Writers' League of Texas

Start:

Friday, January 25, 2019 - 7:00pm

Location:

2421 Bissonnet St

Houston, TX 77005

Join us for a panel at Brazos Bookstore in Houston. We will be discussing the process on 'How to Start (or Restart) a Writing Project.' This event is free and open to all.

Have a great idea for a book but you aren't sure how to get started? Or maybe you need to a return to a project that has lain dormant for a while -- for whatever reason. Sometimes the trickiest part of writing is simply beginning. You can't finish what you don't start, but there is something overwhelming about the blank page or empty screen. And revisiting a manuscript you abandoned a while ago dredges up all kinds of fears and worries. So how do writers cope? How does one motivate his/herself to sit down every day and keep going?

For this panel discussion, WLT Executive Director Becka Oliver will be in conversation with four accomplished authors who have each been there, done that and are happy to share their guidance and advice with fellow writers.

Our panelists include:

Varsha Bajaj is the award-winning author of picture books and middle grade novels. Her latest picture book, This is Our Baby, Born Today, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler, was published by Nancy Paulsen books in August 2016 and was a Bank Street of Education Best Book of 2016.Her upcoming picture book, Homebuilders, illustrated by Simona Mulazzani, will be published in February 2019 and her second middle grade novel, Count me In, will be published in August 2019. Both books will be published By Nancy Paulsen books, Penguin Random house. Varsha’s middle grade novel, Abby Spencer goes to Bollywood, (Albert Whitman & Company, 2014) was on the Spirit of Texas middle grade reading list, was shortlisted for the Cybils and won the SCBWI Crystal Kite award. Her picture book, How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight? illustrated by Ivan Bates, was on the Texas 2x2 list in 2005. Born in India, Varsha came to America in Fall 1986 to pursue graduate studies in Psychology. After earning her master’s degree, she worked at the St. Louis University Medical Center as a licensed professional counselor (LPC). Varsha lives in Houston with her husband, two children and dog, Scamper.

Mimi Swartz is a long-time executive editor at Texas Monthly, and a two-time National Magazine Award winner and a four time finalist. The coauthor of the national bestseller Power Failure, with Sherron Watkins, about the failures at Enron, her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Slate, and her op-ed pieces appear regularly in the New York Times.

Bryan Washington has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, BuzzFeed, Vulture, The Paris Review, Tin House, One Story, Bon Appétit, MUNCHIES, American Short Fiction, GQ, FADER, The Awl, and Catapult. His debut story collection Lot is forthcoming from Riverhead in March 2019. He lives in Houston.

Jessica Wilbanks is the author of When I Spoke in Tongues, a memoir about faith and its loss. She has received a Pushcart Prize as well as creative nonfiction awards from Ninth Letter, Sycamore Review, Redivider, and Ruminate magazine. Her essays have received Notable Mentions in Best American Essays and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and she was recently selected as a finalist for the national PEN award in Journalism. For more information, visit http://jessicawilbanks.com.