January 2025 News
New SWW President, Military Anthology, a new challenge, and more.
Message from the Prez
Happy New Year to all! As we heard at the celebration in October, SouthWest Writers has achieved great things over the past 40 years. How can we continue that success?
Our tag line is Writers Helping Writers, which means we are here for our members. How can SouthWest Writers help you achieve your writing goals? What kind of workshops and trainings would help you take your writing to the next level? How can we improve as your writing community? Please follow this link: https://forms.gle/jndxQ49LREdHmxTv7 to a survey where you can share your thoughts. Please complete the survey by January 18 as the Board will be holding a planning event at the end of the month.
I am excited about our New Year together. Let’s make 2025 a great year for all of our members!
Judy
Call for Submissions!
SouthWest Writers in partnership with New Mexico Arts & the Military is creating an anthology of reflections on military life tentatively titled Unbreaking the Circle. These short stories, essays, and poetry will be perspectives of military life in general, and/or insights into the broad scope of events, feelings and viewpoints of veterans and their families.
Submissions are now open and will be accepted through March 31, 2025. Find all the submission guidelines and the link to submit your work on the SWW website here.
Upcoming SWW Events
You can find information about upcoming events on the SWW website here. Here’s what’s on tap in the coming weeks.
Saturday, January 11: Meeting presentation (in-person or zoom) from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Publishing with McFarland will be presented by Layla Milholen. More information here.
Saturday, January 11: Workshop (in-person or zoom) from 12:30-2:30pm. Finding Your Niche Markets: A Pathway to Multiple Streams of Income for Writers will be presented by Rose Marie Kern. As a writer, poet, or artist of any kind, you are a specialist providing a product or service that focuses on a specific client group’s need. If you wish to make your endeavor profitable, you need to identify your target audience — your personal Niche Markets. In addition to looking over your potential niches, Rose will walk you through ways of finding magazines and publishers who are looking for these stories. More information here and register here.
Wednesday, January 22: Meeting presentation (zoom only) from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. Freeing Your Free Verse from Flabbiness will be presented by John Roche. More information here.
Saturday, February 8: Meeting presentation (in-person or zoom) from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Get it Together: Organizing a Submission Packet and/or Manuscript and Tips on Submitting It will be presented by Dorinda Wegener. More information here.
Saturday, February 8: Workshop (in-person or zoom) from 12:30-2:30pm. From Pitch to Launch: Publicity Steps Authors Can Take to Maximize Book Exposure will be presented by Dorinda Wegener. More information here and register here.
December’s Writing Challenge - The Results
Last month we challenged you to send us a piece about traveling with pets. See contributions from Rosa Armijo-Pemble, Sandra Mayne, and Nancy McGuire on the SWW Website here.
January’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 January 20, 2025.
January’s writing challenge: Love!
Tell us about Love, in whatever form it means to you. Tell us in prose or poetry, no more than a 1,000 words or 3 poems.
Let’s Learn From Each Other
Publishing industry expert Jane Friedman has a terrific website packed with helpful resources for writers. For example, she recently updated her popular post The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2025–2026. Check it out if you’re exploring ways to get your work published.
If you’ve recently written about writing craft or publishing tips on your blog, website, Facebook Page, or other social media platform that fits this section, email Lisa a link to the piece along with a two-sentence introduction to sage@swwriters.com.
Welcome to SouthWest Writers!
The following writers joined/re-joined our community last month. We hope to see you at one of our events in person or online. Write on!
Susan Bartelstone, Jill Bolton, Jack London, Charles Nemeth, Sally Richards, Nancy Schrock, and David Tart.
If you’re not yet a member, learn more about the benefits here.
We have resources for writers across our platforms and additional content in 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.