Hello all of you wonderful authors, readers, teachers, and artists - we wanted to update you about what we've decided regarding The Write Women Book Fest and how we will be moving forward.
Heather (Founder/Event Coordinator), Cardyn (Outreach Coordinator), and Stacey (Event Management with Marietta House) met via Zoom last week to discuss the fate of the book festival. It was a very positive discussion and we concluded that we WILL be having a book fest, one way or another. It will either be a reduced physical event with additional online elements. Or it will be strictly online. This is evolving and we are continuing to pivot to keep up with it. IN THE CASE WE CAN HAVE THE EVENT - IT WILL BE REDUCED IN SIZE FOR SAFETY AND PHYSICAL DISTANCING PURPOSES - YOUR SAFETY IS THE TOP PRIORITY There are fewer spaces and they are now reduced price. PLEASE REGISTER TO GET A SPACE IF YOU THINK YOU WANT TO BE THERE - THERE ARE NOW ONLY 45 TOTAL SPACES, VS. THE 67 WE HAD - they are first come - first served. The google doc timestamps them so it makes it easy. Live-casting with Heather Brooks as the host. Two social media posters covering the event to tag and promote the vendors. An in-person panel discussion with Cardyn Brooks as the moderator - live-cast, too. Live poetry and music - live-cast. Food and wine if it's permitted. Accompanying video workshops in the week leading up to the event. Live-cast and recorded events the day of the fest. Free gift raffle for guests. We are going to hold on with the swag bags at the moment since they require a lot of work and collecting and we don't want to add to the burden of shipping and so forth right now. IN THE CASE WE CANNOT HAVE THE EVENT PHYSICALLY, THE FOLLOWING WILL BE IMPLEMENTED There will be an online "store" that will be located here at the website that will have images, descriptions and links to the vendors so you can buy all the great books, crafts, and arts and support them from the safety of your home. There will be workshop videos and talks leading up to the 26th. There will be a virtual panel via something like Zoom. We will have free gift raffles for people who check in the day of the event. There will be presentations of poetry, music, and story-time via video or live-stream. If you have any ideas you'd like to share, or if you want to participate, please go to the registration from and register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfonlvbATRfCGLRdqLnZtiIZUZoZqkPARlEoZjPKR8Xd1t9fw/viewform?usp=sf_link
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Registration is now open for The Write Women Book Fest 2020!
Seeking women and female-identifying writers, artists, literary groups, publishers, and agencies. It will be held at the lovely Marietta House Museum in cooperation with Prince George's County Parks & Planning. There is no admission fee. Registration fees are low to make them accessible. This is an inclusive, exciting, woman-focused event! #TWWBF2020 GOOGLE FORMS REGISTRATION I spied this little piece over at DC Refined about five D.C. authors (which happens to be local for us here at TWWBF) and was excited to see that they are all women!
Cardyn Brooks is an author, book blogger at BlerdyBingeReader, and the Outreach Coordinater and Co-Organizer of TWWBF. Heal Write Away in Bowie “Heal Write Away” workshop by professor, educational consultant, poet, and author Aressa Williams offers participants a series of interactive tasks that foster emotional connections within each individual and between each person. Her instructional style is that of a conversational sage with a humorous, upbeat vibe. Everything about her manner invites workshop attendees to listen and to engage with conscious intentions. A fun introductory group activity encourages everyone to share a few details about themselves, which makes it easier to address people by name during the rest of the event. Practical suggestions for making daily meditation accessible, journaling guidelines, writing prompts, and more generate a palpable creative momentum. Near the end of the workshop hosted by the Prince George’s County chapter of the Maryland Writers’ Association* and held at the South Bowie Branch Library on Saturday, January 11, 2020, some participants shared that they now knew more about the people in the room than they did about the neighbors living on either side of their home after a few years of residency. If alienation and loneliness are on the rise in today’s society, then the “Heal Write Away” workshop is one activity that contributes toward reversing that trend.
*Professor Williams and the president of the P.G. County chapter of the Maryland Writers’ Association met and exchanged contact details at the first annual The Write Women Book Fest held at Marietta House Museum September 2019. Come engage and network with an inclusive variety of female and female-identifying creative people at the second annual TWWBF on Saturday, September 26, 2020. We are so happy that Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks, one of the many lovely participants of The Write Women Book Fest, has organized her own book expo! If you're in the central Pennsylvania region, please consider participating. CLICK HERE From Her Website The Glow Book Expo seeks to inspire, ignite and enthuse those who have always wanted to write, have already begun to write literature and those who need to discover they have real potential as a writer. Creator, Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks saw an opportunity to expose resources and guidance to potential writers living in central Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Information will be made available regarding various topics such as selling books independently, submissions to publishers and literary agents, researching and editing.
The 1st annual Glow Book Expo will be a one-day event, free to the public. The event will take place on August 22, 2020 at Harrisburg University, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The expo will include panel discussions from signed and independent authors, publishers, colleges, and authors selling books. Hello! YAY! We have a date and time for our 2020 The Write Women Book Fest! September 26th at Marietta House from noon to 6 p.m. Last year's event was awesome and we hope to just continue to expand and evolve. Please spread the word to other women authors you know!
We received your 2019 feedback and implemented several suggestions into our plans for 2020. Some of those things include: -Less crowded tent -More time between presentations -Multiple events throughout the festival -Both book-lover and writer focused events -Online registration (coming in February - check back!) If you have other ideas, please send them on! Author B. Graham Simpson has been chosen as a panelist on the topic of Marketing and Self-Publishing at a Maryland Local Author Expo to be held on April 25, 2020, 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., in Bowie, MD.
Graham Simpson was a participant in the inaugural The Write Women Book Fest in 2019. We're so happy to see all of the things the authors are up to! Please hop on over to her website to keep up to date on happenings with her. Electric Lit has a great list of books by women and non-binary writers of color. Hop on over to their website and show that piece some love and check out some of these books! Buy some of them if you are able.
From B. Graham Simpson's Website
"It was about meeting other women authors, networking, and making valuable contacts.That about says it all, except that on the 21st of September 2019, the weather was warm and sunny–a beautiful pre-Autumn day at the Marietta House Museum in Glen Dale, MD. Book Fest organizers were on the ball, and even though this was their inaugural event, from where I sat, everything ran smoothly." CONTINUE READING A lovely note from one of the attendees to The Write Women Book Fest! Thank you for the Write Women Book Fest 2019! I left feeling inspired to keep on chugging along with my own work and uplifted by the many conversations I had with members of my "tribe" of writers. For the first time in a long time, I felt the fog of frustration lift. I haven't felt very tuned into my muse lately, and I was beginning to doubt that she'd ever chatted with me at all! But by the time the book fest was over, I felt reassured that others had been down this same road and managed to plow ahead--so maybe I can, too. I was comforted to know that so many others have struggled, too, and that my frustrations and ups and downs were perfectly natural, and even predictable--the ebb and flow of the creative process. The writers were so encouraging and gave me great tips. It was a wonderfully invigorating experience for me.
I am so appreciative of the work and time everyone involved put into the Book Fest. I am already looking forward to #thewritewomenbookfest2020! Kind regards, -- Joye Mercer Barksdale |