Programs & Events
Click on the event to get details on how to get your tickets.
The California Writers Club offers a multitude of activities and programs for its members and for the public.
Writers Groups
Our ongoing Critique Groups help writers practice and polish their craft. We have a climate action group, the Wolf Pack Writers, and a poetry group, Poetrope. See Groups for more info.
Speaker Programs
Our informative and interesting Speaker Programs are the focus of our monthly Meetings. These meetings are open to the public.
Workshops
We also offer monthly Workshops for writers by professionals, with special rates for members.
Contests
Two annual Contests: the 5th Grade Writing Contest and the Write On! Story Contest (formerly the WestSide Story Contest), celebrate local writers. Occasionally we hold a poetry contest at year’s end as well.
Our contests are currently on hiatus. If you’d be interested to help organize the next one, please contact us.
Conferences
We promote various Writers Conferences and our members can get discounts to several.
Recent Events
We also have a more concise list of past speakers.
March 3 WORKSHOP — “Social Media Branding for Authors” with Beth and Ezra Barany
Saturday, March 3, 2012 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. In this hands-on workshop with best-selling and award-winning authors (and happily married couple!) Beth and Ezra Barany, we will help you take the first steps to attract your right readers and build your fan base of raving fans so you can sell more books. In this conversation…
February 19th Speaker — Writing a “True Life” Novel with Fred Setterberg
Fred Setterberg, the author of Lunch Bucket Paradise (Heyday Books), will talk about writing autobiographical fiction in the form of a novel at our next CWC branch meeting. Fred Setterberg has also written The Roads Taken: Travels Through America’s Literary Landscapes, winner of the AWP prize in creative nonfiction. He co-wrote Under the Dragon: California’s…
Calling all Fifth Graders!
Please tell all fifth-grade teachers you know that our 26th Annual Fifth Grade Story Contest is now open for entries! Information about this contest can be found on our website here. Download flyer here: CWC-26th Annual Fifth Grade Story Contest 2012.pdf (grayscale version available for black & white printers – click here)
February 4 WORKSHOP – “Writing from the Male Point of View” with Sascha Illyvich
Learn to write from the Male Mindset, as cross-gender writing can be difficult but an important process to understand for a writer of any genre, particularly romance. Sascha Illyvich started writing twelve years ago, releasing poetry and an occasional short erotica story before focusing on fetish romance, paranormal romance, and various subgenres. His erotic romances…
January 15 speaker — “How to Create Bestselling Book Ideas” with Jennifer Bayse Sander
Former Random House senior editor and New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Basye Sander of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published (now in its 5th revised edition) will pull back the veil on big-time publishing and teach you how editors create book ideas that sell. Once you understand how they develop ideas, you will…
November 5 – Nonfiction: News vs. Research – mini-workshop with Dennis Evanosky
East Bay historian and newspaper publisher Dennis Evanosky will contrast the role of the journalist with the role of the nonfiction writer. He will address the differences between the deadline-driven reporting of news for a newspaper and the longer-term, research-driven writing for a non-fiction book. He will also speak about receiving unsolicited articles for the…