Salon Series
2016 Events for WoM Members
Standing Out From The Slush Pile
Sunday, January 10 , 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
2:00 to 3:30 pm, Members Free Write
3:30 to 5:00 pm, Open to the public
Mill Valley Library
375 Throckmorton Ave.
Ever wonder what really happens after you hit “submit?” Panelists Thea Sullivan from the writing conference Lit Camp, Mary Hill, co-director of the San Francisco production of Listen To Your Mother, Darothy Durkac from Litquake and Vanessa Hua from the Writer’s Grotto will give the inside scoop on the business of judging submissions. Learn about common pitfalls and get tips on how to make your essay or writing sample shine in front of the judges. Moderated by Janine Kovac.
Mount Madonna Annual Writing Retreat
January 22-24
There is no charge for the writing portion of this retreat, only for the accommodations. The retreat itself is unstructured although in years past, some of us have written silently side-by-side. Mount Madonna is beautiful and there is also a wellness massage practice and yoga classes. (It’s a full on yoga commune with Hanuman Temple and whole 9 yards.) Choose from cozy cabins or hotel-like rooms, shared bath or private. All meals are included. Stay one night! Stay both nights! Stay a whole week and make the rest of us jealous! Book your own accommodations at mountmadonna.org.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, February 19, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Join us for monthly writing in the East Bay at the wonderful Bittersweet Café.
Open Mic Mamas
Sunday, February 21
2:00 to 3:30, Members Free Write
3:30 to 5:00, Open to the public
Mill Valley Library
375 Throckmorton Ave.
It’s the 5th Annual Open Mic Mamas! We’ll pull 10 names out of a hat (with seven spots reserved for Write on Mamas). You’ll read your most entertaining, heart-breaking or knee-slapping five-minute piece (your Listen To Your Mother essay submission, perhaps?) Time limit is strictly and loudly enforced. Fiction or non-fiction. Parent-related or not. The choice is yours.
In Conversation with Frances Dinkelspiel
Sunday, March 13
2:00 to 3:30, Members Free Write
3:30 to 5:00, Open to the public
Mill Valley Library
375 Throckmorton Ave.
Join us for an author conversation with Frances Dinkelspiel, whose most recent book: Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California is both a New York Times and a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. Dinkelspiel is a co-founder of the news site Berkeleyside and part of the 2015 faculty for Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She’ll be in conversation with Write on Mama Mary Allison Tierney to discuss the craft of writing exciting narrative non-fiction.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, March 18, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Join us for monthly writing in the East Bay at the wonderful Bittersweet Café.
In Conversation with T.J. Stiles
Sunday, April 10
2:00 to 3:30, Members Free Write
3:30 to 5:00, Open to the public
Mill Valley Library
375 Throckmorton Ave.
T. J. Stiles, winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize (and dad of two), comes to the Mill Valley library in April to discuss his most recent biography Custer’s Trials with Write on Mama Mary Allison Tierney. They’ll discuss the craft of storytelling in nonfiction and the biographer’s dilemma: when to stop the research.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, April 22, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Join us for monthly writing in the East Bay at the wonderful Bittersweet Café.
Up Close and Personal with Literary Agents
Sunday, May 1
1:30 pm – 4:30 pm Mill Valley Library
This event is free and open to the public. Click here to register
75 Throckmorton Ave.
What do agents look for in a manuscript? In a client? How do you get their attention? Join us May1st for a panel of locally-based agents and editors who will dish about queries, manuscripts, and their role in getting your book published in today’s oversaturated world of books. Panelists include: Ted Weinstein of Ted Weinstein Literary Management; Liz Kracht from Kimberly Cameron & Associates; and Laura Mazer, executive editor at Seal Press. Moderated by Janine Kovac.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, May 20, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Join us for monthly writing in the East Bay at the wonderful Bittersweet Café.
Oakland Book Fair
Sunday, May 22, 11 am-6 pm
Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ozawa Plaza
Oakland
Join the Write on Mamas at the Oakland Book Festival. The one-day, annual literary event, dedicated to books, ideas, and the pleasures of literacy, aims to serve the reading public, to encourage debate, and to celebrate the City of Oakland. It will host more than sixty writers and is free and open to the public. Click here for complete details.
San Francisco Meet Up
Sunday, June 12, 4 pm to 6 pm
Farley’s Potrero
1315 18th St, San Francisco
We’re taking our June meeting to San Francisco! Join us at Farley’s in Potrero for writing and chatting and starting the summer off the “write” way!
Writing with WoMs
Friday, June 17, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us in the East Bay for BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
A Midsummer Night of Reading and Writing with Grant Faulkner
Sunday, July 10, 5:30 – 8:30pm
Kaleidoscope Coffee, 109 Park Place
Point Richmond, CA
Our July meeting moves to the East Bay at the lovely and serene Kaleidoscope Coffee. We’ll still write (note new time from 5:30 to 7:00) but our main event this month is a lineup of fantastic WoMs and guest reader Grant Faulkner, executive director of NaNoWriMo.
Emceed by WoM member Julia Park Tracey, Poet Laureate of Alameda, our readers are:
Nancy Devine
Mark Hennessy
Marianne Lonsdale
Meika Rouda
Julia Park Tracey
Pamela Alma Weymouth
and Grant Faulkner
Kaleidoscope Coffee serves eats and treats from Tara’s Organic Ice Cream to Bacano’s pastries. They’ve got signature Wrecking Ball Coffee and a great selection of beer, wine and more! This meeting is open to the public, so please bring friends!
Writing with WoMs
Friday, July 15, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us in the East Bay for BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, August 19, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us in the East Bay for BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
Summer Anthology Fundraiser: Write with a Flight and Some Bites, Guest speaker: Sheri Hoffmann
Sunday, August 21, 2:00 – 5:00 pm
Bouchaine Vineyards
1075 Buchi Station Road, Napa
Note: This is a ticketed event.
Purchase tickets here ($40 – $75 sliding scale)
Say good-bye to summer at this very special write-in at the bucolic Bouchaine Vineyards in Napa.
We’ll kick off the meeting with our big announcement: the theme for our 2018 anthology! (Voting begins August 10th.) And then we’ll write. At picnic tables overlooking the vineyards, with wine to sip and nibbles to munch. Can’t you see it? Can’t you taste it? Come, the vines are calling.
We’ll conclude the party with an inspiring discussion with Sheri Hoffmann. Giving–what does it do for you? When should you say “NO” (and stick to it) and when should you raise your hand to help? Sheri will highlight strategies to adopt (and pitfalls to avoid) to ensure that you stay inspired and energized when you give your gifts of time and talent.
Ticket price (sliding scale of $40 to $75) includes a flight of three wines and munchies (valued at $35) and a tax-deductible donation to our anthology fund of $5 to $40. Click here to pay online. Or reserve your spot by emailing anthology@writeonmamas.com if you’d rather pay at the door. Please register before August 20th.
And yes! You can donate even if you can’t attend! Just click here and 100% of your donation will be tax-deductible.
Nayomi Munaweera
In conversation with Mary Allison Tierney
Sunday, September 11
1:30 – 3:00 pm, Members Free Write
3:30 – 4:30 pm, Nayomi Munaweera in Conversation with Mary Allison Tierney
(open to the public)
Mill Valley Library, Creekside Room
375 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, CA
Nayomi Munaweera’s debut book, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia, was short-listed for Northern California Book Award, and long-listed for the Man Asia Prize. Publisher’s Weekly compared Nayomi Munaweera’s lyrical fiction to Michael Ondaatje and Jhumpa Lahiri. The San Francisco Chronicle lauded her second novel, What Lies Between Us, for its “dazzling, no-hold-barred storytelling.” Write on Mamas is proud to have her in conversation with Mary Allison Tierney.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, September 16, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us in the East Bay for BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
The New Normal: The Politics of Parenting
Sunday, October 9
1:30 – 3:00 pm, Members Free Write
3:30 – 4:30 pm, The New Normal: The Politics of Parenting
(open to the public)
Mill Valley Public Library, Creekside Room
375 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, CA
Write on Mamas and the Mill Valley library are proud to be a part of the 2016 Litquake Festival!
There’s a new “normal” in the 21st century. Today’s families are blended, adoptive, and multi-cultural. They include parents from a variety of backgrounds and children with a variety of special talents and needs. Can we make America great again by raising our kids to be compassionate and independent? Jeremy Adam Smith (Are We Born Racist) moderates this stellar panel of experts: Joshua Gamson (Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to Kinship), Diane Ehrensaft (The Gender Creative Child), Erica Reischer (What Great Parents Do), and Anne K. Ross (Beyond Rain Man).
Lit Crawl 2016
Write on Mamas Present: Mamas Misbehaving
October 15, 7:15 pm – Phase 2
The Women’s Building
Audre Lorde Room
3543 18th Street, San Francisco
Let’s just say we hope our children don’t attend. How do fishnet stockings and dog collars go together? Talk about airing your dirty laundry!
Readers
Vicki DeArmon
Claire Hennessy
Sheri Hoffmann
Laurel Hilton
Maria Ramos-Chertok
Gloria Saltzman
Jennifer Van Santvoord
Mama of Ceremonies: Marianne Lonsdale
Writing with WoMs
Friday, October 21, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us in the East Bay for BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
Aya de Leon
In Conversation with Maria Ramos-Chertok
November 13
1:30 – 3:00 pm, Members Free Write
3:30 – 4:30 pm, Aya de Leon in conversation with Maria Ramos-Chertok
(open to the public)
Mill Valley Public Library, Creekside Room
375 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, CA
Debut novelist Aya de Leon writes about race, gender, and culture. She teaches poetry at U.C. Berkeley and is a former artist-in-residence at Stanford University. And in November, she’ll be in conversation with Maria Ramos-Chertok. They’ll discuss her first novel Uptown Thief and de Leon’s artful blending of social justice with a juicy heist in the same narrative.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, November 18, 10 am
Bittersweet Café in Rockridge
5427 College Ave, Oakland
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us in the East Bay for BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
Writing with WoMs
Friday, December 16, 10 am
Sweetie Pies
520 Main Street, Napa
Ready, Set, GOAL!
Join us for our first North Bay BAD ASS (Bittersweet Accountability Discussion And Support Sessions) where we discuss our writing projects and set our goals for next month.
5th Annual Write on Mamas Holiday Party
December 11
Write on Mamas residence, Oakland
4:00 – 5:00 pm, Members Free Write
5:00 – 7:00 pm, Party!
Join us for our 5th Annual Write on Mamas Holiday Party! Write on Mama and founding member Marianne Lonsdale has opened her home in Oakland for us to write, commune, and toast to nearly five years of Write on Mamas! And we’d love to hear what you’re working on and your writing goals for the coming year. Writing starts at 4pm, followed by festivities, bubbly, yummy appetizers from 5pm to 7pm. Bring a friend! The more, the merrier!