The majority of the Monrovia Writers Group members have decided to take a hiatus from our formal meeting schedule. We still interact online and occasionally meet in person. We will also continue to host a few guest speakers in conjunction with the library this upcoming fall/winter.
If you want to be added to our email distribution to be notified about any planned events feel free to shoot Kelly an email at: monroviawriters@gmail.com.
We are still pretty active on our facebook group as well.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Speaker Series - Jan 7th - JL Kato
On Thursday, January 7, 2016 from 6-8pm the Monrovia Writers Group will host poet JL Kato in the community room of the Monrovia branch of the Morgan County Public Library located at: 145 S. Chestnut Street Monrovia, Indiana 46157. Our speaker will discuss poetry and do a reading. The event is free and open to the public. Everyone in attendance will be eligible for door prizes.
About Our Speaker:
JL Kato is a native of Japan whose first poetry book chronicles his life as an immigrant in Indiana ("Shadows Set in Concrete," Restoration Press). The Indiana Center for the Book designated that collection as the 2011 Best Book of Indiana for poetry. He is the poetry editor of The Flying Island. He lives in Beech Grove.
About Our Speaker:
JL Kato is a native of Japan whose first poetry book chronicles his life as an immigrant in Indiana ("Shadows Set in Concrete," Restoration Press). The Indiana Center for the Book designated that collection as the 2011 Best Book of Indiana for poetry. He is the poetry editor of The Flying Island. He lives in Beech Grove.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Speaker Series - Dec 3rd - Jason Ammerman
On Thursday, December 3rd from 6-8pm the Monrovia Writers Group will host poet Jason Ammerman in the community room of the Monrovia branch of the Morgan
County Public Library located at: 145 S. Chestnut Street Monrovia,
Indiana 46157. Our speaker will discuss poetry and do a reading. The event is
free and open to the public. Everyone in attendance will be eligible for door prizes.
About Our Speaker:
Jason L. Ammerman has been a practicing and professional poet for just over two and a half decades. He has spent many years in the coffeehouse movement of the early nineties. His first brush with professional poets came at the, now defunct, Café Angst in Indianapolis where he was asked to fill a spot at the Indianapolis stop of the Lollapalooza concert festival in 1994 at their spoken word stage. He has hosted and organized many poetry readings and poetry slams since then. Jason has three collections of poetry published. He is expecting to publish his fourth collection of poetry, Waylon Jennings Never Slept Here, in 2016. In 2008, Jason joined fellow poets Matthew Jackson (Columbus, Indiana), Joseph Kerschbaum and Tony Brewer (both from Bloomington, Indiana respectively) as founding members of the touring poetry troupe, The Reservoir Dogwoods. Jason lives with his beautiful wife, Shanna, his handsome son, Jude and his loyal canine companion, Teddy, in the historic neighborhood of Irvington in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is 42 years old.
Jason L. Ammerman has been a practicing and professional poet for just over two and a half decades. He has spent many years in the coffeehouse movement of the early nineties. His first brush with professional poets came at the, now defunct, Café Angst in Indianapolis where he was asked to fill a spot at the Indianapolis stop of the Lollapalooza concert festival in 1994 at their spoken word stage. He has hosted and organized many poetry readings and poetry slams since then. Jason has three collections of poetry published. He is expecting to publish his fourth collection of poetry, Waylon Jennings Never Slept Here, in 2016. In 2008, Jason joined fellow poets Matthew Jackson (Columbus, Indiana), Joseph Kerschbaum and Tony Brewer (both from Bloomington, Indiana respectively) as founding members of the touring poetry troupe, The Reservoir Dogwoods. Jason lives with his beautiful wife, Shanna, his handsome son, Jude and his loyal canine companion, Teddy, in the historic neighborhood of Irvington in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is 42 years old.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Upcoming Meeting Dates - 2015-2016
As the (new) Monrovia Writers Group hits its one year
anniversary, the group has spent some time discussing what is working and what
needs improvement. We all seem to be in agreement that we would like to
continue to meet once a month to discuss and provide feedback on work. We have
also decided to break our speaker series into two runs and take breaks during
the winter and summer months.
As we already have speakers scheduled for this upcoming December
and January, we will continue to have speakers on those dates. After our January
speaker on the 7th, we will take the month of February off from
speakers. We will pick back up in March and have speakers for the months of
March, April and May. We will take a summer break and then have speakers for
September, October and November. We will again take a winter break and pick
back up the following March (and so on and so on).
The dates for the remainder of the year are as follows:
NOVEMBER 19th – Submission/Critique Group - 6-8pm
DECEMBER 3rd – Guest Speaker: Jason Ammerman
(Poetry) - 6-8pm
DECEMBER 17th – Submission/Critique Group - 6-8pm
JANUARY 7th – Guest Speaker: J.L. Kato (Poetry) - 6-8pm
2016 SUBMISSION/CRITIQUE GROUP MEETING SCHEDULE
All submission meetings are held the 3rd
Thursday of every month from 6-8pm. The specific dates are listed below. If you
wish to submit something for the group to discuss, please email your document
in word format to Kelly on or before the first Thursday of the month. Please
see the submissions page for more information.
January 21st
February 18th
March 17th
April 21st
May 19th
June 16th
July 21st
August 18th
September 15th
October 20th
November 17th
December 15th
SPRING SPEAKERS SERIES SCHEDULE
March 3rd –
6-8pm – Speaker and Topic TBA
April 7th – 6-8pm – Speaker and Topic TBA
May 5th – 6-8pm – Speaker and Topic TBA
FALL SPEAKERS SERIES SCHEDULE
September 1st – 6-8pm – Speaker and Topic TBA
October 6th – 6-8pm – Speaker and Topic TBA
November 3rd – 6-8pm – Speaker and Topic TBA
Friday, August 14, 2015
No Meeting - September 3rd 2015
We will not meet on September 3rd 2015 as we do not have a workshop or guest speaker scheduled. We do have the room reserved if anyone wishes to utilize the space informally.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Speaker Series: Kelly O'Dell Stanley - August 6th
On Thursday, August 6th from 6-8pm the Monrovia Writers Group will host Kelly O'Dell Stanley in
the community room of the Monrovia branch of the Morgan
County Public Library located at: 145 S. Chestnut Street Monrovia,
Indiana 46157. The topic will be "Writing Creative Non-Fiction." The event is
free and open to the public. Everyone in attendance will be eligible for door prizes.
Kelly O’Dell Stanley is a graphic designer, writer, and author of Praying Upside Down: A creative prayer experience to transform your time with God. With more than two decades of experience in advertising, three kids ranging from 21 to 14, and a husband of 24 years, she’s learned to look at life in unconventional ways—sometimes even upside down. In 2013, she took top honors in Writer’s Digest’s Inspirational Writing Competition. Full of doubt and full of faith, she constantly seeks new ways to see what’s happening all around her in her small-town Indiana home. Download free printables at www.prayingupsidedown.com.
Kelly O’Dell Stanley is a graphic designer, writer, and author of Praying Upside Down: A creative prayer experience to transform your time with God. With more than two decades of experience in advertising, three kids ranging from 21 to 14, and a husband of 24 years, she’s learned to look at life in unconventional ways—sometimes even upside down. In 2013, she took top honors in Writer’s Digest’s Inspirational Writing Competition. Full of doubt and full of faith, she constantly seeks new ways to see what’s happening all around her in her small-town Indiana home. Download free printables at www.prayingupsidedown.com.
Call for Submissions: Undeniably Indiana
Indiana University Press is
celebrating the Indiana bicentennial in 2016 with a book that is as
unique as our state. Next fall, Indiana University Press will publish Undeniably Indiana, a
crowd-sourced book written by the people of Indiana for the state of
Indiana. Current and former Hoosier residents are invited to share
offbeat, interesting, and unusual facts and stories about things that
could only happen here. Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 1 via
the Undeniably Indiana Facebook page
Monday, June 22, 2015
Upcoming Guest Speaker: Jim Cangany - July 2nd
On Thursday, July 2nd from 6-8pm the Monrovia Writers Group will host Jim Cangany in the community room of the Monrovia branch of the Morgan County Public Library located at: 145 S. Chestnut Street Monrovia, Indiana 46157. The topic will be "Write What You Know." The event is free and open to the public.
A lifelong resident of
the State of Indiana, Jim Cangany is proud to call himself a Hoosier. The Magic Coin was
a fantasy that involved a king, some bad guys, and, not surprisingly, a magical
token. The
youngest of eight children, he grew up in a household full of books and people.
Thanks to the influence of his older siblings, Jim gravitated toward fantasy
and sci-fi when looking for something to read. He wrote his first story at age fourteen.
A school project, The Magic Coin was
a fantasy that involved a king, some bad guys, and, not surprisingly, a magical
token.
A lifelong resident of
the State of Indiana, Jim Cangany is proud to call himself a Hoosier. The Magic Coin was
a fantasy that involved a king, some bad guys, and, not surprisingly, a magical
token. The
youngest of eight children, he grew up in a household full of books and people.
Thanks to the influence of his older siblings, Jim gravitated toward fantasy
and sci-fi when looking for something to read. He wrote his first story at age fourteen.
A school project, The Magic Coin was
a fantasy that involved a king, some bad guys, and, not surprisingly, a magical
token.
These days, Jim writes romance on the sweet end. A believer
that the world has enough doom and gloom, he likes stories with a happy ending.
Jim is the author of The North Star
Trilogy and the short story The
Christmas Angel. He lives in Indianapolis with his wonderful wife, two
sons, and their princess kitty cat Maria.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
A Sci-Fi Writer’s Guide to Reminiscing the Future
When
children grow to become adults, they tend to lose their imagination. They
forget how to play. Even if a child has siblings, the imagination can be a very
powerful part of the child’s mind. A good storyteller never loses the ability
to imagine… to create a whole new world of wonders. Most create these worlds in
their heads and write to convey what they think of. A few, however, create
these worlds within the physical world. Just be careful if you do this; it
could possibly lead to a white jacket that buckles in the back.
I spent many years of my youth being a prolific reader and writer of many [award winning] unpublished stories. Of course, they didn’t really win awards, but they were still very popular with teachers and other kids my age (a brief moment of nostalgia there).
I remember that I was unaware at the time that one of the giants watched with amusement from the safety of their fortress. When I was a teen, I was allowed to stay at the space station alone when the commissioned officers went to the nearby moon for something. Oh, the adventures I had when that space station was attacked while I was on watch.
Don’t tell anyone, but I enjoy the gift of a childlike imagination even today. Almost every day, I’m piloting my small spacecraft through the great expanse of darkness. Although in this century, you’d think the speed limit would be faster than point six or point seven the speed of light. This is, of course, more entertaining and fun when it’s nighttime (switching between the long-range and short-range sensors when encountering another spacecraft. The waves given off of the long-range sensors are detrimental to the ocular wiring of androids as well as the retinas of humans and aliens). It’s even better when it’s snowing (for obvious reasons).
Well, there you have it. Always imagine, always play, always write… and publish; because if you don’t, people will just think you are crazy.
Joe Stewart is a Science Fiction writer and occasional poet. Stewart is a member of the Monrovia Writers Group.
I spent many years of my youth being a prolific reader and writer of many [award winning] unpublished stories. Of course, they didn’t really win awards, but they were still very popular with teachers and other kids my age (a brief moment of nostalgia there).
I remember that I was unaware at the time that one of the giants watched with amusement from the safety of their fortress. When I was a teen, I was allowed to stay at the space station alone when the commissioned officers went to the nearby moon for something. Oh, the adventures I had when that space station was attacked while I was on watch.
Don’t tell anyone, but I enjoy the gift of a childlike imagination even today. Almost every day, I’m piloting my small spacecraft through the great expanse of darkness. Although in this century, you’d think the speed limit would be faster than point six or point seven the speed of light. This is, of course, more entertaining and fun when it’s nighttime (switching between the long-range and short-range sensors when encountering another spacecraft. The waves given off of the long-range sensors are detrimental to the ocular wiring of androids as well as the retinas of humans and aliens). It’s even better when it’s snowing (for obvious reasons).
Well, there you have it. Always imagine, always play, always write… and publish; because if you don’t, people will just think you are crazy.
Joe Stewart is a Science Fiction writer and occasional poet. Stewart is a member of the Monrovia Writers Group.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Upcoming Guest Speaker: Angela Jackson-Brown - Thursday, June 4th
On Thursday, June 4th from 6-8pm Angela Jackson-Brown will speak to the Monrovia Writers Group in the community room of the Monrovia branch of the Morgan County Public Library located at: 145 S. Chestnut Street Monrovia, Indiana 46157. The topic will be "Point of View." The event is free and open to the public.
Angela Jackson-Brown is a writer and poet who teaches Creative Writing and English at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Spalding University low residency MFA program. Her work has appeared in literary journals, such as: Pet Milk, Uptown Mosaic Magazine, New Southerner Literary Magazine, The Louisville Review, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, Blue Lake Review, Identity Theory, Toe Good Poetry, and 94 Creations. Her short story, “Something in the Wash,” was awarded the 2009 fiction prize by New Southerner Literary Magazine and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Fiction. Her debut novel, Drinking from a Bitter Cup, was published by WiDo Publishing in 2014.
Angela Jackson-Brown is a writer and poet who teaches Creative Writing and English at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Spalding University low residency MFA program. Her work has appeared in literary journals, such as: Pet Milk, Uptown Mosaic Magazine, New Southerner Literary Magazine, The Louisville Review, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, Blue Lake Review, Identity Theory, Toe Good Poetry, and 94 Creations. Her short story, “Something in the Wash,” was awarded the 2009 fiction prize by New Southerner Literary Magazine and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Fiction. Her debut novel, Drinking from a Bitter Cup, was published by WiDo Publishing in 2014.
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