How Do I Join?
Although we’re close to capacity in our meeting space, we do accept new members at times and may expand the meeting schedule to accommodate more.
Every request to join Atlanta Tuesday Literary Writers is considered with an eye to individual circumstances, experience, motivation, potential, and quality of writing.
However, we are all committed to our craft and our projects. “Serious writers!” one new member effused after her first session with us. We very much enjoy the lively social aspect of our meetings, but we’re there primarily to discuss and improve each other’s and our own projects. We seek writers committed to their own projects and craft, and to the group process as well—members who will participate with us whenever possible and submit pieces for discussion at least every few meetings.
The following are our foundational documents:
We presume that if you ask to join us, you support the values they express, and recognize that receiving thoughtful critique presupposes a commitment of sufficient time and effort to provide the same for others.
Our members do have a range of experience in writing, critique groups, and publishing or seeking publication, but none are beginners. And all make their writing a significant part of their life and identity.
Meetings are alternate Tuesdays (odd-numbered ISO weeks), beginning with an hour for dinner, general discussion, and the occasional delayed arrival, then followed by two hours of detailed examination and discussion of the meeting’s 2-4 readings, which all attendees have read and pondered in advance.
If you believe you fit this picture and you’d like to join us on a trial basis, send an email to ATLW at fastmail dot com expressing your interest. In it you should describe:
- your experience in writing and critique groups
- the amount of time you regularly devote to your fiction
- your primary (and possibly secondary) novel in progress, or the typical focus of your short stories
- a few writers (or specific novels or stories) you regard as models or influences, or simply favorite examples of non-genre, non-mass-market writers and what you like about them
- how often / regularly you’re able to attend and submit
Attach a sample or two of your current or recent fiction (DOCX, PDF, or weblink only) that you believe to exemplify literary values, especially non-conventionality—a tendency to “color outside the lines” of mass-market fiction—and a strong focus on character, texture, voice, or meta, the elements beyond “what happens next.” If we think you’re a good fit, we’ll set up a login for you so that you can read the Member Area, RSVP to meetings, submit pieces for discussion, and participate in online discussions.
We’re always delighted as a group to welcome a new member whose writing brings a breath of unconventionality in style, depth, or perspective.