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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20251213T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20251213T130000
DTSTAMP:20260412T201756
CREATED:20250814T171156Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250814T171156Z
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SUMMARY:Poetry as Praise with Amanda Johnston
DESCRIPTION:Saturday\, December 13\, 10am–1pm CT\, online via Zoom\nNonmember $75; Member $65; Student/Educ/Mil $53 \n*EARN CPEs\nTWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE\n \nHonor that special someone\, a major milestone\, or that first sip of coffee with a praise poem! \nThrough times of hardship and joy\, poetry connects us to our shared human experience. Praise poems give writers a vessel to carry wonder and gratitude and to deliver loving messages to their community. \nIn this one-day workshop led by Texas Poet Laureate Emeritus Amanda Johnston\, participants will explore poetic forms of praise\, learn how to identify and celebrate the awe-inspiring everyday moments of life\, and craft new works that can be given as gifts to loved ones. \nThis class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+. \nIn this workshop students will: \n\nExplore poetic forms of praise.\nWrite and share new praise poems.\nBuild an idea catalog for future works.\n\n\nAmanda Johnston is a writer\, visual artist\, and the 61st Poet Laureate of Texas. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks\, GUAP and Lock & Key\, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter\, and editor of the anthology Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas\, coming Fall 2025 from Host Publications. Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications\, among them Callaloo\, Poetry Magazine\, The Moth Radio Hour\, Bill Moyers\, The Rumpus\, and the anthologies Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. She has received fellowships\, grants\, and awards from Cave Canem\, Hedgebrook\, Tasajillo\, the Kentucky Foundation for Women\, The Watermill Center\, American Short Fiction\, Prizer Arts & Letters\, and the Academy of American Poets. She is a former Board President of Cave Canem Foundation\, a member of the Affrilachian Poets\, and founder of Torch Literary Arts. \nIG: @poetamandajohnston\nFacebook: Amanda Johnston\nWebsite: AmandaJohnston.com \n 
URL:https://geminiink.org/events/poetry-as-praise/
LOCATION:Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Lecture,Online Workshop
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://geminiink.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Amanda-Johnston-website-header.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Mandy Lynn Lara":MAILTO:mllara@geminiink.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20251113T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20251113T200000
DTSTAMP:20260412T201756
CREATED:20250814T163233Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250814T163233Z
UID:12891-1763058600-1763064000@geminiink.org
SUMMARY:Writing in the Land with Emmy Pérez
DESCRIPTION:Literary Masters Lecture Series\nThursday(s)\, November 13 & 20\, 6:30–8pm CT\, online via Zoom\nNonmember $90; Member $75; Student?Educ/Mil $63 \n*EARN CPEs\nTWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE\n \nHave you been seeking a more intentional connection to nature? Writing about the land is an intimate way to slow down and reconnect to earth with purpose. Join us for the last Literary Masters Lecture of the year! Each session features an engaging craft talk\, actionable writing strategies\, and a live Q&A with the author. \nIn this two-part lecture\, led by 2020 Texas Poet Laureate Emmy Pérez\,  we will discuss poems\, songs\, and prose that center the land and our connections to places and the environment. We will use these discussions and short writing activities to examine nature through a creative lens\, explore attention to detail\, integrate historical and cultural contexts\, and encourage an eco-justice approach to the writing. We will leave the lecture with our own research plans to explore a place of personal interest. \nThis lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+. \nIn this lecture students will: \n\nDiscuss poems and short prose pieces\nStart drafting a poem or short prose piece \nDevelop a research plan to include online and in-person exploration of a land or a waterway of interest\n\n\nEmmy Pérez\, Texas Poet Laureate 2020\, is the author of Solstice\, With the River on Our Face\, and the forthcoming Boxes with Zero Tolerance\, and Paper america: New and Selected Poems. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets\, United States Artists\, the National Endowment for the Arts\, and CantoMundo. A member of the Macondo Writers Workshop since 2008\, she is a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley\, where she also serves as chair of the Department of Creative Writing.
URL:https://geminiink.org/events/writing-in-the-land/
LOCATION:Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Event,Lecture,Online Workshop
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://geminiink.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Emmy-Perez-website-header.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Mandy Lynn Lara":MAILTO:mllara@geminiink.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Mexico_City:20231115T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Mexico_City:20231115T203000
DTSTAMP:20260412T201756
CREATED:20230907T210539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231115T232153Z
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SUMMARY:The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Carmen Tafolla
DESCRIPTION:Wednesday\, November 15th\, 2023 via Zoom @ 7PM CST\nUp Next: Carmen Tafolla’s children’s book\, Warrior Girl. Moderated by Dr. Rita Urquijo-Ruiz.\n\n RSVP\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT WARRIOR GIRL\nAn insightful novel in verse about the joys and struggles of a Chicana girl who is a warrior for her name\, her history\, and her right to choose what she celebrates in life. \nCelina and her family are bilingual and follow both Mexican and American traditions. Celina revels in her Mexican heritage\, but once she starts school\, it feels like the world wants her to erase that part of her identity. Fortunately\, she’s got an army of family and three fabulous new friends behind her to fight the ignorance. But it’s her Gramma who’s her biggest inspiration\, encouraging Celina to build a shield of joy around herself. Because when you’re celebrating\, when you find a reason to sing or dance or paint or play or laugh or write\, they haven’t taken everything away from you. Of course\, it’s not possible to stay in celebration mode when things get dire–like when her dad’s deported and a pandemic hits–but if there is anything Celina’s sure of\, it’s that she’ll always live up to her last name: Guerrera–woman warrior–and that she will use her voice and writing talents to make the world a more beautiful place where all cultures are celebrated. \nABOUT CARMEN TAFOLLA\nCarmen Tafolla is an internationally acclaimed Chicana writer from San Antonio\, Texas\, and a professor emerita of bicultural bilingual studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Tafolla served as the poet laureate of San Antonio from 2012 to 2014\, and was named the Poet Laureate of Texas for 2015–16. Tafolla has written more than 40 books and won multiple literary awards. She is one of the most highly anthologized Chicana authors in the United States\, with her work appearing in more than 300 anthologies. https://www.carmentafolla.net/\n\n\n\nABOUT DR. RITA URQUIJO-RUIZ\n\nDr. Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz is a Mexicana/Chicana queer educator\, author\, and translator who teaches Spanish as well as Queer\, Chicana/o\, and Latinx Studies at Trinity University in San Antonio\, Texas. She is the translator of Xelena González and Adriana Garcia’s award-winning books: Where Wonders Grow (Donde las maravillas crecen) and Remembering (Te recuerdo). She was absolutely thrilled when Dr. Carmen Tafolla invited her to translate her novel in verse Warrior Girl (Guerrera). Rita’s story about being previously undocumented\, entitled “First Visit\,” was published in the award-winning anthology Somewhere We are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration\, Survival\, and New Beginnings\, coedited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca. \n\nThe Big Texas Author Talk is a *free* lecture series devoted to showcasing Texas authors from across our big state. Each month we feature one Texas author in conversation with another—from New York Times bestsellers living in Dallas\, Houston\, and Austin to our rich Texas Latinx border authors living in Laredo and McAllen\, not to mention from other deep pockets and corners of our culturally diverse state.  Our lecture series is as entertaining as it is informative—and like Texas itself\, we offer a vast array of storytellers who represent the spirit of our extremely distinct Lone Star State and continue to keep us on the literary map. In the past\, we’ve featured novelists such as Kathleen Kent\, Marisol Cortez\, Joe Lansdale\, and Antonio Ruiz-Camacho and Texas poet laureates such as Carmen Tafolla\, Laurie Ann Guerrero\, Jenny Brown\, and Emmy Pérez.
URL:https://geminiink.org/events/the-big-texas-author-talk-2/
LOCATION:Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Event,Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://geminiink.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/carmen-tafolla.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Mexico_City:20230419T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Mexico_City:20230419T203000
DTSTAMP:20260412T201756
CREATED:20230405T165400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230405T165417Z
UID:8496-1681930800-1681936200@geminiink.org
SUMMARY:The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Steve Adams
DESCRIPTION:RSVP\nWednesday\, April 19th\, 2023 via Zoom @ 7PM CST\nUp Next: Steve Adams\, author of the novel Remember This. This session will be moderated by Ramona Reeves\, author of the prize-winning collection It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout the Book\nJohn Martin\, a talented graphic designer from Texas\, has left his alcoholic mother behind and is now employed as a word processor for a prestigious New York investment bank. In the midst of the personal computer revolution and AIDS epidemic\, John embarks on an affair with his supervisor Alena Marino\, an Italian immigrant. When his oldest sister arrives unexpectedly\, John is forced to confront his past and the complex relationships he has had with beautiful women. John must now come to terms with his damaged past as he embarks on his journey of understanding.\n\n\n\nSteve Adams’ creative nonfiction has won a Pushcart Prize\, been listed as “Notable” in Best American Essays\, and published in The Pinch\, The Millions\, and elsewhere. In fiction\, he’s won Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers\, and his stories have been anthologized and published in Glimmer Train\, The Missouri Review\, and elsewhere. He’s been a guest artist at UT\, a resident artist at Jentel\, and a scholar at the Norman Mailer Writers’ Colony\, and his plays have been produced in NYC. His debut novel\, Remember This\, was published in October 2022. He’s a writing coach and freelance editor in Memphis.\n\nRamona Reeves is a native of Mobile\, Alabama. Her linked short story collection It Falls Gently All Aroundand Other Stories won the 2022 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press last fall. She spent a decade in the Northeastern U.S.\, writing freelance articles\, proofreading for a men’s fashion weekly\, and performing production roles for Food & Wine\, Travel & Leisure\, and Esquire before moving into technical editing and writing. She eventually moved to Texas for several years before leaving to pursue her MFA in fiction. She has since returned and is nearing completion on a novel. Ramona has served as a board member for A Room of Her Own (AROHO)\, moderated and appeared on conference panels\, taught college-level writing courses\, and was an associate fiction editor for Kallisto Gaia Press. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Southampton Review\, Pembroke\, Bayou Magazine\, New South\, Superstition Review\, Texas Highways and other publications. She’s won the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize\, been a resident at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts\, and is a Community of Writers alum.
URL:https://geminiink.org/events/the-big-texas-author-talk-featuring-steve-adams/
CATEGORIES:Event,Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://geminiink.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/steve-adams.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Alexandra van de Kamp":MAILTO:avandekamp@geminiink.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Mexico_City:20230215T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Mexico_City:20230215T203000
DTSTAMP:20260412T201756
CREATED:20230203T185326Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230203T185739Z
UID:8173-1676487600-1676493000@geminiink.org
SUMMARY:The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Vincent Cooper
DESCRIPTION:RSVP\nFebruary 15th\, 2023 via Zoom @ 7PM CST\nUp Next: Poet Vincent Cooper\, author of the poetry collection\, Zarzamora. This session will be moderated by Christopher “Rooster” Martinez\, an educator and spoken word poet from San Antonio\, Texas.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Zarzamora \n“It’s time to celebrate the poet and buy this book\, it’s a new voice\, not one tied to timid convention or gimmicky stealth that results in poetry of cowardice— it tries to please no one\, vociferates its own claim to Chicano identity and culture and does so with exuberance\, even compassion and vulnerability—yes\, compas y vatos y locos\, get off it and go out and buy this book and pass it to other plebe\, it’s time to celebrate this poet\, unabashedly\, honor this book written in blood\, tears and laughter and pride\, and love\, adelante!!” Jimmy Santiago Baca – author of Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio. \nVincent Cooper is the author of Where the Reckless Ones Come to Die (Aztlan Libre Press)\, Zarzamora: Poetry of Survival (Jade Publishing)\, and Infidelis (forthcoming from Mouthfeel Press).  He is a Chicano Marine Corps Veteran and Macondista based in San Antonio\, Texas. Cooper’s poems have been seen in such fine publications as Huizache\, Riversedge\,  Dryland Lit\, and Somos En Escrito. He is currently at work on a hybrid genre book centering on his paternal heritage and how he came to be a Chicano named Cooper.\n\n\nChristopher “Rooster” Martinez is an educator and spoken word poet from San Antonio\, Texas. He earned a MA/MFA in Creative Writing\, Literature & Social Justice at Our Lady of the Lake University. He is the author of two poetry books: A Saint for Lost Things (Alabrava Press\, 2020) and As it is in Heaven (Kissing Dynamite Poetry Press\, 2020). For twelve years\, Rooster competed and won slams across the country and co-founded the literary nonprofit Write Art Out Inc.
URL:https://geminiink.org/events/the-big-texas-author-talk-featuring-vincent-cooper/
CATEGORIES:Event,Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://geminiink.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Big-Texas-Read-copy-5.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Alexandra van de Kamp":MAILTO:avandekamp@geminiink.org
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