Featured Events
Upcoming events
October Member Meeting
“The Angst of Publishing Your First Novel and the Fallout of Writing Napa and Its Sequels” with James Conaway
Napa Valley Writers will feature James Conaway, a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. How the publishing world has changed! Publishing a first novel is a challenge and you wonder why you bothered. Then you find yourself doing it again. I’ll also share how and why I wrote the New York Times Bestseller Napa (1990) and the two follow up books: The Far Side of Eden (2002) and Napa at Last Light (2018). This type of journalism took a personal toll and is still educating people about the influence of money on Napa’s economy, natural environment, and lifestyles.
James Conaway is the author of three novels, The Big Easy, World’s End, and Nose, and twelve books of non-fiction. The late TV anchor Jim Lehrer wrote, “Conaway’s prose is as gorgeous as the northern California he describes.” His Napa is an iconic history of early Napa, The Far Side of Eden, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year was described in the New York Times as "an important story, emblematic of our time.” and the third in the series, Napa at Last Light, completes the sad story of Napa Valley’s decline from the days when the story was about family owners and agriculture.
Wednesday, October 11, 7-9 p.m.
Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists,
1625 Salvador Ave., Napa
Past events
September Member Meeting
“Hearing Voices: How I Captured the Voice of
Sylvia Plath (and Others)” with Lee Kravetz
Napa Valley Writers will feature Lee Kravetz, author of national bestselling novel The Last Confessions of Sylvia P., which has the unique distinction of embodying four distinct voices…and one of them happens to be the poet, Sylvia Plath. During his presentation, hear how authors both recreate and infuse originality into characters, both real and imagined!
Other works by Lee Kravetz include the acclaimed nonfiction, Strange Contagion and SuperSurvivors; he has also written for print and television, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, The Daily Beast, The San Francisco Chronicle, and PBS…. including Sesame Street. He lives in Berkeley with his wife and two children.
Kymberlie Ingalls will be September’s Member Reader.
Wednesday, September 13, 7-9 p.m.
Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists
1625 Salvador Ave., Napa
August Member Meeting
Pitching to Agents and Publishers with Jordan Bernal
Napa Valley Writers features Jordan Bernal, the author of The Keepers of Éire, a dragon fantasy that encourages adult readers to let their imaginations take flight. Jordan’s enduring love of dragons and her pursuit of her Celtic heritage inspired her to write and publish her debut novel in her Celtic Dragonrider series through her independent press, Dragon Wing Publishing. The Keepers of Éire is the 2104 Global Ebook Gold Award Winner and the Bella Online Gold Award Winner.
Jordan has published her middle-grade, anti-bullying spin off novel, Reluctant Paladin, and The Keepers of Alba, the second novel in her adult Celtic Dragonriders series. She is currently working on the third novel, The Keepers of Keltoi. Jordan has been a member of the California Writers Club Tri-Valley Branch since 2010.
In this session, Jordan will share the key components of a pitch as well as how to be concise, enjoy the conversation, understand the ultimate goal of pitching, and develop other uses for your pitch. Attendees are asked to bring their pitch to receive peer feedback on ways to hone it.
Jeffrey Kingman will be August’s Member Reader.
August 9, 2023 @ 7:00-9:00 PM
Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists
1625 Salvador Ave, Napa, CA 94558