One, All, and Many showed up for the inaugural Capitol Letters Writing Center Happy Hour and Information Session. Huge thanks are in order for the great people at the Looking Glass Lounge in Petworth, who generously took us down the Rabbit Hole to our first event, where we enjoyed drink and food specials throughout the evening. Especially noteworthy were some of the sideshow attractions of the evening. The ring toss and short-lived Hula Hoop contest kept some potential volunteers busy, while others mingled and attempted to toss balls through un-suspended hoops. After the guests were sufficiently warmed-up with the Mad Libs that were distributed to the tables, the group participated in a Mad Lib Word Auction that produced the finest collaborative literature that the 3600 block of Georgia Avenue has ever seen.


Click here for more photos of the event!

Stay tuned for details of our next mixer in June!

CLWC's Learn-a-Palooza workshop, How to Create a Memorable Character, took place this past Saturday at Cafe Collage. (Quick side note: Cafe Collage seemed like a great coffee shop, with plenty of comfortable seating and good, strong coffee.) I had the pleasure of taking the class of about 15 attentive Learn-a-Paloozers through a series of writing exercises designed to deliver on the workshop's name by laying the groundwork for a character who really comes alive. After that, Matt Klam blew people's minds with a couple of creative exercises that juxtaposed characters in uncommon situations. Grace Wang provided pens, paper, and a promotional pep talk for our upcoming mixer and organization's status. Thanks to all the students for coming out and to Learn-a-Palooza for putting on this great event.

Testimonial
"[I] wish I could take a longer class with you all! The exercises really helped me to think about the characters in a more well rounded way . After this workshop I have concrete tools to better fill out each character (from my novel) from what they are wear, what motivates them, to what they might think about in any given situation. Thank you!"
- Stephanie Melmed, MSW, Clinical Social Worker

Matt Klam, along with volunteer Karen Maloy, spent a rainy Monday morning working with three senior English classes at Wilson High School in Northwest DC. Mr. Klam, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and GQ, put students through their paces as they attempted – quite successfully as it turned out – to come up with 'sudden fiction'. Throwing out such opening lines as "Every night, my mother talks to the washing machine" and "A coconut hit me on the head and killed me", he enabled students with very little fiction writing experience to create entire worlds of their own design, worlds inhabited by people brought to life in the space of a few lines. In Ms. Bowser's class, students bravely read their spontaneous creations to appreciative classmates. Ms. Belew's students created entire narratives in fifteen minutes, and Ms. Chang's seniors were amazed at what they discovered lurking in the recesses of their unconscious.

Dave Eggers of 826 National recently won the TED Prize and announced his wish for people to "find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area." While CLWC is not a part of 826 National nor is it endorsed by them, the work of Dave Eggers has inspired us. His speech speaks to the needs and vision CLWC holds as its own to fulfill and follow.

We will update our website with more information in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, please join our mailing list for updates. Thank you!

We were also recently featured in Washington City Paper, and you can find the article by clicking here. There’s even a photo of some of our good people here at CLWC!