October 17, 12:45 p.m.-3:45 p.m. at Georgia State University: Perimeter College-Dunwoody Campus (2101 Womack Rd., Dunwoody, GA 30338) in Building NC. (If you’re not on our mailing list, use the form here to add yourself so you will get any updates about this meeting.)

This meeting may be recorded; if so, the recording link will be shared via email.

No RSVP needed.

 

12:45-1:30 p.m. Nosh and Networking Mixer for members and first-time visitors in the meeting

  • Please arrive for our meeting as early as 12:45 so you can check in, and then join everyone for a meet and greet opportunity in the cafe across the hall from the auditorium to build your network and make new friends (genre tables will be available). For AWC members, we will have a 50-word writing contest; the prize is one year added to their membership.

 

1:30-1:45 p.m. AWC announcements and upcoming events with AWC Executive Director George Weinstein

 

1:45 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Speaker #1 – Alan Grostephan: Finding a Form in Creative Nonfiction

Alan Grostephan is the author of The Banana Wars, winner of the 2024 Georgia Author of the Year Award, and Bogotá, a novel chosen by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best ten books of fiction in 2013 and longlisted for the Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize. He is also the editor and translator of Stories of Life and Death, a collection of writing by emerging Colombian writers. His writing has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Guernica, Harvard Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from UC Irvine and is a professor at Agnes Scott College.

Finding a Form in Creative Nonfiction

As a “non-genre,” creative nonfiction is perhaps the freest of all literary forms in that it moves among multiple disciplines, making use of journalism, memoir, biography, fiction, art, poetry, and documentary. It’s a genre that rewards experimentation, confession, and provocation. In this presentation, I’ll discuss how to explore a subject through metaphor, structure, fragmentation, and point of view with a demonstration of examples from my current nonfiction project, The Land of the Widow, and a writing exercise.

2:30-2:45 p.m. Book signing with Alan Grostephan

 

 

2:45-3:30 p.m. Speaker #2 – Jill Tew – Writing Kidlit: From Middle Grade to YA and the Nebulous in Between

Jill Tew is the critically acclaimed, award-winning Caribbean American author of dystopian romance and middle grade novels that imagine Black girls in exciting new worlds. Her books have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, been named Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections, and have been featured in the New York Times, People, and elsewhere. Her debut The Dividing Sky was declared a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, Reactor Mag, Publishers Weekly, and Bookshop.org, and was featured in the New York Times as one of Veronica Roth’s favorite dystopian novels.

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, when not writing, Jill can be found stress baking, crocheting badly, or belting showtunes in the carpool line. She lives in Atlanta with her family.

 

Writing Kidlit: From Middle Grade to YA and the Nebulous in Between

As writers of children’s literature, we’re lucky enough to create the readers of tomorrow. But how can you make sure you write books that kids want to read, while also making sure you write books that sell—and why aren’t those two the same thing? Award-winning author Jill Tew will discuss the nuances of writing both middle grade and young adult books, and shares thoughts on current trends in kidlit.

 

3:30-3:45 p.m. Book signing with Jill Tew

 

This program is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts.