Annapolis / Anne Arundel County Chapter First Annual Holiday Book Sale Event

On Tuesday, December 8^th, at 6:30 PM, the Annapolis/Anne Arundel County Chapter of the Maryland Writers’ Association will host a Holiday Book Sale Event. The meeting is held at the Ahh, Coffee! Shop in the Eastport Shopping Center on Bay Ridge Avenue in Annapolis.

The Book Sale Event will contain only books and works by local authors –from many genres. There will be light refreshments and gift wrapping will be offered for those purchasing books as holiday gifts. Two Door prizes of books on writing will raffled off. As always, fresh coffees and lattes are available from Ahh, Coffee!

The Annapolis Chapter of MWA is planning to make this an annual event.  Published local authors who are members of MWA or will join MWA on the evening of the meeting are welcome to bring their books to the Holiday Book Sale Event.  The meeting is open to the public.  The cost of joining MWA is $35.00 annually, which includes both state and local dues.

In addition to buying books as holiday gifts, this is an excellent opportunity for aspiring writers to network with published writers, make contacts and learn how the writers’ acquired their publishers.

Make Your Holiday Gift Count for Maryland Writers

For over twenty years, the Maryland Writers’ Association has nurtured and supported the Maryland literary arts community with monthly meetings, workshops, lectures, author showcases, newsletters, and an annual writers’ conference. This holiday season, why not gift your favorite reader with a copy of New Lines from the Old Line State: An Anthology of Maryland Writers, featuring 36 pieces of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction by 29 stylistically and culturally diverse Maryland authors, including:

Eric D. Goodman, Juliet M. Johnson, Lalita Noronha, Austin S. Camacho, Mary Stojak, Frank S. Joseph, Gary L. Lester, Sonia L. Linebaugh, Vanessa Orlando, Lynn Stearns, Sherri Cook Woosley, Angela Render, Jennie L. Deitz, Sherry Audette Morrow, Sally Whitney, Jane Frutchey, Susan Lesser, Liz Moser, Bonny Barry Sanders, Laura Shovan, B. Morrison, Scott Frias, Lauren Beth Eisenberg, Sherry Bosley, Chris Bancells, Al Karasa, Rosemary Mild, Elizabeth Ayres, and Ami Spencer. The authors of New Lines—all MWA members—have been featured in publications as varied as the Potomac Review, the Baltimore Review, Christian Science Monitor, Chattahoochee Review, Slow Trains, the Arabesques Review, Poetry Online, Chesapeake Life magazine, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and Writers Weekly, and have been winners of the Maryland Literary Arts Award, the Maryland Individual Artist Award, and awards from the Atlantic Monthly, among others.

With work in genres ranging from mystery to fantasy to literary fiction, with essays and poetry of hope, nostalgia, love, and grief, /em>New Lines has something for everyone. The anthology sells at retail for $15.95, but you can receive a 15% discount by ordering via the MWA website. The anthology is also available via Amazon.com, BN.com, and at your local bookseller. Please support the Maryland Writers’ Association today by purchasing a copy for yourself, or give a few as gifts!

Come Celebrate a Fusion of Art and Words at the BMA!

MWA is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s FREE Audio Tour Launch Party this coming Friday, January 16, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.!

Members and their guests are invited to celebrate the launch of the BMA’s innovative new audio tour, “60 Objects | Countless Stories,” in which local authors guide you through selected works in the BMA’s collection. The audio tour also features other familiar voices — several MWAB members are featured too!

The launch party will feature live readings from authors Laura Lippman, Michael Kimball, Olu Butterfly Woods, an others whose voices are featured in the audio tour. There will also be live music inspired the BMA’s collection by singer/songwriter Caleb Stine and jazz group Kevin Robinson Quartet, book signings, storytelling, poetry readings, writing activities, cash bar, and more! And be sure to stop by the MWA table to say hi (and maybe stand our hard-working volunteers a drink… ).

The Baltimore Museum of Art is located at 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218. For more information, call (443) 573-1700 or visit them on the web.

MWA Chapters Need Your Help!

Want to find other writers in your neck of the woods? Looking for colleagues with whom you can discuss everything from plotting to publishing? Have a desire to share your writing with the public? Would you like to have famous writers and editors come hang out with you and share their secrets and behind-the-scenes stories?

Why not start an MWA chapter? Or work with fellow MWA members in your area to get one going?

Chapters bring local communities of writers together through regular meetings, programs, and events of interest — while in turn benefitting from the resources of the well-established statewide parent organization. Those benefits includes things like seed money and speaker stipends, a bank account for chapter funds, chapter website hosting and maintenance, regular announcement placements in MWA publications and e-mails, and access to statewide press releases.

Once chartered, chapters are run by elected officers who provide a venue and programming for local monthly meetings. Chapters, like the parent organization, are encouraged to run their own programs of guest speakers on topics of interest to local writers in the area.

If you’d like help establishing a thriving local community of writers in your area, please e-mail Vice-President Gary Lester.

Here’s the latest chapter news:

Annapolis Chapter

There is growing interest in rekindling the Annapolis-area community of MWA members around a new Annapolis chapter. If you are interested in helping make this happen, please e-mail MWA Vice-President Gary Lester for more information.

Frederick Chapter

The newly-launched Frederick Chapter meets monthly at the beautiful and recently-renovated C. Burr Artz Library, 110 East Patrick Street, adjacent to Frederick’s riverfront walk. E-mail chapter president Linda Alexander for more information.

Baltimore Chapter

www.mwabaltimore.org

The first MWA chapter to launch, the Baltimore Chapter meets on the fourth Mondays of every month except December, at 7pm. Locations vary around Baltimore City and the Greater Baltimore area. The chapter is co-sponsored by the CityLit Project and the Write Here, Write Now workshops at the Creative Alliance. E-mail chapter president Paul Lagasse for more information, or visit the chapter website for the latest news and sign up to receive e-mail news and updates.