Stay tuned for June!

May 17 Open Meeting

6:30 pm at Kenosha Creative Space, 624 7th Ave. (NE corner of 7th & 57th downtown Kenosha.)

Share your words with a supportive community of writers. ALL writers and wannabe writers, ALL genres, are welcome. We’re kind of a mixed bag with one thing in common: we love words!

Feel free to share a short piece (no more than 4 double-spaced pages) with the group, listen to and comment on the work of others, or just come hang out with us. If possible, bring 6-8 copies so that others may see as well as hear your work. Observers are always welcome!

KWG’s Big Read Poetry Workshop

The workshop, part of the Big Read 2023, focused on creating poems about where we’re from and what home means to us. After of the workshop, several writers opted to read their poems and have them recorded in the library’s digital media studio, the Hub. The video featuring their work is forthcoming.

Christopher Kolon, Kenosha’s New Poet Laureate

The Kenosha Racine Poets Laureate Program celebrated both Kenosha and Racine’s 2022-23 Poets Laureate Friday, March 10, at Blue House Books, downtown Kenosha. Nick Ramsey hosted the event and read from his own work before introducing Christopher Kolon, Kenosha’s laureate and Betty Harmatys Park, Racine’s poet laureate.

For information on the Kenosha Racine Poets Laureate Program, click on the following link: https://krpoets.weebly.com/

Novel Bookcamp This Summer

Racine New Home for Novel Bookcamp Weeks

            RACINE, WIS. (February 5, 2023) – Celebrating its 10^th anniversary providing quality, instructional programs for long-form writers, the not-for-profit Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat is moving its two, week-long residential workshops to Racine this summer.

            The Siena Retreat Center in Racine will host the 2023 All-Genre and Speculative Fiction Novel Bookcamps in June and August, respectively.

            The move was made because the Siena Retreat Center offers larger facilities with an increase in overnight accommodations for the Novel Bookcamp’s growing roster of writers, Founder and Director Dave Rank explained.

            Novel Bookcamp programs offer instruction and individual guidance for writers with book-length fiction and creative nonfiction works-in-progress. The week-long residential programs were held at Cedar Valley UCCI, a 100-acre rural retreat center northwest of Milwaukee.

            “We’re thrilled that the Novel-In-Progress organization chose the Siena Retreat Center for its new home,” Siena’s Arrangements Coordinator Nikki Madisen said. “We look forward to working with the writers. Siena’s website is https://www.sienaretreatcenter.org.

            “While we remain in Southeast Wisconsin, our new location in Racine County centers our programs between the Novel Bookcamp’s primary markets, the metro areas of Milwaukee and Chicago,” Rank said. “It’s also closer to both the Milwaukee and Chicago international airports, which are linked to Racine County by Amtrak’s Hiawatha commuter train line. This makes our Bookcamp Weeks even more convenient for writers to join us. While a majority of our registrants come from Wisconsin and Illinois, we do have writers coming from across the country and even Canada.”

            The All-Genre Bookcamp Week will be held June 18-24 while the Speculative Fiction Bookcamp is scheduled for August 13-19. Both weeks offer three programs tracks to choose.

            Bookcamp Workshops are limited to 15 writers and require an application process. The Workshop offers classes, a Working Writer Clinic, one-on one consultations with each of three instructors, presentations, and pitch sessions.

            The Writing Retreats provide a week of personal writing time with a Retreat Mentor to consult and brainstorm with if desired. The Retreats are open to any writer working in any genre, regardless of genre or format.

            “New this year is our Book Coach program,” Rank said. “Imagine getting an in-depth, written analysis of your manuscript, then spend a week working one-on-one with a professional Book Coach, experienced in writing, teaching, and publishing, with access to group presentations and pitch sessions. That’s what this new program offers.”

            The Book Coach program is limited to 4 writers per week, Rank said.

            “Cedar Valley served us well for the past nine years,” Rank said. “But our enrollment is growing as our reputation spreads. Siena is large enough to accommodate that growth.”

            Siena Retreat Center offers private bedrooms with private bath facilities on its two upper floors with elevator access, Madisen explained.

            “A large meeting space on the first floor will house most of our educational activities with direct access to a full kitchen for those registrants who may need to prepare their own meals,” Rank said.

            Catered continental breakfasts, lunches, and dinners will be provided all week. One fee includes programming, room, and board, Rank said.

            Free use of a washing machine and dryer, and Creativity Room with art supplies are available. A screened porch and large, outdoor patio can be used by guests. Siena’s landscaped grounds invite long walks with access to the Lake Michigan shore, prairie, and woods.

            “Our Bookcamp instructors are all experienced, published novelists, publishers, or agents with backgrounds in writing instruction. Each week, we also bring in literary agents and acquisition editors to add to our core instruction in novel writing and discussions on the publishing business. Guest agents and editors listen to book pitches, join panel discussions, and lead presentations,” Rank said.

            Registration is open soon for both Bookcamps, although space is limited for the All-Genre Writing Retreat. For more information, contact Director Dave Rank, director@novelbookcamp.org.

            The website, www.novelbookcamp.org.

            The Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational corporation assisted by Supportive Friends the Chicago Writers Association; Off Campus Writers Workshop, Winnetka, Ill.; Wisconsin Writers Association, HerStry Writing Community, Milwaukee, Wis., and The Howl Society, Denver, Colo. Members of those organizations can enroll in Bookcamp programs at a reduced rate.