February 2026 News
Plans, Upcoming Events, and New Mexico Arts-SouthWest Writers Outreach
Message from the Prez
Happy February!
Now's the best time to check in on your New Year's writing goals and see
how you're doing. I've already forgotten mine, so if you remember yours, count that as a win!Since it's still the cold season, it's the best time of year to curl up with your notebook or computer, a cup of something warm and hearty, and the will to get words on page. Take advantage of that before the warmth of spring lures you away from your goals—I know that siren call well.
SouthWest Writers is working in some new frontiers that we alluded to in
early January. We've moved our Saturday workshops so they no longer fall
immediately after our Saturday meeting, but we still have the space in
the room at UNM Continuing Education until 2pm. That means that we can
have all sorts of fun activities! If you have a critique group, consider
making that your time and space to meet. If you want to meet others who
write in your genre, let us know and we can set up genre-specific tables
for networking opportunities.After the February 14th meeting, we're going to have a committee meeting for the 2026 contest! You don't have to be part of the committee to stop on by and see what's up. We have many committees in SWW, and we intend to try to hold various committee meetings after our Second-Saturday events throughout the year.
Please send us your suggestions about how we can use this space and time to best support you. Feel free to email me at: president@swwriters.com. Our mission at SouthWest Writers is to help writers succeed in their writing goals in every way we can, but we can only do that if we know what it is that you need.
Have a happy February—and maybe go write/read/edit/revise something too, to make it even happier.Kimberly Rose
President
2026 New Mexico Arts-SouthWest Writers Outreach
By Jim Tritten, Coordinator
The Fiscal Year 2026 Arts & The Military Mini Grants Program has awarded SouthWest Writers (SWW) a new grant, to run from January 1, 2026 until June 15, 2026. Veterans and family members who were published in Holes in Our Hearts (2023) or Unbreaking the Circle (2025), or who participated in the 2024 online memoir course, will offer in-person public readings of their published writing from those programs.
Speakers will discuss how writing contributed to their healing. If you would like to help host one of these outreach efforts, or for more information, click here. If you are one of the published authors who would like to read at one of these locations, click on the same link and scroll down to see the venues where we’ll be reading (it’s updated frequently).
Upcoming SWW Events
You can find information about upcoming events on the SWW website here. Here’s what’s on tap this month.
Saturday, February 14, 2026: Monthly Meeting (in-person and on Zoom) from 10 a.m. until 11:45 a.m. To Free, or Not to Free (Verse): The Pros & Cons of Formed & Unformed Poetry will be presented by Dan Wetmore. More information here.
Saturday, February 21, 2026: Workshop (Zoom only) from 12:00 until 2:00 p.m. Dirtying up Your Characters will be presented by Marilyn Atlas More information here.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026: Meeting presentation (Zoom only) from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. Information about the 2026 Writing Contest will be presented by Kimberly Rose . More information here.
Last Month’s Writing Challenge - The Results
In January we challenged you to write about your new beginnings. Nine SWW members contributed to last month’s Challenge. Some stories are funny, some factual, some introspective. Here are the authors and their titles:
Maralie Waterman Agnes—Grand Idea
Pat Walkow—Embracing My Authorship
Jim Tritten—The Call
Dita Dow—The First Lie
Léonie Rosenstiel—I Admit It, I’m 78 Years Old and in Law School
Reza Ghadimi—Brewing a Pot of Hope
Ruth E. Thaler-Carter—New Beginnings
R. U. Kidden—Reasonable Alimony
Sam Mooreman—Rolling On
This Month’s Writing Challenge for SWW Members
The monthly challenge is a terrific opportunity to write and submit short pieces based on a prompt. Entries we select for publication will appear on the SouthWest Writers Sage Challenge webpage and will be eligible for inclusion in upcoming anthologies. For more information and our submission guidelines, click here. Email your entry in MS Word or TXT format to info@swwriters.com by the 20th of the month.
This month’s challenge: No More Penny?!
Did you know that the U.S. Mint no longer makes pennies? The key motivation is production costs. According to the U.S. Mint’s 2024 Annual Report (PDF), producing and distributing a single penny costs 3.69 cents, nearly four times its face value. So what do you think about that? What are we to do with those piggy banks and water jugs full of pennies we’ve been collecting for years?
February’s Sage Challenge: Write up to 800 words in any genre that centers around a penny. Deadline is February 25th. Send your story or article to: webmaster@swwriters.com.
Let’s Learn From Each Other
We’re excited to share your sage perspectives about how to hone our craft, cultivate a fruitful writing life, or work with publishers and vendors. (This is not a place to share member news.)
If you’ve recently written and posted a piece on your blog, website, Facebook Page, or other social media platform that fits this section, email Léonie a link to the piece along with a two-sentence introduction to sage@swwriters.com.
Regional and Online Literary Happenings
You might want to share local, regional, or online events that our members might be interested in.
Email sage@swwriters.com with links to anything you think we should share with Sage subscribers.
If you’re not yet a member, learn more about the benefits here.
We have resources for writers across our platforms and additional content on our members-only section of the website. Visit our website, ask to join our Facebook Group, check out our blog, see what we’re saying on X (Twitter), check out the session recordings on our YouTube channel, or find our page on Goodreads.