Join us for our monthly programs.
Regular Meetings are on the first Saturday of every month from 10:00 am to noon and the third Tuesday from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm (new time) at the Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living located on the northwest corner of Louisiana and Claremont — two blocks north of Menaul — at 2801 Louisiana Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110 (see the map on this page).
Please read our visitor/guest policy here.
Tuesday, October 15
6:30–8:30 pm
Speakers:
Loretta Hall & Susan C. Cooper
WRITING NONFICTION
How do you write nonfiction and make it captivating? And once you’ve written it, where do you sell it? Join this panel of award-winning nonfiction authors to find the answers.
Bios:
Award-winning author Loretta Hall has written hundreds of magazine articles and reference book chapters. Topics for her eight nonfiction books include space exploration, ecological architecture, and mulitculturalism. Loretta is a member of SouthWest Writers, the New Mexico Book Co-op, New Mexico Press Women, and the Historical Society of New Mexico’s Speakers Bureau. She is certified as a Space Ambassador for the National Space Society and as a Green Building Technical Professional.
Author and artist Susan C. Cooper worked as an environmental engineer for 17 years. Born and raised in Milwaukee, she now makes her home in Albuquerque. Her first book, The Truth About Mold, is in its third edition. Football Facts for Females, published in 2014, is her second book.
Saturday, November 2
10:00 am–Noon
Speakers:
Elise McHugh & Bryce Emley
Authors Jack Loeffler & Barbara Rockman
UNM PRESS PANEL
UNM Press Editor Elise McHugh and Marketing Associate Bryce Emley will discuss the Press’s trade publishing program, the kinds of books the Press is currently seeking, and marketing expectations for new authors. Fall 2019 UNM Press authors Jack Loeffler and Barbara Rockman will present their new books and describe their experiences writing and subsequently publishing these remarkable new titles with UNMP.
Bios:
Elise McHugh is an acquisition editor at the University of New Mexico Press. She acquires in many fields, including poetry, fiction, memoir, photography and art fine art and criticism, and literary and popular culture studies/criticism. Her experience in publishing includes thirteen years at UNM Press and eight years at West End Press, as well as literary and scholarly journals.
Bryce Emley is the author of the prose chapbooks A Brief Family History of Drowning and Smoke and Glass. He works as a Marketing Associate at the University of New Mexico Press, where he coordinates events and exhibits, and is also Poetry Editor of Raleigh Review.
Jack Loeffler is an aural historian, environmentalist, writer, radio producer, and sound-collage artist. He is the author of many books, including Thinking Like a Watershed: Voices from the West, Survival Along the Continental Divide: An Anthology of Interviews, and Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey (all from UNM Press).
Barbara Rockman is the author of Sting and Nest: Poems, winner of the New Mexico–Arizona Book Award. She teaches writing at Santa Fe Community College and at Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families. Raised in western Massachusetts, she now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Tuesday, November 19
6:30–8:30 pm
Speaker: Sherri Burr
SYNCHRONICITY and PERSEVERANCE:
Two Elements to Finishing a Project
Do you have a short or long form writing project? This talk will address how to take advantage of synchronistic events that point you in the direction your work is meant to travel. Going through a bag of letters and finding one mentioning that a great-great aunt had lived in Wyoming led Burr on adventures to Wyoming, Utah, Ohio, Virginia, and London, England. She persevered in her research to track down ancestors who obtained freedom before the Civil War, and what their lives were like. The result was Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865, published in time to honor the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of Africans on the shores of Virginia on August 19, 1619.
Bio:
Sherri Burr, a Princeton and Yale Law School graduate, is the author of 27 books, including A Short & Happy Guide to Financial Well-Being. As a member of SWW for over 30 years, Burr has authored columns in the SouthWest Sage since the 1990s, starting with “Ask Professor Burr on Copyright.” She now pens the award-winning column, “The Writing Life,” where she shares the wisdom she has learned from her writing career. Burr currently serves as President of the New Mexico Press Women and Third Vice-President of the Aaron Burr Association. She is currently working on Aaron Burr’s Family of Color.
Previous Speakers and Topics for 2019:
♦ Steve Brewer, I’ve Looked at Books from Both Sides Now
♦ Kirt Hickman, Write Realistic Dialogue
♦ Jacqueline M. Loring, Creating the KiMo Book
♦ Sarah H. Baker, Critique Groups: How and Why
♦ Dan Wetmore, The Pros and Cons of Non-Prose
♦ Jeanne Shannon & Rob Spiegel, Great Poets of New Mexico
♦ Don Bullis, Adventures in Research
♦ Rose Marie Kern, How to Copyright Your Book
♦ Johnny D. Boggs, The Modern World of Publishing
♦ Judith Avila & Patricia Conoway, Memoir Panel
♦ Brian Stinar, WordPress for Writers
♦ Betsy James, Evoking and Organizing the Fiction Draft
♦ Jonathan Miller, Planning Your Own Epic Series
♦ Robert Vardeman & Melody Groves, Writing Authentic Historical Fiction
♦ Jeffe Kennedy & Robin Perini, Romantic Elements and Tropes
♦ Bob Kidera, Margaret Tessler, & Patricia Smith Wood, What Makes a Mystery Writer?
♦ Gail Rubin, How to Market Your Expertise
Previous Speakers and Topics for 2018:
♦ Jack Woodville London, Stick to the Story
♦ Marc Calderwood, Celluloid Aspirations
♦ Steve Brewer, Nuts & Bolts: The Mechanics of Clear Writing
♦ Lorena Hughes, To Err is Human, To Learn Divine
♦ Melody Groves, Don’t be Afraid to Cry: Putting Emotions into Writing
♦ Judith Avila, Can You Relate? The importance of diverse relationships in your writing
♦ Benjamin Radford, A Personal Path to Publication
♦ Joanne Bodin & Jeanne Shannon, The Passion of Poetry
♦ Matthew Yde, The Irresistible Writer
♦ John Cousins, Enter the Matrix
♦ Michael Backus, Practical Tips To Improve Your Writing Gleaned from 15 Years of Teaching Creative Writing
♦ James McGrath Morris, “What I learned about writing from the novelists Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos.”
♦ Marcia Fine, Marketing, Research and Fortitude for Authors
♦ RJ Mirabal, Research Between the Ears
♦ Jonathan Miller, From Start to Finish: How to Start and End Your Books, and Take Your Characters Along for the Ride
♦ Loretta Hall, The Writing Right Rite: How to Avoid Distracting, Credibility-Destroying Factual Errors
♦ Jane Lindskold, Work Habits for the Successful Writer
♦ Jim Tritten, Short Stories are Fun!
♦ Gerald Hausman, Zen and the Art of Writing
♦ Rose Marie Kern, CUT IT OUT! Editing Makes it Better!
♦ Laura Mixon, The Care and Feeding of your Beast: A Writer’s Wilderness Guide
♦ Patricia Smith Wood, Permission to Write
♦ Betty Moffett, Writing Down Your Family Stories
Previous Speakers and Topics for 2017:
♦ Darynda Jones, Seducing the Reader: The 4 Essential Elements of an Opening
♦ Chloe Rachel Gallaway, The Hero’s Journey
♦ Melody Groves, 5 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting my Career
♦ Dede Feldman, Writing: An Activist’s Guide
♦ Paula Paul, Taking the Scenic Route
♦ Heloise Jones, The Writer’s Block Myth
♦ Kirk Hickman, Create Multi-Dimensional Characters Your Reader Can Relate To
♦ Jeanne Shannon and Joanne Bodin, Poetry Month: Exquisite Corpse
♦ Lynn Miller, Writing Your Way In
♦ Bob Kidera, Overcoming a Late Start to Your Writing Career
♦ Joe Badal, The Key Elements of Fiction
♦ Jonathon Miller, How to Create Realistic Characters (and not get sued)
♦ Jeffe Kennedy, Friends and Enemies: How to Talk to and Deal with Agents and Editors
♦ Julie Dunlop, Healing Writing with Ayurveda
♦ Jodi Thomas, Secrets of a Successful Writer
♦ Christina Squire, “And then the Murders Began”
♦ Kimberly Little, The Deep Point of View
♦ Susan Cooper and Gail Rubin, How to Knock ’em Dead, Public Speaking for Writers
♦ Betsy James, Thought Experiments
♦ Chris Eboch, Cliffhangers: Keep the Pages Turning
♦ Sue Boggio and Mare Pearl, The Science and Magic of Creativity in Fiction Writing
♦ Sean Murphy, Dimension in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Memoir
