Over the last several years, I have been a member of Women Writing the West which hosts an annual conference each year. I am looking forward to the online conference this October 2025. The title of the conference is From Quill to Keyboard. The online conference offers two days of workshops and networking opportunities. WWW also offers the Willa Literary Award, the Laura Short Fiction Award, and the Downing Journalism Award. Additionally, the organization has an active listserv on which members share ideas and advice. The group also organizes critique groups. I have participated in one for a few years.
Our WWW critique group began with four participants who were writing drafts of their novels. Eventually, this group devolved into just two of us, who have continued to work together on our drafts. We meet monthly on Zoom with the expectation that we will each provide about 2000 words for critique. The benefits I have derived are multiple. First, having a monthly critique meeting ensures that I will keep up with my writing in a steady fashion. Secondly, I have learned a lot from my partner who has already published two novels. And, thirdly, I feel that our regular meetings have provided personal as well as professional support—in fact, we have become long-distance friends.
Recently, I joined a poetry organization, Columbine Poets of Colorado, which offers a workshop and a critique group each month. The meetings have from four to eight participants. The participants are experienced poets and share helpful feedback and encouragement. What I have found is that listening to the types of feedback given and to who pays attention to what and how they express their opinion is teaching me about poetry in ways that are novel to me. Regarding the feedback that I have received personally, I value the fact that it points me to a need for careful research on the topics about which I am writing. It also expands my awareness of how I might select topics and forms.
While participating in a critique group can be helpful, it is important to consider which benefits you would like to incur from participation. First, identify which aspects or forms of your writing you would like to submit for a group review. Next, you might want to identify opportunities through local writing groups, think about whether you might prefer an in-person or online group, select a group that you think will meet your needs, and study how to provide useful and effective feedback. For example, check out a variety of books that have been published about critique groups. And, last, upon joining the group and participating in it for an appropriate amount of time, evaluate its effectiveness for you and for the other members.
My Writing Goals for 2025
1. Continue to develop my poetry and connections with other poets:
Bardic Trails: The Talking Gourds/Bardic Trails is a monthly Zoom presentation of poets, followed by an open mic, which is broadcast from Telluride, Colorado. The well-loved Art Goodtimes is the host. On July 1, the speaker was Black Atticus (Joseph Woods), who is serving as the current Poet Laureate (2023-2025) of Knoxville, Tennessee. His poetry includes rap and spoken-word performances.
The Colorado Poetry Center: Beth Franklin, the director of the Colorado Poetry Center, offers an in-person, monthly session at the Boulder Bookstore. In June 2025, the CPC featured Emily Perez and Aimee Herman. Emily Pérez is the author of What Flies Want—winner of the Iowa Prize and a finalist for a Colorado Book Award; House of Sugar, House of Stone; and two chapbooks. She is co-editor of the anthology, The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Aimee Herman is the author of the young adult fiction novel Everything Grows, which won the Forward Reviews 2019 Silver Award for Best Young Adult Fiction. Aimee has also published two books of poetry: to go without blinking and meant to wake up feeling.
Columbine Poets: In June, I attended a Saturday workshop with the Columbine Poets led by Julie Cumming that focused on a deep dive into writing a villanelle—a form I had tried before. The workshop was excellent and improved my understanding of the form. I also submitted a poem and attended a critique group on July 5th.
Cannon Mine Poets: The Cannon Mine Poets group in Lafayette is hosted by Larry LaVerdure and in June featured Douglas Jackson who had mentorships with the poets Yakshi Vadeboncoeur and Will Staple in Camptonville, California. Doug writes about his wanderings in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave Desert, and the Rocky Mountains. I admired his work and his style of reading aloud.
Naropa Poetry Readings: In June, Naropa holds the Summer Writing Program. I attended readings by both students and visiting faculty on different evenings.
2. Finish my first novel and query agents (IW): Nothing accomplished.
3. Finish my second novel (G): Nothing accomplished.
4. Continue to work on my third novel (PW): Nothing accomplished.
5. Continue to develop a network of kindred spirits in the world of writing and publishing:
Boulder Writers Alliance: I attended our monthly happy hour. I also enjoyed Gary Alan McBride’s Writers Who Read session in which we discussed Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe—a book that merits an attentive read.
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers: I read the newsletter.
Women Writing the West: I registered for the upcoming online conference. Our critique group did not meet.
6. Document my writing progress through my blog and post it on the seventh day of each month, one blog per month in 2025:
Today is July 7, 2025. I am posting my seventh blog for this year. Boulder has had an unusually rainy May and June, thus the foothills and surrounding areas have been a vibrant dark green. I live in a beautiful area for hiking and being outdoors. As I watch the news of devastating storms and floods across the nation and the world, my goal of lowering my personal carbon footprint becomes stronger. I drive as rarely as possible and I haven’t flown anywhere for about five years.
A Poem for July
The Hunter
By William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
In the flashes and black shadows
of July
the days, locked in each other’s arms,
seem still
so that squirrels and colored birds
go about at ease over
the branches and through the air.
Where will a shoulder split or
a forehead open and victory be?
Nowhere.
Both sides grow older.
And you may be sure
not one leaf will lift itself
from the ground
and become fast to a twig again.
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