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Franklin,
Tennessee
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The Council for the Written Word (CWW) is a nonprofit organization with a primary focus of recognizing and promoting the art of writing in Williamson County, Tennessee. Its objective is to encourage, educate, and empower writers. Officers are Kathy Rhodes, president; Dave Stewart, vice-president; Louise Colln, secretary; Laurie Michaud-Kay, treasurer; Suzanne Brunson, corresponding secretary; Nancy Fletcher-Blume, chairman of the board; and Bill Peach, chair emeritus. CWW presents two annual workshops: the Spring Writers' Workshop, an intensive one-day event with instruction and hands-on experience in a specific genre, and the Fall Writers' Seminar, an all-day event with local and area authors, agents, editors, publishers, and/or publicists, teaching the art and business of writing. CWW workshops are listed in Writers' Digest's 2007 and 2008 Guide to Literary Agents, a compilation of over 550 listings for literary and script agents, publicists, and conferences. The CWW attempts to provide quality workshops designed to help local and regional writers take their writing to the next level. Leading the 2008 Spring Writers' Workshop on March 29 is Darnell Arnoult, author of Sufficient Grace and Tennessee Writers Alliance's 2007 Writer of the Year. The 2008 Fall Workshop will feature Lee Gutkind, founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction and the "Godfather" behind the genre of Creative Nonfiction. Lee will teach "The 5 R's of Creative Nonfiction." The workshop will be September 13 at the Williamson County Public Library in Franklin, Tennessee. For more information and a registration form, go to the CWW Web site.
CWW supports a writing critique group, which meets twice a month on the first and third Saturdays at 10:30 AM at the Williamson County Public Library (Board Room, upstairs) on Columbia Avenue in Franklin. This group is open to all writers, members and non-members, with any level of writing skill in any genre. CWW's primary project is maintaining a bibliography of past and present authors of Williamson County. Williamson County Celebrates the Written Word is an alphabetical index of every person who has lived in Williamson County and published a book. It contains a brief biography of each of the nearly four hundred local authors, as well as a listing of their published works. Once presented in book format, it is now online at the Williamson County Public Library website, updated quarterly: http://lib.williamson-tn.org / Local Authors Collection. CWW hosts a Hall of Fame Banquet or Reception, honoring a Williamson County resident whose personal and/or professional dedication and contributions have enriched the literary community and/or the county's heritage. CWW presents an annual scholarship to a Williamson County English major who attends the Franklin campus of Columbia State Community College. The work of the Council is vital in promoting writing as a whole—networking current and future authors, giving them tools to succeed, and introducing new generations to great books. The Council has grown significantly over the past few years, in membership and in scope of projects and presentations, and is gaining some recognition in the national landscape of writing organizations. For more information, email CWW.
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