Pearl Diving Column
September 2019
by Ingrid Bruck
Online Writer Communities
How can you meet other writers? How can you become a member of a writer community that supports you? You must meet other writers to form writing connections. Not everyone has a Kitchen Table Writers Group, library writer group or poetry open mike available. If you don’t have these kinds of local writer resources, others can be found online.
The writers I met in ModPo classes have developed into my primary online writer community. ModPo is the group that helped me find my own writer community. My community of writers supports me and my writing. I’m a short form poet and enjoy writing haiku. At ModPo, I met other poets inspired by nature who enjoy writing haiku. We formed a closed writer group of people from six nations, write collaborative rengay (a haiku variant) and became online friends. I‘m a member two closed online groups that originated at ModPo. Both are five years old and thriving. ModPo also gave me a writing buddy. We exchange pieces of writing weekly using GoogleDoc. This helps to keep both of us on-track, helps with the process of revision and motivates us to keep on writing.
I highly recommend ModPo as starting place. It’s public, free and open. Students are part of a global writer community that’s huge. With over 30,000 students, everyone talking at once, the course can be overwhelming at first. I found that joining a smaller discussion group on the ModPo site can be a good way to form personal connections with others, ModPo goes year round. The highlight of ModPo starts September 7, 2019, a ten-week course on Modern & Contemporary American Poetry. Now would be a great time to join ModPo.
I encourage investigating a variety of writer communities. Look for a good match to your style, theme and technique of writing. You may wish join an established online writer community that is small. Or start with a big group like ModPo and join a small discussion group with similar interests.
Attached is a list of the groups that form my online poetry community. I’m a member of all of them. It’s selective, offered as a guideline and a place to begin searching for your own writer community. Add or subtract from this list as you wish.
***
Contemporary Poets, Their Works, Current Poetry Projects, News, Links: Free. Participation open to public. 15,971 members. Administered by Michael Lee Johnson. A Facebook page where a large community of practicing writers gather. Writers promote themselves by posting links to newly published work. This active social network is a place to discuss writing trends, read interviews of practicing writers, read reviews of newly published work. https://www.facebook.com/groups/807679459328998/
International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG): Women gather to write, be supported and learn. For women or female identifying. Non-Profit. Established 1976. Offers free and member services. Global village is public, free and open. IWWG presents an annual week-long summer conference, regional writer events, online webinars. Members receive discounted prices. Closed Forums for members only include: IWWG Member Room; Writer Share Forum; online bookclub; online critique groups. https://www.facebook.com/InternationalWomensWritingGuild/ & https://www.iwwg.org
Verse-Virtual: An Online Community of Poetry. A free, public and online poetry community facilitated by Firestone Feinberg, editor. Verse-Virtual is an online poetry community AND an online poetry journal. The online journal is named Verse-Virtual. V-V has three FaceBook pages: Verse-Virtual (the place where members share links for published poem acceptances, writer career milestones, submission calls, etc.); V-V Talk (discussion of poetry and poetics); and V-V Shmooze (writer chat). Membership in the V-V writer community begins when a poet has one (or more) poems published in Verse-Virtual. V-V members are encouraged to share positive comments about other writer’s poems that appear monthly in Verse-Virtual. Connections are made; personal friendships develop. https://www.verse-virtual.com
Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (“Mod-Po”): Massive free online course (MOOC by Coursera) facilitated by Al Filreis, Kelly House, University of Pennsylvania. 31,790 students enrolled. No prior experience required. Global membership. To participate in the ModPo writer community, you must enroll in ModPo. Core curriculum includes a ten-week-survey of American poetry for writers and students of writing. Participation in this community of writers and students is incremental and on-going for lifetime learners. Writers complete ModPo, advance to ModPoPlus curriculum, join discussion groups in multitudinous areas of interest. Participants have an option to participate in study groups in their areas of interest. (EX: Haiku Corner participants discuss haiku and write collaborative renga). ModPo-ers don’t stop when they complete one area of interest. Instead, they progress to the next advanced group. (EX: Global Study Group exhausted ModPo & ModPoPlus resources but wanted more so they organized a discussion group to study, close read and discuss even more poems by featured authors in the course.) This unique ModPo community of writers runs year round in Slo-Po study groups. New class session starts Sept. 7, 2019. To enroll, follow this link to join: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo
Rats Ass Review: Closed Free Workshopping Group. Reserved for published poets in the RAR family. Roderick Bates, editor of RAR, saw a need for writer workshopping and formed an online workshopping group. An invitation to the RAR workshopping group is offered to each poet that RAR publishes. The expertise and generous support of the RAR writers in this group has helped me improve as a poet. Many writers seem to be searching for a writer’s group to join; they are open to learn from other writers, want peers to read what they write and seek support for their writing. If this speaks to you, I recommend submitting to Rat’s Ass Review, a high quality and fine online poetry journal. The next submission period is not yet open. http://ratsassreview.net/?page_id=81
https://www.betweentheseshoresbooks.com/archives
Date Published: September 1, 2019