Writers of Kern

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Writers of Kern

August Featured Speaker – Cyn Bermudez

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Workshop title: In Verse: Building Stores in Tiny Spaces

This workshop will focus on poetry as a narrative technique and method for storytelling. Topics include novels-in-verse, prose poetry, and the narrative poem. Participants will read and discuss the vignette. Participants will also read, write, and discuss narrative poetry.

In this workshop participants will:

Examine different examples of narrative poetry, including novels written in verse and the vignette.
Learn how to world and character build in this compact form.
Learn how to build sensory detail and create unforgettable characters.
Write a short narrative poem.

Cyn Bermudez is an author, poet, and artist living in California. She is the author of the Brothers series, And the Moon Follows, The Dragons Club, and more. She writes in various genres: general, science fiction, fantasy, weird, horror, and more. She has short stories, poetry, and art published in various literary journals, magazines, and anthologies: Perihelion SF, Middle Planet, Building Red: Mission Mars (Walrus Publishing), and more. Cyn is an active member of her local writing community. She enjoys other creative outlets like photography, sketching, digital art, and painting. Cyn loves spending time with her family and friends, baking, crafting, and do-it-yourself projects. Visit her website for more information. www.cynbermudez.com

Cyn has two novels written in verse: The Dragons Club (West 44) and Graffiti Heart. Her narrative poetry has been published in various magazines and lit journals: Strangelet, Moledro, Devolution Z, and more.

Social Media Stay Connected!

artist and illustratorInstagram@cynb.art
authorTwitter, Facebook, & Instagram@cyncbermudez
editor, lit journalTwitter, Facebook, & Instagram@planisphereq
book trailers, readings, tutorialsYouTubeCyn B

Click here to register for the event.

July Featured Speaker – Donnee Patrese

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Workshop Title:  The Page Turner Method: How not to Bore your Readers and Build Tension.

Do you ever worry about boring your readers? With lackluster dialogue and too much description, will people turn the page to the next chapter or put your book down for good?

How do you keep an audience interested?

Well, I have a page turning method that will not only keep your audience engaged but will also help you build tension in your novel or non-fiction piece. I’ll show what can make readers utterly bored, give tips on how to add tension and best practices on how to keep readers interested.

Purchase Tickets Here: $15 Members and $18 Nonmembers

Bio:

A spicy romance and romantic suspense novelist, blogger, short story writer, youtuber and speaker, Donnée Patrese was born and raised in Gary, IN where her love for writing blossomed. She worked as a Journalist at The Post Tribune and the Indianapolis Recorder for 2 years and won an award with the Indiana Association of Black Journalist before deciding to be a full-time novelist.

 Lover of books and a slave to the wonders of her mind, she has published seven books through First Draft Publishing, including the Prohibited Trilogy, Diary of a Wanted Woman and Burned: Deadly Desires.

She has a BA in Journalism from Butler University in Indianapolis, IN and is a lifelong member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority. In 2012, Donnée Patrese moved to Bakersfield, CA where she and her husband raise their beautiful daughters.

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DonneePatrese

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donnee_patrese/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Donnee_Patrese

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@donnee_patrese

Website

www.donneepatrese.com

Link to my books on Amazon.

Email: donnee@firstdraftpublishing.com

30 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam

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Wild Words
by Anke Hodenpijl                               
 
 
be warned now
this street will fill again
with kids riding bikes
muslims walking their constitutional
weight watchers jogging
homeless collecting cans
teenagers with ear buds in, oblivious to it all
dogs on leads, wondering what happened
the smell of family barbecues
basketballs bouncing
motorcycles roaring
pickle ball and preschoolers at the park
 
boomers around the propane campfire
lounge lizards on the driveway
sipping on an ice-cold beer
“Well, we dodged another catastrophe.”
 
be warned
we will one day leave this street
on our way to a place
not nearly as important
 
be warned
you will hear wild words
I love you
Let me help you
Thank you
 
be warned
be ready
it will happen
 
 

Anke Hodenpijl is a bedside singer, poet, gardener and safe spot for animals. She is inspired by nature, family, history, friendships and unfinished stories. Mostly, she is a grateful person.

29 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam

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Fields of Poppies
by Christopher Nielsen
 
 
Gold doors shimmering winds
touching back and forth.
 
Poppies bend in the breeze
flowing caress feeling spirits.
 
Grateful seasonal flowers
end and begin again.
 
Organic cameras lightly
capture replays heartfelt.
 
Fields growing of seeds
blowing, fall growing.

Christopher Nielsen resides in Bakersfield, California. He is a photographer, writer, web designer and consultant. Traveling the many back roads of California has provided a wealth of inspiration and he feels most at home out in nature. Poetry has become his primary form of written expression. Christopher has been the featured poet at Kern Poetry’s Open Mic at Dagny’s. His photography has appeared in Barren Magazine and West Texas Literary Review. Christopher’s poems have appeared in CSUB’s Sound 2019, CSUB’s Writing Fields 2020, Rabid Oak and in Mojave Heart Review.
 

Author website:
 chrisnielsenphotography.com

28 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam

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Touching
by Judy Kukuruza
 
Had to go to the store for milk.
Mask on, mentally psyching up.
Straight to the milk – grab it.
To the checkout, staying six feet back, waiting.
 
Cashier, tired eyes—“Is this all?”
“Yes.” Smiling beneath the mask, I add,
“Thank you for coming to work today.
Be safe.”
 
Her tired eyes overflow.
A tear wets her mask—“Thank you” I hear.
I look away, my own mask now wet.
Don’t want to embarrass her or myself.
 
Then I turn back—
Why not?  Let her see my tears,
As she showed hers.
Let our compassion show.
 
We have touched.
Heart to heart.
Maybe not physically,
But we have touched each other.

Judy Kukuruza ~ Retired college instructor from CSUB and Bakersfield College.  She published her memoir One Body/Many Souls in 2018, and later Poems to Ponder, Little Stories to Play with in Your Mind, and Letters.  She publishes her blog, “Our Spiritual Journey” through Word Press, participates in the WOK blog challenge and is published in both the WOK Anthology 2018 Reaching for the Sky and the CSUB poetry antholology, Writing Sound.