The Writers Guild at Bloomington is an association of writers committed to mutual support and the professional development of their craft. Its mission is to foster interaction among writers as well as other artists, educators, and the Monroe County public, thereby enhancing the vibrancy of the arts and the writing community in the greater Bloomington area.
Events Calendar
Writers Guild Spoken Word Stage
Fourth Street Festival of the Arts & Crafts
Saturday, August 31, 10am-5pm
Sunday, September 1, 10am-6pm
at the intersection of 4th and Dunn Streets
2 days of poetry, prose, storytelling, radio theatre, and more!
New acts every 30 minutes throughout both days!
Poetry On Demand, where festival goers may request a custom poem
from a fleet of crafty poets who will type it up in short order!
Writers Guild Spoken Word Series
Playwriting and Screenwriting Workshop
J.S. Brinkley Class
This eight week course is being offered to both playwrights and screenwriters on Sundays from Sept 15 through Nov 3.
The class will focus on the core elements of each discipline such as structure, character development and dialogue. The intention is to clarify the varying components of stage versus film and to work toward solidifying the writer’s voice in either medium. Over the course of the workshop, class participants will create a one act play or short film script, as well as the beginning of a full-length project—premise, outline and opening scene—depending on their artistic interest.
Please contact us at BrinkleyClass@gmail.com for an application. All applicants will be asked to submit a writing sample
Write Your Story: A Two-Day Memoir Workshop
Presented by the Writers Guild and the Monroe County Public Library
Sunday, September 22
and
Sunday Sept 29
1:30 to 3:00 pm
Monroe County Public Library in room 2B
Do you love to recount childhood adventures? Was there an event that changed your life? Write Your Story is a two session workshop that will inspire you to write about your life and help you get started. It is led by local author Wendy Teller.
This workshop is free and open to the public.
To REGISTER please put the title: Write Your Story in the subject line, and send your name and email to: teller@rcn.com
Last Sunday Poetry Reading & Open Mic
Presented by the Writers Guild at Bloomington
With guest poets:
Michael Luis Dauro and Rachel Ronquillo Gray
Followed by an Open Mic.
Free parking in the back!
Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship finalist, Pushcart Prize nominee, and a CantoMundo fellow. His work has appeared in As/Us, StoryScape, At Length, Phantom Drift, Rattle, Sonora Review, and others. Michael is currently working on his speculative epic, Sierra Amnezia. He’s also totally non-ironically into spaghetti westerns and pro wrestling.
Born and raised in rural Nevada, Rachel Ronquillo Gray is a Kundiman, Pink Door, and VONA fellow. Her work is forthcoming or appears in Tinderbox Poetry, Hyphen Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, Digging Through the Fat, Radar Poetry, and other places. She currently lives, writes, and makes food in Bloomington, Indiana.Writers Guild Spoken Word Series
First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic
Presented by the Writers Guild at Bloomington
The featured readers are: Wendy Teller and Anya Peterson Royce
Come early to sign up for Open Mic!
Wendy Teller, a retired systems and software engineer, writes fiction, memoir, and history. Her stories have
appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Naperville Sun, and Rivulets. Her story Dusting the Towels received the Richard Eastman Prose Award. Wendy’s debut novel, Becoming Mia, takes place in the 1960s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Berkeley, California. Her work in progress, The Sorrows of Sex, takes place in Hungary in 1905. She’s made important discoveries researching this novel, including several books by her grandfather – all in Hungarian – how to use Google translate, and a kissing cousin. Wendy lives on a cliff in the woods near Bloomington, Indiana, with her husband.
Anya Peterson Royce is Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature at Indiana 
University. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick, from which she received an Honorary Doctorate. Her research and publications focus on the arts and humanities, especially the performing arts. Her performing career in the Russian ballet underpins much of her scholarship of the dance. She is equally well-known for her long-term work with the Isthmus Zapotec of Juchitán, Mexico, most recently on the role of artists mentoring the next generations and promoting the arts to global audiences. In addition to her scholarly writing, she is also a poet, a writer of blogs, a biographer/gatherer of people’s stories, and a writer of historical fiction.
The Venue Art Gallery holds it’s 4th annual Ekphrasis Poetry Event
Sunday, Oct 6
and
Sunday, Oct 20
start time 6 pm
114 S. Grant Street.
Poets write and read a poem inspired by on of the paintings on exhibit. The painter, poet and audience then get a chance to talk about the works and the interconnections.
The Writers Guild at Bloomington’s FRANKENSTEIN radio play from Frankenfest 2018 has been nominated in several categories for the 2019 Audio Verse Awards.
Please vote!
Vote Here! – https://audioverseawards.net/vote/
Voting is open through Thursday, October 31st at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.