SCWA / The Quill / October 2022
October 2022
Message from the President
It's Dracula: Ballet with a Bite! month in Columbia. I've always been a fan of Halloween. The costumes! The candy! The vampires! Every year I try to talk my kid into dressing like a vampire with me. We could go to Dracula like that. Or watch The Lost Boys. Or hand out candy. Or just sit on the couch sucking back all that extra saliva that fangs generate.
Halloween is about performing, and we'll have a lot of opportunity to perform this month, with fangs or without.
Our Virtual Conference includes Literary Trivia on Friday and a Zoom Open Mic on Saturday. The Petigru Review authors are invited to read in a virtual launch party. Register here.
The Pat Conroy Literary Center's Open Mic, of which SCWA is a co-host, features Rock Hill poet Angelo Geter on Oct. 13. Watch live or contact PCLC to join and read.
Our Pawley's Island conference includes two "tailgate" workshops (Friday), an Open Mic (Saturday) and a slushfest (Sunday). Sold out!
Seven of our Columbia SCWA writers will participate in Flash at the Bar: Halloween Edition on Oct 26. There’s a total of nine readers. While it’s not an SCWA sponsored event, the co-host is SCWA's VP of Membership Raegan Teller. No registration required. Just come out to The Aristocrat in Columbia at 6 p.m. and support our readers.
Recently, fellow SCWA member Lis Anna-Langston and I were part of Short Story Today, a podcast wherein the voice-actor-host interviews the author and then performs the work. It's a great use of the podcast medium. The popularity of podcasts and audiobooks indicates that performance is an inherent part of our literary craft.
Performing your work is a great way to build an audience. It's also a great way to edit. We often hear things in a piece when we read aloud that we wouldn't have seen on the page. Inflection, cadence and tone are more easily heard than read.
Performing your work is not just marketing, it's also fun! When my kid was little, I used to read Skippyjon Jones books and Hollie would beg, "Do the voices, Mom!" We once had the attention of an entire party of adults as I read, "Holy frijoles!" My dad does the best 'Twas the Night Before Christmas rendition ever. You'd think he'd written it himself.
Have some ideas for how we can perform our work more often? On a bigger stage? Send them to me kasie@clemsonroad.com. I'd love to add more live performance events to our calendar in 2023.
Kasie Whitener
President, SCWA Board of Directors
Events and Education
IN-PERSON CONFERENCE SOLD OUT
We're excited to announce that the 2022 Annual Conference in Pawley's Island is FULL. We look forward to seeing attendees by the beach in late October!
STILL TIME TO REGISTER FOR VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
There's still time to register for the 2022 Virtual Conference! We have 10 spots left. Get yours now! All sessions will be recorded, so if you're busy for some workshops or panels, you can watch them later. It's a great line-up of generative workshops, publishing panels and a special indie author track. Purchase access to the whole weekend or per class. You've got options. Check it out at 2022 Virtual Conference!
JOIN VIRTUAL FACULTY READINGS FRIDAY
Please join us at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, for our Virtual Faculty Readings. RSVP here: https://myscwa.org/event-4992298.
GET YOUR SCWA-BRANDED TEES, SWEATSHIRTS
SCWA is excited to announce branded tees and sweatshirts. Wear your SCWA duds around town, to chapter meetings, while lounging at home or to one of our fall events. Purchase your SC writer, SC poet or SC author shirt today! Go to: bonfire.com/store/south-carolina-writers-association/.
OPEN MIC NIGHTS WITH PAT CONROY CENTER CONTINUE
SCWA continues to partner with the Pat Conroy Literary Center to present monthly open mic nights virtually beginning this month. All sessions will be 6 to 7:30 p.m. on are via Facebook Live/Zoom on PCLC's Facebook page at the links provided below. For more information, email Contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
Check out the October event:
Oct. 13, with Angelo Geter, Poet Laureate of Rock Hill (SC) and author of More God Than Dead. Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/564424731808167.
Publications
LATEST EDITION OF TPR HAS BEEN PUBLISHED
The Petigru Review is out now! Read it here: Issue 15.
Congratulations to Catherine C. Con (SCWA Members Award) and Alexander Seils (Marginalized Writers Award) for winning our 2022 SCWA prizes.
Many thanks to the contributors, staff and supporters of the magazine, especially SCWA leaders and members. There will be a Virtual Launch Party at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, as part of the 2022 Virtual Conference. Anyone can attend the launch party – registrants and non-registrants alike – at TPR Virtual Launch Party.
Membership
CHAPTER NEWS
The Memoir Virtual Chapter has a new leader: Sharon May. She is a past winner of The Petigru Review’s first-place award for nonfiction for the beginning chapter of Hillbilly Crazy and Mountain Queer and a past winner of the Carrie McCray Nickens Poetry Fellowship Award in both the novel and nonfiction categories.
Participating in SCWA’s chapters is one of the key benefits of membership, and it’s our chapter leaders who make them successful. Thank you, Sharon, for stepping into this role and thanks to all our other chapter leaders for their ongoing work.
The recently revived Clemson Chapter has a new meeting location. For more information, go to Local and Virtual Chapters on the SCWA website and click on the chapter leader's name to send her an email request. You also can find information on the other local and virtual chapters at this site.
2022 MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
On Oct. 24, SCWA members will receive the annual membership survey and will have until midnight Tuesday, Nov. 8, to complete it. I cannot stress enough how important it is that each of you responds, because your feedback is critical to our planning process.
This year, we are asking for a little more information about you and your writing preferences because we want to make sure we offer the benefits, programs and events that meet your needs. We’ve also added an open question at the end for you to comment on anything you want to share with us. All responses are confidential and anonymous, and I and the other members of the board of directors want to hear from you. Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the 2022 membership survey later this month.
If you have any questions about membership at SCWA or anything else, feel free to contact me at SCWAMembership@gmail.com
Raegan Teller
SCWA VP/Membership
MEMBER RECOGNITIONS:
YVETTE MURRAY WINS POETRY FELLOWSHIP
SCWA board member Yvette Murray's manuscript Accents has been named the winner of the 2022 Susan Laughter Meyers Poetry Fellowship at Weymouth.
Questions or suggestions about SCWA membership?
Email SCWAmembership@gmail.com.