April Meeting Minutes 2026

Hello Everyone,

Today we held our April meeting.

PRESENT: Sharon, Mike, Sue, Dawn, Erin, Marlys, Jan.

TALKING STICK 35:

The editorial board meeting is done. Sharon has sent the top submissions to the judges. She is working on the “no” letters and starting on the “yes” letters. Tarah is starting to get them all scanned in. No idea yet of a subtitle—there are so many varied topics in the writings this year. We will have to look again to try to discover a theme.

WRITING EVENTS:

     We discussed further the option of doing a poetry reading at Long Lake Theater. We decided we would have to wait till next year. The only date most of us could do it this year was August 23—and that is just too hard, being right in between Hackensack and our book release party. Those two events are exhausting enough. Sharon did go view the theater and was kind of afraid of falling. They did say they would put up a railing for us and that would help. We would also have to try to get a few more poets/readers from other groups so we would have enough. We doubted if they could charge admission and then we could also sell books.

     Jan says she has a book club that wants to read her poetry book Love is a Transitive Verb for an event on the second Tuesday in May.

     Sharon needs to get back to working on Niomi’s novel and also the flyer for the workshop on Sept. 19. Sue is working on a novella.

     May 2 or 3(?), 2026—Mike will be attending an event at the Greater New Ulm Writing Community. Mike will be at Lykke Books & Coffee in New Ulm, MN. There will be 4 writers there to do a workshop for the area writing community about different ways of publishing.

     April 25 in Bemidji, 3D Poetry Workshop with Micah McCutchen. Put on by Watermark. Go to their website for more information. 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM. www.Watermarkartcenter.org.

     Poetry slam at Fozzie’s in Bemidji, third Thursday in May.

   Northwoods Writers Conference will be held at the Bemidji State University on June 23-26 of 2026.

PRLAAC/HEARTLAND ARTS:

Mike attended the meeting. The group is having trouble with financing this year but it sounds like they are getting some grants. They are going to try a different method of advertising the art events for the summer. They will have noon-hour concerts and other events that they have had before.

We had a good time reading and critiquing each other’s work. Hope to see you all next time!

Sharon