Come Share Your Work at These Two Writers Conference Events!
When we plan events for our annual Writers Conference, we focus on more than just opportunities to learn about writing. We are also committed to creating community and providing opportunities for you, our local writers, to share your work with your peers and the community at large.
That’s why we’ve built in two, brand new elements of this year’s Writers Conference: the Kickoff event, which will take place Thursday, Nov. 17, from 6:30-8 p.m., and the Open Mic, which will take place at Bear Necessities Coffee Bar on Saturday, Nov. 19, from 6-7 p.m.
The Kickoff event will focus on responses to our all-conference book, Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Lead, and Create in Unconventional Ways. If you haven’t yet written a response to one of the exercises and shared it on our blog, you still have time! We’ll be choosing our readers for the Kickoff from the entries on the blog (and we have a few other surprises planned, too, just in case you don’t have the time or inclination to post your work just yet).
Our first-ever Open Mic is a bit less formal. Simply come to Bear Necessities Coffee Bar and add your name to the list to read. We’ll welcome as many readers as that hour allows (please limit your reading to 3-4 minutes, so we can accommodate as many readers as possible).
At the Open Mic event, anything goes. Read your poetry, an excerpt from your romance novel or your sci-fi epic; share part of a personal essay or an excerpt from your memoir. Are you a short story or flash writer? Awesome! Love haikus? We’d love to hear them.
Side note: If you’re wondering what there is to do between the time the Conference ends at 5 and the Open Mic starts at 6, know that you have options: you could head to Bear Necessities early for a drink, or you might grab dinner at one of the within-walking-distance restaurants. This might be even more fun if you meet up with friends for the conference, or if you connect with new friends and get to know each other better over a drink or a meal.
We really want to listen to and celebrate your writing, and hope you will join us for one or both of these events!
-- written by Lisa Allen, adult services specialist