Loss, Memory, and Mortality: A Mixed Genre Workshop with 2023 Texas Poet Laureate ire’ne lara silva
2024-03-02 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Mexico_City) | TX
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 | TX
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.

Veterans Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2024-03-20 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-04-17 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-05-15 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-06-19 18:30 - 20:30 | 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 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.

Open Writer's Labs
2024-03-25 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-04-29 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-05-27 18:30 - 20:30, 2024-06-24 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.

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 | TX
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).

An Afternoon with Aimee Nezhukumatathil
2024-04-12 11:30 - 13:30 | McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., San Antonio, TX, United States
Autograph Series ticketed luncheon at the McNay Art Museum
PURCHASE TICKETS AND SPONSORSHIPS AT EVENTBRITE.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays, WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS. She also wrote four previous poetry collections including OCEANIC. Her most recent chapbook is LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems with the poet Ross Gay. Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and being named a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. She is poetry editor for SIERRA magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club. She is 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).

Autograph Series with Terrance Hayes, with local high school students, 2019.
Autograph Series presents writers of national and international stature—many of them recipients of major prizes such as the Pulitzer or National Book Award—in free public performances followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Ours is one of the few such series in the nation offered to the public at no cost. A ticketed luncheon with the visiting writer partially supports the Autograph Series. Local businesses also sponsor tables for high school students, cultivating a community of support and encouragement for the writing arts.
Previous Autograph writers include Margaret Atwood, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Ha Jin, Edward P. Jones, Tim O’Brien, Grace Paley, Philip Levine, Luis Alberto Urrea, Terrance Hayes, Ben Fountain, among others.

The Edge of the Sea is a Strange and Beautiful Place: Hybrid Poetry & Prose Experiments with Aimee Nezhukumatathil
2024-04-13 10:00 - 13:00 | TX
Saturday, April 13, 2024 10:00am-1:00pm CST, in-person at Gemini Ink
Instructor: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Nonmember: $145; Member: $125; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.

Building upon writer and marine biologist Rachel Carson’s famous maritime observation, we will investigate and interrogate the “strange and beautiful place” of genre-blurring work—work that melds elements of creative non-fiction and poetry.
In this one-session, cross-genre workshop, participants will focus on generating new work that builds upon Audre Lorde’s idea that “the sharing of joy…forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.” We will spend our time generating work that sings and celebrates the various big and small delights of this earth. We will also learn several craft practices to help keep us generating new work long after returning home.
Come prepared to roll up your sleeves and dig in! We’ll have plenty of time for in-class craft analysis, discussion, and writing prompts galore that will send you home with several solid drafts of new work. Ideal for writers at any level of experience looking for a vibrant shake-up to their writing practices long after the workshop is over.
This course is open to writers of all genres and skill levels, 18+.
Students will leave this class with:

An understanding of how to blur genres effectively in writing
Several drafts of new pieces
Craft tips for continuing to write independently

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays, WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS. She also wrote four previous poetry collections including OCEANIC. Her most recent chapbook is LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems with the poet Ross Gay. Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and being named a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. She is poetry editor for SIERRA magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club. She is 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).

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.

From Description to Discovery: Personal Essays on Art with Jehanne Dubrow
2024-04-20 10:00 - 14:30 | Online via Zoom
Saturday, April 20, 10am-2:30pm CST (with 30 min lunch), via Zoom
Instructor: Jehanne Dubrow
Nonmember: $140; Member: $120; Student/Educator/Mil $75
Class Cancelled.
Ekphrasis teaches us that in standing back to study a work of fine art, we can find a way to step back and examine ourselves as if we are the art. For many writers, ekphrasis is a literary device that provides a visual springboard for unlocking stories you didn’t even know were inside of you.
In this one-day course, participants will read examples of ekphrastic writing from across genres and go through the process of creating an ekphrastic essay. They’ll learn how to write about art using the five senses and concrete, specific details and how to research the history of an art piece. Participants will then weave their description, research, and a personal experience together to generate an ekphrastic personal essay.
Students should come to class with an image of a piece of art that has personal meaning to them. This course is open to writers of all genres and skill level, 18+.
Students will leave this class with:

A first draft of an essay that engages with a work of art
An understanding of how ekphrasis can be used to break through writer’s block
Concrete strategies for blending research with personal stories

Jehanne Dubrow is the author of nine poetry collections and three books of creative nonfiction, including most recently Exhibitions: Essays on Art & Atrocity (University of New Mexico Press, 2023), and Taste: A Book of Small Bites (Columbia University Press, 2022). Her next book of poems, Civilians, will be published by Louisiana State University Press in 2025. Her writing has appeared in New England Review, POETRY, and The Southern Review, among others. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Cyrus Cassells
2024-04-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
A Free Monthly Online Lecture Series from WritingWorkshops.com & Gemini Ink
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Poet Cyrus Cassells and his collection, Is There Room for Another Horse on Your Horse Ranch?
ABOUT IS THERE ROOM FOR ANOTHER HORSE ON YOUR HORSE RANCH?

RSVP
Cyrus Cassells has perfected a poetics of merciful vitality and tenderness, celebrating eros — in his daring and prolific representation of lust, yes, but more broadly in his understanding of the erotic as an affirmation and preservation of life — through time and space. Beginning his latest collection with the piece “You Be the Dancer,” he bids us return to sacred sites of nostalgia, insisting on it “whether we’re feeling frisky, / Empty-handed, / Or still beguiled by inchoate dreams–.” Is There Room for Another Horse on Your Horse Ranch? is the apotheosis of Cassells’s work to elevate the mundane and the bodily to the exalted, his vigorous lyrics a routine ecstasy. Though our senses lay us bare to suffering, they also create the possibilities for pleasure and connection, the basis of — and rewards for — humanity. “My Only Bible,” Cassells pledges, “is this blood-red joy / Of breathing beside you,” “The gospel of bougainvillea / At your boyhood gate” which perfumes “the soul’s endless, luxuriant / Coming and becoming…” Gorgeous and wry in its portrayal of transformational romance and queer selfhood, Cassells’s ninth book of poetry reads as an anthology of love letters to people and places across the world. Cassells revises an old premise: is it better to have loved than lost, or is that love, once bestowed, is never lost? A champion of the flight real intimacy requires of us, Cassells addresses a beloved, “You’ve just died in my arms / But suddenly it seems we’re eternal,” the joie de vivre and bravery of his perseverance made immortal through the poem’s titular declaration — “I Believe Icarus Was not Failing as He Fell.” If in these pages you see the crash, the poet seems to say, remember the flying, too, “the giddy Argonauts we were.”
ABOUT CYRUS CASSELLS
Cyrus Cassells was the 2021 Poet Laureate of Texas. Among his honors: a 2023 Civitella-Ranieri Foundation fellowship; a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate fellowship to administer his statewide Juneteenth poetry project; a 2019 Guggenheim fellowship; the National Poetry Series; a Lambda Literary Award; two NEA grants; a Pushcart Prize; and the William Carlos Williams Award. His 2018 volume, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award, the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award, and the Balcones Poetry Prize. Still Life with Children: Selected Poems of Francesc Parcerisas, translated from the Catalan, was awarded the Texas Institute of Letters’ Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translated Book of 2018 and 2019. To The Cypress Again and Again: Tribute to Salvador Espriu, combining translations, poetry, and memoir in homage to Catalan Spain’s most revered 20th century writer, was published in 2023. Cassells was nominated for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism for his film and television reviews in The Washington Spectator. He teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University, where he received a 2021 Presidential Award for Scholarly/Creative Activities and was named a 2023 University Distinguished Professor.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR

D E Zuccone is the author of a volume of poetry, Vanishes, with 3ATaos Press. He is currently completing No Provenance//Art-o-mata, a manuscript of semi-ekphrastic poems surrounding works of art that don’t precisely exist. He has been a poetry reader in Houston, Taos, Los Angeles, and a frequent, grateful guest of Archway Gallery. He has published poetry in Ekphrastic Review, Borderlands, Water Stone, International Review of Poetry, Southern Indiana Review, Schuylkill Review, Hurricane Review, Big River, Apalachee Review, Deep Water Literary Review, & Garden Box. His poetry and fiction have been in anthologies from Round Top, Taos Artists, Words & Art, Equinox, Mutabilis Press, and Big Poetry Review. He is an MFA graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts and currently has an interview podcast, Amicus Briefs for Public Poetry. Visit dezuccone.com.

Visit the Big Texas Author Talk page.

First Page Fiction Bootcamp with Chaitali Sen
2024-05-04 10:00 - 16:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Saturday, May 4, 10am-4pm CST (with 30-minute lunch); Hybrid (students can take this class online or in-person at Gemini Ink)
Instructor: Chaitali Sen
Nonmember: $140; Member: $120; Student/Educator/Mil $75
Class Canceled.
A formidable first page of fiction grabs the reader, sets the tone for what’s to come, and captures the essence of the entire work. But how do we create an opening that keeps the reader turning the page?
In this one-day workshop, we will study and discuss various examples of compelling first pages to see what works; we will review craft elements such as character, setting, point-of-view, and narrative voice; and we will write and examine our own first pages in a safe, supportive environment.
This course is open to fiction writers of all skill levels, 18+.
Students will leave this class with:

An understanding of what makes for a strong first page
Techniques for writing strong openings
A strong first page of fiction

Chaitali Sen is the author of the novel The Pathless Sky (Europa Editions 2015) and the story collection A New Race of Men from Heaven (Sarabande Books 2023), chosen by Danielle Evans as the winner of the 2021 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Her stories and essays have been published by American Short Fiction, Boulevard, Catapult, Colorado Review, Ecotone, Electric Literature, LitHub, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, Shenandoah, and many other publications. Born in India and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Austin, Texas.

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.

From Madness to Heaven: An Evening with Gemini Wahhaj and Chaitali Sen, followed by a Community Open Mic
2024-05-10 18:30 - 20:00 | Poetic Republic Coffee Co., 2330 S. Presa St, San Antonio, Texas, United States
Gemini Wahhaj and Chaitali Sen
Join Gemini Ink on Friday, May 10th, for a night of prose and literary celebration as we partner with our friends at Poetic Republic Cafe to create an inviting space for the writing community to share words, wine, and wisdom, with a little latte or espresso on the side.
Let’s honor Asian-American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month with the compelling fiction of Gemini Wahhaj and Chaitali Sen, who capture the human experience through the lens of immigration and political unrest and do so with power and elegance. Following the featured reading, we will host a community open mic. Bring your poems, stories, and thoughts to share (there will be a 3-minute limit for each reader). Open mic sign-up in person, starting at 6pm.

Gemini Wahhaj is the author of the novel The Children of this Madness (7.13 Books, Fall 2023) and the short-story collection Katy Family (Jackleg Press, Spring 2025).
Chaitali Sen is the author of the novel The Pathless Sky (Europa Editions 2015) and the story collection A New Race of Men from Heaven (Sarabande Books 2023), chosen by Danielle Evans as the winner of the 2021 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Her stories and essays have been published by American Short Fiction, Boulevard, Catapult, Colorado Review, Ecotone, Electric Literature, LitHub, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, Shenandoah, and many other publications. Born in India and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Austin, Texas.

Wellness for Writers with Jen Knox
2024-05-11 10:00 - 12:00 | Online via Zoom
Saturday, May 11 & 18, 10am-12pm; via Zoom
Instructor: Jen Knox
Nonmember: $145; Member: $125; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.
Class cancelled (will be rescheduled)
Between writer’s block, rejection letters, and tough critiques, the writing process can be an emotionally taxing experience. It’s easy for a writer to get discouraged. Many even abandon their practice completely. How do we support ourselves so we keep our creative engines burning, tell the truth without injuring ourselves, and manage the ups and downs of the writing life?
In this two-session workshop, we will combine writing and wellness practices to help writers develop a more mindful approach to their work. We’ll use meditation to tap creativity, explore the connection between self-compassion and craft, and look at how to mine raw personal material in a safe but effective way. By the end of this workshop, we’ll put these techniques into practice in order to write with momentum and heart, then revise with craft and focus.
This course is open to writers of all genres, backgrounds, and skill level, 18+ who write on a regular basis.
What you can expect in this workshop:

A nurturing and fun space to explore your deepest stories.
Wellness techniques for managing the ups and downs of the writing life and writing through and about difficult times.
Practice using these tools to generate authentic raw material to create a piece of work after the workshop.
Piece of authentic work.

Jen Knox teaches at Ohio State University and is the founder of Unleash Creatives. She combines her love of creativity with personal development and leadership in workshops she hosts around the world. Jen’s debut novel, We Arrive Uninvited, won the Steel Toe Books Award, and her collection, The Glass City, won the Press Americana Prize. Jen’s short writing appears in over a hundred journals and magazines, including McSweeney’s Internet Quarterly and The Saturday Evening Post.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Glenn Blake
2024-05-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
A Free Monthly Online Lecture Series from WritingWorkshops.com & Gemini Ink
Wednesday, May 15th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Glenn Blake, with moderator Cliff Hudder, discussing The Old and the Lost: Collected Stories
RSVP
About The Old and the Lost: Collected Stories

The most complete collection of Glenn Blake’s luminous short fiction published to date. “I was born in a land of bayous, raised between rivers,” Glenn Blake writes. “There is a place in Southeast Texas where two rivers meet and become one. There is a long bridge over these waters, and as you drive across, you can look to the south and see where the Old River and the Lost River become the Old and the Lost. You can look out as far as you can see and watch this wide water become the bay.” These fourteen stories are set in the swamps, bayous, and sloughs of Southeast Texas, a region that is subsiding—sinking inches every year. The characters who inhabit Blake’s haunting landscape—awash in their own worlds, adrift in their own lives—struggle to salvage what they can of their hopes and dreams from the encroaching tides.
ABOUT GLENN BLAKE
Glenn Blake has taught in the English Department at Rice University, the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston, and the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. He is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Tyler. He is the author of Drowned Moon, Return Fire, and The Old and the Lost. His novel, Degüello, is due in December. He has edited Gulf Coast, The Hopkins Review, and Boulevard. He is now serving as the Director of the University of Texas Press at Tyler. In 2000, he was elected Chair of PEN Houston. In 2020, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
ABOUT CLIFF HUDDER
Cliff Hudder received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Houston in 1995, and a PhD in American Literature from Texas A&M University in 2018. He has been an archaeological laborer, a film and video editor, a photographer, an air compressor mechanic, an electrical lineman, and an educator. In addition to articles on regional and American literature, his short stories have appeared in several journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, and The Missouri Review. His work has received the Barthelme and Michener Awards, the Peden Prize, the Short Story Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Ruth Vande Kieft Prize from the Eudora Welty Society. His novella, Splinterville, won the 2007 Texas Review Fiction Award, and his novel, Pretty Enough for You, was named a top-10 Texas favorite for 2015 by the Lone Star Literary Life website. His third book, Sallowsfield, will be released in November by Texas Review Press. He serves as the chair of Psychology and Sociology at Lone Star College-Montgomery in Conroe, Texas. In 2017, Cliff was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

No More Excuses: Submission Bootcamp with Lyzette Wanzer
2024-06-04 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Tuesdays, June 4, 11, 18, 25 & July 2, 9, 2024 from 6:30-8:30pm cst via Zoom
Instructor: Lyzette Wanzer
Nonmember: $155; Member: $135; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.
Class Full
Are you on the verge of submitting your writing for publication, but are you too nervous or afraid to follow through? Have you submitted your work, just for it to end up in the rejection pile? Or does submitting your work keep falling to the bottom of your to-do list?
In this workshop, you’ll learn how to plan a submission strategy, research publishing markets, and identify the publications most aligned with your work. We will also review proper submission etiquette and protocols plus suggestions for avoiding pitfalls that mark you as an amateur before editors even read your submission.
Students will be strongly encouraged to actively submit short stories, articles, poems, essays, novel excerpts, and/or creative nonfiction pieces for publication while enrolled in the workshop.
This course is for writers of all levels—from those who are ready to learn about the submission process to those who are in the submission trenches.
Students will leave this class with:

An understanding of how the submission and publication process works
Best practices for organizing and tracking submissions
Strategies for getting your work accepted

Read Lyzette’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Lyzette Wanzer is a San Francisco writer, editor, and writing workshop instructor. She received her MFA in Fiction from Mills College. A flash fiction connoisseur and essay aficionado, her work has appeared in Natural Bridge, The Los Angeles Review, Callaloo, Tampa Review, The MacGuffin, Ampersand Review, Journal of Advanced Development, Fourteen Hills, Journal of Experimental Fiction, Pleiades, Flashquake, Glossalia Flash Fiction, Potomac Review, International Journal on Literature and Theory, Fringe Magazine, and many others. She is a contributor to Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth From the Margins (Wayne State University Press 2022), The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (Wyatt-MacKenzie 2012), Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area (Pease Press 2019), and 642 Tiny Things to Write About (Chronicle Books 2015). Her articles have appeared in Essay Daily, The Naked Truth, and the San Francisco University High School Journal. Lyzette is the current judge of the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition’s Intercultural Essay category and of the Women’s National Book Association’s Effie Lee Morris Writing Contest’s nonfiction category.
Lyzette has been invited to present her work and/or panels at conferences across the country, including the American and Popular Culture Association, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), College English Association (CEA), Louisville Conference on Literature & Culture Since 1900, Litquake Festival, San Francisco Writers Conference, and others.

Delving into Latin America: Inspiration from International Poets with Veronica Golos
2024-06-05 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Wednesdays, June 5, 12, 19 & 26, 2024, from 6:30-8:30pm cst via Zoom
Instructor: Veronica Golos
Nonmember: $145; Member: $125; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.
Class Full
In a time of worldwide strife and disconnection, poetry reacquaints us with humanity in a way that transcends borders, time zones, and languages. Join master poetry teacher Veronica Golos on an international poetry tour. First stop: Latin America!
In this four-week generative poetry workshop we will explore four international poets: Conceiҫão Evaristo (Brazil), Coral Bracho (Mexico), Pablo Neruda (Chile) and Juan Gelman (Argentina). Each week we will read deeply, explore each poet’s craft tools, and apply these techniques to our own work. A packet with poems will be sent to participants, along with suggestions for developing your own work.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
By the end of the class students will have:

Study and analyze the work of 4 contemporary poets
Write poems that follow the selected poet’s structure and theme
Receive on-the-spot feedback for written work

Veronica Golos is the author of four poetry books: GIRL, awarded the Naji Naaman Honor Prize in 2019; Rootwork, winner of the 2016 Southwest Book Design Award in Poetry; Vocabulary of Silence, a 2011 New Mexico Book Award winner that was translated into Arabic, Spanish and Persian; and A Bell Buried Deep, a Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize winner. She teaches poetry for Hugo House, Gemini Ink, and SOMOS. She reviews poetry books for Tupelo Press and works as a manuscript editor. She lives in Taos, New Mexico, with her husband, David Pérez.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Alex Temblador
2024-06-19 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Wednesday, June 19th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: Alex Temblador, moderated Daniel Peña
RSVP
About Writing an Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers
A practical guide to help authors authentically write and edit a character whose identity is different than their own.

Do you have the tools to authentically write and edit a character whose identity is different than your own? It’s not a subject that’s generally taught in creative writing programs, and there are so few craft books and online resources on the subject. Even if you can take a seminar, class, or workshop, there’s nothing like having an easy-to-understand book on hand to provide guidance and insight every time you craft characters with historically marginalized identities.

In Writing an Identity Not Your Own, award-winning author Alex Temblador discusses one of the most contentious topics in creative writing: crafting a character whose identity is historically marginalized. What is “identity,” and how do unconscious biases and bias blocks impact and influence what we write? What is intersectionality? You’ll learn about identity terms, stereotypes, and tropes, and receive genre-specific advice related to various identities to consider when writing different races and ethnicities, sexual and romantic orientations, gender identities, disabilities, nationalities, and more. Through writing strategies, exercises, and literary excerpts, writers will gain a clearer understanding on how misrepresentations and harmful portrayals can appear in storylines, dialogue, and characterization. Alex will guide writers from the brainstorming phase through the editing process so they can gain a full understanding of the complexities of writing other identities and why it’s important to get them right.

Alex Temblador is the Mixed Latine award-winning author of Writing An Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers, Secrets of the Casa Rosada and Half Outlaw. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a contributor to Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology. Her work has appeared in PALABRITAS, D Magazine, and Colorado Review, among others. Alex is the creator and moderator of LitTalk at Whose Books and the Executive Director of Write Here DFW, the Dallas-Fort Worth literary calendar. In addition to teaching creative writing classes, she is an award-winning travel, arts, and culture journalist whose work has appeared in Outside, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, Texas Monthly, among others.

Daniel Peña is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer and Associate Professor at the University of North Texas where he teaches in the PhD Program in Creative Writing. Formerly, he was based out of the UNAM in Mexico City where he worked as a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar. A graduate of Cornell University and a former Picador Guest Professor in Leipzig, Germany, his writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, the Kenyon Review, Texas Monthly, NBC News, and The New York Times Magazine among other venues. He’s currently a regular contributor to The Guardian and the Ploughshares blog. His novel, Bang, is out now from Arte Publico Press. He lives in the beautiful Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke
2024-06-22 10:00 - 13:00 | Online via Zoom
Saturday, June 22, 2024 10am-1pm CST, via Zoom
Instructor: Amanda Eke
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S

Rhythm, dynamic words, dramatic flow–these are some of the core elements of spoken word poems. But what if you infuse this type of poetry with aspects of storytelling and other oral traditions? This cross-genre approach to writing and performance can open us up to a whole new art form.
The goal of this one-day workshop is to engage in a unique combination of personal story and poetry. We will start by learning about Nigerian and Igbo oral storytelling traditions of rhyme and verse. Then we’ll fuse this storytelling with the contemporary art of spoken word to create our own poems. Theater and choral reading techniques will also be covered to help students prepare poems for stage performance.
This course is open to writers of all skill levels, 18+.
By the end of the class students will have:

New strategies for incorporating storytelling and other oral traditions into crafting spoken word pieces
Experimentation with beats and rhymes
1 drafted spoken word poem

Read Amanda’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Amanda Eke is an award-winning Nigerian American Artist, Poet, Filmmaker, Educator and Scholar. A Fulbright and UN Award winner and author, she uses both her love for writing and music to address socio-political issues, and contemporary culture prevalent in society today. Amanda has lived and worked with young adults in Malta, Nepal, United States and Nigeria.

Letters to James Baldwin: A Pride Month Reading & Celebration
2024-06-27 18:30 - 20:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join Gemini Ink on Thursday, June 27th, to wrap up Pride Month 2024 with a timely and intimate literary discussion around the life and work of James Baldwin.
We will celebrate the genius of Baldwin, a black, queer writer and civil rights activist, and create a space for other writers to draw inspiration from and interact with his work. This event will feature authors Georgie Lee, Aminah Decé, and Aaron Deutsch, who will each share a piece of work written in response to Baldwin’s concepts and ideas. Come join the community conversation. Following the program, we will have a community open mic. Light refreshments will be served.
Please visit our social media pages during the month of June. We’re sharing writing prompts and quotes from James Baldwin that mayinspire you to write something new for the open mic!

Instagram: @sa_geminiink
Facebook: @GeminiInk
Twitter: @GeminiInk

Aminah Decé is a Teaching Artist from Mississippi. She was trained at the World Combat Academy, Institute of Martial Science, and maintains degrees in The Humanities, Fine Arts & Art History/Criticism from UTSA. She began her artistic journey as a slam poet in Killeen, Texas. Aminah discredits concepts of race and supremacy through her art and empowers the public to do the same through art education.

Aaron Deutsch received his MFA in poetry with distinction from Texas State University, intending to acquire a lexicon to answer the wild, mystical questions the world around him seemed to be asking. That journey led him to become a senior program manager with the United States Department of Defense, where he works to build regional security across South America and the Middle East alongside international partners. To establish and maintain effective communication, he uses poetics and linguistics to build shared goals across cultures. He loves teaching creative writing classes, working on that ever-elusive first book, and spoiling his Boston Terrier, Hamlet.
Georgie Lee (he/they) is an award-winning and internationally published poet from South Texas. By day, Georgie is the healthcare form designer for all Baptist Health System hospitals in the San Antonio area. By night, Georgie is heavily involved in the local performing arts scene. From acting in community theater productions to playing the clarinet in symphonic bands, Georgie hopes to inspire others to explore the power of recovery through creative activity. Their work is centered around self-love, grief, overcoming addiction, and queerness as a celebration.

MOSAIC Summer Workshop with Poet Mandy Lynn
2024-07-03 11:00 - 14:00 | Contemporary at Blue Star, 116 Blue Star, San Antonio, Texas

Make Your YA Novel a Reality with David Bowles
2024-07-08 18:30 - 20:30 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Mondays, July 8, 15, & 22, 6:30-8:30pm CST, in person at Gemini Ink
Instructor: David Bowles
Nonmember: $150; Member: $130; Student/Educator/Mil $75
*EARN CPE’S
Do you aspire to become the next Jacqueline Woodson, Suzanne Collins, or Benjamin Saenz? From dystopian adventures to explorations of young romance to coming-of-age stories, the demand for fiction for young adult readers is as strong as ever. But how do you take a YA novel from concept to reality?
In this three-part course, award-winning author David Bowles will guide participants through the process of developing their ideas for a YA novel from a concept to a synopsis and first chapter. We will discuss stylistic elements when writing longform fiction for teens—prose novels, novels-in-verse, graphic novels. We will also learn how to prepare to pitch YA (young adult) projects to agents and/or editors.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels who are interested or in the throes of writing YA.
By the end of the class students will have:

Initial chapters and synopsis for a longform work of YA fiction
A plan for completing and revising the manuscript
A cover letter and pitch to begin shopping for an agent / publisher

Read David’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

David Bowles is a Mexican American author and translator from south Texas, where he teaches at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. He has written over three dozen award-winning titles, most notably They Call Me Güero and My Two Border Towns. His work has also been published in multiple anthologies, plus venues such as The New York Times, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, School Library Journal, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children’s Literature. Additionally, David has worked on several TV/film projects, including Victor and Valentino (Cartoon Network), the Moctezuma & Cortés miniseries (Amazon/Amblin) and Monsters and Mysteries in America (Discovery). In 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He now serves as its vice president. In 2019, he co-founded the hashtag and activist movement #DignidadLiteraria, which has negotiated greater Latinx representation in publishing. In 2021, he helped launch Chispa, the Latinx imprint of Scout Comics, for which he serves as co-publisher. David’s literary representation is Taylor Martindale Kean and Stefanie Von Borstel of Full Circle Literary. His Hollywood representation is Sandra Ávila of Inclusion Management. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @DavidOBowles

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.
