Upcoming events

  • April 26th, 2024 Open Mic Night at Mugs Coffee

    • April 26, 2024
    • 6:45 PM - 9:00 PM
    • Mugs Coffee - 5126 Park Road - Charlotte, NC 28209
    • 1
    Register
                                 

    Description

    In Partnership with MUGS Coffee - LIVE Event for CWC Members to read their work the on 4th Friday, from 6:45pm - 9pm. Registration is limited to 12 readers who must be members. Each reader will get 7 minutes to read their work.

    Whether you attend Open Mic Night as a reader or as a spectator, you must agree to:

    • Purchase food or drink in order to support Mugs.
    • Respect Mugs as a business and, therefore, a public space. Part of the skill building experience of reading in public is learning how to block out distractions. You are not allowed to ask the staff or other customers to be quiet.  
    • Honor the considerations laid out below. If you are unsure that what you want to read fits within the guidelines, you must review it with your host before you read.

     Reading at Open Mic Night affords club members an opportunity to share what they have written and gain experience reading in public. Please understand that this is NOT a publicity event for our authors. The goal is to support our members as they practice reading in public.

    Before registering please read the following policy adopted by unanimous vote of the CWC executive board on February 5, 2024, A completed registration serves as your agreement to abide by these rules.

    All work must be original and must be read by the author. All readers must be mindful that this event is open to a general audience, which may include minors, and we do not want anyone to feel excluded, offended, or attacked. Although some material may deal with mature or provocative subjects, it must be suitable for a general audience and appropriate for all ages. Open Mic Night is not a forum for religious or political debate, nor is it a place for stand-up comedy, pornography, obscenity, racism, sexism, or personal rants of any kind. We expect readers to provide a receptive, supportive audience for one another. While a writer’s material and point of view are open to different interpretations, please show respect to the writer and the work. Any violation of these guidelines whether as a reader or as a member of the audience will result in the offender being cleared from the stage or audience. Repeated offenses will result in the member being  banned from future sessions and/or being dismissed as a member of CWC.

                             
       

     

     

       

     


    Show details

  • CWC's Virtual Writing Salon, conducted by Tiffany Grantham

    • May 13, 2024
    • 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
    • ZOOM Virtual Meeting
    Register
                               

    Please Use the Link Below to Connect with Tiffany Grantham for her Social Write-Ins. on the 2nd Monday of the month from 7- 8:30 pm.

    Mark Your Calendar for this free-writing and share session via Zoom.

    Take 75-minutes to write and share from the comfort of your own space. Bring your muse, your imagination and your favorite writing instrument.

    Tiffany may spin instrumental music for your mind to riff on, offer pictures that take you down memory lane or set a scene for new character to play in. Following each prompt, there will be time for volunteers to read aloud.

    Be inspired by the works your fellow travelers share. No pressure, no angst - just you, your writing, and your untamed creativity. Bring your own characters, write with a story in mind or let your thoughts dance across the page. Shake off the dust of the day and perhaps when you're done, Tiffany's prompts will help you create something that really jazzes you! 

    Tiffany Grantham is a Children’s Service Specialist for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, a short story-fiction writer, and former secretary for CWC’s executive board. A native of Goldsboro, NC who has called Charlotte home for the past eight years, she has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from North Carolina A&T State University, and an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University. In her spare time, Tiffany collects books to add to her in-home library.

    Join the Meeting!

    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86462266907?pwd=M29BTkczVVh4bHl0NGJEaStWMmxNQT09


    We hope you'll make this virtual session a habit.
       

     

     

       

     


    Show details

  • Workshop: Intro to Screenwriting

    • May 18, 2024
    • 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211
    • 7
    Register

      Hosted by Sarah Archer

    This workshop will offer a crash course in writing for film and television, covering topics such as the fundamentals of script format, the differences between film and television, and what allows a screenwriter to work successfully in the entertainment industry. We'll explore how principles of visual storytelling, strong structure, and efficiency can enhance both your screenwriting and your fiction. This class is suitable both for experienced screenwriters looking for resources to develop their craft and for first-timers interested in learning what screenwriting is all about.

    Sarah Archer's debut novel, The Plus One (2019), was published in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, and is currently in development for television. Archer is a Black List Screenwriting Mini-Lab fellow who has had material produced for Comedy Central, has published fiction and poetry in numerous literary magazines, and has placed in competitions including the Tracking Board’s Launch Pad. After working in TV and film development in Los Angeles, she moved between six cities in three countries in the course of a few years. She lives in the Charlotte area and is a member of the Charlotte Writers Club.

    Show details

  • May Meeting

    • May 21, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte
    Register

    Brooke Shaffner

    Into the Great Wide Open: Moving from a Memoir to a Socially Conscious Novel


    After many years of working on a memoir, Brooke walked out of what was often a painful and isolating writing process into a novel that was—sometimes overwhelmingly—in dialogue with the world. Her novel, Country of Under, is rooted in the Texican border-town she moved to when she was 11 and her mother married her Mexican-American stepfather. The novel draws from the freedom Brooke felt watching a high school friend perform drag in their town’s only gay bar to tell the fictional story of two young people creating themselves. Brooke wrote and lived this novel for 10 years, engaging in activism and advocacy; attending talks, exhibits, and performances aligned with the world of the novel; exploring a forbidden tunnel filled with graffiti murals; researching and interviewing her Garza family, undocumented immigrant friends and students, immigration lawyers and judges, subterranean explorers, drag queens, activists, artists, priests, and former nuns. Learn how wildly following your passions and curiosities into the world can transform your writing and life.

     

    Brooke Shaffner’s novel Country of Under was published on April 9th. It won the 1729 Book Prize, was runner-up for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and was shortlisted for Dzanc Books’ Prize for Fiction and Black Lawrence Press’s Big Moose Prize. Brooke’s work has appeared in Scoundrel Time, The Rumpus, The Hudson Review, Marie Claire, BOMB, Litmosphere, Big Indie Books, Lost and Found: Stories from New York, The Lit Pub, and on Charlotte Readers Podcast. Brooke has received grants from the Arts & Science Council, United States Artists, and the Saltonstall Foundation and residencies from MacDowell, Ucross, Saltonstall, the Edward Albee Foundation, Jentel, I-Park, and VCCA. Brooke is bisexual and grew up part Garza, part Shaffner in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. Her Garza grandfather was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico; her Shaffner grandfather was raised Mennonite. She founded Freedom Tunnel Press with her partner Niteesh Elias to publish artivist books that straddle borders. An excerpt of her memoir-in-progress won the Lit/South Award and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Find more at brookeshaffner.com.

    If you have questions or thoughts, please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • May 24th, 2024 Open Mic Night at Mugs Coffee

    • May 24, 2024
    • 6:45 PM - 9:00 PM
    • Mugs Coffee - 5126 Park Road - Charlotte, NC 28209
    • 10
    Register
                                 

    Description

    In Partnership with MUGS Coffee - LIVE Event for CWC Members to read their work on the 4th Friday, from 6:45pm - 9pm. Registration is limited to 12 readers who must be members. Each reader will get 7 minutes to read their work.

    Whether you attend Open Mic Night as a reader or as a spectator, you must agree to:

    • Purchase food or drink in order to support Mugs.
    • Respect Mugs as a business and, therefore, a public space. Part of the skill building experience of reading in public is learning how to block out distractions. You are not allowed to ask the staff or other customers to be quiet.  
    • Honor the considerations laid out below. If you are unsure that what you want to read fits within the guidelines, you must review it with your host before you read.

    Reading at Open Mic Night affords club members an opportunity to share what they have written and gain experience reading in public. Please understand that this is NOT a publicity event for our authors. The goal is to support our members as they practice reading in public.

    Before registering please read the following policy adopted by unanimous vote of the CWC executive board on February 5, 2024, A completed registration serves as your agreement to abide by these rules.

    All work must be original and must be read by the author. All readers must be mindful that this event is open to a general audience, which may include minors, and we do not want anyone to feel excluded, offended, or attacked. Although some material may deal with mature or provocative subjects, it must be suitable for a general audience and appropriate for all ages. Open Mic Night is not a forum for religious or political debate, nor is it a place for stand-up comedy, pornography, obscenity, racism, sexism, or personal rants of any kind. We expect readers to provide a receptive, supportive audience for one another. While a writer’s material and point of view are open to different interpretations, please show respect to the writer and the work. Any violation of these guidelines whether as a reader or as a member of the audience will result in the offender being cleared from the stage or audience. Repeated offenses will result in the member being  banned from future sessions and/or being dismissed as a member of CWC.                        
       

     

     

       

     


    Show details

  • Summer Social

    • June 07, 2024
    • 6:00 PM - 9:30 PM
    • Great Room B at Southminster, 8919 Park Rd, Charlotte, NC 28210
    • 60
    Register


    Summer Social!

    Join the Charlotte Writers Club for a night of festivity celebrating a banner year of Open Mic Nights, Virtual Write-Ins, Monthly Meetings, Workshops--and a whole lot of publications and related activities by the people who sit next to you in all those "quiet" meetings!

    There will be an open bar with beer and wine, enough hors d'oeuvers to keep you nibbling, good talk of books and writing, and a host of friends who labor at the kind of work you do everyday.

    Spouses are invited and--best of all--the event is FREE, yet another benefit of your membership in the Charlotte Writers Club. 

    We look forward to seeing you there!

    Show details

  • June 28th, 2024 Open Mic Night at Mugs Coffee

    • June 28, 2024
    • 6:45 PM - 9:00 PM
    • Mugs Coffee - 5126 Park Road - Charlotte, NC 28209
    • 12
                                 

    Description

    In Partnership with MUGS Coffee - LIVE Event for CWC Members to read their work Friday, September 22nd from 6:45pm - 9pm. Registration is limited to 12 readers who must be members. Each reader will get 7 minutes to read their work.

    (You do not need to register to come to listen and support your fellow writers.)

    If you register to read you must agree to the following:

    You will purchase something - this is how we support Mugs.

    You will respect this is a business and public place and part of the skill building experience is to block out distractions. You are not allowed to ask the staff or other customers to be quiet.  

    You agree to the considerations listed. If you are unsure if what you want to read is allowed, you will review it with your host before you read.  

    This is a great opportunity to share what you've written and gain experience reading in public. This is a necessary skill to promote your writing. Please note: This is NOT a publicity event for our authors. The goal is to support our members as they practice reading in public.

    Before registering please read the following consideration:

    All work read must be original work read by the author of the piece. All readers must be mindful that this event is open to a general audience, which may include minors, and we do not want anyone to feel excluded, needlessly offended, or unfairly attacked. Although some material may deal with mature or provocative subjects, this is not a religious or political forum or a place for stand-up comedy, pornography, obscenities, or personal rants. We also expect readers to help provide a receptive, supportive audience for each other. While a writer’s material and point of view are open to different interpretations, please show respect to the writer and the work.

                              
       

     

     

       

     


    Show details

  • September Meeting

    • September 17, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Mark de Castrique

    Revealing the Mystery of Writing a Mystery

    Edgar Award-nominee Mark de Castrique will share how he approaches the creation of his mystery novels. He'll examine the elements of a good story as they apply to the genre.  He'll discuss the three types of detectives – amateur, law enforcement officer, and private investigator – and this opinion on the strengths and weaknesses of each. Plotting in a mystery is key.  What makes a good plot?  Why do plots fail?  How can humor and homicide share the same pages?  Finally, Mark will offer his Point of View on POV and the ways POV shapes the story and impacts the reader.  It's all part of revealing the mystery of writing a mystery.

    Mark was born in Hendersonville, NC, near Asheville, and went straight from the hospital to the funeral home where his father was the funeral director and the family lived upstairs. The unusual setting sparked his popular Barry Clayton series and launched his mystery writing career.

    He is the author of twenty-three novels: seven set in the fictional NC mountain town of Gainesboro, nine in Asheville, four in Washington D.C., one science thriller set in 2030, and two mysteries written for Middle Graders and set in the Charlotte region.

    His novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. The CHICAGO TRIBUNE wrote,“As important and as impressive as the author’s narrative skills are the subtle ways he captures the geography – both physical and human – of a unique part of the American South.”

    Mark is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business. In Washington D.C., he directed numerous news and public affairs programs and received an EMMY Award for his documentary film work. Through his company, MARK et al., he writes and produces videos for corporate and broadcast clients.

    His years in Washington inspired his DC thrillers, THE 13TH TARGET, involving a terrorist plot against The Federal Reserve, THE SINGULARITY RACE, a winner-take-all quest for Artificial Intelligence, and SECRET LIVES and DANGEROUS WOMEN, featuring feisty and fearless ex-FBI agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater.

    Mark and his wife Linda have two daughters. They live in Charlotte, but can be often found in the NC mountains or the nation’s capital.

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • October Meeting

    • October 15, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Mimi Herman

    How to Create Compelling Characters (Who Aren't You) 

    It’s easy enough to tell our own stories, but some of the best fiction is about characters who are nothing like the writers who created them. They’re younger or older, live long ago or in the future, have different interests and talents. In this talk, with a Q&A session to follow, you’ll learn how to create narrators and other characters who come alive on the page and remain with the reader long after the book is closed. Instead of describing your characters from the outside, you’ll learn how to abandon your assumptions and stereotypes so you can dwell completely within the people you’re writing about. It’s risky, challenging work, which requires a lot of empathy and understanding, but you’ll find your reward when you hear readers say, “I feel as if I’ve known your characters my whole life.”

    Mimi Herman is the author of The Kudzu Queen, A Field Guide to Human Emotions and Logophilia. Her novel, The Kudzu Queen, was selected by The North Carolina Center for the Book for the Library of Congress “Great Reads from Great Places” program, and has been long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her writing has appeared in LitHub, Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review and many other journals. Mimi is a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, a Warren Wilson MFA alumna, and a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow. She co-directs weeklong Writeaways writing workshops in France, Italy, Ireland and New Mexico. For more information visit her at www.mimiherman.com and www.writeaways.com.


    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • November Meeting

    • November 19, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Misha Lazzara

    Using Setting to Develop Conflict, Increase Tension, & Create Momentum

    In a meeting of my writing group not long ago, one of my colleagues mentioned how I have a knack for using settings to help drive conflict or amp tension. That’s all it took to make me realize how important setting is in my writing, how underused it is in the works of many writers. If you’ll share forty minutes with me, I’ll show you the secrets of how I accomplish that.

    Misha Lazzara is the author of Manmade Constellations, a late-stage coming-of-age novel that explores the tensions between honoring our values and beliefs while contending with the pitfalls of judgment and self-righteousness. She received her MA in creative writing from UNC Charlotte and her MFA in prose from NC State University. She lives in Charlotte with her husband and three children.

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • December Meeting

    • December 17, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211


    Flash Fiction Winners and Critique Group Organization


    December's meeting will, as always, be a "two-fur"--with two good reasons to meet with your friends at the Charlotte Writers Club. The first order of business will be to recognize and celebrate the winners of the Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Contest. As ever, the first, second, and third place winners will read their work.


    Come for the pleasure of hearing work well done; leave with a little inspiration for your own work in the Creative Nonfiction Contest which is open now. 

    From celebrating the Ruth Moose winners, we'll turn to the all-important business of getting members new and old into already existing and groups just forming. If you write, you know the truth: There's no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. And there is nothing like active participation in a critique group, a gathering of supportive writers who face the same struggles, critical readers who can tell you what's working and what had gone astray, to help you improve your work. 

    Skeptical? Come to the meeting. Those who have been members of a critique group (or groups) will convince you that you're missing out on one of the most significant opportunities the Charlotte Writers Club offers to members!

    Join a group or start the group you want and need!

    If you have questions or thoughts,
    please contact     membership@charlottewritersclub.org

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • January Meeting

    • January 21, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Amy Landers

    Three Keys to Building an Effective Author Website: Craft a Digital Space Where You Can Know Your Audience


    In this presentation, Amy will share a simple approach to creating a website that attracts visitors and turns them into loyal fans. You'll discover how you can leverage storytelling and a "hub and spoke" model to foster a community around your work. This session is a must for authors looking to connect with their audience in meaningful ways. If there is sufficient interest, this short session will be followed by a more in-depth Saturday workshop.

    Amy Landers is a website designer, teacher, and writer. She came to marketing via a biology degree and a passion for sharing the stories of the natural world at the ABQ BioPark. For more than 15 years, she's been serving creators, purpose-driven entrepreneurs, and other changemakers through marketing, copywriting, and design services. When she's not at the computer, she loves to practice and teach about gardening. She and her family grow food and wildlife habitat on a small farm near Asheville, NC.

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • February Meeting

    • February 18, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Jenifer Ruff

    The Basics of Self-Publishing


     Jenifer Ruff has published more than     fifteen  mystery, thriller, and crime fiction   novels. She is a hybrid author—one with self-   published and traditionally published books     and she has mastered the art of self-   publishing.  She’ll give you the knowledge to   know if self-publishing will work for you. Bring  your questions!

    USA Today bestselling author Jenifer Ruff writes dark and twisty mystery thrillers—fifteen books in all—including the award-winning Agent Victoria Heslin Series. Her writing has garnered numerous honors and awards: Pretty Little Girls won the 2020 Reader's International Favorite Thriller Award; Vanished on Vacation, the 2022 Global Book Award Winner (Thriller Category); and When They Find Us was an Amazon #1 Bestseller and #1 New Release.

    Jenifer grew up in Massachusetts, has a biology degree from Mount Holyoke College and a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology from Yale University. She adores peace and quiet, animals, and exercise, especially hiking. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and the mountains of VA with her family and a pack of greyhounds. If she’s not writing, she’s probably devouring books or out exploring trails with her dogs.

    To learn more visit jenruff.com

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details

  • March Meeting

    • March 18, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Joy Calloway

    Crafting Beliveable

    Historical Characters




    One of the major challenges in writing historical fiction is creating characters that are both compelling to us today and true to the time period they're from. This craft talk will focus on research tactics and strategies that will help novelists build fully-formed historical characters--both fictional and biographical. It is often said that historical fiction done right will allow the reader to step back in time and feel what it would have been like to live in a time and space gone by. We'll explore how our characters can take us out of place if they're built incorrectly and also how they can truly immerse us in another era if done right.

    Joy Callaway is the international bestselling author of All The Pretty Places, The Grand Design, Secret Sisters, and The Fifth Avenue Artists Society. Joy lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two children. To learn more, please visit: https://www.joycallaway.com/


    If you have questions or thoughts,
    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details


Charlotte Writers Club  is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, P.O. Box 220954, Charlotte, NC 28222-0954

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software