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DWY (Do Words Yourself)

Getting Comfortable in Your Writer Skin

A half-day workshop for writers of all levels.

A half-day writing event for anyone who wants to write better than they do now or is interested in publishing and/or getting published. Main events include a keynote speech aimed at working-class writers (writers who write around a regular job), followed by a panel of Milwaukee-based writers and publishers talking about their work process, how they to promote themselves and/or their work. The event will also feature a “writer’s playroom.” Writers are welcome to spend time after the workshop working independently.

9:30-10:30 - Registration and Writer's Playroom open

10:30-11:30 - Keynote by Dionne Grayson

12 noon- 1 pm - Panel Discussion/ Q&A session with Authors Dionne Grayson, Linetta Alexander, and Amy T Waldman

This year's Keynote Speaker is Dionne Grayson, founder of "Building Your Dreams." Dionne is also a certified Career Development Coach and has worked with several organizations, including but not limited to The Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, Marquette University and Lead2Change, a youth organization co-founded by herself and 22 youth. With a career spanning more than 25 years, Dionne has earned many accolades; in 2017, she was named a Woman of Influence by The Milwaukee Business Journal. In 2018, Dionne was recognized as a Leading Woman in Business by O, The Oprah Magazine. Her greatest accomplishment, however, is the title “mentor,” given to her by small business owners and young people across the country.Dionne is also a published author of The Making: Trust God to be the Chairman of your Boardroom, By Design: Your 12-Week Goal-Setting Journal, and a 10-book The Children’s Gifts Series that helps children explore and share their gifts with the world through a career full of excitement and purpose. 

Panel:

Dionne Grayson (bio above)

Linetta Alexander's creative voice is rooted in the Black feminist tradition, shaped by her work as an educator, playwright, director, and cultural facilitator. Her life's work celebrates the richness of Black identity, challenges normative narratives, and creates space for healing and possibility. Publisher and editor of Rebirth Ink Publishing, a small press out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she has published a memoir, Honey and Vinegar, and three plays, A Black Woman's Burden: Her Journey from Pain to Freedom, The End of Hope, and I Used to Love Him. More recently, she has written a children's book, Ella Baker, and is a contributor in Woke Shakespeare: Rethinking Shakespeare in a New Era. Linetta believes that creativity is a survival skill and a sacred practice. Her work invites others to time travel as a methodology-learning from the past, unlearning what no longer serves, and imagining new futures into being.

Amy T. Waldman is an award-winning writer and editor whose feature articles, reviews, profiles, and essays have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She is the author of We Had Fun and Nobody Died: Adventures of a Milwaukee Music Promoter, which she wrote while working her day job as an Adult Reference Librarian at the Milwaukee Public Library. She is not a stranger to periods of wondering whether she's a real writer.  

Registration is requested, but not required. 

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