Upcoming Events
Contribute to the MCWC Vicente Zeta Colacion Scholarship
I'm happy to share that the Mendocino Coast Writers' Conference is establishing the Vicente Zeta Colacion Scholarship. This scholarship in Vicente's memory will support a Chicanx/Latinx writer in attending our 2025 conference in August. This was an idea to memorialize Vicente's name and work as a poet, and in his name, bring awareness to the creative writing of the Chicanx/Latinx culture.
Visit mcwc.org/donate
The Word Circle
1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month, 6:30-8:30 pm PT
Virtual Meetings on Zoom
All levels and genres welcome at no cost. Join in for free-writing and bring original work to share for feedback in a supportive, peer setting.
Email georgina.marie@hotmail.com to sign up and receive Zoom info.
New Darlings: Readings of Contemporary Poetry
Last Friday of every month, 5-6 pm PT
Virtual Meetings on Zoom
New Darlings is a poetry series created by Jennifer Mills Kerr & I in 2022 to create good conversations around a new poet each month, connecting poetry lovers around the world. In November 2023, I was joined by new cohost, Lake County poet and now Lake County Poet Laureate 2024-2026 Brenda Marie Yeager.
We meet on the last Friday of every month to read and discuss a newly selected poet. Follow us on Eventbrite to register for events: New Darlings Eventbrite
Shut Up & Write!® Lake County
Join monthly for Lake County’s chapter of "Shut Up & Write!" a friendly, dedicated session where you get to focus on your writing in the company of other writers doing the same thing. Writers of all genres and all experience levels welcome. Free to attend--but you must reserve a seat.
Follow us and RSVP for events via the Meetup platform HERE.
Your hosts for this event are Georgina Marie Guardado, Lake County Poet Laureate 20-24, and Cinamon Vann, nonfiction writer and founder of the Sacramento chapter of Shut Up & Write.
2025 Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference July 31 - August 2, 2025 Mendocino, CA
The Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference is a vibrant gathering that offers Morning Workshops in a wide range of genres. Afternoons are packed with craft seminars, panels, one-on-one consultations, and open mics; and every evening offers an opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie and connection that make this conference, in the words of one participant, “life changing.”
General Registration Opens April 1, 2025
High school students can apply for scholarships until June 1, 2025
Lake County Library Presents: Forrest Gander Saturday, April 5, 2025, 2-4 PM PST Lakeport Library, 1425 N. High Street, Lakeport, CA
Celebrate National Poetry Month in April with the Lake County Library and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Forrest Gander!
An audience Q&A and book signing will follow a reading by Gander.
Bright Hill Press's Word Thursdays Reading Thursday, April 10, 2025, 3 PM PT via Zoom Featuring w/Melissa Eleftherion Carr
Bright Hill Press is dedicated to increasing audiences' appreciation of the writing arts and oral traditions that comprise American literature. Join for Word Thursdays, a poetry reading.
Zoom Link to be provided
Pacific University MFA Program’s STRATA Writing Weekend Friday, April 11-13, 2025, 9am-5pm Pacific Time via Zoom
Over the weekend of April 11-13, 2025, writers across genres are welcomed to join MFA faculty Cecily Wong and Tyree Daye for a three-day online writing course: “Drawing from Real Life on the Margins.” In poetry and prose, writers will explore the images and phrases they’ve been drawn to over a life, exploring lives we all live at the margins of dominant culture and power, considering how those details of a life might be connected to how individuals are thought to be in the world. Through craft talks, generative writing sessions, and workshops, participants will also be encouraged to explore ways to translate the slippery, nuanced, often overlooked details of real life to the page, and also how to uncouple real life truths from challenging real-life circumstances—in other words, how to write truthfully about ourselves and the people in our lives without hewing to the literal.
I’m excited to facilitate the Q&A for Tyree Daye.
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/mr259a9s
For more information, write MFA director Scott Korb: smkorb@pacificu.edu
MCWC Online Seminar - Praise Be: Writing with Gratitude and Observation Saturday, April 12, 2025, 10:00am - 12:00pm PT Via Zoom
The Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference is proud to offer online programming to supplement our summer conference. Our seminars constitute an important fundraiser for us to support our conference, so please spread the word. Writers at all levels are welcome! Every registration helps us continue creating meaningful, prestigious, and high-quality literary programming for our community. We appreciate your support!
How can we write with praise and from a place of hope when we’re surrounded by grief and injustice? How can we utilize creative writing as a vehicle for expressing gratitude and beauty while observing our world and honoring emotions? How can we do all of this using craft elements and literary devices, so we don’t cross over into sentimentality? In this workshop, we will explore how we can nurture our writing lives even in chaotic circumstances. Related topics will include supporting each other through writing communities, self-doubt, caring for ourselves as creatives, and writerly expectations. A presentation will be offered followed by a Q&A, group discussion, and generative writing session with optional sharing.
Go to https://mcwc.org/online-seminar-registration/praisebe to register.
11th Annual Bay Area Book Festival May 31-June 1, 2025, Berkeley, CA
Since 2015, Bay Area Book Festival has featured the boldest and most brilliant literary voices in conversations about issues that matter, with a focus on justice and diversity.
All programming—250-300 authors on 15 stages—is accessible with one $15 pass, and the Outdoor Fair, a wonderland of literary vendors, kids’ activities, and family fun, is free.