Detroit Working Writers

06/04/2026

DWW member Linda K. Sienkiewicz’s poem, "As Tall as Tomorrow", about the relationship between her late mother and granddaughter, is published in Peninsula Poets, the Poetry Society of Michigan's annual journal.

You can read her poem herehttps://poetrysocietyofmichigan.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/penpoetsspring2026web.pdf

06/02/2026

05/30/2026

DWW member Linda K. Sienkiewicz has an article on Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s blog on why she hired a sensitivity reader for her second novel, what the process was like and what she learned.

https://tinyurl.com/v5f8tez7

Why would a writer hire a sensitivity reader? The biggest reason is to help ensure respectful, accurate portrayals of experiences outside their own. The goal isn’t censorship but to avoid harmful stereotypes, unconscious bias, and unintentional misrepresentation.

05/29/2026

Congratulations to new member Dawn Levitt for winning first place in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Jean Williams Poetry of Disability, Disease, and Healing Award for her poem "Reborn Broken."

Well done, Dawn!

05/27/2026

DWW member Linda Nemec Foster presented a PowerPoint program on her award-winning book, The Lake Huron Mermaid (Wayne State University Press) a collaboration with Anne-Marie Oomen and artist Meridith Ridl, for the Lansing Poetry Club on May 17.

The event was part of the LPC's Copper Chimney Poetry Series. The Lake Huron Mermaid was also selected a category finalist for the 2026 Eric Hoffer Book Award.

Linda will also be presenting at the annual conference for the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature held at MSU's Kellogg Conference Center from May 28-29. Linda's reading will take place on May from 10:30 am - 11:45 am. She will be joined on this poetry panel (in honor of the late poet and literary scholar Janet Ruth Heller) by Dawn Burns, MSU Assistant Professor, and Mary Catherine Harper, Defiance College Professor Emerita. For more information, visit the SSML website at https://ssml.org/symposium/.

Writing the MidwestA Symposium of Scholars and Writers 2026 Program DRAFT The Annual Symposium of theSociety for the Study of Midwestern Literature May 28-29, 2026 Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center, East Lansing, MI SSML welcomes proposals for individual papers, posters, panels, and roundtables on M...

05/23/2026

Jean Alicia Elster: In honor of National Book Month and our nation’s 250th birthday, Jean Alicia Elster was invited by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (Ann Arbor) to give a presentation titled Use Your Voice with DWW member Jean Alicia Elster.

Jean’s presentation focused on learning and sharing family history through oral histories. She shared portions of the oral histories she obtained from her family and read passages from her Ford family historical fiction trilogy, Who’s Jim Hines?, The Colored Car and How It Happens to show how she used those oral histories to create the narratives in the books.

She also offered tips on obtaining oral histories from family members during gatherings such as reunions, holidays and other celebrations.

Here is the program link about Jean’s March 27, 2026 presentation via the National Archives website:

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, how is your family’s story a part of that history?

05/23/2026

Book Festival Scams, Interview Fakes: Two New AI-Driven Impersonation Scams to Avoid:

Have you recently received an email invitation to be a featured guest at a book festival or conference event? Or to be interviewed on a radio show or podcast?

Literary agents, publishers, and major production companies don’t typically cold-call authors. That unexpected “endorsement” from Amazon Studios, or expression of interest from a Big 5 editor, is never going to turn out to be legit. But literary events and interviewers do reach out to writers directly. Even in our current age of hyper-aggressive solicitation scams, that out-of-the-blue conference or interview invite might just be the real thing.

Unfortunately, AI-driven impersonation scams have glommed onto these events in a big way. I’m getting a growing number of reports from writers who’ve received credible-seeming invitations that have turned out to be completely fake. It’s yet another area where writers must be extremely careful not to take anything at face value.

Details on Writer Beware: https://writerbeware.blog/2026/05/08/book-festival-scams-interview-fakes-two-new-ai-driven-impersonation-scams-to-avoid/

05/22/2026

Congratulations to DWW member Cheryl Crabb, whose personal essay, What I Left in Nikko, received Honorable Mention for prose in the 2026 Springfed Arts Writing Contest.

Cheryl will be reading an excerpt along with the authors of other winning entries, on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 7 PM at Unity of Royal Oak, 2500 Crooks Rd., Royal Oak, Michigan 48073. The event, hosted by John D. Lamb, Director of Springfed-Arts, is free and open to the public.

05/21/2026

DWW welcomes Kathleen Walsh Spencer as a member!

Kathleen writes scientific articles, poetry, short fiction, and essays. Kathleen brings extensive education and experience to DWW. Her academic credentials include a BA in Creative Writing, MA in Journalism, and a BSN, MSN and Doctorate of Nursing Practice. Kathleen has 48 years of career experience including as a nurse practitioner and the Internal Communications Coordinator at the former William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI. She is the former editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Plastic Surgery Nursing. She recently retired as Faculty in the School of Nursing and Honors College at Oakland University in Rochester. Her creative works have appeared in many literary journals including Rattle, Raven Chronicles, Rosebud, The Red Rock Review, The Examined Life, and in the anthologies such as Intensive Care: More Prose and Poetry of Nurses, and a chapter in the The Poetry of Nursing: Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse Poets.

Kathleen serves on the Board of Trustees of Guest House in Lake Orion, and is a consultant to the Specialty Treatment Court for 52-3 District Court in Rochester, MI.

05/21/2026

DWW welcomes new member Dawn Levitt!

Dawn is a two-time heart transplant recipient, poet, essayist, and disability rights advocate who writes at the intersection of storytelling and healing. Her poetry chapbook The Bittersweet Gift of Dying Slowly was a finalist for the 2025 Jessie Bryce Niles Award hosted by The Comstock Review and is forthcoming with Finishing Line Press, date TBD. Her poem Reborn Broken was the winner of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Williams Poems of Disability, Disease, and Healing Award.

Dawn’s essays have appeared in The Bucket, Newsweek, and Insider. Click here to read her poem Prescription for Survival; you can learn more about Dawn and view a full list of her published writing by visiting her website or her Substack.