Gatherings | Issue 2
Recommendations, Events, Calls for Submissions, New Question Form
Hello friends!
I’m getting Issue #2 of Send My Love to Anyone ready to send out mid-month, and I have two very special guest writers who I will reveal soon!
I’m so excited to share their work with you.
In the meantime, please enjoy the Send My Love to Anyone February Recommendations! I had so many things to recommend this month, I had to send it out in a separate email!
Also I’ve added a new online question form where you can post writing questions or comments anonymously. These questions may be shared in the newsletter or may becomes prompts for future posts. Please specify if you don’t want them shared publicly.
And of course you can always email me at admin@kathrynmockler.com.
Kathryn
Send My Love to Anyone February Recommendations
Books/Articles
“A workshop should not participate in the binding but in freeing the writer from the culturally regulated boundaries of what it is possible to say and how it is possible to say it.” —Matthew Salesses from Craft in the Real World.
If you are a writer or filmmaker, at some point you will have to give feedback on creative works either in a workshop format or one-on-one.
I highly recommend Felicia Rose Chavez’s The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom and Matthew Salesses’ in Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping. Both of these books were published this year and both critique the Iowa writing workshop method (that silences the writer among other problems). They explore the harms done by the so-called “traditional” workshop method and offer a new path forward for teaching creative writing and giving feedback.
Both Chavez and Salesses have adapted Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process which is particularly helpful for creative writing workshop facilitators. Chavez describes her method in this Lit Hub article: “How to Build an Anti-Racist Workshop” by Felicia Rose Chavez and Matthew Salesses discusses Craft in the Real World in this interview with Candace Eros Diaz in Craft.
I was introduced to the Critical Response Process a couple of years ago and now fully use it in my writing workshops and for any feedback I give. What is particularly great about this method of feedback is that it is consent-focused and writer-focused and centres the dignity of the writer, their work, and their process.
This is game changing!
Contests
Imagine 2200
Check out this great Climate fiction contest from Grist’s solutions lab, Fix.
Find everything you need to submit a story in our Submissions portal.
Fix, is calling for 3,000- to 5,000-word stories that envision the next 180 years of climate progress. The winning writer will be awarded $3,000, with the second-and third-place finalists receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive a $300 honorarium. Our board of expert literary judges includes authors Adrienne Maree Brown, Morgan Jerkins, and Kiese Laymon.
Creative Writing Courses
Learn Writing Essentials: Write Polish Publish, a self-paced online writing course
If you are interested in creative writing classes online, please check out Learn Writing Essentials, founded by Chelene Knight. I recommend starting with Write Polish Publish, which is self-paced online course.
Write Polish Publish
This self-paced five-week course is for new writers who want to start sending work out for publication. Whether you want to write micro fiction, prose poems, or verse, this course will tighten your work and even inspire you to write new stuff—with confidence and authenticity. You’ll learn how to establish routine, and to write daily with discipline while being mindful of self-care. There will be a heavy emphasis on hybrid forms. *end of course bonus* Unlike other courses you will receive personal feedback on up to ten pages of pre-existing writing, and a one on one manuscript consult with me to discuss your work, and of course ... publishing opportunities. Something else this course teaches you that no other course does: how to navigate the Canadian Literary scene. We talk about author care—something that has been missing from the publishing landscape for much too long. The course itself is a mix of videos, audio, and text. Register here.
The Stories in Our Hands and Feet
Novelist and poet Sandra Campbell is offering an excellent workshop called The Stories in Our Hands and Feet. In a spirit of relaxation and quiet play Sandra offers poems, images and writing exercises to spark your memory and imagination.
February Events
FEBRUARY 12, 2021 at 12:30PM (EST)
7 Things I Learned While Promoting During A Pandemic with Farzana Doctor
Join four-time author Farzana Doctor for a FREE workshop on using social media, finding influencers, creating and attracting people to your events, asking for help, working with a publicist and more. This workshop will be helpful to any writer working to increase their profile and especially for those with a book contract and who are thinking about how to promote a future book. Register here.
FEBRUARY 16, 2021 AT 7:00PM (EST)
BALDERDASH's FOURTH ANNIVERSARY event in collaboration with WATCH YOUR HEAD.
Featuring Jodi Chan, Adrian De Leon, Sheniz Janmohamed, Yohani Mendis, and Krishnakumar Sankaran. Hosted by Watch Your Head Editor Sanchari Sur. Register here.
FEBRUARY 21, 2021 AT 3:00PM (EST)
Please join the Draft Reading Series for another virtual edition on February 21, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. on Zoom.
Draft 16.2 will feature new work by Britta B., Therese Estacion, Amanda Leduc, and Marilo Nuñez. Hosted by Kern Carter. This is a Pay-What-You-Want event. Draft Reading Series deeply appreciates donations of any amount, but free tickets are available and all are welcome. Donations will go to pay the authors at this and future readings. There's more information about the authors on our website. Register here.
FEBRUARY 22, 2021 AT 2:30PM (PST)
FEBRUARY 24, 2021 AT 7:00PM (EST)
Poetry London featuring Sachiko Murakami and Catherine Graham.
FEBRUARY 25, 2021 AT 4:00PM (EST)
FEBRUARY 26, 2021
REELPoetry/HoutsonTX poetry film festival.
My short film “Tornado” is screening at REELpoetry/HoustonTX 2021. Presented virtually February 26, 2021. Tickets are PWYC. Register here.
Podcast
Sounds on Screen, is a podcast presented by NTS Radio. Soundtracks, scores & sounds from some of the most important artists in film.
Check out these two favourites Sounds on Screen Iranian Cinema and Sounds on Screen: Harry Dean Stanton.
Organizations
RAVEN
RAVEN raises legal defence funds to assist Indigenous Peoples who enforce their rights and title to protect their traditional territories.
Shades of Hope
As commercial and residential growth continues to explode, our wildlife is being pushed aside into ever smaller spaces. Sadly, a large number of wild birds, mammals and reptiles regularly fall victim to road accidents, human cruelty and the scarcity of suitable habitat and food. As the need for rescue of
orphaned and injured wild animals increases, Shades of Hope is committed to providing veterinary care, proper nourishment and a safe place to flourish until they can resume their rightful place in nature.
Watch Your Head Highlights
Watch Your Head is an online journal that I founded in 2019 and that publishes writing and art about climate justice and the climate crisis.
Coach House Books published a print anthology in October 2020 called Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis which I edited with 14 editors. Proceeds from this book go to RAVEN and Climate Justice Toronto.
The Watch Your Head website publishes new work each month. Check out the January works up on Watch Your Head which includes a change, a 10-minute video performance by James Legaspi and a photography series by kerry rawlinson.
If you’d like to get regular updates on Watch Your Head. Sign up for our newsletter.
If you’d like to submit work to Watch Your Head, read the guidelines here.
Write to Send My Love to Anyone
Send My Love to Anyone is a newsletter about all things writing with Kathryn Mockler and guests.
Delivered to your inbox monthly with lots of excellent posts on the site in between!
I’d love to hear from you. Send me your writing process questions. You can reach me at admin@kathrynmockler.com or leave a comment below or send an anonymous question here.
Selected stories and questions may be considered for publication in a future newsletter.
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About Kathryn Mockler
Kathryn Mockler is the author of five books of poetry and several short films and experimental videos. She’s the publisher of Watch Your Head, an online journal devoted to climate justice and the climate crisis. She is the editor of the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers & Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020) and her debut story collection is forthcoming with Book*hug in 2023.
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