Write with us on Wednesday?

Beautiful bookworms,   You asked, and we delivered! Our free Creative Coworking sessions are now HYBRID 🎉🎉🎉 for the remainder of the semester, courtesy of our fiscal sponsor. If you're got something to write, read, edit, or imagine, this is a great chance to make progress with peers. Learn more and RSVP (for free) here.      And of course, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't plug the remaining spring classes:  Beyond the Page: Performance Skills for Poets — a 3-week class on using pacing, pauses, rhyme, and rhythm to improve your poetry performances. From Query to Collaboration — Separate single-session classes (fiction and nonfiction, respectively) on the process of finding an agent. Financial aid and payment plans are still available, but seats are filling fast. Grab yours before time runs out!  ON THE STOOP Wednesday, 3/26, 3:30 – 5:30 pm ET: Creative Coworking, both on Zoom and in-person at CultureWorks in Center City, Philadelphia. Stop by for a few minutes or stay for the whole session — it’s totally up to you. Write, edit, read, daydream, or do whatever best serves your literary life. We'll open and close the session with 10 minutes to check-in about our writing goals, obstacles, and accomplishments. (FREE/HYBRID)   Thursday, 3/27, 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET: Thursdays on the Stoop presents "Writing for Young Readers" with Eric Bell.  As an adult, writing for young people can be challenging. But tapping into our own adolescent experiences can help. In this free hour-long session, middle grade novelist Eric Bell will provide several prompts designed to help you see the world from a younger POV. There will be time to write, optional sharing, and an inside look at Eric's Kidlit Playground writing group. (FREE/VIRTUAL) In solidarity,   Julian Shendelman Co-Director   P.S. Looking for more local literary connections? Check out our community calendar and resource pages. SUPPORT BLUE STOOP CLASSIFIEDS THE MOTHERLODE RETREAT:  MASTERING THE ART OF WRITING ABOUT MOTHERS April 27 to May 1, 2025. Boyd’s Mill, Pennsylvania.   Delve into the heart of matrilineal stories at The Motherlode Retreat, a transformative five-day writing experience in the tranquil foothills of the Poconos. Co-hosted by acclaimed writer and facilitator Amy Shearn, and writer, instructor and writing coach, Diana Friedman, The Motherlode Retreat is for writers of all levels looking to explore complex relationships with mothers. Through facilitated discussions, generative prompts, and craft workshops, we’ll examine themes such as the mother wound, inherited narratives, and how to transform personal experiences into powerful writing. Whether you're crafting fiction, memoir, poetry, or plays, this retreat provides a safe, supportive space to deepen your writing and bring your stories to life.   There's only one spot left!  Register by March 27, 2025 to secure your spot.    Learn more: The Motherlode Retreat: Mastering the Art of Writing About Mothers. Got an event, organization, business, or book to promote?  Blue Stoop offers affordable ad space here and on our website.  BEYOND THE STOOP   Here's a quick excerpt from our community calendar. Adding an event is easy and free! ~~~~~~~~~   Event title A Writers Party   Time 3/26–3/30   Description a multi-day festival for writers and lit lovers, in Philly and online. Readings, workshops, and more.   Link https://linktr.ee/awritersparty   Contact info hegemonster@gmail.com   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~   Event title House Poet: Reincarnation   Start time 3/26/2025 7:00pm    Location Broad Hall, 699 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA   Description A spoken word dance party featuring: Cam Simmons, vidPoet, & resident DJ Khaleel Mason 7 - Poets 9 - Dance   Link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/house-poet-reincarnation-tickets-1252551769059?aff=oddtdtcreator   Contact info https://www.instagram.com/housepoetphilly/   Cost $10   ~~~~~~~~~   Event title Queer Books Philly: March Meeting   Start time 3/29/2025 2:00pm   Location Spruce Hill Community Association, 257 S. 45th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104   Description QPB's March book is Flux by Jinwoo Chong. A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel—and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes . . . 😷 masks required w/ some provided   Link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZkx0oXWaEMTMoFoeFFxPmJHaeS6g6OI5SqGzwpFwjwYTNzw/viewform   Contact info Queer Space Philly and Bee of @selfbybee   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~   Event title PHL Zine Fest   Start time 3/30/2025 3:00pm    Location Clark Park    Description Come distro food, smiles, warmth, joy, spring very well may have sprung by the time zine fest rolls around again!! Read some zines, have a picnic, make some friends   Link https://www.instagram.com/p/DGogieyS0Gz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link   Contact info https://www.instagram.com/phlzinefest?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==    Cost $0   ~~~~~~~~~   Event title A Reading by Carmen Maria Machado   Start time 3/31/2025 6:30pm    Location Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104   Description Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House, the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods, and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She is the former Abrams Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Her Body and Other Parties was listed as a member of “The New Vanguard” by the New York Times in 2018, as one of “15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century.” Her essays, fiction, poetry, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Guernica, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is a 2019 recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, and a visiting associate professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in Spring 2021.   Link RSVP Required; seating strictly limited: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0325.php#31   Contact info whfellow@writing.upenn.edu    Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~   Event title Beth Kephart, "Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday's News"   Start time 4/1/2025 6:30pm    Location Main Point Books, 116 N Wayne Ave, Wayne, PA 19087   Description Main Point Books welcomes back author Beth Kephart with her new novel, "Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday's News: A Philadelphia Story." She'll be joined by guest host Caroline O'Halloran. This event will be in our lower-level event space. Reservations are requested via Eventbrite; walk-ins are welcome as space permits. Books are for sale in advance through Eventbrite and the store's website, and will be for sale at the event.   Link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beth-kephart-tomorrow-will-bring-sundays-news-tickets-1256668321779?aff=BlueStoop   Contact info events.mainpointbooks@gmail.com   Cost Free   ~~~~~~~~~ VIEW MORE EVENTS 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 300 Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences