Gemini Ink Author Reading & Open Mic Featuring Jonathan Fletcher
2025-05-08 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | artistan craft bar, 402 Austin St., San Antonio, TX, 78215, United States
Come celebrate Jonathan Fletcher and his new chapbook, This Is My Body: Poems, winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. He will be joined by poets Alex Z. Salinas and Jen Yáñez-Alaniz.
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 will be in person starting at 6:00pm, so be sure to arrive on time!
Food trucks are available on site. All ages are welcome. Under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. His work has been featured in numerous literary journals and magazines, and he has won or placed in various literary contests. A Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction nominee, he won Northwestern University Press’s Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize contest in 2023, for which his debut chapbook, This is My Body, was published in 2025. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow.

Alex Z. Salinas is the author of four volumes of poetry, most recently Hispanic Sonnets and Trash Poems. His book of stories, City Lights From the Upside Down, was included in the National Book Critics Circle’s Critical Notes. He lives in San Antonio, Texas. His debut novel, The Dream Life of Larry Rios, is forthcoming in 2025 through FlowerSong Press.

Jen Yáñez-Alaniz is a Chicana Cúelcahén Ndé scholar, poet, and community organizer whose work centers on cultural preservation, land-based ceremony, and decolonial epistemologies. Her poetry can be found in There is So Much I Want to Tell You (Mouthfeel Press) and Somos Xicanas (Riot of Roses Publishing House), as well as in various anthologies and journals. She is the author of Surrogate Eater (Alabrava Press) and the forthcoming chapter, “Catalyzing academic writing through notions of sensuality, surrogacy, and consumption as examined in the poetry of Surrogate Eater and selected translingual poems,” in Decolonizing Academic Writing through Translingualism: Walking the Talk (Routledge Publishing). Jen also authored a critical biography of Carmen Tafolla in Chicana Portraits (University of Arizona Press). Her current manuscript, Pain Theory: Sweetness Ferments into a Beast, reflects poetically and critically on healing, endurance, and living beyond multiple autoimmune conditions.

LitMinds Book Club
2025-05-14 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 Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.
Register
An instant New York Times Bestseller!
Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal in Fiction, the 2019 Aspen Words Literacy Prize, and the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel Award
Shortlisted for the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
“A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently universal…Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.
With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

Ocean Vuong is the author of the debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, out from Penguin Press (2019) and forthcoming in 12 other languages worldwide. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, his honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize.

The Art of Bad Poetry with Abby E. Murray
2025-05-17 10:00 - 13:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Saturdays, May 17, 2025, 10am-1:30pm CST, (includes a 30-minute lunch), via Zoom
Nonmember: $155 Member: $130 Student/Educator/Military: $90
*EARN CPE’S
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

What do we even mean when we consider a poem “good” or “bad”? Beginners aren’t the only ones who benefit from conversations that question our assumptions about poetry and the way we practice connecting with our own voices. Established poets also gain from discussing poetry’s rules and reputation, its stereotypes and possibilities.
In this class, writers of all levels will strive to expand their understanding of the art of poetry, first by weeding out our judgments of “good” and “bad” poetry, then shaping poetry’s elusive boundaries by playing with work that challenges our notions of value and weakness. Expect laughter. Anticipate letting go of fears that limit us. Plan to write.
Students will leave this class with:

An awareness of how judgment applies to the “good” and bad” of poetry
Increased sense of freedom without worrying about bad poetry
Drafts of new written work

Read Abby’s Writers Desk Q&A!

Abby E. Murray (they/them) is the editor of Collateral, a literary journal concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. Their first book, Hail and Farewell, won the Perugia Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, while their second book, Recovery Commands, recently won the Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Ex Ophidia Press. Abby served as the 2019-2021 poet laureate for the city of Tacoma, Washington, and currently teaches rhetoric in military strategy to Army War College fellows at the University of Washington.

Veterans Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2025-05-21 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-06-18 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-07-16 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-08-20 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
The Veteran’s Writing Collective (VWC) encourages the art of writing in a workshop environment where participants are offered honest, positive, and constructive peer-to-peer and mentor feedback. The workshop is open to all active-duty military, veterans, retirees, and their immediate family members. Writers of all levels working in all genres are welcome.
The VWC meets monthly online via Zoom.
If you would like an invitation to this class, send an email to veteranscollective@geminiink.org

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

Open Writer's Labs
2025-05-26 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-06-30 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-07-28 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
2025-05-31 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-06-28 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-26 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.

Delving into the Levant: Inspiration from International Poets with Veronica Golos
2025-06-04 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Wednesday(s), June 4, 11, 18, & 25, 2025 from 6:30-8:30 pm CDT, via Zoom
Nonmember: $200; Member: $170; Student/Educ/Mil: $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: the Middle East!
In this four-week generative poetry workshop, we will read, discuss deeply, and draw our inspiration from foundational poets Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine), Etel Adnan (Lebanon), Saadi Youssef (Iraq), and contemporary Iranian-American poet Solmaz Sharif. 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+.
By the end of the class, students will have the following:

Study and analyze the work of 4 Middle Eastern 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.
Learn about Cancellation & Refund Policies at https://geminiink.org/registration/

Trans Poetica: A Literary Pride Plática
2025-06-05 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | UTSA Southwest Campus – Coates Chapel, 300 Augusta, San Antonio, Texas, 78205
Change of Venue: This event will now be held at the Southwest School of Art – Coates Chapel, located at 300 Augusta. San Antonio TX 78205. (Across the street from Gemini Ink)
Free parking at Gemini Ink & Southwest School of Art.
Kick off Pride Month with an intimate poetry reading and discussion about the challenges and joys of sustaining Queer and Trans Latinx literary communities across Texas.
Gemini Ink, in partnership with Infrarrealista Review and Letras Latinas*, presents “Trans Poetica: A Pride Month Literary Plática.” This reading and conversation between three published trans Latine poets will be moderated by the 2025 Letras Latinas Poetry Coalition Fellow, Cloud Delfina Cardona. This event will highlight Pushcart Prize-nominated poet Keagan Wheat, SG Huerta, author of Burns (Sundress Publications, 2026), and Stalina Villarreal, Spanish translator and author of Watcha (Deep Vellum, 2024).
These writers from across Texas will come together in San Antonio for an evening of centering trans Latine voices in a time of censorship and fear. Cardona, Wheat, Huerta, and Villarreal will all read from their published books and discuss their craft, publishing, and roles in their literary communities in Houston and San Marcos, TX. An audience Q&A will follow their discussion.
Our panel will be followed by a book signing with all four writers.
Light refreshments will be served. Signed books will be available for purchase following the panel discussion.
*Letras Latinas is the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies

Keagan Wheat (he/him) is a trans, Latinx, disabled poet, educator, and visual artist from Houston. In 2020, he released Viaticum. The Houston Transgender Unity Committee awarded him the Media and Arts Award for 2024. He’s a Pushcart Prize nominee with work appearing in The Acentos Review, Anomaly, Variant Literature and more. Check out his interviews with Brooklyn Poets and Latinx Lit. Find them on social media @kwheat09.
SG Huerta is a queer Xicanx writer, editor, and organizer. They are the Poetry Editor of Abode Press and the author of two poetry chapbooks and the nonfiction chapbook GOOD GRIEF (fifth wheel press 2025). Their work has appeared in Barrelhouse, Honey Literary, Infrarrealista Review, and elsewhere. Find them at sghuertawriting.com. They believe Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.

Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal (she/they) sees, hears, feels, and communicates across mediums and cultures. She’s a deep-watching ekphrastic poet, a photographic eco-essayist, a broad-stroke sketch artist, a sonic improv performer, a sound-sensitive literary translator, and an assistant professor of English. Her debut collection of poetry called Watcha is out now from Deep Vellum Publishing. Their poetry can be found in the Rio Grande Review, Texas Review, The Acentos Review, Defunkt Magazine, and elsewhere.

Moderator
Cloud Delfina Cardona (she/they) is an artist, writer, and book cover designer from San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of What Remains, winner of the 2020 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, and the past is a jean jacket, winner of the Hub City Press BIPOC Poetry Series. She co-founded Infrarrealista Review, a literary nonprofit that publishes Texan voices. She is the 2024-2025 Letras Latinas Poetry Coalition Fellow and currently works as the Marketing Coordinator at Gemini Ink. She moonlights as DJ Mexistentialism.

The Big Texas Author Talk featuring Amanda Churchill
2025-06-18 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Join us on Wednesday, June 18th, 2025, via Zoom for a conversation with Amanda Churchill, to discuss her new book, The Turtle House, A Novel (Harper Collins). Moderated by Kim Garza, author of the critically acclaimed novel The Last Karankawas.

(Virtual Readings Quarterly @ 7pm CST)

RSVP
“A heartbreakingly resonant debut, The Turtle House is a tender, big-hearted story about women, family, and the complicated history of Texas. These characters, and their tentative, flawed stumblings toward grace, will stay with me.”—Elizabeth Wetmore, author of Valentine
“Sweeping yet intimate, Amanda Churchill’s Turtle House spans cultures and continents. Minnie and her granddaughter Lia are unforgettable protagonists, whose grit and grace will inspire you. Together, they find a way through in this gripping debut.”—Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City
Spanning from late 1990s small-town Texas to pre-World War II Japan and occupied Tokyo, this emotionally engaging literary debut follows a grandmother and granddaughter who bond over a beloved lost place and the secrets they share.
In spring 1999, 25-year-old Lia Cope and her 73-year-old grandmother, Mineko, find themselves sharing a bedroom in Curtain, Texas. Both at turning points—Mineko, a Japanese war bride, displaced after a fire; Lia, an architect who’s returned home under mysterious circumstances—the two grow close through late-night conversations. Mineko recounts her early life in Japan, her love for Akio Sato, and the Turtle House, an abandoned estate where their relationship blossomed. As Mineko reveals her past, Lia begins to understand her grandmother’s sacrifices and sees her family anew, while confronting her own secrets.
When Mineko’s children plan to move her into assisted living, she and Lia hatch a plan to revive a cherished lost place, seeking safety and belonging together.
The Turtle House is a story of intergenerational friendship, family, identity, and love—illuminating the hidden lives we lead and what it means to find home again when it feels lost forever.

About the Author
Amanda Churchill is a writer living in Texas. Her novel, The Turtle House, was inspired by the life of her beloved grandmother, a Japanese war bride. Her work has been featured in Hobart Pulp, Witness, River Styx, and other publications. Amanda is a Writers’ League of Texas 2021 Fellow. She attended the 2021 Community of Writers workshop in fiction as a James D. Houston Memorial Scholarship recipient. She has also attended the Tin House Summer and Winter Conferences, the One Story Summer Workshop, and StoryBoard Chicago. She was a Fall 2020 mentee in AWP’s Writer to Writer program.

About the Moderator

Kimberly Garza is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Last Karankawas, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an Indie Next pick. Her stories and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Texas Highways, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere, and she is a 2024 National Endowment of the Artscreative writing fellow. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.

“Walk Out and Speak Up” Teen Storytelling Workshop
2025-06-23 13:00 - 16:30 (America/Mexico_City) | MACRI, 2123 Buena Vista St, San Antonio, Texas, 78207
Register
Discover the power of your voice to inspire change and connect across generations.

Presented by the H.E. Butt Foundation | In partnership with the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI), and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
Dates: June 23–26, 2025 (Mon–Thu), 1-4:30pm daily
Workshop Location: MACRI, 2123 Buena Vista St, San Antonio, TX 78207
Final Celebration & Performance: Fri, June 27, 5:30-8:30pm (Rehearsal at 4:30pm), Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, 922 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78212
About the Workshop
“Walk Out and Speak Up” is a dynamic storytelling workshop designed for teens ages 13–19, inspired by the historic 1968 Edgewood Walkout—a pivotal moment in San Antonio’s fight for educational equity and social justice. Using a new documentary on the Edgewood Walkouts as a springboard, participants will explore how young people have always been at the forefront of change and learn to craft their own powerful stories as acts of protest and community building.
Over four days, students will work with acclaimed teaching artists Marisela Barrera and Joyous Windrider to develop personal narratives that connect the past to the present, centering the power of youth voices. The experience culminates in a public performance, where students will share their stories alongside community members and documentary participants. Selected stories will be recorded and broadcast by Empower House Radio, and preserved on Gemini Ink’s SoundCloud page.
No experience is needed-just a willingness to share!
Please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) sheet HERE for more information.

Walk Out and Speak Up: Final Celebration & Performance
2025-06-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, 922 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, Texas, 78212
Date: Friday, June 27, 2025
Time: 6:30–8:30 PM, FREE and Open to the Public
Location: Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, 922 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78212
Join us to celebrate San Antonio teens sharing powerful stories inspired by the historic 1968 Edgewood Walkout! Hear original performances from workshop participants and community members, highlighting youth voices for justice and change.
Everyone is welcome—bring your friends and family for an inspiring evening of storytelling and community!
Questions?
Contact Catherine Burianek at cburianek@geminiink.org
Let’s celebrate the next generation of changemakers!

Sex is Not a Four-Letter Word with Laura Castoro
2025-07-01 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Tuesday(s) July 1, 8 & 15, 2025 6:30-8:30pm CDT Hybrid (available online via Zoom and in-person)
Nonmember $150, Member $129; Student/Educ/Mil $105
*EARN CPEs

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Are you a writer looking for a fresh approach to sex scenes, or are you a newbie ready to write your first R-rated interaction? Learn how to write memorable sex scenes that fit your characters and your plot!
This is a frank, fun, respectful workshop about the ‘birds and the bees,’ and what goes on between the sheets, or on the kitchen floor, or maybe out at sea. This class will allow participants to explore the many ways of writing about sex no matter the genre or fictional interest–Thriller, Science Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Mystery, Western, Saga, General Fiction, and more.
The classes will include writing prompts based on examples from books, song lyrics, visual images, short videos, and more. Writers will be asked to interpret them by writing their own versions. Each class will include in-class writing and homework assignments. Writers will be encouraged to share their own work in progress.
This course is open to fiction writers 18+.
By the end of the class students will:

Learn how to decipher the needs of a sex scene vs. a romantic scene
Write a compelling scene in the genre of their choice
Ideas on how to keep the creative process going

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

The Real Writing is in the Revision with Jasminne Mendez
2025-07-07 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Monday(s) July 7 & 14, 2025, 6:30-8:00 pm CDT via Zoom
Nonmember $90; Member $75; Student/Educ/Mil $63
*EARN CPEs

Have you ever sat down to revise a piece of writing but had no idea where to begin? Or have you started revising only to find yourself stuck halfway through? If you find revision to be an intimidating and messy process, then this class is for you!
In this two-part lecture, writers of any genre and at any stage in their craft will learn practical revision strategies to help refine and reimagine their drafts and works-in-progress. We will discuss how to assess what needs to be revised, including beginnings and endings, scenes and plots, syntax and diction, metaphors and more. Then, we will explore visual organization tools such as note cards, sticky notes, and highlighters. Students will leave with tools to continue these editing practices following the lecture.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
By the end of the lecture students will have:

Practical, concrete revision strategies
Ideas for visual organization
A plan for setting revision goals before writing

Jasminne Mendez is a best-selling Dominican-American poet, translator, playwright, audio book narrator and award-winning author of several books for children and adults. Her middle grade novel-in-verse Aniana del Mar Jumps In (Dial) received the 2024 Pura Belpre Honor Award. Her other books have received prizes from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Writer’s League of Texas and the International Latino Book Awards. Her YA fiction debut The Story of My Anger (Dial) will be out September 2025. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. She is the Program Director for the literary arts non-profit Tintero Projects and she lives and works in Houston, TX.
Instagram: @jasminnemendez
Learn about Cancellation & Refund Policies at https://geminiink.org/registration/

LitMinds Book Club
2025-07-09 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 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.
Register

Now an HBO series, book one in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times)
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.
“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,” writes Entertainment Weekly. “Spectacular,” says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” writes James Wood in The New Yorker
Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.

About the Author

Elena Ferrante is the author of The Days of Abandonment (Europa, 2005), Troubling Love (Europa, 2006), The Lost Daughter (Europa, 2008) and the Neapolitan Quartet (Europa 2012-2015). She is also the author of a children’s picture book illustrated by Mara Cerri, The Beach at Night.

On the Edge of Your Seat: Writing Mystery & Suspense with Richard Santos
2025-07-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Thursday(s) July 10, 17, 24 & 31, 2025 6:30-8:30 pm CDT via Zoom
Nonmember $200; Member $170; Student/Educ/Mil $140
*EARN CPEs

Have you dreamed of writing a mystery that readers could not put down till the mind bending-end? Learn the elements of a thrilling mystery that leaves readers on the edge of their seats.
Over the course of four weeks, participants will discuss the common characteristics of effective mystery/suspense fiction and will set goals for their work in class. We’ll cover inciting incidents and protagonists, review plot points and antagonists, and explore how to create suspense and mystery in writing.
Each session will feature writing exercises and time to receive feedback from the instructor and peers. By the end of the workshop, writers will have a tool box, which will include character notes, an inciting incident, rough plot points, and several pages of writing, for their in-progress mystery or suspense project. This will provide a great starting point for participants to expand on after the workshop.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+. Both short story writers and novelists are welcome!
By the end of the class, students will:

Learn basic elements of mystery and suspense
Lay the groundwork for their own suspenseful story
Walk away with one complete scene

Read Richard Z. Santos’s Writer’s Desk Q&A!

Richard Z. Santos‘ debut novel, Trust Me, was a finalist for the Writer’s League of Texas Book Awards and was named one of the best debuts of the year by Crime Reads. He’s the editor of the anthology A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories. His fiction has been nominated for The Pushcart, Best of the Net, the International Thriller Writers Awards, and has appeared as a Distinguished Story in Best American Mystery and Suspense. His nonfiction and essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, Like the Wind, and more. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Austin Noir (Akashic Books), Lone Stars Rising (Harper Wave), Sandra Cisneros: Portraits of a Writer (Texas A&M Press), Untitled Latino Folklore Anthology (Flametree Press), and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. In a previous career, he taught in high schools and before that he worked for political campaigns, consulting firms, and labor unions.
Social Media:

Instagram
Bluesky

Learn about Cancellation & Refund Policies at https://geminiink.org/registration/

Gemini Ink Volunteer Summer Social
2025-07-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Are you interested in getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the writing life? Interested in helping our community craft their stories?

Thursday, July 10, 2025, 6:30-8pm ct, in-person at Gemini Ink
Free and Open to Existing and Prospective Volunteers
Are you interested in getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the writing life? Interested in helping our community craft their stories?
Join us for a fun and informal Volunteer Summer Social. We’ll share light summer refreshments, fun literary games, and learn about volunteer opportunities, including general office duties, event support, and assisting teaching artists in the classroom.
Help us teach the craft of writing to people of all skill levels so they can bring their stories to life!
Complete this short volunteer survey for full details.

Poets & Coffee
2025-07-19 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join Us for Coffee & Conversation
Join Gemini Ink’s Executive Artistic Director, Alexandra van de Kamp, for a relaxed and insightful discussion about the current landscape of poetry. Explore what’s happening now in the world of contemporary verse.
We’ll have the coffee ready—just bring a friend and settle in among fellow poetry lovers. Alexandra will share a few of her current favorite poems and spotlight contemporary poets who are making waves both on the page and on the stage.
This is your chance to join the conversation! Share the poems that have moved you and tell us why poetry matters in your life. You’ll leave with a sense of community, a fresh collection of poems to explore, and creative prompts to spark your own writing journey. Whether you’re a seasoned poet or simply curious, everyone is welcome at our poetic gathering.
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​​Alexandra van de Kamp is the Executive Director for Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s Writing Arts Center. Her third book of poems, Ricochet Script, was published by Next Page Press in 2022. Her previous full-length collections include: Kiss/Hierarchy (Rain Mountain Press 2016) and The Park of Upside-Down Chairs (CW Books 2010). She has also published several chapbooks, including A Liquid Bird Inside the Night (Red Glass Books 2015) and Dear Jean Seberg (2011), which won the 2010 Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. Her poems have been published in journals nationwide, such as The Cincinnati Review, Connecticut Review, The Texas Observer, and Denver Quarterly.

Rosemary Catacalos: On the Life and Work of an American Master
2025-07-20 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Urban-15, 2500 S. Presa, San Antonio, Texas, 78212
Gemini Ink, URBAN-15, and the University of Houston / Unsung Masters are proud to present a book launch event in celebration of Rosemary Catacalos: On the Life and Work of an American Master, the 17th volume of the Unsung Masters Series.
Join us to honor Rosemary’s life and legacy with an afternoon of readings by contributors to the book, including Naomi Shiab Nye, ire’ne lara silva, and Jim LaVilla-Havelin. Books will be available for purchase, and refreshments will be served.
Join us:
Sunday July 20th, 2-4pm CST
URBAN-15 Studios 2500 S. Presa
Learn more at urban15.org

Reconnect with Wonder & Illuminate Your Writing Process with Laura Munson
2025-07-23 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Wednesday(s) July 23, 30 & August 6, 13, 2025 6:30-8:30pm CDT via Zoom
Nonmember $240; Member $205; Student/Educ/Mil $168
*EARN CPEs

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Wonder is the combination of curiosity and awe that makes us feel alive and inspires writers to explore and reimagine the world around them. In this worry-filled world, we need our wonder, and our writing, more than ever.
In this 4-week workshop, best-selling author and founder of the acclaimed Haven Writing Retreats in Montana, Laura Munson will lead students through writing exercises to uncover wonder and inject it into their own writing.
Using Laura’s newly released teaching memoir The Wild Why: Stories and Teachings to Uncover Your Wonder as a guide, we will explore teaching-spirited stories and writing prompts, all centered on illuminating our true self-expression and the wonder it sparks.
This class is open to writers of all genres and skill levels 18+.
In The Wild Why workshop, Laura will be leading writers through:

Reconnecting with themselves & their wonder
Using wonder to rekindle voice and expand creativity
Exploring their unique narrative
Drafting several new written works

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LAURA MUNSON is a New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author. Her acclaimed works include the novel Willa’s Grove and the memoir This Is Not The Story You Think It Is. Laura is the founder of the renowned Haven Writing Retreats and her writing has appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, Elle, Redbook, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times “Modern Love” column, The New York Times Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, and many more. She has been featured on Good Morning America, The Early Show, WGN, NPR, London’s This Morning, Australia’s Sunrise, and other international media outlets. Laura lives and writes in Whitefish, Montana.
Learn about Cancellation & Refund Policies at https://geminiink.org/registration/

How to Eat a Memory with Michelle Otero
2025-07-24 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Thursday, July 24, 2025 from 10am-12pm CDT in-person
This class is free and open to writers of all genres, skill levels, and backgrounds, 18+, on a first-come basis, and is limited to 15 participants.
This class is currently full.
To join the waitlist in case a spot opens up, please email mllara@geminiink.org.

Writing a memoir is more than a linear reporting of the events of our lives. Along the way, we stop to reflect, to make meaning. We should also stop to eat. Childhood foods—both the unnatural prepackaged snacks we were drawn to and the “eat-this-it’s-good-for-you” fare pushed on us by grown-ups—are a rich source of sensory description.
The foods of childhood may hold the key to accepting and understanding an event that makes sense only in hindsight or they may signify that moment when things changed. Or they may simply help create a more complete picture of a life. Maybe those canned beets you scooped into a napkin on your lap tell a larger story about silence or things hidden or trusting your knowing. Maybe a clean plate tells a story of loss or absence or lack.
In this generative workshop, we will explore the foods that helped shape our personal stories and use them as tools of discovery and meaning that reconnect us to the kid we were at the dinner table who knew what was right all along.
Though this workshop is geared toward those writing creative nonfiction, fiction writers and poets are also welcome to attend. This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
By the end of the class students will have:

An understanding of the role of food in telling personal stories
A draft of new written work

Michelle Otero is the author of Vessels: A Memoir of Borders, Bosque: Poems, and the essay collection Malinche’s Daughter. She served as Albuquerque Poet Laureate from 2018-2020 and co-edited the New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023 and 22 Poems & a Prayer for El Paso, a tribute to victims of the 2019 El Paso shooting and winner of a New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. A coach, community-based artist, and racial healing practitioner, she is the founder of ArteSana Creative Consulting, dedicated to creative expression and storytelling as the basis for organizational development and positive social change. Originally from Deming, New Mexico, Otero holds a BA in History from Harvard College and an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. She is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop.

Reawakening the Past: How to Use Historical Research in Fiction with Katie Gutierrez
2025-08-04 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Online via Zoom
Monday(s) August 4 & 11, 2025 6:30-8:00 pm cst via Zoom
Nonmember $90; Member $75; Student/Educ/Mil $63
*EARN CPEs
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

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Are you a writer digging up history to paint a picture of the past? Are you researching historical facts or concepts to support your story? Learn the ins and outs of historical research from a national bestselling author!
In this two-part lecture, Katie Gutierrez will discuss how to use historical events and research to create a high-concept contemporary novel, based on her experiences writing More Than You’ll Ever Know and her upcoming second novel. She’ll discuss retellings and the differences between “based on” and “inspired by” with examples. Writers will learn journalistic techniques for sourcing research–from YouTube to primary interviews–and how to let events of the past guide but not dictate their own original narratives.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
By the end of the lecture students will:

Identify a solid starting point for conducting historical research
Have a list of resources to continue their research following the lecture

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Katie Gutierrez is the author of the national bestselling, Edgar Award-nominated debut novel More Than You’ll Ever Know, which was also a Good Morning America Book Club selection. She is a National Magazine Award finalist whose essays and features have appeared in TIME, Texas Highways, Harper’s Bazaar, and more, and acknowl
edged in Best American Magazine Writing and Best American Essays. She has an MFA from Texas State University and lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and their two kids.
Learn about Cancellation & Refund Policies at https://geminiink.org/registration/

Gemini Ink Veteran’s Writing Collective Community Reading & Open Mic
2025-08-06 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us as we celebrate our military writers with an evening of readings, refreshments, and conversation.
Whether you’re a writer, a supporter, or simply curious, this event welcomes all!
Date: Wednesday, August 6
Time: 6:30–8:30 PM
Location: Gemini Ink, San Antonio
Enjoy readings and presentations by Amanda Cerreto, Scott McClean, Herb Nordmeyer, Miranda Serra, Rhett Smith, Philip Verges, and other talented members of the Veterans’ Writing Collective. There’s still room for more—if you’d like to share your work, please contact Sarah Colby. Participation is optional and open to anyone interested!
Who can attend?
Everyone is welcome—bring friends, family, and fellow community members.
Interested in sharing your writing?
Slots are still available for readers and presenters. Simply reach out to reserve your spot: veteranscollective@geminiink.org
We look forward to an evening of storytelling, creativity, and connection. See you there!
— Hosted by Sarah Colby, Veterans’ Writing Collective

Live Storytelling: Voices of San Anto Showcase
2025-08-16 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Mission Branch Library, 3134 Roosevelt Ave, San Antonio, Texas, 78214
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!
