Gemini Ink

Veterans' Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2025-11-19 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-10-15 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-09-17 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
The Veterans’ 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.

Live Storytelling: Voices of San Anto Showcase
2025-11-15 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Pan American Branch Library, 1122 W Pyron Ave, San Antonio, 78221
You’re invited to a live storytelling show featuring students from our Voices of San Anto Bilingual Storytelling workshop!
Students from our workshop, led by local writer, performer, and San Antonio Poet Laureate Eddie Vega, will share deeply personal stories. Each participant will read a 5-7 minute piece about a significant moment in their life.
Come experience the power of live storytelling and hear these moving narratives firsthand.
We hope you can join us!

Celebrating Our Stories: A Night with Gemini Ink
2025-11-14 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago)
Friday, November 14, 2025 | 6:30–9:30pmRoosevelt Library, San Antonio
View sponsorship opportunitiesRegister now / Buy tickets
The Roosevelt Library
The Gemini Ink Board and team invite you to our autumn fundraiser, Celebrating Our Stories: A Night with Gemini Ink—an unforgettable evening that uplifts San Antonio storytellers and honors those who keep our literary community thriving.
This year, we’re moving the celebration to the Roosevelt Library, a stunning venue that reflects the beauty and history of San Antonio’s artistic spirit.
An Evening of Stories, Flavor, and Connection
Enjoy a culinary journey of small plates—from gumbo to Cacio e Pepe—paired with select wines and beverages. Hear from our Honorary Chair and Gemini Ink founder, Nan Cuba link, and mingle with fellow literary enthusiasts, including our recent Inkstravaganza honorees Cary Clack, Dr. Norma Elia Cantú, Jenny Browne, and Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson.
Featuring Live Performances
Experience riveting performances from some of San Antonio’s most dynamic voices, including Poet Laureate Eddie Vega, and Gemini Ink’s Voices of San Anto alums Dragonfly and Enedina Irene, sharing their powerful personal stories.
A Special Reveal
Be among the first to learn who will be honored at Inkstravaganza 2026—the announcement will be made exclusively during the event!
Support the Literary Arts
When you purchase a ticket link or become a sponsor, you directly support Gemini Ink’s year-round programs—helping us nurture the creative voices of tomorrow through initiatives like Partner Classes for under-resourced youth and our Writing for Resiliency workshops for frontline professionals.
Join us for this very special celebration of the writing arts. None of this would be possible without you!
View sponsorship opportunitiesRegister now / Buy tickets

Writing in the Land with Emmy Pérez
2025-11-13 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Literary Masters Lecture Series
Thursday(s), November 13 & 20, 6:30–8pm CT, online via Zoom
Nonmember $90; Member $75; Student?Educ/Mil $63
*EARN CPEs
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Have you been seeking a more intentional connection to nature? Writing about the land is an intimate way to slow down and reconnect to earth with purpose. Join us for the last Literary Masters Lecture of the year! Each session features an engaging craft talk, actionable writing strategies, and a live Q&A with the author.
In this two-part lecture, led by 2020 Texas Poet Laureate Emmy Pérez, we will discuss poems, songs, and prose that center the land and our connections to places and the environment. We will use these discussions and short writing activities to examine nature through a creative lens, explore attention to detail, integrate historical and cultural contexts, and encourage an eco-justice approach to the writing. We will leave the lecture with our own research plans to explore a place of personal interest.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
In this lecture students will:

Discuss poems and short prose pieces
Start drafting a poem or short prose piece
Develop a research plan to include online and in-person exploration of a land or a waterway of interest

Emmy Pérez, Texas Poet Laureate 2020, is the author of Solstice, With the River on Our Face, and the forthcoming Boxes with Zero Tolerance, and Paper america: New and Selected Poems. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, United States Artists, the National Endowment for the Arts, and CantoMundo. A member of the Macondo Writers Workshop since 2008, she is a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she also serves as chair of the Department of Creative Writing.

LitMinds Book Club
2025-11-12 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Note: This title replaces Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne, which appeared in our previous class schedule.
Register

“A riveting tale of perseverance and the lengths humans will go to help each other in times of struggle.”—Dave Eggers
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews
Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.”
Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.
A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.

About the author

Javier Zamora was born in El Salvador in 1990. His father fled the country when he was one, and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents’ migrations were caused by the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War. When he was nine Javier migrated through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert. His debut poetry collection, Unaccompanied, explores the impact of the war and immigration on his family. Zamora has been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard and holds fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Voices of San Anto Workshop with Marisela Barrera
2025-11-01 13:00 - 17:00 (America/Mexico_City) | San Antonio Public Library, 600 Soledad, San Antonio, Texas, 78205
Join writer and performer Marisela Barrera for a free, two-session bilingual storytelling workshop at the Pan American Library.
Workshop participants will craft a 5-7-minute story about asignificant moment in their lives and present it at a live storytelling show.
Flyer_English
Spanish Flyer_Spanish

Attendance at all three sessions is mandatory.
Workshop dates: Nov 1 & 8, 1-5pmFinal Celebration: Nov 15, 2-4pm

Registration is required.
Space is limited to 15!
Sign up at: https://www.mysapl.org/Events-News/Events-Calendar?trumbaEmbed=search%3Dvoices%20of%20san%20anto

Event is Full!
Please email Sarah.DeLaRosa@sanantonio.gov to request being added to the waitlist.

Get to “The End”in Style: A Prose Workshop with Guadalupe Garcia McCall
2025-11-01 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Saturday(s), November 1 & 15, 10am–12:30pm CT, Hybrid (in-person and online via Zoom)
Nonmember $125; Member $108; Student/Educ/Mil $88
*EARN CPEs

Are you stuck trying to finish a great story? The journey to completing a first draft is always bumpy and nebulous, but having the right vehicle (writing exercises, plotting devices, and writing mode) can get your story to “The End” in style.
In this generative two-session workshop, participants will use various modes, structures, and forms of writing to enhance their stories and, in turn, their own writing process. We will also explore Sequence and Sequel and the cause and effect of a scene–two intimately connected elements that impact our characters, motivations, and plot. Students will apply these concepts to their own writing in class.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Students will:

Discuss their personal writing process
Analyze various plot structures
Use writing exercises to apply the concepts of Scene & Sequel to their work

Read Guadalupe’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Guadalupe García McCall is the national bestselling, award-winning author of several young adult novels, some short stories for adults, and many poems. She has received the prestigious Pura Belpré Author Award, a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award, the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award, among many other accolades. Guadalupe is currently an Affiliate Faculty in the MFA Creative Writing program at Antioch University LA. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she is working on the Seasons of Sisterhood series, three YA novels set in the world of Summer of the Mariposas, coming from Tu Books 2025-2027! Spring of the Cicadas, book 1 in the series, is coming in October 2025!

Open Writers' Labs
2025-10-27 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-09-29 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-08-25 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | 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.

Teen Writing Circle with Daniel Ramirez
2025-10-25 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-09-27 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-30 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Register
Last Saturday of Every Month 12-1:30pm cst via Zoom
For ages 13-19 years old
Are you a teen who enjoys writing in their free time? Or are you someone who’s never had the chance to write on their own? If so, this Online Teen Writing Circle is for you!
In this once-a-month writing circle, teens will enjoy writing in a judgment free zone. We’ll break the ice with one another and perform various writing exercises. You are encouraged to share your work with your peers and get constructive feedback, but it is not required. Our only goal is to keep you writing!
This course is open to teen writers of any skill level.
Participants will leave the writing circle with:

New, unique written work
Listening and sharing experience
Constructive feedback to help improve their writing

Want to learn more about our Teen Writing Circle? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions!

Daniel Ramirez has been an educator for over 15 years. After studying History in grad school, he tromped around the outdoors doing conservation with teenagers. Spending time as a Montessori educator revealed the power of incorporating creativity with learning. Encouraging youth to tap into their creative abilities convinced him to discover his own. Since then, in addition to his original love of storytelling, he’s found a penchant for calligraphy, puppetry, poetry, and block printing. A San Antonio native, he explores the crystalline waters of Central Texas in his free time.

Introduction to Playwriting with Mikaela Simon
2025-10-07 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Write scenes that demand to be performed.
STARTS TOMORROW, OCT 7!
Tuesday(s), October 7, 14, 6-9pm CT via Zoom
Non-member $225; Member $194; Student/Educ/Mil $158
Class Closed
Join writers from across the country connecting on Zoom.

How do you write a story that comes alive on stage? Excellent theatre has a way of getting a great story up on its feet. But how do you tell a story on the page so that it comes to life on the stage?
Join New Jersey-based playwright Mikaela Simon in this three-session course which will cover the fundamentals of writing a play. Workshop participants will learn how playwriting differs from other genres, what “show don’t tell” means when writing for the stage, and how to use it to create dynamic storytelling.
This course will examine structure, format, dialogue, monologues, characters, dramatic action, and theatricality. Participants will explore these elements and use them to create their own short plays and/or scenes.
This course is open to writers of all genres and skill level, 18+.
Walk away with the first draft of a 10-minute play or the first few scenes of a larger work!
Students will leave this course with:

Knowledge of how to structure and format a play
An understanding of playwriting elements and how to use them
The ability to apply the concepts to long-form works, such as one acts, full-lengths, etc.

Read Mikaela’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Mikaela Simon (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Jersey City, NJ. She graduated in 2019 from Drew University with a BA in Theatre Arts. While in college, Mikaela’s work was performed a number of times in the Plays in Process series, and she was also a recipient of the Robert Fisher Oxnam Award for Playwriting in 2018, resulting in a staged reading produced by the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Since graduating, she has taken on the role of teaching artist for the theatre program at Yavneh Academy in Paramus, NJ. Mikaela is also a multimedia visual artist, and is very involved in the Jersey City arts community with her small business (@doodlealldayy). Writing has always held a special place for her, and she looks forward to getting the chance to share the beautiful craft of playwriting with people who have a story to tell.

Deep Revision with Katey Schultz
2025-10-07 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Turn your messy draft into a story that sings.
*STARTS TOMORROW, OCT 7!
Tuesday(s) October 7, 14 & 21, 6-8pm CT, via Zoom
Nonmember $150; Member $129; Student/Educ/Mil $105

Join writers from across the country connecting on Zoom.

Calling all experienced writers looking to level up! Give your written work a power boost and learn to revise like a pro.
This three-session workshop is designed to empower writers with revision techniques for memoir, essays, flash, short stories, or novels. Whether trying to revise a stand-alone chapter or considering the broader arc of your full manuscript, these techniques are graspable, effective, and empowering.
We’ll cover these types of revision: thematic, developmental, sentence-level, and structural. You’ll practice each technique using excerpts from your own work in progress, which you should bring with you to class. You’ll come away with systematic tools to address areas for improvement, as well as a re-invigorated understanding of the joys of revision.
This course is for intermediate or advanced writers who have, at minimum, worked through a partial or complete first draft of a full manuscript, or who have published books and are ready to improve their next manuscript by learning how to become their own best editors.
You’ll walk away with pages in hand and new skills for every story you write.
Students will leave this class with:

An increased confidence in your ability to apply developmental, sentence-level, and structural revision techniques to your works-in-progress
A re-invigorated understanding of the joys of revision and the key role it plays in the writing process

Read Katey’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Katey Schultz is the author of Flashes of War, which the Daily Beast praised as an “ambitious and fearless” collection, and Still Come Home, a novel, both published by Loyola University Maryland. Honors for her work include North Carolina’s Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Linda Flowers Literary Award, Doris Betts Fiction Prize, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year award, gold and silver medals from the Military Writers Society of America, the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, five Pushcart nominations, a nomination to Best American Short Stories, National Indies Excellence recognition, and writing fellowships in eight states. She has taught all over the country—at Interlochen College of Creative Arts, Fishtrap, 49 Alaska Writing Center, StoryStudio Chicago, and her own organization Maximum Impact, among many others. She lives in Celo, North Carolina, and is the founder of Maximum Impact, a transformative mentoring service for creative writers that has been recognized by both CNBC and the What Works Network.

Twists, Turns, and Call-backs: How to Shape Your Story with Marcela Fuentes
2025-10-04 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Literary Masters Lecture Series
Shape your story into something unforgettable

Learn how from award-winning author Marcela Fuentes

Saturday(s), October 4 & 11, 10-11:30am CT, online via Zoom
Nonmember $90; Member $75; Student $63 *EARN CPEs
Seats are limited—register today

What You’ll Learn

Knowledge of specific story shapes
Effective use of images
Understanding of how to weave in detail without losing momentum

“[F]ind your writer friends. You’ll keep each other writing no matter what life throws at you.”—Marcela Fuentes
Want to learn how to strategically use story shapes to create dynamic arcs and a satisfying plot that your reader can’t stop reading? Join us for this Literary Masters Lecture! Each session features an engaging craft talk, actionable writing strategies, and a live Q&A with the author.
In this two-part intensive lecture, award-winning fiction writer Marcela Fuentes will share how to pick an excellent shape for your story, create a strong opening, and evoke striking images. She’ll also provide craft tools and ideas you can practice on your own following the lecture.

About Marcela Fuentes
Marcela is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. Her debut novel Malas won the Texas Institute of Letters First Fiction Prize and the National Cowboy Museum & Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Novel. The book was longlisted for the Center For Fiction’s First Novel Prize and was featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, People, Elle Magazine, and Texas Monthly. Malas was Good Morning America Book Club’s pick for June 2024. She is an associate professor at TCU in Fort Worth. She was born and raised in Del Rio, Texas.

Short and to the Point: Writing Microfiction with Lyzette Wanzer
2025-09-24 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Wednesday(s), September 24 & October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 2025 6:30-8:30pm CT online via Zoom
Nonmember $300; Member $255; Student/Educator/Military $210
*Please note: our printed schedule lists September 17 in error. The class begins September 24.
*EARN CPEs
Learn the art of microfiction! This genre challenges and sharpens your skills by teaching you how to write an attention-demanding story in only a few words.
In this six-session workshop, writers will discover the key to successful microfiction: a well-defined character and plot, all compressed into an impactful short story. We’ll foster creativity and expand writing skills, refining the ability to convey complex ideas concisely without sacrificing the story’s punch. Throughout the duration of the workshop, students will write and revise a story of 300 words or less.
This is an intermediate-level workshop. Prior prose or poetry writing experience is required and assumed.
During this class you will:

Read and parse multiple microfiction examples
Workshop your story with your peers
Receive instructor feedback on your drafts
Explore places to publish your piece

Read Lyzette’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Lyzette Wanzer is a San Francisco writer, editor, and writing workshop instructor. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Mills College. A flash fiction connoisseur and essay aficionado, her work has appeared in Callaloo, The Los Angeles Review, Pleiades, The MacGuffin, Flashquake, and others. She is a contributor to Lyric Essay as Resistance, The Chalk Circle, Civil Liberties United, and 642 Tiny Things to Write About. Lyzette presents at conferences including AWP, CEA, Litquake, and the San Francisco Writers Conference. She judges literary contests in nonfiction and intercultural essay categories.

Art Above Everything: An Evening with Stephanie Elizondo Griest
2025-09-18 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Northwest Vista College, 3535 N Ellison Dr, San Antonio, Texas, 78251
Northwest Vista College
Innovation Center at Manzanillo Hall
3535 N. Ellison, San Antonio, TX
Free and open to the public
Celebrate Latinx Heritage Month 2025 with award-winning author Stephanie Elizondo Griest! Moderated by Cecilia Ballí.
Join Gemini Ink on Thursday, September 18th, as we partner with Northwest Vista College to showcase Stephanie Griest and her new book, Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life, which features interviews with women artists from around the world.
Stephanie will highlight the profiles of several Latina artists featured in Art of Above Everything. She will then sit down for an intimate conversation with journalist Cecilia Ballí about her book, the joys and heartache of women living a creative life, and the reality of being a Latina artist. A live performance and audience Q&A will follow.
Light refreshments will be served.

See what readers are saying about Stephanie’s book:
“Art Above Everything is a quest, a cascade of questions, and especially a celebration: of art, of lives dedicated to art, and of the difficult choices such dedication requires. This is required reading for anyone who is compelled to create.”— Kirsten Valdez Quade
“In this brilliant exploration of women’s creativity, Stephanie Elizondo Griest asks over 100 artists, ‘Is art enough?’ Is the visual art, dance, music or writing really worth the sacrifices, misogyny, violence and hardships? From Iceland and India to Cuba and Rwanda, these artists will tell you their answers.”— Ms Magazine

Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a globetrotting writer from the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Her six books include: Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough; and All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands. She has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Believer, BBC, VQR, and Oxford American. Her work has won a Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, an International Latino Book Award, a PEN Southwest Book Award, and two Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism prizes. Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she has performed as both a Moth storyteller and as a literary ambassador for the U.S. State Department. Visit her website at: www.StephanieElizondoGriest.com
Cecilia Ballí is a writer and journalist who has been writing for magazines for more than twenty years. In 2000, she became the first Latina or Latino writer at Texas Monthly, where she published longform stories and essays as a writer-at-large. She has written extensively about Tejano history and culture, immigration, the sexual killing of young women in Ciudad Juárez, U.S.-Mexican border drug violence, and Mexican military disappearances and torture, among other subjects. She has also published stories in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and Columbia Journalism Review. She began her journalism career as a high school senior writing for her hometown newspaper, The Brownsville Herald, and later worked as an education reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.

The Big Give SA 2025
2025-09-18 00:00 - 18:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us Sep 17–18 in raising $20,000 to support writers.
Help Us Reach Our Big Give Goal!

Learn about the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund in the video above!
Double Your Impact for Emerging Writers!
Every gift to the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund during The Big Give helps bring writing to life—for 160 San Antonians.
This year, all donations from The Big Give are in support of the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund. Gemini Ink established this fund for emerging writers in honor of esteemed journalist Cary Clack, a beloved member of the Gemini Ink board. Born and raised in San Antonio, Cary Clack became the first Black journalist on the metro desk at the San Antonio Express-News, where he has covered local and national news and social issues for three decades. He is the author of Clowns and Rats Scare Me and More Finish Lines to Cross and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2017.
All donations support the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund—honoring San Antonio journalist Cary Clack by granting free writing classes to new storytellers. Your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar by generous donors, doubling its power.
“A lot of people don’t see themselves as writers and just need the encouragement to do it.” –Cary Clack

Your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar by our generous donors Dr. Karen A. Waldron and Patricia Pratchett, doubling its power.
Help us honor San Antonio journalist Cary Clack by granting free writing classes to new storytellers through our popular Cary Clack Scholarship Fund.”

Gemini Ink’s mission is to teach the craft of writing to people of all skill levels. We believe everyone has a story, and writing that story is powerful. By 2026, our strategic vision is to teach 15,000 people how to bring their stories to life.
Anyone can apply to the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund. Learn more about our scholarships.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Joaquín Zihuatanejo
2025-09-17 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Join us on Wednesday, September 17th, 2025, via Zoom for a conversation with Joaquín Zihuatanejo, to discuss his new book, OccupyWhiteness (Deep Vellum). Moderated by Natasha Carrizosa.

(Virtual Readings Quarterly @ 7pm CST)

RSVP

Starting from long-form works of literature by straight, white men, Joaquín Zihuatanejo occupies their pages, erasing words and sections, leaving only his poetry behind — the white space that remains becoming colonized Brown verse.
Occupy Whiteness is an act of rebellion that reclaims spaces and highlights a history of erasure of Brown life. An unflinching look at the present day, the collection is haunted and blessed by the image of ancestors who braved the river and desert to travel into border states for the opportunity of freedom. These are poems meant to agitate and create unease, to make the reader realize that neither their author nor the immigrant children he describes are Other. Through poems and interspersed photography from the border, Zihuatanejo poignantly depicts this equally beautiful and brutal place we call home.

About the Author
Joaquin Zihuatanejo is a poet, spoken word artist, and award-winning teacher. Born and raised in the barrio of East Dallas, in his work Joaquín strives to capture the duality of the Chicano culture. He’s been called, “one of the most dynamic and passionate performance poets in the country, melding equal parts comedy, poetry, and dramatic monologue into a crowd-pleasing display of verbal fireworks… always thrilling, Joaquín’s hilariously manic presentation is full of compassion and nuance, never sacrificing substance for style.” Joaquin was a National Poetry Slam Finalist, a Grand Slam Spoken Word Champion, and HBO Def Poet, performing at universities, conferences and poetry slams all over the North America and Europe.

About the Moderator
Natasha Carrizosa is a vessel of the word – poet, writer, speaker, and teaching artist. Her grounding work is deeply rooted in her BIPOC living experiences, mindfulness, and truths. Author of mexiafricana, heavy light, and crown. Her work has been published in Manteca! – an anthology of Afro-Latino poets, CONTRA: Texas Poets Speak Out, The Ascentos Review, Learn Then Burn 2, defunkt & cutthroat magazines, R2: The Rice Review, huizache #9, and AfroLatinas and LatiNegras (Critical Africana Studies.)

The Big Give SA 2025
2025-09-17 18:00 - 23:59 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us Sep 17–18 in raising $20,000 to support writers.
Help Us Reach Our Big Give Goal!

Learn about the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund in the video above!
Double Your Impact for Emerging Writers!
Every gift to the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund during The Big Give helps bring writing to life—for 160 San Antonians.
All donations from The Big Give are in support of the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund. Gemini Ink established this fund for emerging writers in honor of esteemed journalist Cary Clack, a beloved member of the Gemini Ink board. Born and raised in San Antonio, Cary Clack became the first Black journalist on the metro desk at the San Antonio Express-News, where he has covered local and national news and social issues for three decades. He is the author of Clowns and Rats Scare Me and More Finish Lines to Cross and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2017.
This year, all donations support the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund—honoring San Antonio journalist Cary Clack by granting free writing classes to new storytellers. Your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar by generous donors, doubling its power.
“A lot of people don’t see themselves as writers and just need the encouragement to do it.” –Cary Clack

Your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar by our generous donors Dr. Karen A. Waldron and Patricia Pratchett, doubling its power.
Help us honor San Antonio journalist Cary Clack by granting free writing classes to new storytellers through our popular Cary Clack Scholarship Fund.”

Gemini Ink’s mission is to teach the craft of writing to people of all skill levels. We believe everyone has a story, and writing that story is powerful. By 2026, our strategic vision is to teach 15,000 people how to bring their stories to life.
Anyone can apply to the Cary Clack Scholarship Fund. Learn more about our scholarships.

YA 4U: Young Adult Writing with Gume Laurel
2025-09-15 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Monday(s), September 15, 22, 29 & October 6, 2025, from 6:30-8:30pm CT, Hybrid (available in-person and online via Zoom).
Nonmember $200; Member $170; Student/Educator/Military $140
*EARN CPEs
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Do you have an idea for a Young Adult (YA) novel simmering in your mind? Have you always wanted to write YA but thought you were too old to connect with young readers? Learn to write YA from a place of lived experience!
In this four-session workshop series, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard author, Gume Laurel III, will share personal insight into YA novel writing. We’ll start by reflecting on our own young adult experiences, so we can write from a place of familiarity. From there, we will lean into our own young adult writing voices, regardless of our age or writing level. Then, we’ll get to writing! Students will leave class with at least one rough draft of a YA flash fiction story.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Students will leave the course with:

A clearer understanding of the young adult category
Connection to their own young adult writing voice
One or more drafted chapters of a young adult flash fiction story

Gume is a Texan, native to the Rio Grande Valley, along the southernmost US/Mexico borderlands. He has dedicated himself to crafting literary works that promote inclusion and showcase diverse characters with intersectional identities. Gume’s stories especially highlight the underrepresented groups he is a part of: Latine, Chicanx and queer. His first hi-lo verse novel, Samson & Domingo, published by West 44 Books, received Honorable Mention for Best in LGBTQ+ Themed Book from the International Latino Book Awards. His most recently published hi-lo verse novel, Solar Punks, gives readers a hopeful look into a future powered by renewable energy, and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. When Gume isn’t writing, he can be found getting lost on a hiking trail with his dogs Blu and Mouse. He’s also a botana connoisseur, considers himself a professional amateur poet, and firmly believes he could probably be a good DJ if he tried.

Metro Health Storytelling Final Celebration
2025-09-12 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Landa Branch Library, 233 Bushnell Ave, San Antonio, Texas, 78212, United States
Photo from Metro Health 2024.
Private Reading for one of our Partner Classes.

Krier Book Launch
2025-09-11 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Poetic Republic Coffee Co., 2330 S. Presa St, San Antonio, Texas, United States
(Private Book Launch for one of our Partner Classes)
Each year, Gemini Ink collaborates with the Krier Juvenile Correctional Treatment Center to offer creative writing workshops for teens and publish a collection of their work. This year’s launch will debut the newest anthology—a powerful testament to the creativity, resilience, and truth-telling of its young authors. Though this event is closed to the public, we celebrate and honor these emerging voices and the transformative power of writing.

LitMinds Book Club
2025-09-10 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us for the LitMinds Book Club at Gemini Ink. We’re reading H.G. Wells’s novellas The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man.
Register
The Invisible Man is the startling tale of a man who uncovers the ultimate secret of invisibility and with it — instead of power and wealth — his own destruction.
The War of the Worlds has stirred the imaginations of countless readers — and writers. The first novel to describe the Menace from Space — in the form of a calamitous invasion from Mars– it also gave the first detailed description of mechanized warfare and introduced the world to the terrifying weapon known as the Heat-Ray.

by Elliott & Fry, sepia half-tone reproduction of a photograph, 1901
The son of a professional cricketer and a lady’s maid, H. G. Wells (1866-1946) served apprenticeships as a draper and a chemist’s assistant before winning a scholarship to the prestigious Normal School of Science in London. While he is best remembered for his groundbreaking science fiction novels, including The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau, Wells also wrote extensively on politics and social matters and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of his day.

The Big Give Drop-In at Gemini Ink
2025-09-06 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
We’re kicking off Big Give 2025—and we need your voice to help us reach our Goal of: $20,000 for Public Class Scholarships!
Your donation helps open the door for more writers everywhere to take our creative writing classes—regardless of their financial situation.
Come by for good company and conversation. Las Palapas is generously donating cheese enchiladas, so you can enjoy a meal while connecting with friends.
We’ll also have a filming station where you can record a short video message of support—your voice makes our story stronger.

“Gemini Ink helped me find my path to becoming a poet.” –Gerald S.
How You Can Support
JOIN – Stop by our Drop-In event on Sat, Sep 6, from 10am-2pm.
Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro, San Antonio, TX 78205
Free & Open to the Community
SHARE – Spread the word. Every post, every text, every email helps.
SEND – Share your story. Write it down or record it (60 seconds or less) and let the world know why Gemini Ink matters.
Every gift, large or small, counts. Together, we’ll make sure more stories are written, more voices are heard, and more writers thrive.
Questions? Reach out to Mandy Lynn Lara, Public Class Coordinator at Gemini Ink.

Explore Four Japanese Poets: Inspiration from International Voices with Veronica Golos
2025-09-03 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Wednesday(s), September 3, 10, 17 & 24, 2025, 6:30-8:30pm CT, online via Zoom
Nonmember $200; Member $170; Student/Educator/Military $140
*EARN CPEs
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

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. Next stop: Japan!
In this four-week generative poetry workshop, we will read, discuss deeply, and draw our inspiration from foundational poets Kobayashi Issa, Izumi Shikibu, and contemporary poets Yuki Tanaka and Shizuka Omori. Yuki Tanaka, and Shizuka Omori. We will explore each poet’s craft tools and apply these techniques to our work. Participants will receive a packet with poems and suggestions for developing their writing.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Students will:

Write poems that follow the selected poet’s structure and theme
Receive on-the-spot feedback for written work

Read Veronica’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

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.

Luminescence and Grit: An Evening with Gemini Ink Teaching Artists & a Community Open Mic
2025-08-21 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Artisan Distillery & Craft Bar, 402 Austin St, San Antonio, TX, United States
Join Gemini Ink for a night of poetry, prose, and performance as we celebrate the personal artistry of our Gemini Ink teaching artists and staff. Every day, these professionals bring their passion for the writing arts to community spaces, inspiring students of all ages. Tonight we hear their stories!
Our featured writers will include Teaching Artists Daniel Ramirez, Ana Ortiz Varela, Joyous Windrider, and Gemini Ink staff Florinda Flores-Brown, Catherine Burianek, Mandy Lynn, and Cloud Cardona.
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.
