Birmingham

Magic City Poetry Festival 2019 starts April 4

Get your own Magic City Poetry Festival t-shirt at any of this year’s event.

Since last year’s inaugural Magic City Poetry Festival founder Ashley M. Jones has been busy. She’s been busy publishing her second book, dark / / thing, which she describes as “a book that can’t sit silently.”

Ashley, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award recipient who also won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards for her debut collection Magic City Gospel, has also been busy planning this year’s Magic City Poetry Festival.

The 2019 festival will kick off April 4 and host events throughout the month including a reading by poetry legend and Birmingham native Sonia Sanchez!

Ashley started the Magic City Poetry Festival to help showcase the talent of Birmingham-based poets and to expose more people to the power of poetry. See Jane Write had a chat with Ashley recently to discuss how this year’s festival will do just that.

(more…)

Redefining What It Means to Be an Influencer

What does it mean to be an influencer?

Honestly, it depends on who you ask. 

While some people dream of being six-figure earning Instagram influencers others are wishing the word “influencer” could be banned. 

Tom Godwin,  the head of innovation for ZenithMedia, told AdWeek at the end of 2018 that he hopes influencer marketing will die out in 2019. Though he acknowledges it’s a good tactic for some industries, Godwin says influencer marketing has quickly descended into “hot people holding things.”

To be honest, this is how I had come to define the word influencer, too. So when I was invited last month to attend a luncheon for local influencers I wasn’t quite sure what to think. First of all, I don’t have a gazillion Instagram followers, which I often feel is a requirement to bear that title. And secondly, if you scroll through my feed you’ll see that “hot people holding things” is hardly my theme. 

My BFF Jacqui Jones of One Degree MMM and I at the #UnSelfie2019 Influencer Luncheon
(photo by Eric Gray Photography)

But the title of this event caught my attention — #UnSelfie2019 Influencer Luncheon. Presented by United Way of Central Alabama and hosted by social media and public relations pro Maree Jones, this event was all about how to use your social media influence for good, for positive change in your community and beyond. So my BBF marketing guru Jacqui Jones of One Degree MMM and I headed to the event.

(more…)

It’s Almost Time to Write and Blog Like Crazy!

Every November I challenge See Jane Write readers and members who blog to publish a new blog post every day for 30 days. I call this challenge #bloglikcrazy. I give participants encouragement along the way by sharing blogging tips and post ideas and if you use the #bloglikecrazy hashtag when you share your posts on social media I’ll help promote your posts, too.

To be honest, I originally started #bloglikecrazy because November can be a lonely time for non-fiction writers. National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) is also in November, which means all my fiction writer friends are busy trying to write a 50,000-word novel in a month and no one can come out to play! So, I decided to create a writing challenge for non-fiction writers who blog.

But this year I want to make sure I’m supporting See Jane Write readers and members who are taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge, too. So this month I’m hosting two events — one for my blogger babes and one for my lady writers — to help you prepare for all the writing and blogging we’ll be doing in November.

(more…)

When Writing Is Not Enough

Writing can be a feminist act. 

I believe this idea so deeply I did a TED Talk on it.

I believe that by sharing her story a woman can fight for equality and grow to love herself enough to believe she deserves it — no matter what society says.

This is why I teach. This is why I started See Jane Write. This is why I write. But sometimes writing is not enough. Sometimes I feel I have to do more.

(more…)