Six local authors discuss how a Writer’s Center workshop spun off into 25 years of monthly critique meetings, leading to numerous literary journal and anthology publications, awards, fellowships, and at least ten books. Former TWC board member Jim Mathews moderates.
Jim Beane is a native Washingtonian, a Pushcart Prize nominee, a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow and a mentor for the Veterans Writing Project. He has taken and led workshops at the Writers Center since 1996 and was the creative writing instructor for the Armed Services Arts Partnership. His short stories have appeared The MacGuffin, The Baltimore Review, El Portal, Evening Street Review and the anthologies DC Noir and Workers Write: Tales From the Construction Site. His short story collection, By the Sea, by the Sea… is available online. He lives west of Baltimore with his wife and family. His debut novel, The Deadening, will be published Nov. 4 by Mandel-Vilar Press/ Dryad Press. www.jimbeane.com.
Carmelinda Blagg is originally from Texas and has lived in the Washington, D.C. area for over thirty years. She previously worked for IFC, (an affiliate of the World Bank). Her debut short story collection, Geographies, was published in 2023 by Atmosphere Press. Her fiction has appeared in a number of journals and the anthologies Best of the Web (Dzanc Books), and Paycock Press’ Grace and Gravity series. She holds a MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and has been a Maryland State Arts Council grantee. She has served as a contributing and associate editor for O Dark Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project and is a longtime member of the Writer’s Center. www.carmelindablagg.com.
Dana Cann was born in Santa Barbara, California, and grew up in Bethesda and Rockville. He worked in corporate finance and restructuring. He’s the author of the novel Ghosts of Bergen County (Tin House). His short fiction has been published in The Sun, The Massachusetts Review, The Gettysburg Review, and elsewhere. He’s received grants and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Maryland State Arts Council, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. He teaches workshops at The Writer’s Center and reads flash fiction for Fractured Lit. www.danacann.com
Christina Kovac is a novelist, editor, and former television journalist. Her debut novel, The Cutaway, was published in 2017 (Atria Books). She is currently at work on her second novel, Watch Us Fall (Simon & Schuster). Before turning her hand at fiction writing, she worked in television newsrooms in Washington, D.C., her final stint was at the NBC’s Washington Bureau as a producer, writer, and desk editor. She grew up in New Castle, Delaware, and lives in Olney with her family and orange cat. www.christinakovac.com
James Mathews is a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant and holds a MA in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for nine years, he has taken and taught fiction at The Writer’s Center since 1995. His fiction has appeared in numerous journals, including the Painted Bride Quarterly, Northwest Review, Carolina Quarterly, The Wisconsin Review, The Florida Review, as well as anthologies including Best American Mystery Stories. His collection, Last Known Position, was awarded the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Short Fiction and was published by the University of North Texas Press in 2008. www.jamesmathewsonline.com
Kathleen Wheaton grew up in California, studied at Stanford and received an MFA from Boston University. She was a librarian at The New Yorker and then worked for 25 years as a journalist in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Bethesda, Maryland. Her fiction has appeared in many journals and three anthologies, and her collection, Aliens and Other Stories, was awarded the 2013 Washington Writers Publishing House Fiction Prize. From 2014 to 2022, she served as president of WWPH, a D.C.-based cooperative press. Her second collection is forthcoming from Betty Books. This summer she will return to Palo Alto as a 2024-2026 Stegner Fellow. www.kathleenwheaton.com