What we’re about
Hello & welcome! This group was formerly known as "Arcadia Memoirs Writer's Group," originated by a woman who lived in Phoenix's Arcadia neighborhood. Over the last ten years, we've experienced a few variations, leaders and then taken a break. We're proud to brag about former members who've published memoirs, such as "Out of the Vortex" by Amy Whitehouse. Then there are others like Christie Muller, who've published personal nonfiction essays: "Vertical Girl," in Dreamers online magazine. Now we're resurrecting our group with the ultimate goal of finishing both memoirs/creative nonfiction essays, by collaborating with each other because it's so much more doable when being with other likeminded writers! Stay tuned for the first Meetup event to be scheduled in the next week.
We meet twice a month, on the second and fourth Sundays of the month. The second Sunday is in person at a coffee shop and the fourth Sunday will be via Zoom. Group members write and submit pieces anywhere from 500 to 2000 words to be critiqued by group members. Pieces are submitted via email on the Thursday night before the Sunday we meet.
Everyone is expected to read these pieces ON THEIR OWN TIME, during those four days. Unlike other groups, WE DO NOT READ OUR PIECES DURING THE TIME WE MEET. Instead we meet to offer critiques to each contributing writer.
I provide a Guide to Critiquing because many people are unsure how to do that. We want to go beyond "I liked the story" to more specifics. We all had to start somewhere and I can vouch that I started with "I liked your story.” While that’s ‘nice,” that kind of commentary doesn’t give the writer trying to improve their piece, much to go on.
This group is committed to two goals: 1) supporting each other in writing, finessing and publishing (if desired) our personal memoirs AND 2) targeting specific journals that we can submit specific stand-alone pieces to, potentially smaller portions of our larger memoir project. I've learned getting read/published on a smaller scale creates momentum for getting our "monster" project, the memoir, completed and published.
Let's get writing, reading and critiquing so we can all achieve whatever memoir writing goals we have!
