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Jan 2025 Writing Show: Dreams to Deadlines – Navigating Your Writing Year
Start your year with tips for making your writing dreams a reality. How do you set effective goals that you control and guide? What do you do when you hit roadblocks? Three inspiring writers will help you build the foundations you need to achieve creative success in 2025.
Speakers: Lisa Cooper Ellison, Nick George the Poet, and Rachel McRady
Moderator: Alethea McCollin
Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern Time
Location: IN PERSON at the Visual Arts Center | 1812 W Main St, Richmond, VA 23220
Cost: $12 Members | $17 Non-members
Registration is required and space is limited. Ample parking is available on site!
The Writing Show includes a social time from 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm. This portion of the evening is optional. If you choose to only attend the panel discussion, please arrive in time to find parking and be seated before the panel discussion begins at 6:30 pm.
PANELISTS
Lisa Cooper Ellison
| LISA COOPER ELLISON is an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. She works and writes at the intersection of storytelling and healing, and combines her personal experiences with suicide loss and CPTSD with her clinical training to help writers turn tough experiences into art. Her essays and stories have appeared on Risk! and in The New York Times, HuffPost, Hippocampus Literary Magazine, and Kenyon Review Online, among others. You can subscribe to Lisa’s Writing Your Resilience Substack HERE. |
Nick George the Poet
Nicholas Steven George (or, Nick George the Poet) is a poet, educator and facilitator. Over a decade of developing his creative and performance style of writing, Nick pulls from his own life experiences and personal challenges as inspiration for his work. In performing his original work, he has opened for renowned poets like Jasmine Mans, Levi the Poet, Alysia Harris, Black Ice & Joshua Bennett. Through advocating for mental health and recognizing the utility of the performing arts, Nicholas uses his voice and skills to ignite social impact, challenge stigmas, and develop deep community.
Rachel McRady
| RACHEL MCRADY is an Emmy Award-winning writer and editor with pieces featured in Good Morning America, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, E! News, Us Weekly, Teen Vogue, Yahoo Life, Parade, The Huffington Post, Motherly, and more. She has lived in New York and London, and currently resides in Richmond, Virginia, with her two daughters, Iona and Isla, and her husband, Caleb. An entertainment journalist by day, Rachel regularly covers a host of celebrities, gossip, and breaking news, which easily feeds into her fictional worlds. Her debut novel, Sun Seekers, which was released in January 2024, was a Book of the Week pick for Maria Shriver’s The Sunday Paper and has been featured in Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, NPR’s VPM Radio, Virginia This Morning, Good Day PA, The Daily Mail, Richmond magazine, and more. |
MODERATOR
Alethea McCollin
ALETHEA MCCOLLIN writes, directs and produces compelling narratives for the stage and screen, and has published a children’s book – The Cloud Catcher. She has produced her work at theatre festivals nationally, and continues to pursue her passion for storytelling through diverse media. Alethea returns to Virginia State University as an instructor in 2025. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild and Virginia Screenwriters Forum, and serves on the board of James River Writers.
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This program is supported in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
See Richmond CultureWorks for other literary events in the area.