, Jan Epton Seale, will talk with us about “Writing Seriously Witty Poems.” Winners for our Nov./Dec. Meeting Contest will be announced.
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Sisters in Crime Event – Texas Search and Rescue
Greg Pyles, CEO of Texas Search and Rescue, Flood and Swiftwater Rescue, Disaster Response and Relief and Wildland Fire (TEXSAR) will be our December 9 speaker. TEXSAR is a volunteer, first responder organization based in Austin, Texas, that is able to deploy throughout the entire state. TEXSAR units are emergency response teams focusing on Search and Rescue (SAR), incident response and disaster response. TEXSAR is fortunate to have the technical support of the US Coast Guard and the US Air Force Search and Rescue software tools to guide resource needs and allocations. All TEXSAR personnel are National Incident Management System compliant, and the organization operates under the Incident Command Systems protocol. The units are self-sufficient and do not require financial or logistics support from requesting Agencies.
Greg Pyles has spent a little over 40 years in the delivery of public safety, security and was doing incident response and management before we called it that. More recently, Greg is currently responsible for safety, security and risk management for the Texas Lottery Commission, a Texas Department of Emergency Management and FEMA trainer delivering Incident Command System courses, Community Emergency Response Team trainer for Homeland Security, member of the Capital Area Incident Management Team (Type III), CEO of Texsar, Inc. (nonprofit disaster response organization) and frequently trains various City of Austin Department personnel, DPS Troopers and other first responders in topics including personal safety, search and rescue, Incident Command Systems and situational awareness.
Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter, meets monthly on the second Sunday of themonth at 2 p.m. Our meeting place will be changing since the Barnes & Noble of past meetings is closing. In December we will meet at the Lion and Rose Pub located at the southeast corner of Loop 360 and Bee Cave Road, in The Village at Westlake shopping center. It is a few doors down from our previous place of Barnes & Noble. The Dungeon room is reserved from 1:30 to 4:30, and lunch and/or drinks will be available if wanted.
Sisters in Crime is an international organization of women and men whose purpose is to promote mysteries written by women, and combat discrimination against women mystery authors. Speakers include published mystery authors and technical experts who help writers craft better mysteries and readers enjoy what they read. Meetings are free and open to all. For more information, check out the Sisters in Crime website at www.hotxsinc.org.
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Austin Public Library Events
Holiday Open House and Gift Sale – Saturday, December 8 from 12 noon to 5 p.m.
Austin History Center 810 Guadalupe St. | 512-974-7480
Join us at 1:30 p.m. to meet Ralph Yznaga, author of Living Witness: Historic Trees of Texas. At 2:30 p.m. there will be a concert and sing-along with the Shape Notes Singers. At 3:30 p.m. meet John Slate, author of Lost Austin. The Austin History Center will have historic photographs for sale, used and Rare Texana books and ephemera, and even some Austin related historic artifacts (who wouldn’t love an old Aquafest skipper pin in their stocking?). Also, The Austin History Center Association will be selling items from Waterloo Press, including a new line of note cards, O. Henry items, books, and more.
Open House and Vintage Book Sale – Saturday, December 15 from 12 noon to 6:00 p.m.
Recycled Reads Bookstore 5335 Burnet Rd. | 512-323-5123
Join us for live music all afternoon from local Austin Musicians, ornament and gift-wrap demonstrations and a bow bar for to wrap gifts. All proceeds benefit the Austin Public Library. Recycled Reads encourages Austinites to have a Green, affordable Holiday season by purchasing and making gifts locally.
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Have any Holiday literary events in your calendars that you would like to share? Email hannah@writersleague.org. Thanks for reading this week’s Friday Filler. We hope all of you have a Happy Holidays, and check back next week for more upcoming events!
– WLT
