Gemini Ink

Veterans Writing Collective with Sarah Colby
2026-05-20 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-06-17 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-07-15 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-08-19 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-09-16 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-10-21 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
2026-05-25 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-06-29 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-07-27 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-08-31 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-09-28 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-10-26 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
2026-05-30 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-06-27 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-07-25 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-29 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-09-26 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-10-31 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.

Exploring Africa: Inspiration from International Poets with Veronica Golos
2026-06-03 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Wed, Jun 3, 10, 17 & 24
6:30-8:30pm CT, Online via Zoom
Nonmember: $200; Member: $170; Student/Educ/Mil: $140
Registration info coming soon.
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 for the final stop on our international poetry tour!
In this four-week generative poetry workshop, we will read, discuss deeply, and draw our inspiration from foundational African poets Chris Abani (Nigeria), Kwame Dawes (Ghana), Tsitsi Jaji (Zimbabwe), and Agostinho Nato (Angola). 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 leave this course with:

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.

Rooted in Stories with Daniel Ramirez
2026-06-06 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Sat, Jun 6, 13, & 20
10 am-12 pm CT, Hybrid (online via Zoom and in-person at Gemini Ink)
Nonmember: $150; Member: $129; Student/Educ/Mil: $105
Registration info coming soon.
Where do I belong? This question is central to the human experience. One way to explore it is by tracing our connections to our family lineage, our communities, and the living world around us.
In this workshop, we will use ancestry as a lens to excavate our sense of connectedness from within. We will imagine belonging as a series of concentric circles: starting with family, widening to community, and expanding outward to the Earth as a whole. Each session will focus on one of those circles. Through reflection, discussion, and generative writing exercises, we will transform our discoveries into stories, essays, or poems that express this sense of connection. Readings will primarily feature voices from across the United States, representing various regions, ethnicities, and family histories–all of which will model how writers have grappled with the question of belonging.
This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Workshop participants will leave with the following:

Familiarity with American writers who have tapped into an ancestral current to examine and express their deeper sense of belonging
One piece of writing per class based on the theme of family, community, or Earth
Ideally, a deeper sense of how their self is connected to a greater whole

Daniel Ramirez is a longtime educator and writer from San Antonio. He has published nature writing essays in Foliate Oak, Twisted Vine, and you are here journals and nature-based journalism with StateImpact Texas (KUT Austin) and Texas Public Radio. He also writes stories, puppet shows, and poetry; as a teaching artist, he’s taught in multiple genres. He believes that the quest to develop one’s inner creativity parallels the quest to encounter one’s deeper, truer self.

Poetry Crush: A Pride Month Literary Event
2026-06-18 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | TX
Location (TBD, in-person)
Join Gemini Ink as we celebrate Pride Month 2026 with a lovestruck literary event! Poetry Crush invites generations of queer poets to read their own work and the works of their poetry crushes.

Finding Voice Through Dialogue with Carmen Tafolla
2026-07-07 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Literary Masters Lecture Series
Tue, Jul 7 & 14
6:30-8pm CT via Zoom
Nonmember: $90; Member: $75; Student/Educ/Mil: $63
Registration info coming soon.
Rhythm, pacing, vocabulary, slang, and tone all shape how someone speaks. Whether you’re looking to refine your novel-in-verse or craft more impactful dialogue in your poetry or prose, mastering dialogue is a powerful way to create more vivid, compelling storytelling.
Award-winning author of more than 40 books, Dr. Carmen Tafolla presents a two-part Master Class focused on shaping characters’ voices, so they reflect depth, individuality, and authenticity. In session one, we will explore examples of compelling dialogue and review useful tools, patterns, and exercises that can be used long after the lecture ends. Participants should bring some of their writing to class and be prepared to apply the techniques from the first session to their work. In the second session they can expect to share and discuss their revisions.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
In this lecture students will gain:

An understanding of the elements of effective dialogue
Strategies for mastering the art of dialogue writing
Ideas on how dialogue can provide writers with insights into themselves and their characters

Dr Carmen Tafolla is a storyteller, professor emeritus, performance artist, and award-winning author of more than 40 books and hundreds of poems and performance pieces. The 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas, and San Antonio’s first and inaugural City Poet Laureate, she is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including seven International Latino Book Awards; an Américas Award, presented to her in 2010 at the Library of Congress; three Tomás Rivera Book Awards; the Charlotte Zolotow; the Art of Peace; Top Ten Books for Babies (by the Fred Rogers Corporation 2010), and has been recognized by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies for work which “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land.”
Her latest book, Warrior Girl, received a starred review in Publishers’ Weekly, and was a finalist for the Jane Addams Award.

LitMinds Book Club
2026-07-08 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us for the LitMinds Book Club at Gemini Ink. We’re reading The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.
Register

A house is a precious thing…
It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.
Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation, leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.
Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is “a brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one’s own desires” (The Guardian).

About the Author

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher. She currently lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, “On (Not) Reading Anne Frank”, has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. The Safekeep is her debut novel and was acquired in hotly-contested nine-way auctions in both the UK and the US. Rights have sold in a further twelve countries.
Visit our LitMinds page to see what we’re reading next!

Poets & Coffee with Alexandra van de Kamp
2026-07-11 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink
Coffee. Poetry. Conversation.
Join Alexandra van de Kamp for an informal gathering focused on the poems and poets shaping today’s literary landscape.
Come listen, share, and connect.
You’ll leave with new poems to read and prompts to keep writing.

​​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.

Haunted Histories: The Masters of Latina Horror with Elizabeth Gonzalez James
2026-07-11 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Sat, Jul 11
10am-2pm CT, In-person at Gemini Ink
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Educ/Mil: $70
Registration info coming soon.
Latinas are writing some of the most gut-wrenching and spine-tingling horror on the market today. Their work sheds light on systemic abuse and other brutal aspects of Latin American history.
Whether it’s Silvia Moreno Garcia addressing the hideous legacy of Mexican mine operations in Mexican Gothic, or Mariana Enriquez spinning a devilish tale of cruelty and imprisonment set against Argentina’s Dirty War in Our Share of Night, these authors are using fiction to tell true stories of crime and corruption, resistance and resilience in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
In this one-day workshop, we will begin with an overview of what horror is and how it works. Then we’ll discuss several works by Latina authors, paying close attention to how they blend fact and fantasy. We will examine how truth and storytelling often co-mingle in the Latin American literary tradition, specifically how horror is used by marginalized voices to tell their truths. Finally, we’ll use these approaches as a template to create our own tales of ghosts, witches, demons, and other supernatural forces.
This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Workshop participants will:

Analyze how authors utilize the supernatural to interrogate real-world horrors
Explore techniques for weaving historical facts into speculative fiction
Leave with four story openings ready for development

Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a screenwriter and bestselling author of Mona at Sea, as well as Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. Her most recent novel The Bullet Swallower was named a best book of 2024 by NPR and Esquire, was an honor-winner in the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction, and was featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. She has taught fiction writing at Grub Street, Story Studio, and elsewhere.

Touch Paper: A Creative Journaling Workshop for Teens
2026-07-17 14:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
FREE TEEN OFFERING
Free & in-person at Gemini Ink and online via Zoom
Registration info coming soon.
Teens 13-19 in Bexar County: learn about creative journaling and how it can promote positive mental health. We’ll put pen to paper and play on the page! Please register for either our online or in-person workshop on our website.

Dig Into Your Subconscious to Enliven Your Writing with Carmen Calatayud
2026-08-08 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Sat, Aug 8
10am – 2pm CT, In-person at Gemini Ink
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Educ/Mil: $70
Registration info coming soon.
The subconscious mind is a hidden vault that holds our deepest motives, feelings, and beliefs. It is also the cradle of dreams, where meaning emerges and creativity takes shape. So what if we tapped into this inner world to unlock a richer, more profound artistic expression?
In this one-day workshop, we will use guided writing exercises and meditative prompts to quiet the inner critic and awaken the intuitive voice that lies just beneath the surface of everyday thought. Through the study of surrealist writers, we will explore how symbols, images and fragments from the subconscious can transform into powerful narratives. Whether you write poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction, this workshop provides practical tools to write from emotional truth and psychological depth. Come prepared to dig into your fertile inner landscape, using dreams, intuition and memory as seeds for evocative storytelling.
This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
Workshop participants will leave with the following:

An understanding of how the subconscious mind can galvanize writing
Strategies for connecting with body sensations and imagery to access deeper, archetypal truths
Several pieces of new writing that open up to unexpected places

Carmen Calatayud is a poet, nonfiction writer and psychotherapist who is fascinated by the subconscious and the surreal. She is the author of two poetry collections: This Tangled Body (FlowerSong Press/Letras Latinas, 2024) and In the Company of Spirits (Press 53, 2012), a runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including POETRY Magazine, Poet Lore, Rogue Agent, Tahoma Literary Journal and Verse Daily. She is a Larry Neal Award Winner, a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow, and a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. Calatayud is on the editorial staff of The Skinny Poetry Journal.

Finding the Fire: Revising and Revisioning the Poem
2026-08-11 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Literary Masters Lecture Series
Tue, Aug 11 & 18
6:30-8pm CT via Zoom
Nonmember: $90; Member: $75; Student/Educ/Mil: $63
Registration info coming soon.
Want to turn your cold first draft into a hot work of literary art? Your first draft is the fodder. Your revision process applies the heat. The outcome is one blazing poem. Join former San Antonio and Texas poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero for a workshop where she walks us through her process for refining her poems.
In this two-part lecture, Laurie Ann Guerrero will offer insight into her process of revising and revisioning poems—listening for urgency, clarifying imagery, and taking creative risks. Participants will learn her revision sequence and then participants will each workshop one short poem of their own in an atmosphere of generous, serious attention. Participants are encouraged to bring a poem (no longer than one page) to revise on the spot.
This lecture is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.
In this lecture, students will:

Learn revision techniques that re-envision their work
Revise one piece of their own written work on the spot
Leave this lecture with revision tools that can be used at home

Poet, essayist, and visual artist, Laurie Ann Guerrero was born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio and is the author of REDWORK, winner of the 2025 Autumn House Poetry Award, forthcoming in October 2026. Poet Laureate of San Antonio (2014-16) and Texas (2016-2017), her award-winning collections, along with a volume of new & selected poems, include Babies under the Skin (Panhandler 2008), A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (University of Notre Dame Press 2013), A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlan Libre Press 2015), and I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake: New & Selected Poems (TCU Press 2021). Guerrero holds degrees from Smith College and Drew University. She is an Associate Professor and the Writer-in-Residence at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she teaches writing, cultural, and gender studies. She is currently at work on a novel.

The Big Texas Author Talk Featuring Deb Olin Unferth
2026-08-19 07:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Online via Zoom
Join us on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, via Zoom for a conversation with Deb Olin Unferth, to discuss her new book, Earth 7: A Novel (Graywolf Press).

(Virtual Readings Quarterly @ 7pm CST)

RSVP
Deb Olin Unferth’s latest novel, Earth 7, is a bold and imaginative work of climate fiction that explores love, survival, and what remains of humanity on a nearly uninhabitable planet. As Earth sits on the brink, two unlikely figures—a woman raised in an ocean pod and another who may be a robot—form a connection in a world where some have fled to Mars and others seek digital immortality. At once poetic, strange, and deeply human, Earth 7 moves from the vast edges of the cosmos to the microscopic, asking urgent questions about consciousness, technology, and what it means to endure.

About the Author
Deb Olin Unferth is the author of seven books, including Barn 8 and Wait Till You See Me Dance. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and four Pushcart Prizes, and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Granta, and McSweeney’s.

Open Writers’ Lab Reading & Community Open Mic
2026-08-20 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join Gemini Ink as we celebrate the literary artistry of our Open Writers’ Lab members with a community reading and open mic.
