Our writer’s action group (wag) is co-hosting a virtual write-in on Thursday from 2-5. Originally scheduled to meet in Alameda the day before the Corona Crisis Lockdown, this is our first online write-in.
Our Wolf Pack Write-Ins create space for writers to take action on the climate crisis together. Whatever your genre, this is a space/time to work on your existing articles, stories, letters, or books—or find inspiration for new actions. Our imagination and emotion are crucial to every conversation, to disrupt the narrative of complacency and invoke urgency and new awareness.
Each write-in highlights a partner representing an ecological group or idea. In February we wrote at the Sierra Club. In April, our inspiration comes from 100K Trees for Humanity, a community initiative to plant 100,000 trees and plants to reduce CO2 towards Alameda’s Climate Action and Resiliency Plan goal to become carbon net neutral by 2030.
This event, which takes place the Thursday before Earth Day, is a support group for writers preparing statements or submissions for April 22nd.
SUNDAY! Bring a notebook or laptop and get clear on your next novel!
MONDAY! IT’S TIME.Post your climate commitment statements online, add #wolfpackwriters. Get and give inspiration.
SUNDAY:
Members craft & marketing groups start at 12pm; networking from 2-2:30. Our speakers begin at 3 and … we wrap things up at 4.
Catch our speaker, the amazing Beth Barany, online! Dial in after the meeting right here!.
MONDAY:
Members of the Wolf Pack Writers Action Group will be releasing their climate commitment statements on social media. Please join us! Here’s all you have to do:
In one paragraph, include your reasons for joining the pack, your intentions as a writer, and a call to action or encouragement for other writers to raise our voices about changing the course of our climate catastrophe.
Record yourself reading your climate commitment statement, with or without video, and post it on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Soundcloud, anywhere… on, before, or after Earth Day on Monday, April 22. (Declare every day as Earth Day!) Use the tag #wolfpackwriters and feel free to share links to other actions.
We also invite you to join the Wolf Pack WAG FB Group and share your statement, plus resources for other writers. Memes, links, ideas, movements…start howling!
I woke up one morning and thought: What if I woke up one morning knowing we only had twelve years to save the planet? What else could I do that I’m not doing now?
At the CWC Berkeley board meeting this month, there were five talented writers sitting around the table going through the painstaking business of keeping this club going. As I struggled to get to the end of the agenda before we all had to rush off, this agitated inner voice yelled, “If we only have twelve years to keep global warming below 1.5°c, why am I bothering with this? Is this the best use of my time and energy?” Everyone stared at me. I guess I had kind of said it out loud?
Then someone else said, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
There was a rush of emotion in the room, and for a minute we all considered putting a “closed until the world is saved” sign on the CWC website, so we could turn our full attention to climate activism. But then someone mentioned Thomas Paine, and someone else mentioned the Prague Uprising, and before we knew it we were having another meeting to discuss the role our local and statewide club might play in changing this dangerous course of history.
Jack London’s a libris
Sometimes as writers we do our best work with a deadline. Let’s work under pressure, together. Someone suggested the name “Wolf Pack Writers” for our club’s new writers action group, inspired by Jack London’s love of nature and activist writings. How can we encourage our members to work individually and together on creating understanding and action around this unfolding climate catastrophe? Billions of past decisions created this crisis. What if the writers in our club could help all of our our readers and leaders through the billions of decisions we must make now?
Here come the lyrics. I wrote, once, about the “Seven C’s of the CWC” and here are seven more for humanity: through conservation, connection, and community, we can fight problems created by consumption, convenience, consumerism, and conveyance. In the next twelve years, every planetary traveler will need the encouragement of our motto, “Sail On,” in some form or another, to persevere through desperate times and keep focused on the human strengths that can transform society and stabilize our home planet.
Watch for announcements on how to get involved. In the meantime, please leave a comment about the writing YOU are doing to help calm the climate.
We’ll see you at this month’s events!
Sail On, —Kristen Caven Berkeley Branch Captain a.k.a. President
We Are Writers!
The California Writers Club is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization open to writers in every genre and at every level of experience, from novice to notable. Our purpose is to promote fellowship and to provide practical information that supports all members in achieving their literary and professional goals. OUR MONTHLY SPEAKER PROGRAM
is open to the public Third Sundays
at Preservation Park
MEETING SCHEDULE
12:00 Setup
12:30 Doors open, networking & member services
Come to our meetings and enjoy our programs, which are open to the public. Enter a contest. Become a member and enjoy all the benefits, which include critique groups of all kinds, a monthly newsletter, and the ability to share your news with a supportive community as your writing career takes off.
