Upcoming Events
2025 Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference Scholarship & Master Class Applications OPEN
Applications to the Mendocino Coast Writers' Conference 2025 conference scholarships and to our juried-in Master Class are open!
We have 12 genre workshops to choose from, including our Master Class, with a wonderful array of esteemed faculty. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, February 28, 2025.
General Registration opens on April 1st.
Visit mcwc.org for details and to apply
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
Spirit of Place Anthology Benefit Poetry Reading Friday, February 28, 2025, 6:30 pm Grace Hudson Museum, 431 S. Main St., Ukiah, CA 95482
Join Bill Churchill, Linda Noel, Michael Riedell, Theresa Whitehill, and I for a reading to benefit the Spirit of Place Mendocino County Women Poets Anthology. $10 donation at the door.
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.
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
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.
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.”
Scholarship & Master Class Applications close February 28, 2025
General Registration Opens April 1, 2025
High school students can apply for scholarships until June 1, 2025