Announcing MWW25’s FREE Community Event!
Evening with an Author: Robin Lee Lovelace
Come join the Midwest Writers Workshop for a cozy evening with the talented author Robin Lee Lovelace at the Ball State Alumni Center. She’ll read from her book Savonne, Not Vonny and her Indiana Author Award Shortlisted collection, A Wild Region. Attendees will also learn about her writing journey and process. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to meet the author, ask questions, and connect with fellow book lovers!
Friday, July 11 from 6:30 – 8:00pm EST
Ball State Alumni Center
2800 West Bethel Ave/Muncie, IN 47304
This in-person event is free and open to the community, made possible with the support of Indiana Humanities and Glick Philanthropies.
RSVP for Evening with an Author
Meet Robin Lee Lovelace
Robin Lee Lovelace is a mixed-race African-American Hoosier who usually writes short fiction. In 2017, Robin won the grand prize in a one-act play contest, presented by the 30XNinety theatre in Mandeville, a suburb of New Orleans. In March 2019, she won the Etchings Press annual competition for novellas for her novella Savonne, Not Vonny. Robin was named as an honoree in the Emerging Author category for the Indiana Author’s Awards in September 2020. Robin was one of the three finalists for the Don Belton Fiction Prize for 2021 for her collection of stories titled A Wild Region and a Stowe Story Labs SAG Indie Finalist for Savonne, Not Vonny, in 2021. In 2021, she won the Marguerite McGlinn short fiction prize for her story Uncle, awarded by Rosemont College and Philadelphia Stories. Robin was a Wildacres Retreat Diversity Scholarship winner in July 2023. A non-fiction essay that she wrote, called Different Times, Different Degrees, Same Shit appeared in the 2023 summer edition of Indiana Review. Robin’s latest book is a collection of short stories titled A Wild Region that can be found for purchase on Amazon, Books-a-Million, and Barnes and Noble. In March 2024, Robin was named as one of ten finalists for the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition for Savonne, Not Vonny. Robin’s story “Rocked” is included in the 2024 edition of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s annual anthology of short stories. Robin was named as an honoree in the Genre category for the Indiana Author’s Awards in August 2024 for her collection of short stories called A Wild Region. Also, In August 2024, Robin was a semi-finalist in the James Jones First Novel Fellowship competition.
Robin will be teaching “How to Write a Short Story in 60 Minutes,” and participating on the panel “I finished it! …Now What?” She is a part of the manuscript evaluation team
Learn More About the Conference and Register
All attendees will receive available session materials and have access to the recordings for 90 days following the event
Q&A with Robin
MWW: How do you know when a short story is self-contained or might need to spill into something larger, such as a collection or an entire novel? What do you hope they’ll take away from it?
RLL: For me, most of the time, the ending seems to come at a natural place. Sometimes I do write past the ending and I have to let the story set for a couple of days or a week or even a year to see where the natural ending should be. Most of the time I just know when it feels complete.
MWW: What is your favorite part about engaging communities with readings such as the one you’ll be holding at the conference?
RLL: I love to share my work and see an immediate response. I know some writers just starting out say they’re writing just for themselves. Okay fine. But writing is communication. A writer is telling a story. For entertainment, to enlighten, or to just get out their point of view of the world. I will advise new writers to not be afraid to share your work. Grow a thick skin and most of the time it’s not as scary as you think it’s going to be.
MWW: What advice do you give most often when it comes to submitting short stories for publication or to writing contests?
RLL: Research where you want to submit. Review what the publisher bought in the past and see if your work would be a good fit. For competitions, go through the contest guidelines carefully. If the judge is announced, read some of their work to get a feel for their taste in literature.
MWW: What book (or resource) on writing craft do you recommend most often?
RLL: Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk. He has great advice and sprinkles the book with little snapshots and vignettes about his life as a writer.
Join us this July 10 – 12, 2025 at the Ball State Alumni Center in Muncie, Indiana—or virtually, from the comfort of your own computer—and see for yourself the wonderful things MWW has to offer!
Learn More About the Conference and Register
All attendees will receive available session materials and have access to the recordings for 90 days following the event
MWW25 ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES
Placing an ad in the MWW25 program or adding your materials to the conference welcome bags is a way to get your information into the hands of neatly 150 people! Learn more about how you can advertise in our MWW25 program and emails!
Are You in a Writing Slump? Write With Us!
The “Wednesday Write-In with MWW” is a 30-minute Zoom session, first Wednesday of the month, where we get together and WRITE.
It might seem weird to have the Brady-Bunch Zoom screen filled with people not talking to each other, but please trust me: It works. It creates an accountability; it creates a space where your sole purpose is to get words down on paper. I might allow for a *little* chit-chat 🙂
To accommodate people’s availability, we will alternate morning sessions and evening sessions. Let’s dedicate 30 minutes of our day, once a month, to generating words and developing our craft!
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Success Stories
Finish an essay, a book, a paragraph? Have something published? Tell us about something exciting you’ve done with writing and/or publishing in the past year. Bonus points if you can tell us how MWW has made an impact on your writing.
Send your success stories to midwestwritersworkshop@gmail.com and we’ll post it on our website!
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SEE WHAT ELSE MWW HAS TO OFFER
- MWW Writing Service: Receive manuscript evaluations from our experts
- Midwest Writers Workshop Facebook Group: Join our community to network, support, celebrate, and commiserate with other writers
