MWG's Photo Album
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| Honoring Historic Mississippi Writers (HHMW) is an event where MWG members portray famous deceased Mississippi Writers who have formed an eternal literary legacy not only in Mississippi but the entire world. Members not only dress in the era of the historic writer they are portraying, but research the historic writer's life and share tidbits of personal information most people probably do not know. This event is being performed all over the state and has been widely covered by media. This is one event you certainly don't want to miss. |
| Literary Artists on Stage (LAOS) is an event where all writers, regardless of age, genre, category, or experience can share their works on stage. We have songwriters, playwrights, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, poetry, children's, if it's written and it's your work, you can perform it. Of course, you don't have to share your work, you can just listen. And you don't have to be a writer to listen, you can be, well, a listener. So join us and bring your friends and family, or even someone you don't like. We don't care as long as you come. |
| MWG’s People's Choice Writing contest is in conjunction with the annual Meridian Museum of Art's People's Choice Awards. Writers ages 15 and up may view People’s Choice Awards art displays at the art museum and choose a piece(s) to write about. Submission pieces may be a poem no longer than 32 lines or prose in 500 words or less. Written pieces are done by blind judging, unlike the art pieces, which are voted on. |
| MWG WRITING WORKSHOPS: WRITING FOR CHILDREN WORKSHOP (CHARACTER) WRITING FOR CHILDREN WORKSHOP (PLOT) WRITING FOR CHILDREN (VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE CRAFT) WRITING FOR THE ANTHOLOGY MARKETS FRIENDLY BEGINNINGS WORKSHOP TURNING PERSONAL EXPERIENCE INTO FICTION PAST WORKSHOPS HELD AT EUDORA WELTY LIBRARY JACKSON, MS OCTOBER 26, 2006 AND MAINSTREET BOOKS, HATTIESBURG, MS AUGUST 12, 2006 WRITING INSTRUCTOR BIOS 2007 MWG P.L.A.N.S. Writers Conference KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Joshilyn Jackson Joshilyn Jackson’s short stories have been published in literary journals, such as TriQuarterly and Calyx and her plays have been produced in Atlanta and Chicago. Gods in Alabama, her first novel, was a bestseller and a number one BookSense pick. Between, Georgia, her second novel, is also a #1 BookSense pick, with starred reviews by Kirkus and Booklist. Her third novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, is the story of a good mother visited by a drowned girl's ghost. Visit her website here. Gods in Alabama: What a storyteller! What an original new voice - Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Big Stone Gap and Lucia, Lucia. "Forget steel magnolias---meet titanium blossoms in Jackson's debut novel, a potent mix of humor, murder, and a dysfunctional Southern family." - Library Journal, starred review "This winning novel is the kind that readers crave: you can't stop turning the pages, but you wish it would never end." - Christina Schwarz, author of Drowning Ruth and All is Vanity Foulmouthed and hilariously frank, gods in Alabama is just the shot of sour to counter the diabetic- coma-inducing sweetness that seems to have overtaken Southern literature lately." - Bookpage Her phrases are so funny, true, and unexpected--a joy to read. Be prepared for a heart-wrenching ride, all the way to redemption. gods in Alabama is crazy good." Luanne Rice, author of Beach Girls and Dance With Me "Joshilyn Jackson's story of friendship, murder, love and betrayal is as rich and mysterious as Spanish moss. A knock-out first novel full of astonishing surprises." - Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief It's like watching a movie and watching the making of the movie at the same time. Funky and cool." - Melanie Sumner, author of The School of Beauty and Charm "A lively, fun, yet compelling read... Read the startling first sentence of gods in Alabama, then try to put it down." - Cassandra King, author of The Sunday Wife and The Same Sweet Girls Between Georgia: ***Starred Kirkus Review*** “In her accomplished second novel, Jackson sweeps the reader away to where gravel crunches underfoot and the smell of corn bread wafts in the air. The plot is precise and sweet, and Jackson includes the perfect ingredients: quirky characters, a picturesque setting and ample surprises. Evocative and lovingly crafted.” ***Starred Booklist*** “Jackson returns with a second quirky and touching novel about the South. Jackson has been compared to Fannie Flagg, and rightfully so; her characters are vivid and lovable, put in situations that are so hard to explain it’s just easier to pass the book lovingly along to a friend. A climatic ending with perfect story resolution makes this book tidy and uplifting, and even the most cynical reader will surely smile as the back cover closes.” P.L.A.N.S. Saturday Morning’s Opening Ceremony Speaker - Barbara Garshman Barbara Garshman has been in the entertainment business for over twenty-five years as a developer, producer and writer. As former Director of Prime Time Development, East Coast for NBC, she helped develop the mini-series as a new dramatic form with the critically acclaimed Bestseller Miniseries, presenting over one hundred hours of on air programming, as well as movies- of-the-week, sitcoms and dramatic series. She is a five-time Emmy nominee for her work as Supervising Producer on the soap opera Guiding Light, on CBS, and has been honored for “her contributions to the Emmy Award-winning Achievement for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team,” as an Associate Writer for the same show. Two of her own projects: a narrative non-fiction book entitled, Breakthrough: Sharecropper’s Daughter/Top Cop vs. Town from Hell, and Connections – a treatment for a one hour dramatic series, are in development for TV. She also runs a successful consulting business for authors and script writers. www.mytvtreatment. com MORE 2007 MWG P.L.A.N.S. SPEAKERS BIO: John Floyd John Floyd's short stories have appeared in The Strand Magazine, Grit, Woman's World, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and many other publications. He has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize, and a number of his stories are available on Amazon Shorts. A book of his short fiction, Rainbow's End, was released in October 2006. BIO: C. Hope Clark Hope founded and serves as editor of FundsforWriters.com, a well-known writer's reference that reaches 17,000 readers weekly. Writer's Digest voted FundsforWriters one of its 101 Best Web Sites for Writers for 2001 through 2006. Her ebooks are rapid sellers ranging from Grants for the Serious Writer to Short & Sweet; Markets for Fillers. Hope has published in magazines like Writer's Digest, The Writer Magazine, ByLine Magazine, Next Step Magazine, College Bound Teen, TURF Magazine, and Landscape Management. She is author of The Shy Writer: An Introvert's Guide to Writing Success, a trade paperback dealing with the reclusive writer who hates to promote. She is also co-founder of Little Owl Mentoring Program, a nonprofit that partners writing teens with published writers. After 25 years as a manager with the federal government, she requested an early retirement at age 46 to write full time and manage FundsforWriters, marrying her knowledge of grants and her love of writing. She lives in Chapin, South Carolina on the banks of Lake Murray and writes amongst the trees, water fowl and deer with her dachshund in her lap. Hope has completed a novel, the first of an agricultural mystery series, which she is currently distributing to assorted agents. She is married to a recently retired federal agent who inspires her love of mystery writing. BIO: Jon Rawl Jon Rawl is the President and Publisher of Y'all Magazine, the Magazine of Southern People. Before founding Y'all in 2002, Rawl, 35, was a freelance entertainment columnist for Truckers News magazine, Country America magazine, The Post & Courier (Charleston, S.C.) newspaper and WSMV Television (Nashville, Tenn). Rawl also directed and produced the documentary video Rebel Forrest, about the life of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Rawl began his multifaceted professional career in 1993 at The Nashville Network (TNN), was a programming executive at Country Music Television (CMT) from 1994-1996, and was the entertainment editor for the Nashville NewsSource from 1996-1998. In addition to publishing Y'all Magazine, Rawl is the president and executive producer of the "Hotty Toddy Hotline" radio and TV show, co-hosted by former Ole Miss coach Billy Brewer and airing on a network of 17 stations in Missisissippi. A native of Lexington, S.C, Rawl earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Citadel in 1993, and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Mississippi in 2002. ABOUT Y'ALL MAGAZINE Y'all is the Magazine of Southern People®. Its unprecedented editorial mix of music, sports, movies, politics and more captures today's Southern spirit. Celebrities and extraordinary ordinary Southerners remind us of the beauty, pride, uniqueness and warmth of the South and its personalities: • Y’all Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine with a circulation of 45,000, in publication since November 2003 • Featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Times, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.), Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), and many other regional newspapers. • Television promotion for Y’all Magazine has covered the markets of Birmingham, Atlanta, Austin, Charleston, Biloxi, and others • Named by Folio Magazine as one of the top 30 launches of 2003, out of a total of 950 magazines. • Headquartered in Oxford, Miss., the South's literary capital. Y'all covers the South's 15 states and its 103 million people, just like Kudzu. The magazine is on-sale in the South at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Publix, Books-A-Million, Winn-Dixie, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Piggly Wiggly, Food Lion, and select newsstands nationwide. Bio: Charles Tolbert, Esq., Literary Attorney Charles Tolbert is an intellectual property attorney with his own law practice in New York and New Jersey. His practice areas include copyright and trademark protection, rights acquisitions and licensing in all media, agreements for book and magazine publishing, motion picture and television transactions, and general corporate matters. Prior to starting his own practice Tolbert was General Manager of Subsidiary Rights at Pearson Education handling international licensing and partnerships for twelve publishing imprints including Prentice Hall. He is an eleven year Voting Member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (the "Grammy Awards") and is admitted to the US Supreme Court, the NY State Bar and the NJ State Bar. He has a BA in Journalism and French from American University, a Certificat from the Sorbonne, and a Juris Doctor degree from Pepperdine Law School. He serves on the Board of Directors of Grand Street Settlement, a NY nonprofit community revitalization organization founded in 1916. BIO: Sean Ennis Sean Ennis is a native of Philadelphia, PA and now lives in Water Valley, MS. His fiction and poetry have appeared in The Greensboro Review, The Mississippi Review, the Texas Review, Swink, River City, Pindeldyboz, StorySouth, and The Best New American Voices 2006 Anthology. He teaches literature and writing at the University of Mississippi and the Gotham Writer's Workshop, and has served as editor for a number of literary journals. Sean holds a BA from La Salle University and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. He is currently working on a novel. BIO: REBECCA MOORE JERNIGAN Rebecca Moore Jernigan is an internationally recognized professional storyteller who has traveled around the world. She entertains and instructs audiences of all ages with new and old stories, emphasizing the importance of the oral tradition. She is on the artist rosters of the Mississippi and Tennessee Arts Commissions and the Speakers Bureau for the Mississippi Humanities Council, and she is an enrichment artist for American schools in Europe. Her plays have been produced in regional, community, and academic venues. She is co-founder of "Dance A Story" and artistic director of The North Mississippi Storytellers Guild. |
