November 2025 Newsletter
It is a busy time of year as we approach the best eating day of the year–Thanksgiving! I thought this would be a short issue, but I kept accumulating content, so lots of informative reading ahead.
When reading, there are two things to keep in mind:
1) You may need to click at the bottom of the newsletter to access its full content if it is lengthy, and
2) you always have the option of clicking “view in browser” at the top right of your newsletter to open the full newsletter for easy viewing.
Don’t miss the following in this issue:
- Author Events and Contests
- Book Marketing Scams
- Constitution & Bylaws Revision Committee Update
- DWW Celebrates 125 Years
- Letter from President
- Meeting Notices
- Member Highlight: Phyllis Green
- Member Highlight: Weam Namou
- New Member Welcome
- Newsletter Deadlines
- Question of the Month
- Welcome Back Members
I appreciate everyone’s patience as I learn more about this program with each newsletter I prepare. I like sharing a variety of content and encourage everyone to contribute information that may be of value to other members by emailing me at [email protected].
Happy Thanksgiving!
Grace Grogan
Newsletter Editor
Letter from the President
Dear Fellow Members,
It was such a pleasure to see so many of you at Cranbrook House for our 125th Anniversary Celebration. Reflecting on the many talented writers and personalities that formed and grew this organization was so inspiring. And intimidating.
Despite my wont to throw my hands in the air screaming “I’m not worthy,” I have to admit that this fiscal year is off to a good start.
Despite an epic event, our finances remain in good shape. We’ve had nine new members join our ranks and several former members reinstated after an absence. Our Constitution and Bylaws Review Committee members have been meeting regularly and hope to have a revision to propose soon. We’re starting to plan 2026 programs based on member suggestions.
I’m grateful that all of you see value in DWW and want to be part of this community.
Wishing you a warm and cozy holiday season with people you love and some productive cold weather writing.
Laura Hedgecock
DWW President
Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Detroit Working Writers Welcomes Back the Following Members
Weam Namou
Weam Namou is an Eric Hoffer award-winning author of over 20 books and a multi-award-winning international filmmaker, poet, and journalist. Weam’s work is reflective of her heritage. Born in Baghdad to an ancient lineage called the Chaldeans, who are Neo-Babylonians who speak Aramaic. Weam was ten years old when she immigrated into the United States. She is the founder of Unique Voices in Films, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Path of Consciousness, a spiritual and writing community, and she’s an Ambassador for the Authors Guild of America, Detroit Chapter. Learn more about Weam Namou, A Chaldean Storyteller in America on her website.
Kristin Bartley Lenz
Kristin Bartley Lenz, LMSW is an author and social worker in Royal Oak. Her first young adult novel, The Art of Holding On and Letting Go, was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Great Lakes Great Books Award honor title. A special 10th anniversary edition with a new cover will be released in early 2026. Kristin’s poetry and short fiction has been published in The New York Times, Hunger Mountain, Lunch Ticket, Literary Mama, Women On Writing, Unbroken Journal, Walloon Writers Review, and more. She placed second in the 2019 and 2024 National Poetry Contest for Social Workers, and teaches creative writing workshops for social workers and other helping professionals. Her new novel, The Door Swings Open, will be released in March 2026. You can learn more at her author website.
Diane DeCillis
Diane DeCillis spent 33 years owning and operating an award-winning art gallery before embarking on her second career as an author. Diane’s premier poetry collection, Strings Attached, was honored as a 2015 Michigan Notable Book, was the winner of the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry, and a finalist in the Indie Fab Award for Poetry. Her art gallery experience paid off when that book’s cover design was recognized as one of the best at the 2015 Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket and Journal Show. In addition to Strings Attached, Diane published When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double and Mona Poetica. Visit the website of Diane DeCillis to learn more about her talents and accomplishments.
Photo above is from when Diane was interviewed by Pink Panther Magazine and featured on their cover in September 2021.
9 Bits of Writing Advice
Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, screenwriter, producer and author best known for his fantasy and horror films. His work includes emotional and thematic complexity, along with a recurring theme of monsters. Writers Write shared this post by Guillermo in which he provides his readers with nine Bits of Writing Advice.
Detroit Working Writers Welcomes the Following New Members
Mike Brennan
Mike Brennan is an award-winning editor, journalist, publisher and producer with more than four decades of experience writing about technology, business, industry innovations and lately the business of cannabis in Michigan. The combination of a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Bachelor’s Degree in political science and economics from the University of Michigan provides Mike with the sharp analytical skills necessary for turning complex topics into understandable context. In 1981 Mike began working as a business and technology writer for newspapers in Detroit, MI, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Memphis, TN, Seattle, WA, and London, England. He also served as a war correspondent in Northern Ireland during the troubles in 1980. Formerly a University of Michigan Journalism Fellow, Mike worked at the Detroit Free Press, where he earned national recognition for his investigative coverage of major automotive mergers. Mike is the founder of Michigan News Network Corp and serves as CEO and Editor & Publisher of MiTechNews.com. He also is editor and producer at Four20Post.com. Mike co-founded and served as managing editor of Pacific Rim News Service (Seattle), which developed a network of more than 100 freelance journalists in 17 Asia-Pacific countries during the early 1990s. You can view Mike’s writing on MiTechNews.com and Four20Post.Com.
Susan Sage
Susan Sage is a poet and fiction writer who received an English degree from Wayne State University and completed graduate work at the University of Michigan-Flint. Susan began publishing poetry while in college and received the WSU’s Tompkins Award in Creative Writing. A certified teacher in Language Arts, Susan was an educator for 23 years, serving as an adult education teacher, educational coordinator, and academic interventionist. While working at Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint Township, she was both a sponsor of the creative writing club and editor of its annual magazine. Susan has published four novels, Insominy in 2010, A Mentor and Her Muse in January 2018, Dancing in the Ring 2023, and Silver Lady in 2024. She is currently working on a sequel to Silver Lady. Susan’s writing has appeared in 20 publications. You can learn more on the Susan Sage, Author website.
Dora Apel
Dora Apel is a cultural critic, arts writer, art historian, author, and W. Hawkins Ferry Endowed Chair Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary Art History in the Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University in Detroit. Dora’s work focuses on issues of trauma, race, memoir, gender, sexuality, war, national identity, and the negative impacts of capitalism. The author of six books, the most recent include Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline, which examines how the one-time manufacturing powerhouse of the nation became emblematic of failing cities everywhere and the epicenter of urban decay imagery; Calling Memory Into Place contains ten essays exploring controversies over paintings, monuments, and memorials while including personal accounts of her family’s Holocaust history, her mother’s last days, and her own year of treatment for breast cancer. She also has two books on the history and imagery of lynching in the US. Dora’s books, exhibitions, journal articles, catalog essays, podcasts, and more are listed on her Curriculum Vitae and her books can be purchased on the Dora Apel page on Amazon.
Molly Beauregard
Molly Beauregard is a professor, writer, mentor, long-time meditator in the Vedanta tradition, and a certified Primordial Sound Meditation teacher. Her groundbreaking course, Consciousness, Creativity and Identity is rooted in the academic literature of identity studies. Molly’s book Turning the Student Mind shares the transformative journey she takes with her students over the semester. Molly is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Loyola University Chicago, and University of Pittsburgh and holds master’s degrees in sociology and public administration. Molly has worked as a professor of sociology for 21 years at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, serves as a visiting instructor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, is co-director of the Program in Creativity and Consciousness at the University of Michigan, and is a member of the Society of Consciousness Studies. We invite you to learn more on the Molly Beauregard website.
DWW CELEBRATES 125 YEARS
Detroit Working Writers proudly presented its 125th Anniversary Celebration on November 9th. A huge thank you to all who attended and to those who lent their support.
Forty-two attendees enjoyed an immersive story at Cranbrook House, honoring Michigan’s oldest writing organization….
Chapter 1: “Greeting” old friends and making new ones in the Reception Hall.
Chapter 2: “Partaking & Mingling” in the Sunset Porch and Living Room with a bit of afternoon tea.
Chapter 3: “Poetry & Flash Fiction” in the Library with a pulsating series of reflections on Detroit from long-time DWW member Linda Nemec Foster and the compassionate tending of a pervasive garden by recent member Neeru Nagarajan…preceded by a hearty welcome from Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research (CCCR) Director Gregory Wittkopp, connecting DWW and Cranbrook via the 125-year-old Cranbrook Press lectern, and a heartfelt address from DWW President Laura Hedgecock, highlighting DWW’s illustrious past and celebrating its bright future, with introductions by DWW Vice President and emcee Diane VanderBeke Mager.
Chapter 4: “Cranbrook House Tours” with a literary twist presented by CCCR Collections Interpreters/DWW Members Lynette Mayman, Diane VanderBeke Mager, and Elena Ivanova.
Chapter 5: “Chose Your Adventure” by exploring a display of DWW archival materials on loan from the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library; rare books and materials from the Cranbrook Archives; Cranbrook founder George Gough Booth’s suite of offices; and/or a selection of books from the 1,694 on the Cranbrook House Library shelves. [Congratulations to Honorary Director Linda Sienkiewicz for guessing 1,600 books in the Library and winning a copy of Cranbrook Art Museum: 100 Treasures with essays from four authors in attendance—Gregory Wittkopp, along with DWW members Elena Ivanova, Diane VanderBeke Mager, and Dora Apel!]
Chapter 6: “Gift & Goodbyes” departing with friends, new and old, and a copy of Listen to the Landscape, courtesy of Linda Nemec Foster.
STAY TUNED! We aim to continue the DWW story far into the future in the tradition of our inspirational and trailblazing founders. As always, upcoming events will be posted in this Newsletter, and you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X or visit https://www.detworkingwriters.org/dww-events/.
Event program | Photo courtesy of Diane VanderBeke Mager
Table decorations—Photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
DWW Member Weam Namou, Honorary Director Linda Sienkiewicz, and DWW Member Karen Tintori—photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
DWW Member Julie Williams with Event Presenter Linda Nemec Foster—photo courtesy of Linda Sienkiewicz
DWW President Laura Hedgecock—photo courtesy of Linda Sienkiewicz
DWW Vice President Diane VanderBeke Mager—photo courtesy of Linda Sienkiewicz
DWW Member Linda Nemec Foster presenting her poetry—photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
DWW Member Neeru Nagarajan sharing her flash fiction | Photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
DWW Member Michael Dwyer with Sylvia Hubbard and Sonya Julie—photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
DWW archival selections from the Burton Historical Collection, DPL | Photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
Proclamation from City of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan—photo courtesy of Linda Sienkiewicz
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research & Cranbrook Archives literary display presented by CCCR Collections Fellow Mariam Hale | Photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
Cranbrook Press images from the Cranbrook Archives | Photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
Parting gift from Linda Nemec Foster | Photo courtesy of Sonya Julie
DWW 125th Anniversary | Video courtesy of Sonya Julie
If the video doesn’t play click here to go to the direct link.