What JRW Means to Me
Phaedra Hise, a founding member of James River Writers, is the senior editor for COLLOQUY. Previously, she was a contributor to Fortune Small Business, a staff writer for Inc., and a contributing editor for Virginia Living. Her award-winning work has been anthologized and published in the Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Salon, Forbes, Popular Mechanics, and Smithsonian Air & Space. She has written five books, most recently The Secret Lives of Hoarders: True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter, published in 2011.
It can’t possibly be 10 years ago that David Robbins called me to ask if I could round up a few of my writer friends to discuss putting on a writer’s conference in Richmond. We gasped when John Kneebone at the Library of Virginia offered us the space, and Hunton and Williams donated money – suddenly the idea was something we had to make happen! And we did.
We worked harder than we thought possible, balancing our families, deadlines and muses against the bottomless pit of a growing organization. We learned about finances, nonprofits, partnerships, event planning, and programming. It was an impressive education in logistics and business for a bunch of poets, novelists, and journalists.
Ann and Muriel created the conference out of nothing but an idea. Howard connected us to Media General and threw great parties. Nan and Dean raised money, made corporate connections, and talked about a bigger vision. Tom brought VCU on board. Dennis started The Writing Show. Stephen designed our logo and gorgeous posters. David and I kept it all moving forward and tried not to kill each other with impassioned arguments when we disagreed.
Starting James River Writers not only built a lasting organization that I know I will be proud of for decades to come, but the hard construction work forged lasting friendships. Many of the volunteers I worked alongside have become like family for me – close enough that we know everyone’s faults and love them still. Above all, that’s what JRW means to me.
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