Writers interested in publishing and promoting their work are invited to Studio B Fine Art Gallery and Studio on Sunday, Oct. 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. for a panel discussion entitled “Critiquing, Publishing, and Promoting” featuring Virginia Beards, Professor and writer; Jim Breslin, author, publisher, and founder of the West Chester Slam; Heather Thomas, published author, former poet laureate, and English Professor emeritus; and Dawn Wivell, owner and lead writer at Dawn Wivell Writing Services and teacher of email and social media marketing seminars and webinars.
“Writers and readers can expect to find inspiration, insights, and useful information from accomplished writers and a social media specialist. Panelists will speak from their life experience to offer thoughts, opinions, and views on the writing, publishing, and promoting processes. Audience involvement is encouraged,” according to host Bob Wood, Studio B Gallery Adjunct.
Panel discussion is planned from 2 to 3 p.m.; refreshments and conversation from 3 -4 p.m.
“The mission statement of Boyertown’s Studio B Art Gallery includes the promotion of the communication or literary arts,” explains Jane Stahl, Director of Community Relations and former teacher of English in the Boyertown School District. “We are eager to increase our community’s involvement in reading and writing.”
Toward that end the studio has held exhibits combining the visual and literary arts including the printing of booklets of prose and poetry; poetry readings; authors talks; a medley of classes, workshops and courses in writing over its seven-year history.
Beards holds an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. She was a faculty member of the English department of Penn State University for 23 years. Virginia has published literary criticism, poetry, and short stories. Her most recent book of poems is Exit Pursued by a Bear.
Breslin is the author of Shoplandia, a humorous novel inspired by his seventeen years as a television producer for at home shopping giant QVC. His short story collection, Elephant, came out in 2011. His micro-publishing project, Oermead Press, has published five books to date. Jim is the founder of the West Chester Slam and co-founder of both the Lancaster and Lehigh Valley Story Slams.
Thomas attended Vassar College and completed her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania followed by master’s degree and doctoral degree from Temple University. Heather was first published in Yarrow magazine and has since published numerous works of fiction, essays and journalism. She was poet laureate of Berks County and continues to teach poetry and writing. Her most recent book of poems is Blue Ruby.
Wivell and her team of writers provide content marketing copy to small businesses and She has a BA in English and a Masters in Business Administration
Wood invites the public for a wide-ranging discussion centered on the art and craft of writing as well as publishing and promoting “our rapidly evolving marketplaces.” Wood himself has published four books on local, hosts weekly presentations on local history at Studio B, contributes a weekly column to the area’s local newspaper Community Connections, is a popular speaker and presenter at local civic, service, and history organizations, serves as President of the New Hanover Township Historical Society and board member and museum director of the Goschenhoppen Historians.
Assisting Wood is Craig H. Bennett, former teacher of English with the Boyertown School District. Bennett wrote and published Nights on the Mountain that consists primarily of the interior monologue of a man seriously contemplating a permanent relocation to Europe while backpacking in Washington’s North Cascades.
Bennett holds degrees from Ursinus and Johns Hopkins. He has a substantial background in music, has worked as a professional on-camera and voice-over performer in Philadelphia and New York, and is retired from the faculty of Valley Forge Military College. He has traveled extensively in Europe, visited the former Soviet Union, and participated in an expedition to the dry tropical wilderness of northeastern Brazil on the trail of Col. Percival H. Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 while searching for the lost city he designated as “Z.”
Suggested donation in support of the event is $5.
