Dear Friends of MWC,
I hope this finds you safe and well as we prepare to turn the page on 2023. We’ve been fortunate to have a terrific year at MWC and we are spending this time thinking about what we, as an organization have to be grateful for: our many members (like you!), the 27 incredible organizations we partnered with this year, our new publications, another wonderful Conference, and several new workshops.
This year we were able to host more events, hire more interns and staff for our Young Emerging Writers Program, and publish more books than our average years, despite receiving less grant funding than we usually do. This is all thanks to the overwhelming support of our community. You know that MWC supports artists by directly providing opportunities and funding to writers. And every dollar spent on local art stays in the community longer than a dollar spent elsewhere. Money spent on the arts creates art.
We are writing, like so many other nonprofits are, to ask for your support this Giving Tuesday (November 28, which kicks off our year-end giving campaign) by renewing or starting a membership so that we can continue to provide high-quality, low-cost literary programming to our community as we have for over 40 years.
In 2024 we will continue our traditional programming: Writers’ Studio (our twice-monthly critique group), the Collins Writers’ Conference, the Young Emerging Writers Internship, the SPECTRA Reading Series, and our writing classes. We will be publishing an anthology on the theme of Radical Hospitality (submissions open now) in partnership with Galvin Fine Arts, in addition to the Foster-Stahl chapbooks and The Atlas. We also want to bring more writers to the Quad Cities, host more workshops, and continue to grow our partnerships with other organizations throughout the community. And we cannot do that without you.
We need you to help us write more light into the world. Thanks for your support, and we look forward to writing with you in the new year…
Wishing you well, now and always,
Ryan Collins, Executive Director
