January Meeting Minutes 2026

Hello Everybody,

Today we held our January 2026 meeting.

PRESENT:

Sharon, Ryan, Mike, Dawn, Marlys.

TALKING STICK 35 PROGRESS:

We are receiving submissions. Please be sure to get yours in before March 1. Remember the Creative Twist.

MISCELLANEOUS:

     Tarah and Sharon are working on 3 books at one time. Amazon has had a delay in shipping the proofs that we ordered recently. One of those books is almost finished.

     A writer on our email list says she is downsizing and wants to rehome some Talking Stick books that are in perfect condition. She was in TS17. That is so nice of her. We are low on some of the books.

     Sharon is busy working on all the end of year things that need to be done to make sure we keep our nonprofit status. She also is calculating our sales tax and paying that in. Soon she will be doing the thank yous for the donations we received in 2025.

     We mentioned two unusual types of poems. Golden Shovel poems and Staircase Parallelism poems. Check them out.

WRITING EVENTS:

     Mike attended the PRLAAC meeting for January. They always have a lot of events planned for the summer. The Xmas tree lighting and the opera and the play were all popular. They will be doing Candide this summer. The library had an event called Books and Chocolate. The Armory space is having some improvements made.

     The Northwoods Book and Art Festival is being planned for Saturday August 8 in Hackensack.

     The Rosemount Festival is scheduled for March 14, 2026. Email stei0010@protonmail.com.

     The Four Pines Bookstore in Bemidji is planning several authors’ events. www.fourpinesbookstore.com.

     The League of MN Poets is planning a Blizzard Poetry Retreat in Rochester on January 22-25. They also have a qualifier slam for the national Blackberry Peach National Poetry Slam. The National Slam is usually in July. www.mnpoets.org.

     Agates is looking for submissions till 3-1-26. Email MNgreatriverpoets@gmail.com or submit at LEAGUEOFMNPOET.SUBMITTABLE.COM.

     Watermark in Bemidji has several events for young writers. Go to www.watermarkartcenter.org.

Everyone today brought something to read. Three of us wrote something using our monthly words or the TS35 words. We all enjoyed listening and critiquing. We agreed that we had brought a lot of good writing. It was one of those days where we just didn’t want to stop visiting and leave. (Maybe it was partly because of the nasty wind and brutally cold weather.)

Hope to see you all next time!