Welcome!

The Gulf Coast Writers Association is proud to provide a forum for fellowship, education, and information for writers in our community. Whether you write for pleasure or profit, you’ll find support from our members. And with an average of 175 members, there’s always encouragement and friendly guidance to help you improve your writing skills. Plus, our monthly speakers’ events are informative and fun, providing expert advice on topics such as writing techniques, publishing, marketing, and others. So no matter what your genre: general fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s, young adult, historical fiction, romance, mystery/thriller, memoirs, and more, you’re in good company. Check out our website and see what exciting things we have in store for you.

Announcements

I have tried to post any other event cancellations on the website, but don’t have information on all events. Before you plan to attend any event, be sure to check to see if it is still scheduled.

Meet your  GCWA 2020 officers.

The GCWA writing contest winners received their prizes by mail and will be invited to attend a meeting later this year to celebrate and read their winning submissions. The winning entries are posted on the website. See winning entries here.

Send your suggestions for speakers or topics at meetings this year to Bob McCarthy.

Handouts from Bob and Judy’s presentation on Self-Publishing

Legal handouts from Anne Dalton’s November Presentation

Presentation slides from Charley Valera’s October Presentation

Submit your ideas for Workshops

Visit our new page for Blogs, Podcasts, and Webinars for writers.

Interested in joining a new critique or reading group? [list of current groups]

more announcements

August 2020 — Speaker to be announced

 

GCWA will be meeting on August 15, 2020 at the new location in Cape Coral.
We are concerned about members and visitors safety and will do our best to keep everyone safe, following separation guidelines. Bring a mask.
Stay well!

August 2020

Geneva Kelly

NEW LOCATION

The Military Museum was a great venue for us in July and the meeting was a success. They are letting us meet there until the end of the year.

Meeting: August 15, 2020, 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Location: [map] Southwest Florida Military Museum & Library
4820 Leonard Street
Cape Coral, Florida 33904

Future speakers.

New Writing Game

Do you like playing games? Enjoy Jeopardy? Try playing these Jeopardy style writing games and learn while you play.

If you are looking for Gulf Coast Writers in Mississippi, click here.

Join Us!

Gulf Coast Writers provide ideas, support, encouragement, resources and networking opportunities to fellow writers. Don’t miss out on all the great speakers we have planned for the upcoming year. Click button below to learn what you will get within our association. Only $40 annual ($50 for families). Come join the fun!

Facebook3 LIKE our Facebook page and check out our meeting photos.

Dear Members: Renew now! We value your membership and don’t want you to miss the exciting events we have planned for this year. Dues are payable from Fall until January 31. If you haven’t renewed and plan to attend our next meeting, please bring your money or check with you. Or you can pay today! Simply click the Membership Application tab and renew your membership online via PayPal. If you aren’t sure if you have paid your membership dues, please e-mail website@GulfWriters.org.

Latest Good News

If there is an ellipsis (…) at the end of a post here, that means there is more to read. To read a complete post, click on the headline. Or, if you want to scroll through ALL of our Good News, Click Here for more good news. Good news is for members only. If you would like to join in the fun, visit the Membership Application Page to learn more about joining. If you are are a GCWA member with Good News, please send email to website@gulfwriters.org.

Events

We get a lot of upcoming events sent to us, from all over Florida and even beyond. If there is an ellipsis (…) at the end of a post here, that means there is more to read. To read a complete post, click on the headline. Take a look at all the events. You can Click Here for more Events, and you can go to our calendar to see those that are posted in our local Lee county and surrounding areas. If you are affiliated with a group that is hosting an event that is relevant to authors, please send email to website@gulfwriters.org.

Writing Contests

If there is an ellipsis (…) at the end of a post here, that means there is more to read. To read a complete post, click on the headline. Or, if you want to scroll through ALL of Writing Contests we have heard about, Click Here for more writing contests. If you are affiliated with a group that is hosting a writing contest, please send email to website@gulfwriters.org.

  • Eyelands Book Awards

    EYELANDS BOOK AWARDS 2020!! Deadline October 20, 2020  Grand prize (published books): Five-day holiday in Athens plus a special handmade [...]

  • The 2020 St. Lawrence Book Award

    Submissions Open! Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The St. Lawrence Book Award for an unpublished first [...]

  • Writers Against Covid-19

    In the week beginning 17th August, Writers Against Covid-19 will be holding a Crime Week. WAC-19 was started in March when the UK went into [...]

Announcements and Opportunities

If there is an ellipsis (…) at the end of a post here, that means there is more to read. To read a complete post, click on the headline. Or, if you want to scroll through ALL of our Announcements, Click Here for more announcements. Also, if you would like to make an announcement of your own, please send email to website@gulfwriters.org.

  • Writers Blok Online FREE Version!

    We wanted to reach out to you regarding an exciting new development at Writers Blok Online: a free membership option to our online [...]

  • Writers on the Air

    Every Sunday, WKDW 97.5 FM nonprofit radio invites amateur writers, poets, and comedians to perform or read on its program "Writers on the Air."  [...]

  • Submit ideas for workshops

    At the November 2019 GCWA meeting, we asked what workshops people would like to attend.  The following are current requests for workshops. [...]

GCWA officers

Meet the officers and directors for 2018/19.

Members Poetry and Prose

See the latest contributions by our members, Lorraine Walker Williams, Jim Gustafson and Joe Pacheco. Send your own poetry and short prose to website@gulfwriters.org.

New GCWA meeting agenda

We are replacing our long business meetings with contributions from our members. If you would like to speak at one of our meetings, please contact Bob McCarthy at Programs@GulfWriters.org or Irene Smith at Membership@GulfWriters.org

Information wanted

GCWA members — send us your photos, your bios, your books to be listed on the website — email website@gulfwriters.org.

Visit your local book stores

There are several book stores who sell books by local authors. Visit, buy books, check on selling your books on their shelves. List of stores

Looking for Word Song editor

Due to time constraints our News Magazine WORD SONG is needing an Executive Editor with MailChimp experience in order to continue. If you would like to know more about it, please email TheWord@gulfwriters.org We will continue to send out a basic meeting announcement until then. If you are not seeing these emails, please search your SPAM and PROMOTIONS folder and then add the address to your contacts list. Or contact membership@gulfwriters.org to verify that your email is in the system. You can click here to see the current edition and get instructions for how to find our emails.

Newsletters

Services page on website

We have added a Writing Services page to the website. GCWA members, if you have a writing-related business you would like listed, please contact website@gulfwriters.org. No fancy ads, just listings for editors, illustrators, publishers, ghost writers, website designers, etc.