March 2012
Where writers find encouragement, expertise, and inspiration
2012 CONFERENCE PLANS
Registration opens March 15. The brochure, schedule and registration form are now available for
download. Registrations will be processed in the order they are received, so don't procrastinate if you
want your first choice of workshop. Conference dates are July 26-28, 2012.
Scholarships and Contests: Especially if you have attended MCWC previously, please note that we
have made significant changes to our scholarship and contest programs. Here's a summary:
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Prizes in the four participant writing contests (novel, short fiction, nonfiction, poetry) are now
all the same, $50 each.
Several scholarship grants are available for talented writers of limited means. Guidelines for
each are different.
The high school scholarship program is unchanged.
You can see details on our website, www.mcwc.org.
Editing and book layout opportunity: We're replacing the printed Todd Point Review with a new
journal, to be named the Noyo River Review. It will publish the work of prize-winners online after the
conference, and will have a print-on-demand option. If you have experience in copyediting and/or
typesetting and would like to help with this project, please contact Maureen (director@mcwc.org).
We're willing to offer a small stipend or a discount on fees for next year's conference to the right
volunteer.
EVENTS
March 21, 6:00 pm., Mendocino Hotel ‐ Garden Room: Writers of the Mendocino Coast present a Tech Talk: ʺGoogle Docs For Writers.ʺ March 23, 12:00‐1:30 pm., College of the Redwoods Mendocino Campus, Room 111: Catherine Marshall (MCWC 2011), author of FIELD BUILDING: YOUR BLUEPRINT FOR CREATING AN EFFECTIVE AND POWERFUL SOCIAL MOVEMENT, leads a roundtable discussion on promoting nonprofits.
MCWC COMMUNITY NEWS
Gayle Greene (2006, 2008, 2011) drew worldwide attention with her essay ʺScience with a Skew: The Nuclear Power Industry After Chernobyl and Fukushimaʺ ( http://japanfocus.org/‐Gayle‐
Greene/3672) First published in the Asia‐Pacific Journal, it had 158,000 Google references at last count. Valerie Miner (MCWC Advisory Board, faculty 2002, 2010) has a new novel, TRAVELING WITH SPIRITS, to be published by Livingston Press in 2013. Her short fiction, ʺThe Whole Story,ʺ is in the current Southwest Review ( http://smu.edu/southwestreview/CurrentIssue.asp) Victoria Zackheim (faculty 2012) reports that she has four projects coming to fruition in 2012. ʺMy play, THE OTHER WOMAN, which I adapted from five essays from the anthology of the same name, is being developed this summer at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and produced in the fall. My screenplay, MAIDSTONE, has been optioned by Identity Films. My fifth anthology, EXIT LAUGHING: HOW HUMOR TAKES THE STING OUT OF DEATH, will be published in May. And I wrote the narration for ʺWhere No Birds Sang: The Story of Sachsenhausen and Ravensbruck Concentration Camps,ʺ which will air on PBS in the next few months. Camille Dungy (faculty 2008, 2010) got a shout‐out from former Poet Laureate Rita Dove in a recent interview with Bill Moyers, as one of the poets under 40 whose work sheʹs ʺfollowing with great hope.ʺ Ellen Sussman (faculty 2010) has more good news: her new novel, THE PARADISE GUEST HOUSE, has been accepted for publication by Ballantine, who published her best‐seller FRENCH LESSONS. Publication date is about a year from now. North Coast poets Devreaux Baker and Karen Lewis (2005 and former MCWC board member) have work in the new anthology OCCUPY SF: POEMS FROM THE MOVEMENT, edited by Virgina Barrett and Bobby Coleman. http://studiosaraswati.com/occupy.htm Luis J. Rodriguez (faculty 2009), a leader in youth development and gang intervention and prevention efforts worldwide, has a new memoir, IT CALLS YOU BACK (Simon & Shuster), which has been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. www.luisjrodriguez.com Stephanie Elizondo Griest (faculty 2011) writes: ʺOne of the sweetest joys of teaching is reveling in your studentsʹ successes. So I was thrilled when I arrived home yesterday to find RAISING ABEL in my mailbox. I worked with its deeply talented author (who is publishing under the name Carolyn Nash for this project) last summer at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference.ʺ Read more about Carolyn and her new book at http://aroundthebloc.wordpress.com/
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