Idaho Authors Form Group To Learn About The Write Stuff

Idaho has 84,000 square miles and probably at least as many writers or wannabes.

But how does an aspiring author in say, Soda Springs, get somebody to read his or her manuscript? Locate sources of research material? Find a market for the work?

That’s the purpose of a new organization called the Idaho Writers’ Connection. It aims to connect the state’s farflung working writers through an Internet website and to provide links to a vast on-line database.

“The idea is to provide Idaho writers with access to resources they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get,” said Tim Waterman. The Moscow-based writer is serving as consultant to the new group. “And it’s a place for writers to talk to each other.”

The project is the result of meetings sponsored by the Idaho Commission on the Arts, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

There also will be an e-mailing engine to permit contact among individuals and a “matchmaking” and critique service to pair writers seeking help from other writers in their areas.

The website will list publishing opportunities and offer tips and information on how to get published.

Much of the data also will be included in an Idaho resource guidebook, to be published annually, and a newsletter that will contain articles and listings of value to writers.

“This organization will be aimed at our Idaho writers, but we want to cast as wide a net as possible,” said Diane Josephy Peavey, literature director for the Idaho Commission on the Arts. “So we’ll list out-of-state and regional events and contacts as well.”

The IWC plans to sponsor or co-sponsor writing contests and perhaps organize a health insurance group among Idaho writers.

“One of our purposes will also be to connect writers and schools that are looking for writers to come into the classroom,” Peavey said.