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 Monthly Business Meeting
Join us for our monthly business meeting to discuss what we are doing and what we are doing next. Bring you ideas! Bring your voice to add to the discussion.
We meet at the Monroe County Public Library in room 214.
First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic
Presented by the Writers Guild at Bloomington
First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic
Presented by the Writers Guild
The featured readers are: Zilia Balkansky-Selles and Joan Hawkins
Come early to sign up for Open Mic!
Zilia Balkansky-Sellés is a Bloomington-based writer, and occasional dancer and actor. She earned a master’s in information science
degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in folkloristics from the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. She has worked as an academic advisor for the Groups Scholars Program at Indiana University and currently works as the Extracurricular Coordinator for the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University. Her poetry has appeared in Comparative Woman, from Louisiana State University. She has written for Wild Swan Theater, which produces plays for Michigan schools and libraries.
Joan Hawkins is the Chair of the Writers Guild and an Associate Professor in Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University.
She works mainly in creative memoir and Spoken Word; her creative work has appeared in Sand, Avalanches in Poetry, n+1,and Performing Arts Journal. Her most recent book, a critical anthology on the writer William S. Burroughs, has been nominated for an Indiana Author Award and a Modern Language Association Award.
Writers Guild Spoken Word Series
WE WILL RE-BOOK THIS FOR A LATER DATE.
Stay Healthy Everyone!
Writers Guild sponsors a talk and film at IU Cinema
The Writers Guild was awarded a creative collaboration grant, and is sponsoring “Neither Memory Nor Magic,” a film about the Hungarian Poet Miklós Radnóti, who died in the Holocaust (the Shoah). 
Of special interest will be Mr. Perez’s talk on Friday March 27, 4 p.m. IU Cinema
The Film “Neither Memory Nor Magic” Friday March 27, 7 p.m.
Tickets for the film are available at the IU Auditorium box office.
Parking in the Jordan Lot is free on weekends, unless there’s a MAC extravaganza. There is also parking in the Wells Library Parking Lot. https://cinema.indiana.edu/about/visiting-guests/visitor/hugo-perez .
Also see the essay about Miklós Radnóti, Hugo Perez and the film in the current issue of The Ryder.
CANCELLED THIS MONTH.
WE WILL HAVE OUR TWO GUEST READERS AT A LATER DATE.
STAY HEALTHY EVERYONE
The Sunday Poetry Reading & Open Mic
Karen George is author of five chapbooks, most recently an ekphrastic collaborative chapbook, Frame and Mount the Sky (Finishing
Line Press, 2017), and two poetry collections from Dos Madres Press, Swim Your Way Back (2014) and A Map and One Year (2018). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Adirondack Review, Louisville Review, Naugatuck River Review, Sliver of Stone, and Still: The Journal. She received grants from Kentucky Foundation for Women and Kentucky Arts Council, and holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. She reviews poetry at Poetry Matters blog: http://readwritepoetry.blogspot.com/, and is co-founder and fiction editor of the online journal, Waypoints: http://www.waypointsmag.com/. She retired from computer programming to write full-time. She lives in Florence, Kentucky, and enjoys photography and visiting museums, historic river towns, mountains, parks, and gardens.
JL Kato is a former newspaper copy editor and former poetry editor of Flying Island. The Indiana Center for the Book designated his 
first book, Shadows Set in Concrete, as 2011’s Best Book of Indiana for poetry. He once accidentally plowed into Dan Quayle’s midsection. Kato lives in Beech Grove.
Third Sunday Write Virtual— Sunday April 19, 2020
Ryser Scholarship Awarded
The Writers Guild at Bloomington is delighted to announce
that Hanh Tam Bui is the recipient of the 2020 Ryser Scholarship.
Hanh is a student at Bloomington High School South where she is a member of the Writing Club.
It also happens that the namesake of the scholarship, Joan Ryser, was an English teacher at BHSS.
Hanh will be attending A Gathering of Writers workshop at the Indianapolis Writers Center.
She will attend in March of 2021.
Congratulations Hanh!