April 20 - 26 Book Buddy Happenings
Buds:
Hello! Happy Monday. I’m going to see Florence + the Machine tonight in Boston, and am pretty excited. I love her, and here is a performance she did 15 years ago for KEXP that still gets me. She’s just an incredible talent. What a voice. Anyway, should be awesome. Speaking of awesome, book club was also awesome last week. Thanks so much for those who could make it! Our next book club is in June 16 and we’re reading Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Here’s the publisher’s blurb:
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
I think it sounds rad and hope you read it.
Feedback Group Submission Schedules!
IRL Group Wednesdays @ beautyland 6:30-8:30: The next meeting is April 29 and Aimee and Rich will have the floor. Pages are due Wednesday April 22.
Noon Crew Thursdays 12pm - 1:30: The next meeting is April 30 and Ezra has the floor. Pages are due on April 23.
Weirdlings Wednesdays 12pm - 1:30: We meet again on April 29 and Erika Elizabeth will have the floor with pages due on April 22.
Kool Kids Thursdays at 7pm - 8:30: Our next meeting is is April 23. Elli and Susan have floor time with pages already in. If you haven’t gotten them let me know!
OG Crew Thursdays at 7:30pm - 9: The next meeting is on April 30th! Tom’s got the floor with a longer than normal submission already in your inboxes.
Saturday besties 12:30pm - 2: The next meeting is April 25 and Ali and Georgia have floor time. Pages due ASAP
Book Buddies Being AMAZING in the wild
You all are doing so many cool things lately. Keeping the announcements up from last week and just adding MINE which is so silly BUT
I was on the radio this morning talking about the reading series. It airs again today at 5:30pm on WHMP is you’re local, but here is the podcast version.
Genna Sarnak was featured in Straw Dogs has a poem in Faoilenach Journal: https://www.faoileanachjournal.com/. She’s also got another poem out via Scapegoat Review. You can read it here. AND she has another poem in PHIL LIT journal which you can read here and also vote for as your fave from that journal’s Spring issue. Let’s all rally for Genna and get her poem up to #1!!
Casey Liston is raising money for 826 Boston, a nonprofit that runs free writing and publishing programs for students in Boston Public Schools. To thank her donors, she is writing microfiction stories on a subject of their choosing for anyone who gives $50+. She would love to write you a story while supporting this great cause! The fundraiser runs through April 16 and you can view her page here. The actual event: the Half, Half, Half, Half, Half marathon is happening this Thursday in Boston!
Rebecca Tiger has a new piece out inspired by a Gen Writing prompt (yay!): http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/mug-shot.html. She also has a piece out last week in Hot Flash Literary: https://hotflashliterary.com/anosmia/ which she wrote based off a prompt from gen writing! Hurray!
Gen writing Prompt for this week:
April 21 and 25, 2026
I hope this finds you well
I just finished reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. A novel told in letters (and sometimes emails). I’ll be honest and say this wasn’t my favorite book, but I had a good time and it stuck with me after I was finished so those are some meaningful boxes that got checked. So for this week’s prompts, let’s work with the epistolary form and see where it gets us.
Write a new piece in the genre of your choice where the story is told using a one or a combination of the following as its mode of story telling:
A series of letters and/or emails
Social media posts
Journal entries
Text messages
News articles
Interpretations of Tarot Cards
A recipe
Instructions
Court Documents or other official documents
Chat GPT conversation
Powerpoint presentation
Ok that’s all for now!
You all are the best. The absolute best.
