Rocktown Writers Guild Monthly Meeting

Come discover your Harrisonburg/Rockingham Writing Community.

Whether you’re scribbling your first poem or plotting your tenth novel, this is your chance to meet and network with other authors.

If you’ve been looking for that boost, that community, that connection—you won’t find a better place than the RWG.

In May our speaker will be Sofia Samatar.

Build Your Writing Life

In his Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke tells a beginning writer: “Build your life in accordance with this necessity.” If you need to write, then structure your life accordingly.

But Rilke doesn’t give any specific instructions on how to do this. What about the practical questions: Do I take that job? Should I sign that publishing contract? Why do I feel so uninspired? How much time do I really need?

In this conversation, we’ll talk about how to build a writing life, considering ways to reach beyond work-life balance toward the even more delicate balance of work, life, and writing. A story-based approach, offering examples from the lives of various writers, will help us gain clarity about ourselves and how to move toward the writing lives we need.

Sofia Samatar is a writer of fiction and nonfiction, including the memoir The White Mosque, a PEN/Jean Stein Award finalist. Her works range from the award-winning epic fantasy A Stranger in Olondria to Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life, a National Book Critics Circle Award Longlist selection. Sofia teaches literature and writing at JMU, where she is an associate professor of English. She has published with both large and small presses, and released Friendly City, her first indie title, in 2025.

It all happens starting at 6pm on Wednesday, May 6th at the Massanutten Regional Library.

While we meet at the library, the RWG is neither endorsed by, nor affiliated, with the library.