From time to time, as events transpire that we consider of interest to the community at large, we provide information to appropriate public news outlets.
In our newsroom, we provide access to current and past press releases about such events.
Contact PR Chair Donna McCrohan Rosenthal
Press Releases
CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB
For immediate release
CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB PRESENTS 2011 JACK LONDON AWARDS
July 31, 2011, Oakland, CA – The 102-year-old California Writers Club (CWC) announced 15 recipients of its prestigious Jack London Award at its biennial Jack London Awards Luncheon, held this year at the Holiday Inn Airport Express. These honors, established in 1973, recognize dedication “above and beyond” to the organization. The governing body of the CWC presents them to exceptional members nominated by their branch peers.
Keynote speaker Susan Snyder, head of public service at The Bancroft Library at the University of California and author of “Beyond Words, 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries” just released by Heyday Books, discussed the Bancroft’s collection of CWC documents. Her comments on club history and heritage gave added context to the contributions of the 2011 awardees.
California Writers Club president Robert Garfinkle and Jack London Awards chair Nancy Curteman conducted the ceremony, acknowledging recipients David Baker (Berkeley branch), Harold Grice (Central Coast), Myrla Raymundo (Fremont), Carol Warren (High Desert), Sharon Herdina (Inland Empire), Kathryn Atkins (Long Beach), Tanya Egan Gibson (Marin), David George (Mt. Diablo), Linda McCabe (Redwood), Margie Yee Webb (Sacramento), Ray Malus (San Fernando Valley), Ann Foster (SF/Peninsula), Richard Amyx (South Bay), Lani Longshore (Tri-Valey) and Dana Martin (Writers of Kern).
Branches of the California Writers Club meet throughout the state. To attend workshops, programs and other events or to learn more the CWC, visit the website www.calwriters.org.
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For Immediate Release
NEW WRITERS CLUB LAUNCHED
The 102-year-old California Writers Club chartered the Writers of the Mendocino Coast as its newest branch on July 31.
The Writers of the Mendocino Coast began around the dining room table of novelist Molly Dwyer, 2009 Northern California Book Award in Fiction finalist for “Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein.” After it came out, the Marin branch of the California Writers Club invited Dwyer to give a program. Next the Redwood branch asked her. Impressed by what she saw, Dwyer joined an out-of-town branch but soon decided that Mendocino and its distinguished creative community needed one of its own. The initial handful of like-minded spirits started by holding “a lot of open mic events,” she recalls, “moving from venue to venue until the Mendocino Hotel was gracious enough to offer us a permanent space in their garden room. We basically grew organically, little-by-little.”
Now the Writers of the Mendocino Coast meet in the Mendocino Hotel at 6 pm on the third Wednesday of every month, among them technical writer Janet Isaacs Ashford, nonfiction writers John Bear, Steve F. Sapontzis and Denise Stenberg, ecofeminist writers Henrietta Bensussen and Marylyn Motherbear Scott, columnists Chet Boddy, Kathryn Brown and Malcolm MacDonald, poets Maureen Eppstein and Barbara MacKay, fiction/juvenile fiction author Ginny Rorby and memoir writer Norma Watkins. Member Jay Frankston’s “A Christmas Story” appeared in “Reader’s Digest.”
Although members include award winners and prominently published authors, the Writers of the Mendocino Coast invite interested individuals of all levels of experience to attend a workshop, program, open mic or other events and to visit the website www.writersmendocinocoast.org. For information about the statewide California Writers Club that originated among Jack London and his friends in the Bay Area just over a century ago, go to www.calwriters.org. According to Dwyer, “Our intention is to expand the network and opportunities for writers on the Mendocino Coast. We hope you’ll join us. As Jack London says, ‘You can’t wait for inspiration; you have to go after it with a club.’”
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For Immediate Release
WRITERS CLUB MARKS 100 YEARS
WITH TIME CAPSULE, MAP,
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
The 100-year-old California Writers Club has announced centennial plans that include a time capsule for which people are invited to submit ideas on what print media will be like a few decades from now. Additionally, there will be a literary landmark map, centennial website, anthology, contests, workshops and conferences for members and the general public.
“Our board of directors met at the California Board Room in Disneyland to launch our centennial year,” explained CWC president Casey Wilson. “We tied in with their 2009 theme of celebration to underscore our excitement about 100 years of literary history.”
California had only been a state for about 50 years when Jack London and some of his friends started meeting. California had produced writers before, but suddenly there were enough of them to band together to support one another in their struggles. These gatherings became the California Writers Club, the oldest professional writing organization in the West. Today the CWC has more than 1000 members in 16 branches throughout the state.
“We mentor and encourage our members in the art and craft of writing,” said Wilson. “The centennial is a great chance for us to not only spread that word, but at the same time, to talk about what California writers have contributed to the world’s perception of our nation. They described the gold rushes, the frontier and the Wild West. Jack London, Mark Twain and Bret Harte cemented the notion that our borders extended from sea to shining sea. Others, like Helen Hunt Jackson, Upton Sinclair and John Steinbeck, have spoken out against social injustice and fought for important changes.”
The South Bay and Redwood branches hosted writing workshops in January. Among upcoming special events planned by the branches, the East Sierra Branch will tour a family and oral history workshop, the San Francisco / Peninsula Branch will hold the two-day Jack London Writers Conference October 10-11 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Foster City, and the Redwood Branch will take programs to schools, and present the Redwood Writers Conference October 23-24 at the Flamingo Hotel and Resort, Santa Rosa.
The CWC encourages everyone to check www.calwriters.org periodically for updates on information and activities.
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