Jason Gardner was first introduced to New York Writers Coalition through a photography project. From Kingsbridge to Canarsie: reflections of 8 NYC girls was a collaborative effort by young teenage authors to describe their neighborhoods in New York. Through the alternative Urban Academy, project based learning gave the girls time to give tours of their […]
Archives for May 2012
Need some creative juice? Come to our Pint & Prompt Happy Hour
“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy,” so said Dorothy Parker or maybe Tom Waits. This spoonerism, or the switcheroo of sounds, might hold some wisdom for writers. A recent study examining the connection between alcohol and creativity showed a 30% increase in creative problem solving after 40 young […]
Get Mortified at 92Y Mainstage
I knew there was some subconscious — yet good — reason I never faithfully wrote “Dear Diary…” as a teen. Between the menstrual moments and that first ill-fated May/December crush on a science teacher, some stories are better left off the page. Let’s call it self-preservation of dignity. Today, though, if I’d preserved those embarrassing […]
The Big One
“At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her […]
Friday 5: Best Books by Entertainers
Famed singer, record producer, song writer, leading actress, mother of Blue Ivy and overall Earth God, Beyonce Knowles added award winning journalist to her resume after receiving an award from the New York Association of Black Journalists. I always thought she was overrated and overexposed but apparently there is not anything she cannot master. The award […]
NYWC Day Diary: A Writer’s Adventure
by Jen Weitsen Jen Weitsen volunteers for NYWC committees and events. She lives in Manhattan, and is working on her first novel. Last Friday, May 18, I took the day off. I laced up my sneakers, grabbed my notebook, camera and headed out for a day long creative writing adventure – courtesy of the New […]
american legion post 398
What do Obama, the first feminist general assembly of Occupy Wall Street, retired Marines and Swedish oil and mining representatives have in common? Jazz, apparently. Thursday the 17th, as every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, the American Legion post 398 hosted free jazz performances. The Colonel Charles Young spot is personable and inviting, located in […]
Voices From Inside and Out
On May 11th, I was lucky enough to participate in a reading event featuring an array of writers who have been touched in some way by the criminal justice system. Organized by New York Metro Prison librarians Sarah Ball and Sara Medlicott, as well as New York Writers Coalition workshop leader Patrick Mathieu, the event […]
NYWC Day connects writing communities across New York
On Friday, May 18, 2012, people gathered from all five boroughs to celebrate NY Writers Coalition Day with writing workshops in iconic spots throughout New York. Executive Director Aaron Zimmerman and several members of the NY Writers Coalition converged at Times Square, where they staged a guerilla-style takeover of the No. 7 train to host a […]
Octavia Butler: Honored by SFWA at the Nebula Awards
This past weekend in Arlington, VA, women were given their due at the 47th Annual Nebula Awards, hosted by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Female authors of the field took top prizes for Best Novel (Jo Walton’s Among Others), Best Novella (Kij Johnson’s “The Man Who Bridged the Mist”), and Best YA Sci-fi […]