www.texasnonfiction.org

Breakthrough

Texas Non-Fiction Writers is the only online interactive community for non-fiction writers in Texas. We're a new way to exchange ideas without driving to a meeting somewhere. We're a place where you can post snippets of your writing, and critique (meaning support) others who post snippets. We're a source of news and information of interest to non-fiction writers. We sponsor contests, retreats and other events.

Join up! Just click here. It's free!
Retreat 2008

We have amazed ourselves with the lineup for our Texas Non-Fiction Writers' Retreat 2008. It's a great collection of writers and experts. Big names, even.

October 24 and 25 at the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne. Great place, great time of year. Check out the retreat brochure here.

Join us. It's only fifty bucks.
Newsletters

More or less once a week we gather up the articles we've posted on this Web site, and we pour them into an e-mail newsletter. That's a way of keeping the membership informed and involved, without even visiting the site.

It's a mixed blessing—there are features that you can ony access on the site, not through the newsletter. That's especially true of our interactive features. So visit the site. Wait. You are visiting the site.
Blurts

One of our great features is the ability of members to post "blurts." A blurt is anything you want to express that relates somehow to non-fiction writing. It might be an essay or a gripe. It might be a news item you stumbled across, or an announcement. An invitation, a mild curse, a lament.

Blurts let members have their say.

Member Login

Who?

Who are the members of Texas Non-Fiction Writers?

People from Texas who write non-fiction.

People who write non-fiction about Texas.

Of course, our favorites are people from Texas who write non-fiction about Texas. But we're not all that picky. We even suspect that there are some fiction types lurking in here somewhere.

Freedom

It's so very Texan. Live free, die free—and now you can join free. During 2008, memberships in Texas Non-Fiction Writers are free, thanks to underwriting from the Texana Foundation.

We're a brand-new organization, and we want you to join. Membership gives you access to our members' area, where you'll find helpful and informative articles, instead of this promotional blah-blah-blah. You'll also be able to post your own articles, pose questions to the membership and submit snippets of your writing for others to critique.

All the features of a traditional writers' group and more—online, all the time, 24/7/365. Forget the monthly workshop—get feedback on your writing right here. When you find something interesting about writing, publishing, marketing or selling non-fiction, post it here. And you don't have to wait for the monthly newsletter—TNFW is real-time.

Check it out.

There's a difference between Texas Non-Fiction Writers and the typical writers' organization. TNFW gives you the ability to create an interactive online community. TNFW is you and your fellow members, spread all over Texas and beyond, communicating, sharing, teaching, learning and helping.

You can ask questions of other members, and you can invite them to critique your work. Perhaps more importantly, you can answer other members' questions, and help them improve their writing. It's a way to get help, and a way to give back, without getting in the car and going to a workshop.

Or you can contribute essays, thoughts, suggestions, notices, announcements, and gripes. Post them on the Web site for all to see—in effect, an ongoing, open newsletter, written by the membership.

The TNFW staff regularly contributes content to the members' area, but what we're really trying to do is give you a set of tools to play with. For example, we're planning on opening up direct member-to-member communication soon. We have a lot of other features that we can add to the site as the community evolves.

We know that, like Chance the Gardener in Being There, some of our members just like to watch. That's okay, too. But don't be afraid to join the fun.

Texas Non-Fiction Writers supports authors. We offer conferences, events, communications and networking opportunities. The members-only section of our Web site provides news and resources of interest to non-fiction authors. Membership is free, and there are no restrictions on who can become a member, but TNFW's activities emphasize book-length non-fiction about Texas.

TNFW's premier 2008 event will be the Texas Non-Fiction Writers' Retreat 2008, to be held on October 24 and 25 in Boerne, Texas.

We keep authors up to date on events in the industry, offer insight into other non-fiction writers' experiences, and let members spread the news about their books, events, ideas and promotions.

Why a group that splits non-fiction from fiction? Increasingly, non-fiction writers' interests differ from those of authors working on romance, science fiction, chick lit, young adult fiction and children's books. The difference is more than genre: it has to do with non-fiction's special demands for research, accuracy, distillation, organization and explanation.

Do non-fiction writers suffer low self-esteem? It's odd that we define ourselves in the negative: there's fiction, then there's us. And isn't it too bad that we had to invent the term "creative non-fiction" to make it clear that we write more than textbooks and histories?

We take note of that, and of one more important fact: Texas culture suffers when it loses readers and writers who are interested in Texas. We exist to nurture all Texas non-fiction writers, but we are especially interested in encouraging interest and excellence in non-fiction about Texas.

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