Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference 2021

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Early registration for the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Virtual Conference has been extended through February. What better way to get a jump-start on your writing goals for Spring 2021 than to join in on the workshops and events offered by our friends at ASU and the Virginia G. Piper Center? Follow the links below to learn more about the conference, the workshops offered, and various registration discounts for senior citizens, students, veterans, ASU affiliates, and anyone experiencing a financial hardship.

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Creative Writing Events Cancelled

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As many of you have already heard, GCC and the Maricopa County Community Colleges District have taken steps to prevent the spread of Covid-19. These steps include the extension of spring break for students by one week, and the implementation of distance/online learning for our classes thereafter. If you are a student at GCC or another college within the district, please check your student email for official communication from the district.

As you might expect, then, we are cancelling/postponing all of our creative writing events for the foreseeable future. That includes:

  • The Humorous Poetry Contest & Traveler Celebratory Reading, currently scheduled for March 18th, has been postponed indefinitely.
  • Our student Writing Club will not meet. Use the Discord channel if you would like to stay in touch with each other and share work.
  • Our Saturday Workshop planned for March 21st has been cancelled. The April workshop is still TBD.

Details about rescheduling postponed events will be provided once they are available. If you have any questions about creative writing events at GCC, please contact jeffrey.baker@gccaz.edu.

Second Annual Humorous Poetry Contest!

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Spring is near, and soon it will once again be time to be funny and make money. On March 18th, from 6PM to 8PM, students can compete for not one, but two awards for humorous poetry. First place in the Randy Smith Award will earn $100 and second place will earn $50.

As with last year, if you would like to participate, bring an original poem, read/perform it in front of our live and supportive audience, laugh at the hilarity of your peers, and possibly take home some extra cash. Participants will be afforded three minutes to read their work, and they must be registered GCC students. See the flyer below and direct any questions to jeffrey.baker@gccaz.edu.

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English Department Scholarships Due Soon!

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Every year, the English Department at GCC gives out several scholarships. Most are worth $300 apiece, and all applications for these scholarships are due by the last day of February. Some of these scholarships have specific requirements, whereas others are open to just about anyone. And, there is a scholarship specifically for creative writing students! Please consider applying for as many scholarships as you like and/or as many you qualify for.

A full list of the English Department Scholarships, and instructions for how to apply,  can be found here. If you have any questions, direct them to jeffrey.baker@gccaz.edu.

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Traveler Literary Selections for 2019-2020

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After two months of reading and deliberation, we are ready to announce the selections for Issue #53 of the Traveler, GCC’s Arts & Literary Magazine. Thank you to our student and community readers, and to our faculty judges. Thank you to everyone who submitted their creative work and who made these selections so difficult.With over 100 submissions, the process was highly competitive. We hope that those who were not selected this time around will submit again when he Traveler reopens for submissions in Fall.

The authors and stories listed below will be published in the new issue, due out in April 2020. We will also have a celebratory reading on March 18th, open to the public, where the authors can read their winning work.

Fiction

  • 1st Place: “Symbology” by Malka Daskal
  • 2nd Place: “Alone” by Shannon Fernando
  • 3rd Place: “Antimatter” by Malka Daskal
  • Honorable Mention: “Heart of Ice” by Dawn Gibbs

Creative Nonfiction

  • 1st Place: “Length of a Moment” by Taylor Boucher
  • 2nd Place: “The Third Generation” by Malka Daskal
  • 3rd Place: “A Tuesday Morning Apocalypse” by Taylor Boucher
  • Honorable Mention: “Worthless” by Dawn Gibbs

Poetry

  • 1st Place: “A Decade of Yesterdays” by Bette Griffen
  • 2nd Place: “Double-Edged” by Shannon Fernando
  • 3rd Place: “Stormy Love” by Angel Fletcher
  • Honorable Mention: “Timeless” by Cynthia Herda

One-Act Play/Drama

  • 1st Place: “Sugar Script” by Jacob Nguyen

New Contest: The Robert W. Miller Award for Love Poetry

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We are proud to offer yet another contest for writers at GCC–and one with a monetary reward! Because the calendar has turned to February, and because February is so frequently associated with love and romance, this new contest focuses on love poetry. Thanks to a generous donation by GCC’s English Department Chair, David Miller, we are able to offer two students $100 for their original, creative work. The contest ends on March 1st. Full details and the submission form can be found here: The Robert W. Miller Award for Love Poetry.

Saturday Workshop: How To Whip Writer’s Block

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Writer’s block is an all-too-frequent complaint from aspiring and professional writers of all genres. If it hasn’t hit you yet, it probably will sometime in your writing (or student) career — maybe sooner than later.

Hopefully you’ll recover. Somehow.  Some way.

The issue is what to DO about writer’s block when it does inevitably hit you.

None of us are immune to writer’s block. Unfortunately, never having been hit by writer’s Block, and/or having been hit by writer’s block once (or twice) does not make you immune to being hit with a case of writer’s Block in the future.

Let’s talk more about our dirty little secret disease and explore ways to eliminate writer’s block with Gary Lawrence, short story author and GCC CRW instructor.  Gary will present ten steps any writer can take to loosen the grip of writer’s block, building upon his Writerly Advice post on the same subject.

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Analyze and discuss Gary’s short story “Writer’s Block” in the second half of this participative workshop. Read the story HERE before coming to the workshop, or read the story at or before the workshop (copies provided). Gary will read the story out loud if enough time is available, and will field your  questions regarding the story and his writing process for this story from the author’s point of view.

This workshop is free and open to the public. Light refreshments provided (BYOC = bring your own coffee or beverage).

  • What: How To Whip Writer’s Block, by Gary Lawrence
  • When: Saturday, February 8th from 9:30AM to 12:00PM
  • Where: GCC Main Campus, Room LA-141
  • Why: Writer’s block is like termites around here: You either have them or you’re going to get them sometime soon.

 

Writerly Advice: Whip Writer’s Block Once and For All

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Like death and taxes, perhaps, writer’s block is an all-too-common writer’s affliction that can be counted on to rear its ugly head in the worst of times.

But all is not hopeless. You can whip writer’s block by using a regular writing process – a series of steps, a procedure, a recipe, a plan — to achieve good results each and every time you write.

Without writer’s block.

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