Salon Speakers
The Writing Mamas Speakers
Aspiring writers often ask – how do I get published? First you write, then you connect. The Writing Mamas Salon is blessed to be based in the Bay Area of California, a literary hotbed of writers, editors and agents, many of whom are mothers.
Their words are profoundly inspiring.
As a member of The Writing Mamas you will meet them during our monthly meetings, held on the second Sunday of the month (unless otherwise noted). Writing Mamas will meet at a brand new location beginning in 2012, check back in for more details and list of our 2012 speakers.
Before our speakers arrive each month, we write, share, connect, and break into small groups to work shop our writings, so they may be sold as blogs, articles, books, and more. Attending this series of speakers is exclusive to Writing Mamas members only.
The Writing Mamas Speaker Series 2011
January 23: (Note: This is the fourth Sunday of the month.) Mark Trautwein: Editor of NPR’s KQED Perspectives. Mark’s show is one of the most popular on KQED. Mark is a great speaker and a tremendous storyteller. If you have a piece that you want to share with the world, Mark can make it a radio reality. He will tell us what makes a terrific Perspectives piece. The kind of subjects he seeks, the style of writing that works best for his format, what listeners love to hear. Mark is a good person to know and this is wonderful opportunity to make a meaningful connection.
February 27: (Note: This is the Fourth Sunday of the month.) Tracey Jackson co-wrote the screenplay for the hit movie, “Confessions of a Shopaholic.“ She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, “Lucky Ducks.” Tracey has just released her first non-fiction book, “Between a Rock and a Hot Place.” She has also written extensively for TV. Tracey will be flying in from L.A. to talk with us. She will share how to write in a highly visual way so your characters pop, dialog flows and your plot intrigues. Learn how to sell your screenplay, your book, your ideas.
March 13: (Note: This salon and all others take place on the second Sunday of the month.) Tanya Egan Gibson’s debut novel, “How to Buy a Love of Reading,” was published by Dutton. She is a contributor to the anthology, “Milk & Ink: A Mosaic of Motherhood,” and has an article about creating setting in the March 2011 issue of The Writer. Tanya will share her personal writing journey, and will focus on how to create a writing practice, how to make practice habit, and how to do so when you have a million things going on at once and want to scream, but instead – you write.
April 10: Jason Walsh: Editor-in-Chief of The Pacific Sun, the second oldest alternative news weekly in the nation. He is also a former features reporter and arts critic who knows how to write intriguing pieces that will appeal to editors and attract readers. If you want to write an article, Jason will tell you how to pen a query letter that will editors want. If you desire to have an article written about you and what you are doing, he can help you formulate your pitch, telling you what to say and what to avoid.
May 15: Constance Hale is the author of the wildly popular book, “On Syn and Syntax,” a must-have guide to good grammar and wonderful writing. She edits sinandsyntax.com, an online salon for those who “love wicked good prose.” Her journalism has appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian and The Los Angeles Times. As founder of The Prose Doctors, an editors’ collective, Constance will offer advice on how to make the words in your book sing, dance and rock. She’s also very entertaining.
June 12: Anne Cushman’s book, “Enlightenment for Idiots” (Shaye Areheart/Random House) was named by Booklist as a “Top Ten First Novel.” She is the author of the nonfiction book, “From Here to Nirvana” (Riverhead). Anne’s personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, O: The Oprah magazine and Salon.com. She is also a contributing editor to Yoga Journal and Tricycle: the Buddhist Review. Anne will share how inspiration and spirituality can pave a path to your writing journey.
July 10: Tina Vierra is a co-writer of the unique cookbook “Cyberfeasts & Foodstocks.” She has been a member of an online foodie group for ten years. An associate suggested they compile their recipes. Some one hundred foodies, who have e-known each other but have never met, composed the cookbook through e-mails. Thus proving that a strong idea and the love of the written word – and food – can result in a book. Any book. She will tell you how, and enjoy a sample of her delicious cuisine.
August 14: Vicki Larson is the Lifestyle Editor of the Marin Independent Journal. She’s a Huffington Post blogger, columnist for Mommy Tracked, and a contributor to the book anthologies, “Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s,” and “The Working Chronicles.” Vicki, like many of us, is working, mothering and writing. Multi-tasking to the mask! She will share how to balance love for family with her love for writing in different media and how you can, too.
September 11: Karen Quinn is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Ivy Chronicles,” a satiric novel about parents’ desperate need to get their children into the right schools. She has written two additional novels. Karen wrote the non-fiction book, “Testing for Kindergarten,” and created two websites and a game to help parents with their kids’ aptitudes. She’s appeared on The View, and has received tons of publicity. Karen will show you how to monetize your personal expertise into books and websites.
October 9: Lisa Catherine Harper is the author of ”A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood,” which fuses personal narrative with compelling scientific research; A Double Life explores exactly why motherhood can transform women so completely. She is an Adjunct Professor of Writing at the University of San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Gastronomica and Literary Mama. Hear Lisa talk about how to write compelling nonfiction and modern and contemporary prose in an authentic way.
November 13: Julia Scheeres is the author of the memoir, “Jesus Land,” a New York Times bestseller. Publisher’s Weekly called it a “crisply written and earnest examination of the meaning of family and Christian values.” Julia is also the author of “Jonestown,” a history of the Jonestown massacre in Guyana. She is a contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Just as Julia has told her personal story, she will tell how to honestly write your story.
December 11: Time for the annual end-of-the-writing-year Writing Mamas Party! Members will share their writing successes, their writing challenges and their aspirations for next year. We will also have our usual four-star meal, kidding, we’re mostly mothers – it’s whatever we can throw together — and much, much, much deserved wine. So come join the party. Entertainment? A mini Mama Monologues!!! This is for you!
Writing Mamas Speakers of the Past
2010
January 10: Jennifer Bayse Sanders Former Random House senior editor, and co-author of ”The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published” and the New York Times best-seller, ”Christmas Miracles,” and some fifty other titles. She owns the book-packaging firm Big City Books Group, and is the founder of the women’s weekend writing retreat, Write By the Lake, in Lake Tahoe, California.
February 7 (Note: 1st Sunday): Regan McMahon, former deputy book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, is a writer, editor, book critic, mother of two teenagers, and blogger for Mommytracked.com and sfgate.com’s The Poop. She is the author of ”Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family Life in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports.”
March 14: Adrienne Biggs of Biggs Publicity & Events is a literary publicist and events planner who represents authors, filmmakers, musicians, and arts-related organizations. Her clients include Natalie Goldberg, Judith Orloff, Joanna Macy, Roger Housden, Parker Palmer, Dan Millman, Starhawk, and George Lucas Books, plus events like Poetry for Water, Dickens Fair and the Harmony Festival.
April 25 (Note: 4th Sunday): Tammy Nam is vice president of content at Scribd, the world’s largest social publishing company. It is an online destination where writers and readers convene to discuss and share written works. Authors can easily self publish their books, communicate directly with readers, collaborate with other authors and build a subscriber base.
May 9: Nicki Richesin is the editor of four anthologies, ”What I Would Tell Her,” ”Because I Love Her,” ”The May Queen,” and the forthcoming ”Crush.” Her books have been excerpted and praised in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, Parenting, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Bust, Daily Candy, and HipMama.
June 13: Michelle Richmond is the author of the New York Times and international bestseller, “The Year of Fog,” as well as “No One You Know,” “Dream of the Blue Room,” and the award-winning story collection, ”The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress.” Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, Playboy, The Missouri Review, and The Kenyon Review.
July 11: Andy Ross is a literary agent. Prior to that, he was the owner of Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California. He specializes in non-fiction, particularly narrative non-fiction, history, current events and journalism, but has secured contracts in other genres, as well. Andy has served on the faculty of numerous writers’ conferences and has conducted workshops on writing non-fiction book proposals.
August 8: Shawna Ryan is the author of ”Water Ghosts,” a Northern California Book Award finalist. A month in a (possibly) haunted former gambling hall in Locke, California, led to this historical ghost story about the Chinese in the Sacramento Delta.
September 12: Melanie Gideon is the best-selling author of ”The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After.” She is also the author of two young adult novels: ”Pucker” and ”The Map that Breathed.” A widely published journalist, she has written for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, More, Shape, the London Times Style Magazine, and Marie Claire. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto.
October 24: (Note third Sunday) Rachel Sarah is the author of “Single Mom Seeking: Play Dates, Blind Dates, and Other Dispatches from the Dating World.” Her essays have also appeared in ”Because I Love Her: 30 Top Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Relationship” and ”Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding.” She has written for Family Circle, American Baby and Salon.com.
November 14: Mary Mackey’s published works include five volumes of poetry including ”Split Ends,” “One Night Stand,” and “The Dear Dance of Eros.” She’s written twelve novels including, ”McCarthy’s List,” ”The Last Warrior Queen,” and ”The Year The Horses Came.” A screenwriter as well, she has sold feature-length screenplays to Warner Brothers and to independent film companies.
December 5 (Note: 1st Sunday): End-of-year par-tay! featuring Writing Mamas who have had books published including Cindy Bailey, ”The Fertile Kitchen Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Optimizing Your Fertility,” Jessica O’Dwyer, “Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir,” Li Miao Lovett, “In the Lap of the Gods,” and Dawn Yun, ”Calming Crafts: Creative Crafts to Inspire Your Creativity.”
The Writing Mamas Speaker Series 2009
January 25: Caroline Paul, is the author of “Fighting Fire,” her memoir about being a firefighter (which she did after graduating from Stanford) and the novel,“ East Wind, Rain.” Her identical twin sister is Alexandra Paul, star of the TV show, “Baywatch.”
February 22: Katy Butler, best-known for her memoir writing salons at Esalen Institute, is a magazine writer on psychology, meditation, addiction and her own life. She writes for MORE, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, and The New York Times.
March 22: Ethan Watters, co-founder of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, is the author of “Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family.” He’s written for Details, Spin, Men’s Journal, GQ and Esquire. A movie on his book is in development at Warner Brothers.
April 26: Nancy Hancock, Executive Editor, HarperOne, a division of Harper Collins publishing. She specializes in lifestyle, health & fitness, diet, nutrition, spirituality, well being and self-help.
May 24: Julie Flynn Stiler, author of “The House of Mondavi.” Julie’s book began as a story in The Wall Street Journal, for which she continues to write. She also leads Napa wine tours. Yes, there WILL be wine during her talk.
June 28: Lindsey Crittenden, author of “The View From Below,” and “A Skeptic Learns to Pray.” She’s also written for Real Simple, The New York Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine.
July 26: Robert Shepard, of the Berkeley-based Robert E. Shepard Agency. Professional and friendly, Robert will tell you the kinds of books he’s actively seeking, how to write a great proposal and the state of publishing today.
August 23: Kemble Scott, author of “Soma” and publisher of the must read San Francisco Literary Arts Newsletter; will speak on how to create a platform for yourself so you can become known, crucial in getting an agent and/or a publisher.
September 27: Andy Raskin, author of “The Ramen King and I,” has written for Gourmet, All Things Considered, This American Life, CNN Money, and Women’s Health. Before becoming a writer he worked in business.
October 25: Katherine Ellison, author of “The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes You Smarter,” www.themommybrain.com, and the upcoming tentatively titled, “Hotheads: A Mother and Son’s Quest to Master Attention Deficit Disorder in a Distracted World.”
November 22: Melanie Gideon, is the author of two novels for young adults, “The Map that Breathed,” and “Pucker,” as well as the novel, “The Girl Who Breathed.” Her first foray into non-fiction, “The Slippery Year,” will be published this fall.
December 13: The Writing Mama’s Annual End-of-the-Year Rockin’ Party! With special guests, yummy foods baked by The Mamas, of course, wine, of course, of course, and members reading from their own writing in “The Mama Monologues.”
Check out the archives of Salon Speakers:
