Feb. Workshop Tells How to Make Social Media Work for You

Shawn Poynter and Dale Mackey

Shawn Poynter and Dale Mackey

Buffaloed by social media? KWG is offering help! On Saturday, Feb. 25, Dale Mackey and Shawn Poynter will lead a seminar that will introduce you to accessible tools for maintaining an online presence. You'll learn to use social media to grow your readership. The workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Redeemer Church, 1642 Highland Avenue. Cost is $20 for members, 25 for nonmembers. To register, please click here.

Topics to be covered include: self branding, blogging, Facebook & Twitter, integrating media and shooting for the web. Dale Mackey currently works at Community Television of Knoxville and has worked as Outreach Coordinator for Appalshop Art and Media Center in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Shawn Poynter divides his time between freelance editorial and portraiture work and a full-time job at the Center for Rural Strategies, a nonprofit organization that makes creative use of media to improve life in small communities in the countryside and around the world. In 2010, Shawn and Dale founded Artistic License, an organization dedicated to fostering creative collaborations in the Knoxville community. Their next project will be a group exhibition by Knoxville artists in the fall of 2012.

Lisa Soland
Lisa Soland

Playwright Lisa Soland Leads KWG Workshop on How to Give Readings

Actress, playwright and director Lisa Soland will lead the workshop “Reading for Writers: How to Captivate Your Audience” from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 at the Redeemer Church of Knoxville. Sponsored by the Knoxville Writers’ Guild, cost is $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. To register online, click here. “Book sales are often made alongside the success of impactful public readings,” Soland said. “This is the platform where we as writers gain or lose our most important audience.” Soland’s comedy “Thread Count,” produced last year at Pellissippi State, will be part of the anthology “The Best American Short Plays 2010/2011” by Applause Books. Her more than 35 publications include “Waiting,” “Cabo San Lucas,” “Truth Be Told,” “The Man in the Gray Suit & Other Short Plays” and “The Name Game” by Samuel French Inc.

She has produced and/or directed more than 80 productions and playreadings, 55 of which have been original. She founded The Fellowship Theatre in North Hollywood and Theatre Encino in Encino, Calif. Her company, Rose’s Name Game Productions, has produced original works since 1993.
She recently served as playwright-in-residence at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville. She is a professor in the theatre departments at both Maryville College and Pellissippi State, where she is currently directing her new series of one-acts, “The Ladder Plays,” which open March 23.

To register, click here. Or send your check to KWG Workshops, P.O. Box 10326, Knoxville TN 37939-0326.

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KWG Writing Groups!

KWG now has 11 active writing groups, with others forming all the time. If you are interested in being in a group or helping to form a new one, take a look at our Writing Groups page and speak to Terry Shaw, President. We are always interested in starting new groups. Writing groups are central to the Writers' Guild. Join one!

Check out all the Writing Groups--click here!

Watch Us on Community TV!

The Knoxville Writers' Guild has its own Community Television Show now airing at 9 p.m. each Thursday on CTV (Channel 12 in Knoxville). The show can also be watched online at http://ctvknox.org/

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NOTE: The Guild is a non-profit organization. To support writers, we have kept our membership fees low and unchanged for over 10 years. However, any donations to the work of the Guild are greatly appreciated. $10. $20. $30. $50. $100. $150. $200.

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--Career Achievement Awards and Guild Contest winners:

2002: Carson Brewer
2003: George Scarbrough
2004: Wilma Dykeman
2005: Jon Manchip White

2006: Jeff Daniel Marion
2008: David Hunter
2009: Contest winners
2010: Contest winners

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