1. Rub elbows with famous writers, past and present.

2. Have your fortune told by a literary muse.

3. Bid on unique items in our best-ever silent auction.

4. Enjoy tasty food and beverages.

5. Celebrate the winners of the Emyl Jenkins Award and the finalists of JRW’s Best Unpublished Novel Contest.

6. Watch artist Eugene Vango capture the scene on canvas.

7. Channel your next character with fun costume and photo opportunities by Mara Dovis Photography, and hear the sweet tunes of the Cary Street Ramblers.

8. Feel good knowing you are making JRW’s literary programs possible!

Reserve your space today!

We extend a special thanks to our event chair, Shann Palmer, and to our Hosts and Sponsors.

How did your debut novel arrive on the windswept plains of northwestern China in 1910? Despite the foreign terrain, in what ways were you writing what you know?

My father was born and raised in China as the son of Congregational missionaries in the early twentieth century. I grew up in a household decorated in part with Chinese objects and old, brown-tinged photographs of my grandparents. I have never been to China, but I have an impressionistic sense of the place. Also, I read my grandfather’s journals which document the eerie beauty of that region and some of the customs of the people there. I did some research, but I also relied a lot on my imagination. Apparently, I had a stored up sense of what China felt like at that earlier time.

For years, you approached your writing with great discipline and now you have six manuscripts and many stories and poems to show for it. How did you sustain such motivation over the years and largely on your own? What’s your daily writing routine? How does your short fiction experience inform your novel writing? (more…)

The Writing Show

Thursday, May 30, 2013
6:30-8:30pm
Children’s Museum of Richmond
2626 W Broad St, ample lot parking

Description

Have you reached the point when you can’t look at your manuscript a moment longer? It may be time for a fresh pair of eyes—and not just anyone’s. But what does working with a professional editor entail, and how will you feel about the result?

The latest in James River Writer’s Writing Show series delves deep into the editing process that resulted in the publication of Virginia Pye’s debut novel. River of Dust, selected as an Indie Next Pick and to be released on May 14, has been hailed by Annie Dillard as “terrific, tremendous, wonderful…a strong, beautiful, deep book.”

Pye, local to Richmond, and her editor, visiting award-winning author Nancy Zafris, a manuscript consultant and series editor for the Flannery O’Connor award for short fiction, will share the details of their successful collaboration. Patty Smith, a short fiction and nonfiction writer and teacher, will moderate the discussion about what had to change and Pye’s 20-year writing journey.

  (more…)