NIGHTLIFE


Big Sister of San Diego’s writing community motivates others to tell their stories


By Cynthia Robertson SDUN Reporter


Inside the newly expanded Le- stat’s on Adams Avenue, Reeves, who is a co-leader of Thursday Writers, sat down in a red plush chair by the front window. She greeted the other writers who began arriving with pen and paper or laptops. Reeves considers all of them like family, even the two new people who were dropping in for the first time.


Both aspiring and accomplished writers look up to Reeves like a big sister. In many ways, she is the lead- er of the city’s writing community. From 1993 to 1998, Reeves headed up the Writing Center in Hillcrest. It was a place where people could find their “writing selves,” so to speak, with Reeves leading the first drop-in Brown Bag groups. The Brown Bag was a lunchtime writing practice that Reeves initiated with a writing prompt, after which people would write for 40 minutes without put- ting down their pen.


Then in 1999, Reeves wrote


“A Writer’s Book of Days,” which has just been re-released, with fresh, new writing prompts and essays about writers and the writing life.


Reeves then co-founded San


Diego Writers Ink in 2004. The or- ganization offers classes, readings, and Brown Bag groups for writers. To several important literary


figures within San Diego’s writing community, Reeves has been a


FROM PAGE 4 BRIEFS Ramirez at (619) 692-1967.


Community Volunteer Fair set for Jan. 26


The San Diego LGBT Center will hold its annual Community Vol- unteer Fair at The Center on Jan. 26, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The event will offer attendees a chance to meet with representa- tives from nonprofit organizations who are looking to recruit volun- teers for variety of year-round po- sitions.


The Community Volunteer Fair was established in 2005 by the San Diego LGBT Community Leader- ship Council and is designed to provide local non-profits an oppor- tunity to showcase their organiza-


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• Get results! For advertising, call Mike at (619) 519.7775 ext. 108


tions and recruit volunteers. It is also designed to make gathering information about organizations seamless for community members who make New Year’s “resolutions” to volunteer.


The Center is at 3909 Centre St.


In Hillcrest. The event is free and open to the public. Organizations wishing to participate should con- tact Jessica Culpepper at jculpep- per@thecentersd.org for an appli- cation. For more information, visit thecentersd.org


Hearing scheduled on SR-15 bus project


A hearing on the proposed bus rapid transit


project along state


Route 15 will take place on Jan. 26 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Central Elemen- tary School, 4063 Polk Ave. Proposed transit stations for the


Next Week Date XXX Home Improvement Section


project would be constructed along SR-15 between Interstates 805 and 8 in the Mid-City area of San Diego. The public is invited to attend


and offer comments on the proj- ect. Comments also may be sent to Associate Planner Jamie Le Dent at jamie_ledent@dot.ca.gov. The deadline to receive comments is Feb. 14.u


mentor. Yet she looks to others as her inspiration. “Some who were my students I now consider my teachers,” she said. Amy Wallen, who wrote with


her in Brown Bag Writers, was also in her Read and Critique group for about a year. With Reeves, Wallen joined a group of students under Janet Fitch, a Los Angeles-based writer who is most well-known for her novel “White Oleander.” “So we were basically students


together,” Reeves said of herself and Wallen.


Reeves was helpful during the


writing process of her novel “Moon Pies and Movie Stars.” “I regularly attended Reeves’


Brown Bag writing practice groups where many scenes in my novel were inspired by her writing prompts,” Wallen said. One of the most important scenes in Wallen’s book occurs when a little girl is tied to a front porch, which came from Reeves’ prompt, ‘Write about a front porch.’ “That scene drove the underlying theme of the story of child aban- donment,” Wallen said. Another locally well-known


author, Debra Ginsberg, was a participant in one of Reeves’ Read and Critique groups.


Scott Barbour was also in her Read and Critique group as well as Thursday Writers.


“I’m having a couple of pieces published in the San Diego Writ- ers Ink’s anthology this year,”


San Diego Uptown News | January 7–20, 2011


5


Judy Reeves with Steve Montgomery, her co-leader of the Thursday Writers group. (Cynthia Robertson/SDUN)


Barbour said. “I never thought it would happen.” Yet another writer touched by San Diego Writers Ink is Nicole Vollrath, who had met Reeves originally through Thursday Writers. Having earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College, Vollrath blossomed


under Reeves’ encouragement, eventually serving as President of San Diego's Writers Ink. “[Reeves] believes every person has a story to tell and the world is a better place when they are shared,” Vollrath said. But despite Reeves’ ability to inspire and encourage other writ-


ers, she said the favor has not gone unreturned.


“I tell you, I feel like the writers I work with regularly at the Brown Bags and Thursday Writers groups and my regular Wednesday Night Read and Critique group, these writers are my teachers and men- tors, too,” Reeves said.u


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