Mail - PO Box 3071, Peterborough, NH 03458
General Monthly Meetings of MWG
The Monadnock Writers’ Group will meet on the third Saturday of
each month through June 2021. Our meetings begin at 9:45 and
continue to about 11:45. In respect for public health guidelines,
these meetings are being held online, but our full monthly program
will be included, such as regional announcements of events for
writers, a ten-minute reading from a member, and a main speaker
sharing professional writing experience and answering our
questions. The Speaker Series is open to the public and free of
charge. Our speakers are instructive and inspirational for writers
of all literary forms, genres, and levels of experience
The meetings can be followed via Zoom by connecting at
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86162106433?pwd=cWRHV1NjNi9HQVU5QWhFSyt1UnlqQT09
Follow the prompts to join with audio and join with video. You can
also participate by telephone by calling 1 (646) 558-8656. Use the
meeting ID: 861 6210 6433 and passcode: 744422.
“Two hundred years ago,” Settembrini said, “you had a great poet in
your country, a magnificent old chatterbox who set great store by
good handwriting because he thought it must induce a good style. He
should have gone a step further and said that a good style would
lead to good deeds,” Settembrini added. “For writing well was
almost the same as thinking well, and thinking well was the next
thing to acting well.”
· Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
December 7
Writers’ Night In
Writers’ Night Out is a custom throughout New Hampshire to provide
a monthly social gathering of writers. It was suspended in
Peterborough and elsewhere due to restrictions of the COVID crisis
but is being revived by MWG under the name Writers’ Night In. We
will hold a Zoom meeting on the first Monday of each month, except
when it conflicts with a holiday.
Our idea is to have dinner while conversing with other writers in
the area. There is no program and no rules on topics - just a
social gathering through a Zoom connection. We will meet on
December 7 at 6:30 and expect to have the connection open until
8:00. Connect at
and follow the prompts to keep in touch with what writer friends
are doing and feel their encouragement on your current
project.
You may also participate by telephone by calling 1 (646) 558-8656.
Use the meeting ID: 845 0252 7469 and passcode: 715369
December 19
Read-Around
At the December event, members of the Monadnock Writers’ Group will
read excerpts of their own work up to ten minutes each. Every year
this is a delightful opportunity to enjoy the creative talents of
our members. This intriguing visit with fellow writers will be
online via Zoom. The public is welcome to attend.
We begin at 9:45 AM on December 19. Connect at
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86856277442?pwd=eElHMGtiUE1JeU1lc1J0TEc3WkFBdz09
And follow the prompts to join with audio and join with
video.
You can also participate on a telephone by calling 1 (646)
558-8656. Use the meeting ID: 868 5627 7442 and passcode:
819890
January 16
Changfu Chang
Changfu Chang is a U.S.-based writer and filmmaker. Over the past
two decades, he has produced and co-produced a dozen acclaimed
documentary films. His recent releases continue his decade-long
series exploring Chinese culture, politics, and international
transracial adoption, and have been screened extensively throughout
North America, Europe, and Australia.
A native of Jiangsu Province, China, Changfu began his career in
television in the early 1990s when he started working as a writer
and director in the Documentary Department at a major Chinese
television network. Aside from being an independent filmmaker
producing human-interest stories with a U.S.-China focus, he has
also served as a consultant on several international film projects
and frequently given public lectures. He currently teaches at
Millersville State University and lives in Maryland where he
enjoys reading, writing, travel, and photography.
February 20
Rebecca Rule
Rebecca Rule is a writer, humorist, and storyteller. She
hosted the New Hampshire Authors Series for ten years on NHPTV and
now hosts Our Hometown on NHPTV. She’s been telling stories in New
England, especially NH, for more than thirty years. Hasn’t visited
every town in the Granite State, but most — speaking at libraries,
historical societies, church groups, and charitable organizations.
She likes collecting stories because “they’re free and you don’t
have to dust them." Author of a dozen books, her latest is That
Reminds Me of a Funny Story, from Hobblebush Press.
Writing Opportunities
Get your article into Smoky Quartz: Published by the Monadnock
Writers’ Group, Smoky Quartz is an online journal of literature and
art, named after New Hampshire’s state gem. Writers and artists
with ties to New Hampshire are featured in each issue. We publish
poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and a diverse selection
of art and photography. See the Fall 2020 issue at
https://smokyquartz.org.
Photograph by Jessica Timmons
Essay Contest: The Monadnock Writers’ Group is sponsoring
a high school essay contest established to honor the
memory of George Duncan. George was an
award-winning marketing copywriter and author,
and an avid writer of political commentary. He served as
President of the Monadnock Writers’ Group (MWG) and was a
long-time board member.
The submission period for the George Duncan Essay Contest ends
February 1, 2021. MWG will award the contest winner a
prize of $100.00 and invite the winner and any runner-ups to
read their essays at an MWG general meeting in the spring of 2021.
One or more local newspapers are expected to publish the winning
essay.
Essay prompt: Select a political issue that is currently in the
news. Write a persuasive, fact-based analysis of the issue using a
civil tone. Write it in the style of an op-ed piece.
Submission instructions:
• Essay length should be at least 500 words and no more than
800 words.
• Submit your essay to gduncanessay@gmail.
com by February 1, 2021.
• Include your name, school, email address,
and your essay in the body
of the email.
For information on eligibility or to answer any other questions,
visit http://monadnockwriters. org or email
[email protected]
Contest from the Peterborough Poetry Project: Write a short
personal article about your experience(s) with
postcards. We will pay author's choice of
$25 (or $10 and a contributor copy of the publication, priced
between $15 and $20 retail) to each of the author(s) of several
short articles if we accept them in our anthology. We are
soliciting these articles, with acceptance subject to final
approval by our board, to accompany the postcard poetry submissions
that we will include in our Spring 2021 anthology... Postcard
poetry entries will be accepted as well until Dec. 31st.
· Article should be
about your own experience(s) with postcards. If you have
none, we will consider an article fantasizing about them!
· No longer than
200 words.
· Dates for
submissions: now through December 31st*.
· Submit by email
to
[email protected] (include your mailing address,
too).
Avenue A Creative Writing seminar: An evening of writing &
feedback. . .Open to high school poets, lyricists, fiction writers,
& people who write on napkins. Facilitated by Adam Arnone!
Meets virtually on Tuesdays in December for grades 9-10 at 6 pm;
grades11-12 at 7:07-8:15 pm. For details, contact:
[email protected]
MWG Announcements
New Website to Help Poets: The Poetry Place is for
people writing and learning poetry. It has free
articles on Form and Techniques, Creativity, and the
Drafting Process to help intermediate or beginning poets
learn more about the art. People can also go there to get
a download of a free, new teaching ebook, 8 Steps to
Better Poems.
Holiday Gift Ideas: The newest anthologies from MWG are available
at the Toadstool in Peterborough and for order from any other
online and brick-and-mortar retail booksellers. Copies at a
discounted price are available for pick up in Peterborough. For
details contact:
[email protected]
The Mud Chronicles: Experience of our “fifth season” highlights
this anthology, showing how much landscape and seasonal cues matter
to our contributors. Plus, beings of metaphor that we are, the
fifth season reminds us of emotional transitions, of times that
don’t fit smoothly in the unfolding of a life, that mark a shift in
who we were and who we will become.
Penning the Pandemic: The creative writing in this volume shares
the shock, the anguish, the courage, and the resilience of humanity
in extraordinary times. After science and politics have had their
say, art is left to record what the survivors felt and what they
learned at heart.
Three-Minute Fiction: This popular event is returning in 2021, both
to the Monadnock area and state-wide. The NH Writers Project has
not yet announced its schedule for a state-wide contest but MWG
will sponsor a preliminary round on February 6, 2021.
To enter, you must read an original story via Zoom on February 6,
2021. Of course, it should take no more than three minutes to read.
Two judges from outside the MWG will comment on entries and select
the best. Look for further details as the date nears.
Membership renewal: It is time to renew your membership for the
2020-2021 program year. Although we are constrained by
extraordinary health concerns during the pandemic, we are planning
a full schedule of events through June. See details on renewal at
the end of this newsletter.
We came out of internment only three days ago, Ah, you were in
quarantine, Yes, Was it hard, Worse than that, How horrible, You
are a writer, you have, as you said a moment ago, an obligation to
know words, therefore you know that adjectives are of no use to us,
if a person kills another, for example, it would be better to state
this fact openly, directly, and to trust that the horror of the
act, in itself, is so shocking that there is no need for us to say
it was horrible, Do you mean that we have more words than we need,
I mean that we have too few feelings, or that we have them but have
ceased to use the words they express, And so we lose them,…
· Jose Saramago, Blindness, p. 292.
More from the Monadnock Writers’ Group
Resources for Writers: Go to the MWG website
http://www.monadnockwriters.org/
or Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/monadnockwriters/
for numerous ideas on writing, reading and publishing.
Get something into the Quill: If you would like to submit to our
monthly newsletter please send your information to Carl at
[email protected] at least four days before the end of the
month. As a member, you may include your author events and
announcements.
MWG Bloggers: Let us know if you would like your blog to be listed
on the MWG website and Facebook page. Send your details to
[email protected] .
Who are we at MWG?: Established in 1984, the primary mission of the
Monadnock Writers’ Group is to offer fellowship and support to
professional writers and to those actively engaged in developing
their writing skills. For more about us and to say something about
yourself, see the Monadnock Writers’ Group Members page (
https://monadnockwriters.org/membership/our-members/ ) where you
can read short biographies of our members and you can get in touch
with someone doing work related to your own or just to share work
that is interesting.
Monadnock Writers’ Group Membership Information:
· Program year membership - September through June
· Regular membership $30
· Patron $50
· Benefactor $100
· Corporate $250
· Individual members are encouraged to announce their own projects
such as workshops, social gatherings, group support sessions, or
whatever the writing-related endeavor. Feel free to take the floor
at the monthly meeting, or contact the newsletter editor
[email protected] to send an announcement to the membership in
the monthly newsletter.
· Bring a friend to one of our monthly meetings, and if they join
MWG, you will receive a $20 gift certificate for the Toadstool
Bookshop!
2020-2021 Board of Directors:
Peterborough
