Melanie Bishop


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Diane Winant is one of the writers from my memoir class and the Write & Play in Carmel-by-the-Sea retreat. She just received this good news that her opening lines won the  contest sponsored by Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference. Diane gets a full tuition scholarship to the SBWC, which starts this weekend.  Congratulations, Diane!!!

(Scroll down to see the winning entry.)

Dear Writers,

Thanks to those who participated in our 2013 Best Opening writing contest. After reviewing over 200 entries, some clever, others funny, many thrilling, and a few lyrical, we’ve selected the winner of this year’s competition and recipient of a 2013 SBWC tuition scholarship.

First Place: Diane Winant
When Mom drove around with Grandma Schmidt on Tuesdays and Grandma Toots on Thursdays, I heard from the back seat of our Pontiac sedan that Aunt Alice didn’t wear underpants, Uncle Herman never paid income tax, and Cousin Cathy’s “appendicitis” was really a baby girl.


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Congratulations to Marian Clemens, Madeleine Head, Edith Lassen, Judy Lunding, Diane Winant and Tom Winant for their successful completion of the memoir class. Everyone finished the course with a wonderful product, and with the determination to keep working on their memoirs-in-progress. Thank you all for such a lovely first experience teaching in Carmel!

“I enjoyed every moment of your class, Melanie. My only problem with it is that it’s over. ”  😦 

                           –Madeleine Head


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Looking forward to this…

Check it out. The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA sponsors this Day of Writing every year, which pairs middle school students  with local writing coaches, to revise and polish their essays on Steinbeck’s The Red Pony. The students participating in the Day of Writing have been nominated by their teachers, from among the thousands of middle schoolers in the region  involved in this Steinbeck-based curriculum. I’m volunteering as a writing coach, and I nominated Prescott College alum, Michael Belef, (Santa Clara, CA) to be a writing coach also. Belef earned his degree in Creative Writing in 1999.  He’s happy to be involved, and will be taking a few hours’ break from his busy job as a Technical Writer at Nutanix, Inc. in San Jose. One week from today, on March 11th, after we finish helping the kids revise their essays, Michael and I plan to catch up over some appetizers in Old Town, Salinas, before he heads back to San Jose and I head back to Carmel.

http://www.steinbeck.org/pages/steinbeck-young-authors