Veteran’s Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2023-11-15 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
The Veteran’s Writing Collective (VWC) encourages the art of writing in a workshop environment where participants are offered honest, positive, and constructive peer-to-peer and mentor feedback. The workshop is open to all active-duty military, veterans, retirees, and their immediate family members. Writers of all levels working in all genres are welcome.
The VWC meets monthly online via Zoom.
If you would like an invitation to this class, send an email to veteranscollective@geminiink.org

Sarah Colby was born in northern New Mexico and raised in the Rocky Mountains. She is married to a retired Army Chaplain and is mother to a son in the Navy. Sarah has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sierra Nevada College and an exuberant interest in making the ordinary luminous. Her war-time experiences have motivated her to be a voice for the mostly untold stories of families and loved ones during these years of protracted conflict. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems about her experiences as a military family member.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Carmen Tafolla
2023-11-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Carmen Tafolla’s children’s book, Warrior Girl. Moderated by Dr. Rita Urquijo-Ruiz.

RSVP

ABOUT WARRIOR GIRL
An 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.
Celina 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.
ABOUT CARMEN TAFOLLA
Carmen 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/

ABOUT DR. RITA URQUIJO-RUIZ

Dr. 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.

The 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.

Thanksgiving Holiday – Office Closed
2023-11-23 - 2023-11-24

Open Writer's Labs
2023-11-27 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
These peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.
Register

Online Via Zoom
For the online workshop, sign up the day before the class to ensure you receive the Zoom link.
This workshop is facilitated by Kevin Ramos. Originally from the northeast, Kevin studied theater arts at Rutgers University and The University of Washington. He’s lived all over the country before making his home in San Antonio, Texas. Kevin has written several novels and short stories. Most recently, publishing a short memoir called Enough about addiction, mothers, and missing graves. And a novel, Hayley’s Sense of Fire (DLG Publishing Partners), a modern re-telling of the classic fairy tale, The Little Matchgirl.

In-Person at Gemini Ink

Join our in-person Open Writer’s Lab with Robert Allen at Gemini Ink’s office, 1111 Navarro St., San Antonio, TX 78205.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics, including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.
Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Giving Tuesday
2023-11-28
https://www.givingtuesday.org/

Creating Scenes that Move the Story with Desiree Kannel
2023-12-02 10:00 - 14:30
Saturday, Dec 2, 10am-2:30pm CST (with 30-minute lunch), Hybrid (via Zoom and in-person at Gemini Ink)
Instructor: Desiree Kannel
Nonmember: $105; Member: $90; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

Great novels and short stories use scenes to gain momentum, escalate conflict, and reveal character. But how do writers decide which scenes push the action forward and which ones stagnate the story with unnecessary details?
In this 4-hour workshop, writers will analyze scenes from their own work and learn how to decide what to cut and what to revise. We will discuss scene structure, effective transitions, and how to let character motivation drive the plot instead of the author’s agenda. Writers will leave with a better sense of what may be missing from their work in progress and tips on how to move forward.
This workshop will include exercises on dialogue and setting. Each student will be asked to bring a scene from their own work to be revised in class.
This course is open to fiction writers of all skill levels, 18+. Writers who have written the first draft are encouraged to attend.
You will leave this workshop with:

A new approach to scene writing with purpose and movement
Ideas of what details can be cut and what to keep for revision
Knowledge of how to transition in and out of a scene
An edited piece of previously written work

Read Desiree’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Desiree Kannel is a writer and teacher from Southern California. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and a post-grad certificate in Rhetoric & Composition from California State University Dominguez Hills. Desiree’s fiction has appeared in the Running Wild Anthology of Short Stories (2019), Fourth & Sycamore, and others. Her novel, Lucky John (2020), was a finalist in the African American Fiction category in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Her second novel, The Delany Bennets, was published in October 2023. Desiree leads creative writing workshops online and locally and is a Gemini Ink teaching artist.

Gemini Ink Holiday Open House
2023-12-14 18:30 - 20:30 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Don’t miss Gemini Ink’s annual holiday gathering. Join us at 1111 Navarro as we eat, drink, celebrate our collective creative accomplishments, and merrily toast the closing of 2023 with our literary community of writers and friends.
We’ll gather around and listen to a wonderful sampling of stories from our Voices of San Anto bilingual storytelling workshop, with Eddie Vega and Marisela Barrera. We’re excited to share some amazing videos with you from our Literary Video Lab. Lastly, we’ll be honoring ??Volunteer of the Year for 2023, Violeta Garza!??
Drop by when you can, leave when you need to , but stay long enough for a little eggnog and comfort food. Wine, non-alcoholic beverages, and coffee will be served. We will provide the main fare, but you are also invited to bring a store-bought or prepackaged food item to share. Keeping with our annual tradition, we’ll have a table of books to trade and give away. Please bring a book to share.
We can’t be San Antonio’s writing arts center without you!

We appreciate Violeta for sharing her time, infectious laughter and poetic heart with us and our extended literary community. Please join us as we celebrate Violeta’s contributions to our team with a special volunteer spotlight!
Violeta Garza (she/they/ella) is a multilingual Latinx poet and weaver from the Historic West Side of San Antonio, Texas. She has been published in Acentos Review, Boundless, and Voices de la Luna, among others, and is a member of the Macondo Writing Workshop. She has also performed her original poems and stories for Texas Public Radio, The Alamo Chapter for Human Rights, The Curtain Up Cancer Foundation, Voices of San Anto, and elsewhere. Her safe space is listening to cheesy Mexican love ballads from the 1980s. You can peruse their work at violetagarza.com.

Exploring Your Cultural Inheritance through Poetry with Ebony Stewart
2023-12-16 10:00 - 13:00 | Online via Zoom
Saturday, December 16, 10am-1pm CST, via Zoom
Instructor: Ebony Stewart
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

When we think of cultural inheritance, we often think of language, music, food, holidays, and maybe even sports. But what about the way a culture approaches central concepts like race, religion, patriotism, literacy, and integrity?
In this workshop, we will explore the idea of our own unique heritage as a museum of poetic artifacts, reflect on spoken word pieces, and generate writing. In the discussion portion, we will explore the concrete and intangible elements of culture, any logical or illogical fears these may evoke, and the impact of that. We will study how “Hairitage,” “Fear,” and Nina Simone’s “Four Women” depict culture and use literary devices to create memorable pieces. We will use all of our explorations of culture and fear to create new poems that use some of the literary techniques covered.
Participants can expect a safe workshop space where they can take risks, be vulnerable, and give and receive feedback for future revisions.
This course is open to writers of all skill levels, 18+.
Students will leave this workshop with:

A deeper understanding of your own culture
Knowledge of literary devices
One complete poem that captures your cultural inheritance

Ebony Stewart is a poet, writer, and performance artist. Her work speaks to the Black experience, with emphasis on gender, sexuality, womanhood, queer-positivity, and race, with the hopes to remove shame, heal minds, encourage dialogue, and inspire folks in marginalized communities. Ebony is a respected coach & mentor, one of the top touring poets in the country, and the 2017 Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion. She has performed in 48 states, at over 200 colleges and universities across the country, as well as featured internationally in Canada, Australia, and Ghana. She is the author of BloodFresh, Home.Girl.Hood., and Love Letters to Balled Fists. Her work has been featured in Button Poetry, AfroPunk, For Harriet, Teen Vogue, The Texas Observer, plus countless others.
Learn more about Ebony at her Writer’s Desk Q&A.

Open Writer's Labs
2023-12-18 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-01-29 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-02-26 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-03-25 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
These peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.

Online Via Zoom
For the online workshop, sign up the day before the class to ensure you receive the Zoom link.
This workshop is facilitated by Kevin Ramos. Originally from the northeast, Kevin studied theater arts at Rutgers University and The University of Washington. He’s lived all over the country before making his home in San Antonio, Texas. Kevin has written several novels and short stories. Most recently, publishing a short memoir called Enough about addiction, mothers, and missing graves. And a novel, Hayley’s Sense of Fire (DLG Publishing Partners), a modern re-telling of the classic fairy tale, The Little Matchgirl.

In-Person at Gemini Ink

Join our in-person Open Writer’s Lab with Robert Allen at Gemini Ink’s office, 1111 Navarro St., San Antonio, TX 78205.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics, including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.
Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Veterans Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2023-12-20 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-01-17 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-02-21 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-03-20 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom

Voices of San Anto with Eddie Vega
2024-01-13 13:00 - 17:00 | San Antonio Public Library, 600 Soledad, San Antonio, Texas, 78205

So, You Want to Write Romance with Laura Castoro
2024-01-17 18:30 - 20:30
Wed, January 17, 24, 31 & February 7, 6:30-8:30pm CST, Hybrid (in-person at Gemini Ink and online via Zoom)
Instructor: Laura Castro
Nonmember: $155; Member: $130; Student/Educator/Military: $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
Class Full
Compelling lovers, an emotionally driven plot, and steamy sex scenes–these are the ingredients of every great romance story. If you’ve always wanted to write a romance but didn’t know how, now is your chance! Bring your story idea to life with award-winning romance author Laura Castoro (aka Laura Parker).
In this 4-session, generative workshop, we will guide writers through the creation of an emotionally resonant plot with a unique slant and irresistible characters for a fascinating and unforgettable romance. Yes, there will be sex scenes! Writers will build on a story concept by constructing a synopsis and a first chapter while also learning about potential problems that can derail the creative process. By the end of the workshop, each writer will have the good bones of a riveting romance.
This course is open to fiction writers 18+ who want to write or finish a romance manuscript.
By the end of the class, students will have:

A story synopsis with characters and plot
The story structure and a good starting place
Ideas on how to keep the creative process going

Read Laura’s Writer’s Desk Interview!

Laura Castoro, a USA Today, Amazon top 100, and Apple Books bestseller, has published 47 novels with major publishing houses such as Dell Books, Berkley, Avon, Warner, MIRA, Harlequin, Kensington, Pocketbooks, St, Harper Collins, Martins Press, and William Morrow. She has also contributed to several fiction anthologies and has published non-fiction YA and short fiction in Good Housekeeping. Under the name Laura Parker, she writes historical and contemporary romance, westerns, and sagas. As Laura Castoro, she writes contemporary African American and contemporary women’s fiction. Writing as D. D. Ayres, she publishes a romantic suspense series called the K-9 Rescue Series. Her current release as Laura Castoro is Love On The Line (2021) through William Morrow. Laura has won multiple national writing awards. In 2005, she was inducted into the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame. She is a past president of Novelists, Inc. (2013), an international professional fiction writers’ organization. She is a past president and board member of the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, a writer residency program in the AR Ozarks. She speaks at numerous conferences and workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Laura currently lives in San Antonio, TX. Visit Laura at www.ddayres.com.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Rudy Ruiz
2024-01-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
RSVP

Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Rudy Ruiz and his novel, VALLEY OF SHADOWS. Moderated by Guadalupe Garcia McCall.

ABOUT VALLEY OF SHADOWS
Winner of the Texas Institute of Letters’ Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction
New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection

Solitario Cisneros thought his life was over long ago. He lost his wife, his family, even his country in the late 1870s when the Rio Grande shifted course, stranding the Mexican town of Olvido on the Texas side of the border. He’d made his brooding peace with retiring his gun and badge, hiding out on his ranch, and communing with horses and ghosts. But when a gruesome string of murders and kidnappings ravages the town, pushing its volatile mix of Anglo, Mexican, and Apache settlers to the brink of self-destruction, he feels reluctantly compelled to confront both life, and the much more likely possibility of death, yet again.
Through luminous prose and soul-searching reflections, Rudy Ruiz transports readers to a distant time and a remote place where the immortal forces of good and evil dance amidst the shadows of magic and mountains.
ABOUT RUDY RUIZ
Rudy Ruiz is an American author, advocate and social entrepreneur. The son and grandson of Mexican immigrants, Rudy Ruiz was born in Brownsville, Texas and raised along the US-Mexico border, living in Matamoros, Mexico for extensive periods of time. He did not speak English until he entered school at the age of five. Once in school, he dreamt of becoming a writer, an entrepreneur, and a contributor to the wellbeing of immigrants and minorities, as well as to positive relations between diverse cultures and nations. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Harvard. Ruiz now resides in San Antonio with his wife, Heather, and their two children, Paloma and Lorenzo.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico and raised in Eagle Pass, Texas, Guadalupe García McCall is the award-winning author of several young adult novels, some short stories for adults, and many children’s poems. Guadalupe has received the Prestigious Pura Belpre Award, a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award, the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award, and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, among many other accolades. Visit Guadalupe at her website: https://ggmccall.com/.

The Art of Zine Making with Caesar Morales
2024-02-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Saturdays, February 3 & 10, 2024, 10am-12pm CST, in-person at Gemini Ink
Instructor: Caesar Morales
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student $75.

*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

Want to get your work out there but don’t want to wait for traditional publication? A zine is a quick, easy way to distribute your writing in a format that’s one of a kind and easily digestible. These small independent publications are usually handmade and combine a collection of photos, text, illustrations, poems, etc., around a common theme. Because there is no definitive structure or layout for a zine, this allows for highly creative book-making that can turn the publication itself into a work of art.
In this two-session workshop, we will use short writing prompts to generate new work around specific themes, add visual elements through photos and drawings, receive feedback, and complete a mini-zine. We will also learn how best to distribute hard copy or digital zines.
Basic supplies, including construction paper, writing utensils, scissors, glue, and collage materials will be provided. Students are encouraged to bring in their own clip art, magazines, or photos that fit on 5.5” x 8.5” paper.
This course is open to writers of all genres and skill level, 18+.
Students will leave with the following:

New creative writing pieces
One handmade mini-zine
Instructions on how to make more zines independently
Ideas on how to distribute zines

Learn more about Caesar at his Writer’s Desk Q&A.
Caesar Morales has an MA in Playwriting and Screenwriting from City University of London in the UK. Prior to that, he obtained a BSc from the University of Greenwich, also in the UK. His photo essays have been published in Private Photo Review, and he will have an original short story published in the upcoming anthology, The 42 Anthology, featuring 42 stories from 42 different writers, each writing in 42 different genres/categories. Caesar’s story “The Outlaw Gerald Dorris” will be published in the Western category. He’s also taught podcast production, photography, filmmaking, zine publishing and screenwriting at Wac Arts College in London, UK and at the Institute for the Urban Arts in New York City. He’s also had two feature-length screenplays workshopped at the London Screenwriter’s Festival.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Unexplored Greats: A Study of Lesser Known African American Authors with Arrie Porter
2024-02-12 18:30 - 20:30
Mondays, February 12 & 19, 2024, 6:30-8:30pm CST, Hybrid (in-person at Gemini Ink and online via Zoom)
Instructor: Arrie Porter
Nonmember: $135; Member: $115; Student/Educator/Military $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

Tupac Shakur, Toni Morrison, Nicki Giovanni, Richard Wright, and Maya Angelou. These gifted authors are all household names who have put African American literature on the map. However, so many Black writers outside of pop culture have contributed to the lexicon of settings, spaces, imagery, and poetics found in Black literature. Such authors include Henry Dumas, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, Christopher Gilbert, Yusef Komunyakaa, and others. Delving into their work is vital to gaining an expansive view of literature and our shared history as Americans.
In this two-session workshop, participants will study the works of non-mainstream African American authors who have made valuable literary contributions. Participants will explore the narrative and lyrical license, devices, and history of these authors, while learning to craft our own dynamic works in poetry and fiction. Join us and get acquainted with these Black authors!
This course is open to writers of all genres and skill level, 18+.
Students will leave this class with:

A greater appreciation for lesser-known African American authors
An understanding of these writers’ craft techniques
A listing of anthologies where undiscovered writers may be found
Several beginnings to new creative work

Read Arrie’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Arrie Porter is a poet and fiction writer with publications in The Windward Review, Voices de la Luna, RiverSedge, The Thing Itself, and other noteworthy periodicals. She has reviewed books of fiction for Angelo State University and serves as a Gemini Ink Teaching Artist. She is the former host of the Coffee Loft Open Mic in Atlanta Georgia, and performs at various open mics. She is the creator of “Voices,” a DreamWeek San Antonio event, and creator and publisher of Nubian Notes, a magazine now maintained as a special collection at the John Peace Library, Institute of Texas Cultures. Her interviews and articles have appeared in the San Antonio Report and the San Antonio Express-News. Arrie has developed commentaries for Texas Public Radio, including “The George Floyd Protests in the Pandemic” and “Juneteenth–It’s Complicated.” She oversees the Poetry Ministry at Agape Christian Church and holds a MA/MFA degree in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice. Arrie is a Professor of English at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Mag Gabbert
2024-02-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
A Free Monthly Online Lecture Series from WritingWorkshops.com & Gemini Ink
Wednesday, February 21st, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST

RSVP
Up Next: Poet & Essayist Mag Gabbert and her poetry collection, SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS. This discussion will be moderated by poet Séamus Fey.
ABOUT SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS

“This bewitching debut delivers everything the title promises and more.” –Electric Literature
In SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS, which was selected by Kathy Fagan as the winner of the 2021 Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry, Mag Gabbert redefines the bestiary in fiery, insistent, and resistant terms. These poems recast the traumas of her adolescence while charting new paths toward linguistic and bodily autonomy as an adult. Using dreamlike, shimmering imagery, she pieces together a fractured portrait of femininity—one that electrifies the confessional mode with its formal play and rich curiosity. Gabbert examines the origin of shame, the role of inheritance, and what counts as a myth, asking, “What’s the opposite of a man? / A woman? A wound? The devil’s image?”

ABOUT MAG GABBERT
Mag Gabbert is the author of SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS (Mad Creek Books, 2023), which was selected by Kathy Fagan as the winner of the 2021 Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry; the chapbook The Breakup, which was selected by Kaveh Akbar as the winner of the 2022 Baltic Writing Residencies Chapbook Award; and the chapbook Minml Poems (Cooper Dillon Books, 2020). Her awards include a Discovery Award from 92NY’s Unterberg Poetry Center, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Idyllwild Arts, and Poetry at Round Top. Mag’s work can also be found in The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review Daily, Copper Nickel, Guernica, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Mag has an MFA from UC Riverside and a PhD from Texas Tech. She lives in Dallas, Texas and teaches at Southern Methodist University.
ABOUT S.FEY
S. Fey (they/he) is a Trans writer living in LA. Currently, they are the poetry editor at Hooligan Magazine, and co creative director at Rock Pocket Productions. Their debut poetry collection, decompose, is out with Not a Cult Media. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Sonora Review, and others. They love to beat their friends at Mario Party. Find them online @sfeycreates.

Rev Up Your Writing in the New Year: Gemini Ink’s Spring Open House
2024-02-22 18:30 - 20:30 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
We’re excited to introduce our dynamic roster of teaching artists who can help you take your writing to the next level.
Come connect with talented writers from San Antonio and beyond as they share new work and discuss the classes they’ll be teaching. We will hear from award-winning fiction writer and founder of Gemini Ink Nan Cuba, poet and Zoeglossia Fellow Jonathan Fletcher, and other instructors. We’ll also get a sneak peek at Typewriter Rodeo and their on-the-spot-generated poetry!
The presentation will be followed by time to mix and mingle with fellow literature lovers and to enjoy light refreshments. Our evening will culminate with a community open mic. Bring your latest work and arrive early to grab a spot. The list is capped at 6 readers.
It all happens at Gemini Ink’s downtown writing arts center at 1111 Navarro Street. Don’t leave without our spring calendar of classes and events!

Sean Petrie & Rebecca Bendheim are part of the nationally-renowned Typewriter Rodeo, where they’ve written thousands of poems for strangers on the spot, and do weekly radio poems for NPR. Both have MFAs in Writing for Children from Vermont College of Fine Arts, are writing teachers (Sean at UT, Rebecca at Trinity Episcopal School), and authors. Sean’s books include Typewriter Rodeo, the award-winning Pet Poems (also not just pets), and the Jett Ryder series for kids. Rebecca is represented by Patricia Nelson and has multiple books in the works. Join Sean and Rebecca for Poetry Flurry with Typewriter Rodeo! on March 30th, and get ready for National Poetry Month in April.
Nan Cuba is the author of Body and Bread, winner of the PEN Southwest Award in Fiction and the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Award; it was listed as one of “Ten Titles to Pick Up Now” in O, Oprah’s Magazine and was a “Summer Books” choice from Huffington Post. As an investigator of the causes of extraordinary violence, she is a featured journalist in the Netflix documentary, The Confession Killer, and another by Hulu, Wild Crimes: Murder in Yosemite. She is founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit writing arts center. Nan is teaching a 6-week class in fiction beginning on March 18: Fiction Never Lies: Turning Personal Experience into Emotional Truth.
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Columbia University School of the Arts. He has been published in The Adroit Journal, Arts Alive San Antonio, FlowerSong Press, riverSedge, and The Thing Itself. He has served as a Columbia Artist/Teacher for iHOPE, a specialized school for students with traumatic brain injury, as well as a poetry editor for Exchange, Columbia’s literary magazine for incarcerated writers and artists. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow. Jonathan is teaching a Poetry for Beginners in April; a 4-session workshop for newbie poets who are ready to learn more about the genre.

Loss, Memory, and Mortality: A Mixed Genre Workshop with 2023 Texas Poet Laureate ire’ne lara silva
2024-03-02 10:00 - 12:00
Saturdays, March 2, 9, 16, & 23, 2024, 10am-12pm CST, in-person at Gemini Ink
Instructor: ire’ne lara silva
Nonmember: $150; Member: $125; Student/Educator/Military $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

CLASS FULL. To have your name added to the waitlist, email joshua@geminiink.org.
Our lives are marked by losses small and great. Dreams that don’t materialize; relationships that fail; bodies that age and get sick; friends, spouses, parents, children, and other loved ones that die. In these turbulent times, the world seems filled with tragedy and death. Few have the tools to handle these losses as individuals, much less as artists, yet many of us are expected to ‘move on’ from our grief without having the space to process what happened.
In this four-week workshop, we will read and discuss grief-focused poetry, fiction, and nonfiction written by ire’ne lara silva. We will explore strategies for writing about loss, memory, and mortality and apply them when responding to on-theme writing prompts. This workshop will create an open and empathetic space to discuss loss in our lives, so we can move forward with acceptance.
This course is open to writers of all genres, backgrounds, and skill level, 18+.
By the end of the class students will:

study grief-focused poetry, fiction, and nonfiction written by ire’ne lara silva
explore strategies for writing about loss, memory, and mortality
respond to 3-4 writing prompts per class regarding our workshop themes

ire’ne lara silva, the 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of four poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, and FirstPoems, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán.ire’ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire’ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine and is working on a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body. A new poetry collection, the eaters of flowers, is forthcoming from Saddle Road Press in January 2024.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Deadline to submit to the Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Sponsored by National Poetry Month San Antonio
2024-03-08
Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Sponsored by 2024 National Poetry Month San Antonio

Fiction Never Lies: Turning Personal Experience into Emotional Truth with Nan Cuba
2024-03-18 18:30 - 20:30 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Mondays, March 18, 25 & April 1, 8, 15, 22, 2024, 6:30-8:30pm CST, Hybrid (available in-person and online via Zoom)
Instructor: Nan Cuba
Nonmember: $155; Member: $135; Student/Educator/Military $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

CLASS FULL. To have your name added to the waitlist, email joshua@geminiink.org.
People we’ve known, moments we’ve witnessed, conversations we’ve overheard, places we’ve been, something we’ve read: these influence aspects of our fiction. Sometimes an experience is so profound, we decide to use that memory as inspiration for a story. But how do writers free themselves from the restrictions of facts in order to create a story with emotional truth? This six-week class will introduce techniques for identifying real events, people, or places that can be adapted into fiction. Examples will be shared, participants will be guided through a sample exercise, and each person’s story will receive feedback from the instructor and fellow classmates. Workshop discussions will honor individual styles, voices, intended audiences, and perceived intents.
This course is open to writers of all genres and skill level, 18+.
By the end of the class students will:

Have strategies for successfully adapting personal experience into fiction.
Learn and practice skills for giving sensitive critical feedback on manuscripts.
Have a completed story draft with ideas for revision.

The Writer’s Desk with Nan Cuba

Nan Cuba is the author of Body and Bread, winner of the PEN Southwest Award in Fiction and the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Award; it was listed as one of “Ten Titles to Pick Up Now” in O, Oprah’s Magazine and was a “Summer Books” choice from Huffington Post. Other work has appeared in Antioch Review, Harvard Review, Columbia, Quarterly West, and Chicago Tribune’s Printer’s Row. As an investigator of the causes of extraordinary violence, she is a featured journalist in the Netflix documentary, The Confession Killer, and another by Hulu, Wild Crimes: Murder in Yosemite. Cuba is included in Texas Monthly’s “Ten to Watch (and Read)” and has received a Dobie Paisano Fellowship and an artist residency at Fundación Valparaiso in Spain. She is co-founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit writing arts center, and was Writer in Residence at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Jason Stone
2024-03-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Visit the Big Texas Author Talk page. RSVP for the link.
Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Jason Stone and his novel, THE BEAUTY OF THE DAYS GONE BY. Moderated by Matt Walter.
ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF THE DAYS GONE BY

Based on historical events that occurred in Comancheria, the region of West Texas and New Mexico controlled by the Comanche in the 18th and 19th centuries, THE BEAUTY OF THE DAYS GONE BY is a historical survival story, interweaving the reminisces of aging plainsman Charles Goodnight in the late 1920s against the backdrop of Reconstruction Texas and the events set in motion when a Kiowa raiding party kills the wife and abducts the sons of his friend R.L. Terry.
ABOUT JASON STONE

Jason Stone grew up in West Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Austin. He is currently working on a non-fiction book about the real story behind Friday Night Lights.
ABOUT MATT WALTER

Matt Walter recently retired after 20 years as Curator of Collections at the Museum of the Big Bend, located on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, Texas. He earned an MA in History from Sul Ross and taught there for 17 years. Before that, Matt spent 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. Much of his time in the Service was spent in Galveston, Texas, but he did get to visit 19 countries, courtesy of Uncle Sam, during his career.

Poetry Flurry with Typewriter Rodeo!
2024-03-30 10:00 - 12:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Saturday, March 30, 2024 10am-12pm CST, in person at Gemini Ink
Nonmember: $115; Member: $100; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

CLASS FULL. To have your name added to the waitlist, email joshua@geminiink.org.
Get your creative juices flowing for National Poetry Month 2024 with Typewriter Rodeo!
Whether you’re a poet or not, this workshop has something for everyone, including a room full of typewriters to play with. Clacking away on those keys with no way to correct your mistakes is freeing and just darn fun!
In this one-day, fast-paced workshop, you’ll write between 12 to 21 short poems in less than 2 hours. Yes, really! And, along the way, discover a bit more about the creative voice that’s been waiting inside you, patiently, to peek out. Participants will respond to a wide range of highly creative prompts and generate new poetry. The techniques we’ll learn apply to crafting poetry, stories, and even non-fiction (you need a voice for that, too).
This course is open to writers of all genres and skill levels, 16+.
Students will leave this class with the following:

12-21 new poems
3 techniques to spark your writing at any point (hey there, writer’s block)
typewriter experience (oh yeah)

Sean Petrie & Rebecca Bendheim are part of the nationally renowned Typewriter Rodeo, where they’ve written thousands of poems for strangers on the spot, and do weekly radio poems for NPR. Both have MFAs in Writing for Children from Vermont College of Fine Arts, are writing teachers (Sean at UT, Rebecca at Trinity Episcopal School), and authors. Sean’s books include Typewriter Rodeo, the award-winning Pet Poems (also not just pets), and the Jett Ryder series for kids. Rebecca is represented by Patricia Nelson and has multiple books in the works.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Poetry for Beginners with Jonathan Fletcher
2024-04-04 18:30 - 20:30
Thursdays, April 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2024, 6:30-8:30pm CST, In person at Gemini Ink
Instructor: Jonathan Fletcher
Nonmember: $135; Member: $115; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

CLASS FULL. To have your name added to the waitlist, email joshua@geminiink.org.
Have you ever wanted to try your hand at poetry but didn’t know where to start? Or are you a newbie poet who’s ready to learn more about the genre? If so, this National Poetry Month workshop is for you!
In this four-week class, we will review the history of poetry, study contemporary poets and their craft, and review different poetic forms, including prose, lists, lyrical and narrative, and more. Using these texts and forms for inspiration, we will write and give poetic form to our own experiences and dreams. Participants will receive light feedback and resources to keep them writing.
This course is open to beginning poets or anyone who wants to try poetry for the first time, 18+.
Students will leave this class with:

Knowledge of contemporary poetry and craft tools
Drafts of work generated from class readings, discussions, and prompts
Resources and materials to further their own study and poetic work

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Columbia University School of the Arts. He has been published in The Adroit Journal, Arts Alive San Antonio, FlowerSong Press, riverSedge, and The Thing Itself. He has served as a Columbia Artist/Teacher for iHOPE, a specialized school for students with traumatic brain injury, as well as a poetry editor for Exchange, Columbia’s literary magazine forincarcerated writers and artists. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow.

Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

Free Autograph Reading with bestselling author Aimee Nezhukumatathil
2024-04-11 19:00 - 22:00 | San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Place, San Antonio, TX, United States
We invite you to join Gemini Ink and bestselling author Aimee Nezhukumatathil at a free public reading and book signing on Thursday, April 11th, at 7pm, at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, with nature writer and journalist, Monika Maeckle, facilitating an author conversation. This event is part of our Autograph Series. Please RSVP at https://bit.ly/AimeeN
A candid, vivid witness to our contemporary world, Aimee Nezhukumatathil has garnered some of the most prestigious literary awards, including a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. Author of the best-selling World of Wonders, she also has written five poetry collections, including Oceanic (2018), Lucky Fish, (2011), and At the Drive-In Volcano, (2007). In 2021, she became the first-ever poetry editor for Sierra magazine. She is a professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program and her forthcoming book of food essays is called Bite By Bite (Ecco, May 2024).
