RIRW exists to promote excellence in women’s and popular fiction, to help writers become published and build careers in their writing field, and to provide continuing support for writers within the women’s and popular fiction publishing industry. Formed in 1983 as a Romance Writers of America chapter, we disaffiliated in 1988. We are an independent, nonprofit organization in Rhode Island.
We welcome everyone, without regard to race, color, national origin, disability, religion, cultural identity, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or any other identity distinction. Furthermore, we recognize that because racism, homophobia, and other forms of bias are systemic in our national culture, people from marginalized communities continue to be denied advancement in our industry. RIRW strives to address this by raising awareness within our membership and increasing our efforts to attract members from a variety of backgrounds to enrich our community of writers.
If you are serious about writing popular fiction, we invite you to join us!
We meet from September to June on the first Saturday of the month in the Hayden Center at the Cumberland Public Library in Cumberland, Rhode Island. (Because of holidays and/or activities at the library, the date or venue may change. We will announce changes here.)
12:30 p.m. General Meeting
1:30 p.m. Workshop/Speaker
We welcome Visitors. (We would appreciate a $2.00 donation at the door.) Visitors may attend up to two meetings before they need to join.
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Next Meeting (on ZOOM): Oct. 3rd
Debra Spark: Writing in a Time of Disaster
“Why write?” Alex Chee asked after 9/11, questioning not the content of his writing but the very point of putting pen to paper. How do we understand our vocation or make any sort of meaning when confronted with the tragedies of our times, the daily horrors that seem so annihilating of all other concerns? A global pandemic, gun violence, massive economic injustice, and environmental apocalypse. It used to be, as Ecclesiastes has it, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.” But what if the earth doth not abideth? What does that mean for our efforts? This lecture will move between 1920s and 2020s Paris and reference the following texts: Pat Barker’s Regeneration, Moshin Hamid’s East West, Olga Tokarczuk’s 2019 Nobel Prize speech, and Jenny Offil’s Weather.
DEBRA SPARK is the author of five books of fiction, including Unknown Caller, The Pretty Girl, and Good for the Jews. Other books include Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing,and the anthology Twenty Under Thirty. Her second book of essays on writing, And Then Something Happened, was released in August 2020. She also frequently writes book reviews, personal essays, and articles on home and design. She teaches at Colby College and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Upcoming Meetings:
3 October
7 November
12 December (ARIA Expo 5 Dec)
2 January (or 9th?)
5-7 February (Retreat, no meeting)
6 March
10 April (Easter 4 April)
1 May
5 June