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Calendar of Events
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NEXT CWC CLUB MEETING DETAILS
Tuesday, December 17, 2019, 6:30 p.m.
Amber Smith - York Times best-selling Young Adult novelist
Providence United Methodist Church (Room 104)
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Amber Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of novels for young adults. Her debut, The Way I Used to Be (2016), was selected for the American Library Association’s Amelia Bloomer List of Feminist Literature and Texas Library Association’s TAYSHAS List, named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, an Eliot Rosewater Award honor book, and nominated for Goodreads Choice Award in YA Fiction and Connecticut’s Nutmeg Book Award. Her second novel, The Last to Let Go (2018), received starred reviews from Booklist and VOYA, and was named a most-anticipated book by B&N Teen Blog, Elite Daily, and Bookish. Her third novel, Something Like Gravity (2019) received starred reviews from VOYA and Bookpage, was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and a most-anticipated book by BookRiot, NewNowNext, B&N Teen Blog, Entertainment Weekly, and The Advocate.
Amber grew up in Buffalo, New York and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her partner and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats. Fueled by a lifelong passion for the arts, story, and creative expression, Amber graduated from art school with a BFA in Painting and went on to earn her master’s degree in Art History. When she’s not writing she’s usually reading, but can also be found in her studio making art or freelancing as an art consultant. She has also written on the topics of art history and modern and contemporary art, and contributed to the nonfiction YA anthology Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America (2018).
An advocate for increased awareness of gendered violence, including sexual assault and domestic or intimate partner abuse, as well as LGBTQ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue surrounding these issues.
5 x 5: Tips for Writing with Strength and Clarity
Have you ever heard of the saying “five by five”? It goes back to World War II-era radio communications, and it means “I understand you perfectly,” as in the signal has excellent strength and perfect clarity – in other words, it could not be better. In this presentation, you will learn the best tips for writing with both strength and clarity from bestselling author, Amber Smith. Featuring Smith’s top five writing tips that can be applied to all genres, including poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction, followed by five personal tips that Smith has developed throughout the past decade of writing and publishing. Together, these 10 tips will be sure to bring something fresh and new to your writing process.
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Check out OPEN MIC Nights - Every 3rd Friday
Register to read atr OPEN MIC Nights - Every 3rd Friday - Find your date on the events page.
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Click on the link below to view photos and program recap from previous meetings.
MEETING RECAPS
2019-2020 CWC Upcoming Club Meetings
Tuesday, January 21, 2020, 6:30 p.m.
Gary Hovis - Suspense novelist
Providence United Methodist Church (Room 104)
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28211
George Hovis is professor of English at SUNY Oneonta in Upstate New York but originally a native of Gaston County, North Carolina. Before becoming a writer and teacher, he worked as a process chemist at several ink factories in Charlotte. His debut novel, The Skin Artist, is published by SFK Press, and his stories and essays have appeared widely, most recently in The Carolina Quarterly, The Fourth River, and North Carolina Literary Review. A Pushcart Prize nominee and former President of the Thomas Wolfe Society, he earned a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. His monograph Vale of Humility: Plain Folk in Contemporary North Carolina Fiction was published in 2007 by University of South Carolina Press.
Mysterious Landscapes, Unpredictable Characters, Unforgettable Stories
George Hovis will discuss strategies for finding the mysterious, the surreal, and the sublime available in everyday landscapes. This session will explore how setting gives birth to characters and plots--and how, in turn, the actions of characters define a place.
With a look at how he happened upon the Gothic side of Charlotte while writing his novel The Skin Artist (2019), Hovis will challenge CWC members to discover the mystery lurking in their own stories.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 6:30 p.m.
Tim Reinhardt - Playwright and Fiction novelist
Providence United Methodist Church (Room 104)
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Tim Reinhardt is a drug dealer a/k/a known veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, who has traveled the world extensively and studied diverse cultures. His travels, coupled with an eventful childhood, shape his thought-provoking perspective on life and his dark comedies. Tim is the writer of the Academy-Award qualifying film Crackers, as well as the author of Afaq: I'm Trapped in India and his most recent novel, Jesus’s Brother James. He is currently working on a film adaptation for Jesus's Brother James. When he’s not busy writing, Tim enjoys making films, playing tennis, and learning about history. He resides in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
Screenwriting vs. Novel Writing: Exploring the Differences
Have you wanted to write a screenplay? Timothy Reinhardt, the writer of the Academy-Award qualifying film Crackers, as well as the author of Afaq: I'm Trapped in India and his most recent novel, Jesus’s Brother James, will walk through his journey from trying to write novels to writing screenplays and back to writing novels. Timothy will review the differences with the two, both on paper and what a scene looks like when it finally makes it to the screen.
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Tuesday, March 17 2020, 6:30 p.m.
Panel - Author Publicity and Marketing
Providence United Methodist Church (Room 104)
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Three experienced publicists will share their wisdom on author publicity and marketing in this Charlotte Writers Club panel moderated by Landis Wade in the form of a LIVE podcast that will be featured on Charlotte Readers Podcast.
Meet your panelists.
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| Lynda Bouchard is a literary publicist and founder of Booking Authors Ink, a boutique marketing firm dedicated to Southern authors. For over 20 years, Lynda has worked with high profile authors such as Nicholas Sparks, Mary Alice Monroe, Cassandra King Conroy and the late Pat Conroy. She collaborates with New York publishing houses on Southern media campaigns and serves as an 'author concierge' for authors on tour throughout the South. With a Master’s Degree in Public Relations from Boston University and post graduate work in Literature from Oxford University in England, Lynda believes that book marketing is all about collaborative story-telling. She shares advice about publicity and marketing on Where Writers Win blog, and has been a featured speaker for the S.C. Writers Workshop as well as other literary workshops around the South.
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| Dawn Michelle Hardy has aided novelists and non-fiction authors for 17 years on their climb to publishing success by using strategic promotions to expand their readership, build their brands, win awards and garner national and local media attention. She is an award-winning publicist, a literary agent, speaker and sought after book publishing consultant who believes that promoting writers and their work are truly about discoverability, access, and an entrepreneurial approach. Her clients have won a wide range of awards including the IPPY, USA Best Book Award, Eric Hoffer Award and a sports narrative that was Shortlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Dawn is President of Dream Relations PR & Literary Consulting, and the brainchild behind Publishing in Your Pajamas, a virtual writers conference that educates and empowers aspiring and debut authors.
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| Hannah Turner is a publicist and digital marketer for artists across the creative spectrum including award-winning authors, musicians, fine artists, and independent filmmakers. She has served as an editor, public relations specialist, and marketer for both editorial firms and media outlets, including a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper, The Post & Courier. After working first-hand in several different facets of the publishing and media industries, Hannah brought her experience to launch her own boutique marketing and public relations firm, Spellbound PR. Spellbound takes traditional PR tactics and puts a modern digital spin on storytelling campaigns to identify and reach target markets. Hannah has always been an avid reader and writer and is currently in the process of launching a book review column in addition to serving as a contributor to several online publications.
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Theme: Exploring the Mystery of Writing (By Genre)
September 17, 2019 - Gavin Edwards - New York Times best-selling Non-Fiction author
October 15, 2019 - Critique Group Information Session
November 19, 2019 - Mark deCastrique - North Carolina Mystery novelist
December 17, 2019 - Amber Smith - New York Times best-selling Young Adult novelist
January 21, 2020 - George Hovis - Suspense novelist
February 18, 2020 - Tim Reinhardt - Playwright and Fiction novelist
March 17, 2020 - Panel - Author Publicity and Marketing
April 21, 2020 - Diana Pinckney - Poet
May 19, 2010 - Phillip Lewis - Literary Fiction novelist
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Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 6:30 p.m.
Diana Pinckney - Poet
Providence United Methodist Church (Room 104)
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Diana Pinckney, Charlotte, NC, has five collections of poetry, including The Beast and The Innocent (2015). She is the Winner of the 2010 Ekphrasis Prize, Atlanta Review’s 2012 International Prize and Press 53 Prime Number’s 2018 Award. Her work has appeared in such journals as Cave Wall, Arroyo, RHINO, Iodine, Tar River Poetry, Emrys Journal, The Pedestal Magazine, Green Mountains Review, Main Street Rag and other magazines and anthologies. Pinckney admits to being addicted to writing persona, and ekphrastic poems, and has led workshops on both forms for the Charlotte Center for the Literary Arts.
Releasing The Tiger in The Poem
In this presentation, poet Diana Pinckney focuses on tools that poets can use to get their words on the page and write their way to the heart of a poem. Chez Milosz, from Ars Poetica, wrote about a tiger springing forth in the process of writing poetry. Diana sees this act as unexpected, out of the dark jungle of our hearts and minds, sprung from the depth of our being—” the constellation of the unconscious” as the great poet, Stanley Kunitz, said when speaking of what comes up when we go deeper. Because the process of writing poetry can sometimes be as scary as the blank page, Diana will explore these ideas and discuss how the poet can meet up with their tiger to see what imaginative paths emerge.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2020, 6:30 p.m.
Phillip Lewis - Literary Fiction novelist
Providence United Methodist Church (Room 104)
2810 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28211
The New York Times called Phillip’s debut novel, The Barrowfields, “a work of abundant talent.” Phillip is a Charlotte attorney who was born and raised in West Jefferson North Carolina, a little more than a stone’s throw away from the Virginia and Tennessee lines, and not far from the mythical town of Old Buckram, where the characters disappear and evolve in his literary fiction novel, The Barrowfields (published by Crown/Hogarth). When Phillip is not handling real-estate litigation cases or writing, he studies language, collects rare books, plays music (mostly the piano and the guitar), and reads everything he can get his hands on. The Barrowfields was published in the United States in 2017, and has now been printed by separate publishing companies in the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Germany.
Adding Meaning and Depth to a Story or Novel
In this presentation, fiction author Phillip Lewis will discuss how to go about adding layers of meaning and depth to your story or novel through a variety of techniques, including literary, historical, or cultural allusions, symbolism, allegory, and others, with numerous examples from well-known and some lesser-known works of fiction, including his own novel, THE BARROWFIELDS.
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AT A GLANCE - The Entire 2019-2020 CWC Year's Main Activities by Month
Click HERE to get printable 2019-2020 At a Glance Club Activity Calendar
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Join Home Town Reads - We’re a community dedicated to serving local authors across the country, by helping them connect with readers in their hometown through what we call the Read Local movement.
CHARLOTTE LIT
Charlotte Lit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary arts center, engaging and educating writers and readers, and building a stronger Charlotte through literature.
Click HERE for events hosted by Charlotte Lit.
Charlotte Lit promotes a deeper understanding of self, community, and world by inspiring and educating readers, developing and supporting writers, and promoting creative, arts-focused conversations that strengthen and transform our community.
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