Geri Taran Director@georgiawriters.org

Georgia Writers keeps living up to expectations. It has become, and continues to develop and mature as the diverse organization we envisioned seven years ago when we launched it onto Georgia’s literary scene.

Our enthusiasm was exceeded only by our faith in what we were doing, addressing the need that the right organization could fill. The vision burgeoned with promise and possibility. We thought we knew what it took to gain, for GW, acceptance, recognition, and a solid membership. Now, eight years later, you, our loyal and appreciative members, have contiuously shown us that you wanted what we offer. We hope we never disappoint you.

A large Thank You to all who have helped Georgia Writers along the way: meeting speakers, GAYA judges, corporate donors, Mercer University Press and Mercer University for hosting and supporting GAYA, now for the 5th year, Pod and critique group coordinators and leaders, past and present, and our dedicated volunteers... each of the many persons who have given time, energy, advice and substance through the years. You may congratulate yourselves for co-creating this gift to Georgia’s writers and for contributing your share to the national literary image of the the state, as well.

Membership Renewal - Time to Renew... Our fiscal/membership year is July 1 to June 30. We begin reminding members to renew in May of every year, usually in conjunction with the Spring Festival. If you joined after December 31 in any year, and paid for a full year, your dues are pro-rated when you renew in July. Georgia Writers Association, like all active nonprofit organizations, needs your support. If you can, whether you are joining for the first time or renewing your membership, please be a voluntary “extra” donor. Thanks.

New Address: 1266 West Paces Ferry Road, Suite 217, Atlanta, GA 30327-2306. Our telephone, fax and email addresses remain the same.

Changing of the Guard

In May our new officers for the current year are elected. Old members cycle off the board and new members are voted on to serve. Every year is busier than the previous one for GWA and all who want to take on a greater role in GWA's future are encouraged to step forward and join a committee.

One of the most exciting things about Georgia Writers Association for me, remains the many connections we make for members with other members, as well as with the greater world of books and publishing. And now that we are so large, our reputation, resources, contacts, services and events keep expanding exponentially. Yes!

YGW/WitS
Plans have been set in motion for various Young Georgia Writers and Writing in the Schools (WitS) programs. The first meeting was held at the Buckhead Library on Saturday, April 6 and of the eight already signed-up members, one was on her way to London with her mother. There were three visitors and we will welcome those also as members. YGW and WitS have begun under the leadership of David Soto and Willduisa Doanes. YGW, our junior arm for students up to the age of 18, and our official WitS program (a partnership with the state board of the PTA) are both of great importance to the future of literacy, literature and culture in Georgia and the world. Watch for great things from our young writers. Keep tabs on what’s happening via the Young Georgia Writers Reports link on our website.

GWA always has many planned events and goodies for members. Keep your eye on this website and the News/Mag and don't miss out.

EVERY SEPTEMBER the Georgia Author of the Year Awards process takes its official annual leap into activity. Also, our annual Members’ Contest kicks off with the regular three categories: Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry. Winners are be published in ...On My Mind, our annual anthology.

Members’ Contest    Last Posted Winners' List (2001 Winners coming soon)

The rules for each year’s Members’ Contest are posted.

In between the Festivals and Hooplah... what?

Georgia Writers has a broad future. As time passes we become more and more of a guild, one built from grassroots response to address the need for support of the writing life. How? By connecting writers to one another and to the public. Know-how. The business end of the writing career. Respect.

The development of GW's Home Cookin' Cookbook of recipes for all occasions has been SLOW. PARTICIPATE! Send in your favorite recipes. HomeCookin@georgiawriters.org

From the archives
________________

A futurist goes on alone...
September 2000

It is always difficult to lose friends to death, especially ones you never seemed to get enough of, because they lived across the country... or around the world. As we mature it is inevitable.

I have lost a friend, a unique man, and I am not the only one who has lost him. There are many of us. FM2030 was in New York with his long-time love and friend, Flora Schnall, when he died on July 8 of pancreatic cancer. He was only 69 years old.

When I learned of his passing, I was at first incredulous, then angry, before the grief set in. He lied to me when we spoke a couple of months ago. He said he was fine. I didn’t know he had pancreatic cancer.

His Coconut Grove apartment won’t see again the canny and colorful assortment of people FM kept around himself over his lifetime. The last gathering I attended there was of a group of cryonicists, futurists, like him, all convinced it was worth the expense and gamble to have your body, within hours of your demise, immersed in liquid nitrogen, to preserve the brain and, you would hope, the personality.

I have made no such arrangement for my bones, I have chosen cremation, but if there is consciousness for me in any form after this life, and I see him resurrected, I won’t be surprised.

When I met him in Greenwich Village in 1961, he told me he was Persian. He taught me how to cook rice properly... and a few other interesting things as well. I was twenty-four years old and not nearly as unconventional as I would later become. Already worldly and well traveled, he was a young man like no other I had met. He had just published his first book. He was brilliant and astoundingly well informed and well read. The things he had to say were always extraordinary, and he was handsome and magnetic.

Now there is no more Persia. Somewhere along the way, he began telling people he was a global citizen and no one could get another fact out of him, not even the revelation that he was born on October 15, 1930, except that he was “launched” in Belgium, the son of a diplomat. For a man with so many new and innovative ideas, he was immensely private. He was terribly opinionated, incredibly optimistic, a bit arrogant... or was it simply distracted? He was a warm and charming host. And he was delightfully humorous.

Anyone would want to know such a man.

After having lived in many of the world’s most exciting places over his lifetime, in the last few years he fell in love with Miami, specificially Coconut Grove, claiming it to be one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. He taught classes at Florida International University where I, myself, attended some classes (not his, unfortunately) years ago.

His body floats in a tank of nitrogen, where it waits for 2030, the year when he believed he would be defrosted, repaired and returned to the delightful urbane existence he and all his friends so enjoyed. I hope it happens, and that, decrepit or otherwise, I am there to see it.

I miss him.

The Writing Life, the view from here. . .

From time to time I receive phone calls from people who are calling "for information." What they are really wanting is to pick the brains of someone they think is in the know.

It is immediately apparent.

Sometimes they are merely uncertain about where they have called or if they'll receive accurate answers to their questions. It is understandable and wise to be wary.

Often, however, what they are looking for is immediate gratification, a quick-fix answer on how to get published, with "get" being the operative word. They may have written something at some time and had someone tell them it was good. Often they hold the mistaken idea that it's fairly easy to jump on the fast track to the best seller list and become a professional writer. . . and just incidentally, a millionaire. . . if someone will just give them the "secret" or give them Oprah's private number. They ask if joining GW will guarantee them an agent, or better yet, publication. I have to laugh to myself about it, I can almost hear them saying, "If I send you my $30 will you send me fame and fortune by return mail?"

Well... no. But, if not in GWA then in some other writers support group, participation will set writers on the path, provided they have more to offer than $30. It's not just a cliché that you get out of something what you put into it.

I try to explain that writing is work, sometimes very hard work, but in every case it requires focus and diligence. It requires a love of and repect for, words. . . language and communication. The writing life also requires thoughtfulness and responsibility.

When I am successful, they usually join GWA. The value is here.

A couple of years ago GWA gained a member who shared with me that she hated her work-a-day job and would give a lot to be out of it and writing full time. I encouraged her to volunteer some time to GWA.

She took me up on it, taking responsibility for a small but important initiative. She recognized the value of the organization and believed me when I promised she would grow from the experience. It was slow going at first but she persisted even when she received little or no response.

She has since learned a great deal about both writing and leadership.

Her efforts have paid off for GWA and for her. She was willing to give to GWA, I had a chance to learn about her abilities, so when a special writing opportunity came to my attention, she was my first choice. She paid her dues in both ways, with dollars and by contributing to what would ultimately benefit both GWA and her. She is now doing well, writing full time and loving it. And she keeps on growing.

Sounds like "win, win" to me.

 

Geri Taran
director@georgiawriters.org

Copyright © Georgia Writers, Inc. 2000, 2001, 2002

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