Rockford Writers' Guild

10/07/2025

Attention writers! Local or not local: RWG is looking for featured authors to attend our 2026 Zoom meetings! All featured authors get to talk about their published work as well as what they're currently working on, their backstories on how they got into writing, and even their writing techniques and advice to help other RWG members. Each RWG meeting is 2 hours long, by Zoom only, and every 3rd (or 4th depending on when federal holidays land on) Sunday every month. If you are interested in being a featured author, please contact RWG president, Sally Hewitt, at [email protected]

We are looking for featured authors for these 2026 RWG Zoom meeting dates (some months are already taken if they are not listed, these are the leftover dates we are trying to fill!):

01/25/26
02/22/26
04/19/26
05/17/26
06/28/26
07/19/26
08/16/26
09/20/26
10/18/26

Please share with writers around you!

10/01/2025

Thank you to Olivia Diamond for being RWG's featured author of the month last Sunday!

October's RWG on Zoom meeting will be on Sunday, October 19th 1-3pm Rockford time. We will allow members to share spooky stories, so be sure to bring something chilling to share! You can meet our members from as far away from Rockford as Nashville, Ohio, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.

09/29/2025

FYI, Rockford-area and local writers/poets: the poet Dave Oliphant is coming to NIU and giving a poetry reading on Oct. 2. He will be at the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies from 6-7:30pm.

09/19/2025

Christina Marrocco will present a workshop called "Writing the Ancestors: Saving our Family Stories." on Oct. 14 from 6:30-8:30pm Central Time. If anyone is interested, click the link below!

Writing the Ancestors: Saving our Family Stories How do we fully access not just our memories of our ancestors but their full characters and life experiences? Whether you work in memoir, essay, or fiction, this two hour generative workshop will use a meditative listing and inquiry process to not jus...

09/19/2025

😂

Happy Friday!

09/11/2025

RWG honors and remembers the victims of the tragic 9/11 attacks on this day 24 years ago. Polish writer Adam Zagajewski’s poem, "Try to Praise the Mutilated World”, was published in The New Yorker shortly after 9/11 and became one of his most prolific poems in the United States.

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

https://lithub.com/how-adam-zagajewski-accidentally-wrote-the-definitive-9-11-poem/

09/05/2025

For the D&D-ers out there... yes, playing for endless hours can be clocked in as writing time! 😉🤓😃

08/19/2025

Mmmm, grammar's synonym buns are the best! 😂👵🍞📝😂

08/17/2025

A big thank you to Sharon Lacour for sharing your writing process on your historical novel THE MEETING OF AIR AND WATER as well as your other works. The historical context as well as the writing process mingled with your love of photography was intriguing to learn about today. Thank you so much for being our featured author for August!

Members: be sure to tune into September 21st's meeting 1-3pm Rockford time on Zoom for our featured author of the month, Olivia Diamond.

08/15/2025

A writers squabble. 😂

Happy Friday!

08/10/2025

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