Letter from the Director — February 2020

“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day. . . And out of that love, remake a world.”
~Ray Bradbury~

To the Women Who Write community—

We meet again at the South-Central branch of the public library at 7300 Jefferson Boulevard near the Jefferson Mall this coming Tuesday, February 4 beginning 6:30 PM. Bring paper and pen. We’ll warm-up for conversation and critique with a writing prompt designed to help you start something new!

As with all creative pursuits, the work of writing is 10 percent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration. We are all innovators, inventing (or re-inventing) story, scene, and image. So, we want to celebrate all our writers, including our members who have had work published. You’ll find recent publications in this newsletter. We invite you to enter books on our WWW web page. Find the form here.

For all of you who have book (s) or print journal (s) in which you have published work, please bring them along to our next meeting. We want to get a photo of your publications and you.

The Women’s Book Festival is Saturday March 7^th

^{9 AM to 2 PM}

^{at the Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville}

^{AUTHORS. PANELS. READINGS. KEYNOTE. WORKSHOP. BOOKS.}

^{The Kentucky Women’s Book Festival is sponsored by the University of Louisville Women’s Center, Women Who Write, and hosted by the Brandeis School of Law.}

^{Featuring as Keynote‚ fiction writer, Sarah Anne Strickley, author of Fall Together. Also featured are Tytianna Wells, Pam Platt, Courtney Stevens, Kimberly Garts Crum/Bonnie Omer Johnson, and our own Susan Lindsey, who will lead a writing workshop.}

^{Sign up for your festival tickets today!}

^{Thanks to member Peggy Grimes for her work on the Book Festival planning committee!}

Spring Writing Retreat

^{Hopscotch House}

^{We will soon announce the date for our two-day (overnight optional) spring retreat}

^{at the Kentucky Foundation for Woman’s Hopscotch House}

Member Publications—

The following members recently published their work (or were accepted for publication). Let’s congratulate each of these determined persons. Better yet, read their work (links included where available).

Irene Sulyevich’s story “Shot of Empathy, Anyone?” was selected by curators as a top pick on Medium.com. The editors said— “Based on its quality, [this essay] will be recommended to readers across our homepage, app, topic page, and emails.”

Irene says, “I think, if not for support of the club, it would have never happened.”

Read Irene’s essay here

Charlotte Roth ‘s memoir chapter, “Rings and Witches,” appears in the Longridge Review literary journal. Read Charlotte’s work here.

Laura Johnsrude has had a piece accepted into Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction (coming out in 2020).

Diane Cruze’s poem, “Persistence,” a response to the 100^th anniversary of the 19^th amendment, is upcoming in the Artemis Journal.

Cheri Powell’s 10-minute play “Heart’s Desire,” was produced at Northern Kentucky University in November and will be featured at the Spotlight Playhouse in Berea in spring 2020.

Kimberly Crum’s essay “Down Here,” about Old Louisville is accepted to an upcoming Louisville anthology. Her personal essay, “Lady in the Way,” will be adapted and produced by Eve Theater’s production of “Women at Work,” on August 11 at the Filson Historical Society.

Susan Lindsey’s book, Liberty Brought Us Here, will be released by University Press of Kentucky in July 2020. Amazon ranked Liberty Brought Us Here the #1 new release on the history of West Africa. Get a 30% discount if you order before July 31 at www.kentuckypress.com and enter the code FS30.

Quarterly Meet-ups—

Each quarter, our Tuesday meetings will adopt a casual, free-wheeling vibe in Louisville and Southern Indiana restaurants. Our first meet-up is at Danny Mac’s Pizza cafe at Mellwood Arts Center, 1860 Mellwood Avenue, Louisville— Tuesday, March 3, beginning 6:30 PM. We’ll have a guest speaker, mingle, order food and beverages (optional), and engage in small group critiques.

Membership—

We are trying to simplify collection of annual $50 membership fees. We will be asking members to renew memberships in January and June (we are now collecting for January). Our records are a bit out of date. So please check to see when you last paid your membership fees. You can renew on our website or by check.

Writing and/or publishing buddies—

Are you interested in receiving deeper critiques than you receive in our monthly meetings? Would you like to meet with a small group committed to submit short and longer work? We’ll be passing around a sign-up list at our February meeting.

See you at South Central on Tuesday, February 4!

Blessings!

Kimberly Crum

a place, a space, a voice