RedBird-RedOak Writing

The Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Association, a group of dedicated volunteers and fine writers, has extended the deadlines for their annual writing contests —  the Jade Ring (various genre), the Florence Lindemann Humor Contest and the Al P. Nelson Feature Article Writing Contest — to March 30, 2010. A number of our writers have been recognized in the past!

It sounds like the WRWA is really ramping up  these contests with additional cash prizes, so please consider giving it a go.

While the WRWA website is currently down, you can get contest information here.

UWM 8th Annual Spring Writers’ Festival

Mar. 5 – 7

Milwaukee area writers shake those winter doldrums and jumpstart or re-start their writing. Presenters with RedBird-RedOak connections include Katy J Vopal, Christi Clancy, Eva Augustin Rumpf, Kurt Chandler (and probably some more who were around long before my time!)

I’ll be presenting an abbreviated version of “Write ’til You’re Blue in the Face” on Saturday morning and would love to have you join me. Here’s the blurb:

Writing Exercises that Breathe Life into Fiction and Memoir

Writing exercises have the power to spark ideas that surprise and delight. Kim Suhr will guide participants through various writing exercises, which will add depth to their characters and settings (real and fictional).

They looked like regular ol’ people enjoying an evening cupppa joe or glass of wine — until they stood up and took the mic that is. Then a quiet fell over the cafe, and we drank in powerful images, humorous scenes and compelling plots, all the result of lots of hard work and the supportive feedback writers find in our Roundtable groups, facilitated by Robert Vaughan, Jeannee Sacken and Laurel Landis. What a night!

Many thanks to our courageous and very talented writers and to Shari Franz of FIXX Coffee House!