Upcoming writing conferences

            Thanks to Melissa Abraham of the Writer’s Guild of Acadiana for letting me know about the following:

            The Bay St. Louis Little Theatre and the Gulf Coast Writers Association will offer a Valentine’s Poetry Contest where participants may submit a poem of any style or length as a .doc or .docx attachment to writerpllevin@gmail.com with “BSLLT Valentine Poetry Contest” in the subject line. There is no entry fee, and each participant may submit up to two poems. The deadline for entries is midnight Sunday, Feb. 7, and the winner will be invited to read his/ her work at a special variety show on Feb. 13 at the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre. For more information, visit www.gcwriters.org/valentine_contest_2016.html.  

            Sylvia Ney and Laurie Kolp will conduct an all-day writing workshop to help aspiring writers complete at least one submission of 1,500 words or less on Feb 13 at Howell’s Furniture in Beaumont, Texas.

            The Friends of the Terrebonne Parish Public Library have announced that this year’s Jambalaya Writers’ Conference will be April 2 at the Houma main library.  The keynote speaker will be novelist Neely Tucker, slated to cover this year’s presidential election for the Washington Post. Also featured at this year’s conference will be agents, editors, poets and food writers. The conference fee — as always a fabulous bargain — is $35 if paid in advanced and $40 at the door. For more information on the conference, as well as the fiction and poetry contests, visit http://mytpl.org/jwc/.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She also writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire, “A Cajun Dream” and “The Letter.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.