California Writers Club Mission Statement
The California Writers Club (CWC) aims to foster professionalism in writing, promote networking of writers within the writing community, mentor new writers, and provide literary support for writers and the writing community as is appropriate through education and leadership.
CWC History
The California Writers Club (CWC), founded in 1909, is the oldest professional writers’ organization in the western United States. It began under the influences of Jack London, George Sterling, Herman Whitaker, and Austin Lewis. CWC is a nonprofit organization with nineteen branches with an estimated membership of 1,600 statewide. Visit the CWC website at www.calwriters.org for a list of all branch websites.
The Central Board, which oversees the branches, spearheaded a proposal to recognize California writers. The California State Assembly passed Legislative Resolution 2170 on September 4, 2003 to set aside the third week in October every year to honor all California writers, past and present, for their contributions to society, and to encourage future writers.
Tri-Valley Branch History
In 2005 Jack Russ, then President of the CWC Mt. Diablo Branch, created a committee to establish a new CWC branch in the tri-valley area of Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton. The first organizational meeting was held at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton. From that meeting came the core group under the leadership of Sue Tasker that established a writing group on July 10, 2005. Sue was elected president at the August 14, 2005 meeting. Cindy Fisher-Luck was elected Vice President, Fred Norman as Treasurer, and Stephanie Rutledge served as Secretary. Committee chairs were Steve Workman, Membership and Irenee Riter, Webmaster.
During the next year, Tri-Valley Writers began the application process for branch recognition. With the encouragement of state CWC president Barbara Truax, the branch was chartered on July 23, 2006 as the sixteenth branch of the California Writers Club.
CWC Tri-Valley Branch is one of nineteen branches statewide. We are a professional writing association open to writers of all genres. Our goal is to address the needs of both professional and aspiring writers in the greater Tri-Valley region of Northern California. Our current members live in Livermore, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Danville, Alamo, Castro Valley, and Hayward, but CWC Tri-Valley Branch membership is open to prospective members regardless of location.
The CWC Tri-Valley Branch supports all genres, writing styles and related professions such as editing, publishing, photographic journalism, and agents. We provide an environment where members can obtain critiques of their efforts, attend workshops, and share experiences.
We invite authors, publishers, editors, and agents as guest speakers at monthly meetings. They discuss writing, querying, publishing, and marketing your work.
Membership benefits also include:
- Discounted fee for monthly meetings;
- Networking opportunities with other members to provide additional exposure and further develop your writing career;
- Information on writing contests (including those sponsored by external organizations);
- Workshops to develop your writing skills;
- Your individual member page posted on the CWC Tri-Valley Branch website;
- Critique groups that meet face-to-face and/or online;
- Write around the Valley, the branch newsletter with writing tips, upcoming events and a column celebrating the latest publishing successes of our members;
- Literary Evening and Open Mic: An evening with California Writers Club where members read their work. This event is open to the general public; and
- Periodic emails updating you on time-sensitive writing opportunities, conferences and other events of interest to writers.