Portland

On March 2, 2010, F.I. Goldhaber will speak to our Portland meeting at the Old Church about What Prose Writers Can Learn from Poetry. She is the author of Pair of Poems. Read more. Photo Nyla Alisia.

Poetry does not require rhyme, complicated structure, or esoteric language and imagery. At its best, poetry distills narrative and imagery down to the fewest, strongest words possible. By embracing poetry, prose writers can learn how to find the core essence of their stories, allowing them to condense their narration into fewer, more powerful words.

For more information about F.I. poetry, visit her website.

All Portland meetings are held at the Old Church, SW 11th and Clay (1422 SW 11th). Doors open at 6:30 pm; the speaker or panel starts at 7 pm. Meetings are free to members of Willamette Writers and students; guests of WW members are $5. Non-members pay $10 to attend meetings. Refreshments are served.

Young Willamette Writers

YWW meets on the same date as the regular monthly Willamette Writers Portland meeting. For more information, email Corey Stixrud at corleigh@comcast.net.

At our next meeting I'd like to pick up where we left off at our January get-together: taking some time to write with each other (for sure!) while continuing to explore some of the basic questions of our craft. It's also definitely not too late in 2010 to talk about our resolutions as writers this year. How often do we write? How much do we write? How do we find ways to persist when we're tired, or uninspired, and we just can't seem to fill the page with meaningful words? February is a fine month to set down some goals for our writer-selves.

Salem Chapter

February 11th Presenter: Samantha Ducloux Waltz

Telling and Selling: How To Write and Market Personal Stories

Tell your story. Draw the reader in. Paint a world with words. In this one and a half hour writing workshop, you'll have the opportunity to pull up a story from within, begin to polish it, and consider places to submit it. You'll get tips for creating successful leads, compelling plots, sensory-rich settings, and convincing characters. We'll also explore markets and discuss effective ways to place your personal stories. So bring a pen and your passion for writing. The power of your own words will surprise you.

Samantha Ducloux Waltz, an award-winning author, sold her first story at age eleven to the local newspaper, followed by First Fiction and Fiction awards as a teen for American Girl, and a stint as a guest editor for Mademoiselle. Currently she has more than three dozen stories in many anthologies including a number of volumes of the Chicken Soup for the Soul and A Cup of Comfort series. She has also been published in The Christian Science Monitor and The Rambler. Other writing includes an adult nonfiction book Parenting: Four Patterns in Child Rearing and a young adult novel Young Rebel written under the name Samellyn Wood. Her latest brag is a first place award for True Stories in the Oregon Writer's Colony 2009 writer's contest.

Salem meetings will be held upstairs at the West Salem Roth's 1130 Wallace Rd. NW with entrance and parking in rear. Social half hour begins at 6:30pm, meeting from 7-8pm. We have set up a website www.SalemChapter.com and have a specific e-mail address for interested parties, SalemChapter@aol.com.

Monthly meetings are held the second Thursdays at the West Salem Roth's store--1130 Wallace Road NW. Parking and entrance are in the back.

Networking begins at 6:15pm. Meetings are from 7- 8pm. Interactive meetings run from 7-8:30pm.

Meetings are FREE to Members and full time college students. $5 for Guests of Members. $10 for Non-Members.

Oregon Coast Chapter (Newport)

The Oregon Coast chapter of Willamette Writers offers Writers-on-Writing workshops the first Tuesday of each month, 7-8:30 p.m. in the McEntee Room of the Newport Public Library, 35 NW Nye St. Admission is free. The Writers-on-Writing series is also sponsored by the Newport Public Library and the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Contacts: Kelly Kittel, 961-6728; kellykittel@gmail.com; Dorothy Blackcrow Mack, 765-2383, dmack@centurytel.net.

The next Willamette Writers Coast Branch meeting on March 2 features Ariel Gore with a Nonfiction Workshop, 7-8:30 p.m. Admission is free. Public welcome.

Ariel is a journalist, novelist, and nonfiction author. She is the founding editor and publisher of Hip Mama, an Alternative Press Award-winning publication covering the culture and politics of motherhood. Through her work on Hip Mama, Gore is widely credited with launching maternal feminism and the contemporary mothers' movement.

Her lyrical memoir, Atlas of the Human Heart, which recounts Gore's teenage travels, was a 2004 finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She is a graduate of Mills College and the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Gore has a daughter, Maia Swift, born February 7, 1990, and a son, Maximilian Perez, born August 26, 2007. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.[1]

April 6 Jessica Lamb, Poetry Workshop

May 4 Liz Prato, Fiction Workshop

Mid-Valley Chapter (Eugene)

The Mid-Valley Willamette Writers Speakers Series is on the first Thursday of the month (unless it conflicts with a holiday, usually Sept. and/or Jan.) from September-May (no meetings in the summer), starting with a social half hour at 6:30 (hot tea, coffee and cookies provided), followed by the speaker at 7:00 p.m. and is open to the public. Location, Tsunami Books , 2585 Willamette, Eugene, OR 97045. Free to members of Willamette Writers and full time college students, suggested $10 donation for non-members.

For more information contact: JoJo Jensen [jojo.jensen@yahoo.com]

To have your name put on the Eugene Chapter email list or have brochures sent to your group: JoJo Jensen [jojo.jensen@yahoo.com]

Mid-Valley Willamette Writer's Presents:

March 4
Kat Richardson
Topic: TBA

Southern Oregon Chapter (Medford)

The southern Oregon chapter of Willamette Writers meets the first Saturday of the month at City Hall, City Council Chambers, in Central Point, on the corner of 3rd and Oak Street, one black off the main street, Pine. Meetings are 10 a.m. to noon. Parking is down the street. This speaker series is presented by Willamette Writers, a non-profit organization founded to help published and aspiring writers. Meetings are free to members, $5.00 for non-members. For information about Willamette Writers of Southern Oregon, call Valerie Foster at 541-621-8587 or email her at valerie62@charter.net.

Join us for networking at 9:30 a.m.

Membership dues: $36.00/year includes a monthly newsletter and discounted rate for the annual conference in Portland and other WW sponsored workshops.

Melissa Hart is February 13th

If you can tell your own stories skillfully in an entertaining voice, you'll find opportunities to publish short essays in magazines and newspapers. You'll also have a shot at publishing book-length memoir.

This presentation will teach you how to identify a particular time period and/or theme in your life on which to focus your memoir. We'll talk about the structure of short memoir and the various forms it can take, including essays, social commentary, and slice-of-life vignettes.

Afternoon: "Memoirs : Characterization, Plot, setting and Theme"

The workshop will cover characterization, plot, setting and theme. We'll discuss how to craft a book-length work, and we'll pay particular attention to the challenges of memory, dialogue, hyperbole, and responses from family members and friends. Participants will receive a bibliography of current books on crafting memoir, as well as a list of magazine and newspaper editors particularly interested in the genre. You'll come away with a new-found respect for the stories that only you can tell, and a solid sense of where and how to market them to editors.

Melissa Hart is the author of the memoir Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009). She teaches journalism at the University of Oregon and memoir writing for U.C. Berkeley' online extension program. She's a contributing editor at The Writer Magazine, and her essays and articles have appeared in Orion, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Advocate, Hemispheres, & High Country News.

Website: www.melissahart.com Contact Valerie Foster at 541- 621-8587 or valerie62@ charter.net for further info.