Harrison library opens writing group

HARRISON TOWNSHIP — For those looking to start writing, it can be difficult to get into the swing of things and improve your grip on the craft. But fear not — the Harrison Township Public Library is here to help with a writer’s group.

Formed with the intention of providing a writer’s group to the community, the group first met on Oct. 8.

“I thought that a library should have a writer’s group,” said Renée Nixon, adult services librarian at the Harrison Township Public Library. “I’ve always done them; I’ve always been in writer’s groups. I had some creative writing courses while getting an English major as an undergraduate … so I just knew the importance of writers (to a) library.”

With only one session completed, meetings are structured around discussion of what members are writing and input from a guest speaker. Oakland University writing professor Jenna Grace was brought in for the first session.

“We’re not just going to meet, we’re going to give some guidance and bring in different people to talk,” Nixon said. “Maybe one poet will come in and talk one time, and another time, we’ll have someone who does performance poetry or someone who works on story writing or novels. There’s all different kinds of crafts that we can look into and focus on all types of writers.”

While one of the inspirations for the group was to tackle the National Novel Writing Month challenge, Nixon says the group is open to all types of writing and all levels of writers.

“As far as skills, we want all kinds of skills,” Nixon said. “If you found a group of writers that are all the same level, they might not want to meet each other at all. We all have to learn from somebody!”

As for the Oct. 8 session, Grace says the meeting was in line with Nixon’s expectations.

“Everyone was able to share a little bit about the projects they are working on, and we discussed what our experiences have been writing, how writing makes us feel what our writing process is like,” Grace said. “Just some basics about writing to get to know each other a little bit better.”

The meeting avoided too many technical subjects, which will be discussed at future meetings. There have been discussions about the second meeting taking place in December.

The group is open to writers from any metro Detroit community. More information about the writer’s group can be found by emailing Nixon at rnixon@htplib.org or calling the library at (586) 329-1261.