Welcome to the NH Writers' Project

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NHWP Welcomes New Executive Director, George Geers

Career journalist and book publisher George Geers has been involved with NHWP for 15 years. He joined the board in 2000 and served as president 2006-2007.

Board President Linda Chestney said, “NHWP is most fortunate to have George Geers at the helm. He brings to the table an understanding of the history of the organization as well as its culture. He is extremely well connected in the community—in both the business and arts arena. Not shy to taking on new challenges, George will help move New Hampshire Writers’ Project onto new heights.”

Geers began his newspaper career as a Northeastern University intern at Foster’s Daily Democrat in Dover and left there as managing editor to become executive editor of The Southbridge (Mass.) Evening News, then editor of The Chronicle in Willimantic, Conn. In 1994, he was named editor of The Telegraph in Nashua.

In 2000, he returned to his hometown of Concord, N.H., to form Plaidswede Publishing, which specializes in New Hampshire and New England books, fiction and non-fiction. In addition, he continued his journalism career as editor of the New England Newspaper Association. Last year, he was named executive director of the New Hampshire Press Assn. Geers will continue his association with the New Hampshire Press Association and Plaidswede Publishing.

Additionally, Geers is a founding board member of the New England First Amendment Coalition and is clerk of the Academy of New England Journalists. He was presented the academy’s Yankee Quill award for lifetime achievement in 2005.

Ways to Get More Involved

Write a Blog:
NHWP will be launching a revamped website later this summer and we're looking for guest bloggers. If you are interested in writing a blog for the NHWP website, please see the guidelines:

In the body of an email, please send NHWP a blog entry of 400 words or less pegged to a writing topic, from the craft of writing to publishing industry news. Please also send an additional paragraph about yourself (100 word or less ) which we can use as a bio if your blog is selected to appear on our new website. Entries will be judged on the basis of style, voice, and whether the subject matter would appeal to our members. Extended entry deadline: October 31 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Send all entries to: info@nhwritersproject.org. You will be notified by email if your material is used.

Writers' Day 2010 Support the Literary Arts
NHWP relies on your membership and annual fund support to continue its vital mission of celebrating and fostering the talented and dedicated writers of NH and connecting them to the community.

I would like to make a donation to the Annual Fund

I would like to become an NHWP member or renew my membership

NHWP at a Glance:
The New Hampshire Writers’ Project, a statewide nonprofit literary arts organization, serves as a resource for writers, publishers, booksellers, literary agents, educators, librarians, and readers in and near New Hampshire. We support the development of individual writers and encourage an audience for literature in New Hampshire.

Thanks to our Sponsors and Funders:

Pulitzer Prize Winner Paul Harding to Headline Writers' Day 2011

Harding Paul Harding, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, will be the keynote speaker at the eighteenth annual Writers' Day conference on March 5, 2011. Save the date!

Read more about Harding's win and how NHWP was instrumental in getting his hauntingly beautiful novel Tinkers noticed.

Fall Workshops: Registration Now Open!

Did you know that many of NHWP's board members, staff, and committee members are professional writers? This fall, let us get to know you! Take classes and workshops with NHWP President, Linda Chestney, former executive director Kathy Boss, program director Carla Gericke, board members James Patrick Kelly and John Herman, as well as Rick Agran, April Ossmann, and Mary Carroll Moore.

Save the Date: October 21-23 in Concord!
As part of the NH Writers' Trail, NHWP and more than twenty community partners will present the Concord Literary Festival on October 21 to 23, 2010. Join us for a whopper of a festival! See schedule for more details.

NHWP Book Club for Writers
As part of NHWP's ongoing initiative to create new support networks for writers, we are launching a Book Club for Writers—a chance for writers to get together, four times a year, for informal discussions of classic and contemporary literature from a writer’s perspective.

Every book is a potential “how-to” manual for a writer—we read to discover how great authors wield their craft, word by word and sentence by sentence. This kind of “close reading” is essential to our development as writers—a kind of virtual literary apprenticeship, in which we watch and learn as the masters mix their colors and set brush to canvas.

Book Club for Writers will take place at various locations throughout the state. See listings below. Visit us on Facebook and click on the "Events" tab to RSVP, and to see who else is coming!

Divisadero

Manchester:

Date: September 23 at 7 p.m.
Venue: NH Institute of Art
Group Leader: Rebecca Drummond
Book: Michael Ondaatjie's Divisadero (2007)

CloseRange Upper Valley :

Date: September 23 at 7 p.m.
Venue: AVA Gallery
Group Leader: Katherine Harbaugh
Book: Annie Proulx's Close Range (Short Stories)

NotableWomen Seacoast:

Date: October 28 at 7 p.m.
Venue: Portsmouth Public Library, MacLeod Conference Room
Group Leader: Peggy Hodges
Book: Ben Marcus’s Notable American Women (2002)

Writers' Night Out: October 4, 2010
Writers' Night Out is when New Hampshire writers meet on the first Monday of each month in a warm gathering. This isn't a reading, it is writers discussing what they are working on, what's new in the publishing world, books they have read, and more. Just bring yourself! Drink and food is a la carte, conversation and connections are free. This is your time to have a night out to connect with other writers and make new friends. If writing absorbs you, then you will find a room of like-minded individuals. Call (603) 314-7980 for more information. No need to RSVP, just stop by at the Writers' Night Out nearest you. If you want to see who else is attending, visit us on Facebook and click on the "Events" tab.

October 4, 2010, 7 - 9 p.m. - Various Locations!

Seacoast: Common Man, 96 State Street, Portsmouth

Central: The Barley House, 132 North Main Street, Concord
Upper Valley: Salt Hill Pub, 2 South Park Street, Lebanon

For more literary events happening across the state see our Literary Calendar.

Now available for purchase, the NH Writer's Handbook is an invaluable resource for today's Granite State Writer. Be sure to purchase your copy today.