Get back to where you once belonged

Literarati:

Where WE once belonged was out in the open, sharing stories and ideas…and then that nasty virus!  So after a long hibernation, we are stretching legs and imaginations once again, reinvigorating our 12-year-old website and starting up in-person writing groups.  If you would like to do the same–that is–form a local writing group–we can provide you a template and writing prompt and a whole lotta encouragement. Email me for details.

If you are getting this and are not in Prague, you can participate by sending your response to our writing prompt to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com and it will get a reading.  We hope before the end of the summer to make our meetings zoomable.  We’ll post your responses to our writing prompts here, and you’ll be considered for the print edition of our next anthology.

For those of you lucky enough to live in Prague, this is for you:

Next meeting is July 22, 7pm

After a few false starts and some improvisation (thank you Lucien, Mischka and Karolina) we have a venue for our future events if we behave ourselves: the coffeehouse/bookstore and restaurant Bozska Lahvice, at Bilkova 122/6 Prague 1 (Josefov).  It’s just behind the Intercontinental Hotel currently under EXTREME renovation and hard to miss.  Easy walk from Staromestska Metro.

We held our second gathering as advertised on July 8^th, attended by new-comers Anna, Joe, Jeff and Ricardo and our discussions went well into the night.  As per every meeting, we held a raffle, shared alcohol, stories and food and each other’s company. Adding new nationalities to our band: Portuguese and Kazakhstani.

With our new home, the protocols have changed a bit.  No more100czk entry fee but we will have a donation jar to help cover the raffle prize and maybe the cost of printing posters advertising us in the future.  No more potluck or byob. Bozska Lahvice has a coffee bar and serves beer on tap or bottles, wine and an assortment of non-alcoholic drinks.  We are not being charged to use a private room—the one with the piano! —but please do plan to buy a beer or two, a tall white, or food from their kitchen.  Our raffle will consist of gift certificates for books in their store, AND/OR someone will have their bar/restaurant tab paid for from the donation jar!

WHAT TO BRING

A book to swap, a familiar face or a face to make familiar, a few pages of your own work if you would like to read it for response from the tribe, AND a paragraph or a page to this prompt, which I think is one of the best opening lines in all Western Literature: “Once there was a way to get back home.”  (Yup…the Beatles…incredible, huh?) It is laden with story and drama. You mean, there is no longer a way to get back to the comfort and safety of home?  What happened?  Tell us in your own or plagiarized words to start our discussion about what makes an opening line an irresistable invitation to turn pages.(At the end of the evening, we’ll assign a new prompt for the coming event on August 5th.) Most of all, bring a desire and a little passion to connect with your fellow creatures.  Isn’t that why we write?

We also discussed publishing an anthology of stories, essays and poems created exclusively by members of Positively Prague.  Come to our meeting and give us your thoughts.

Rsvp thorn@awordwithyoupress.com  Please have your friends sign up for Positively Prague (it’s private and membership is free) and the AWwYP newsletter Every so Often

Czeers!

thorn