GWP Group Launch Coming MONDAY!

Yep, you heard it hear, and I'm not sure what this alligator has to do with it but it seemed a fitting image. This Monday will officially see the (re)launch of Girl w/ Pen as a group blog. We'll post the new url here on Monday, and eventually (sniff sniff) this trusty blogspot site will shut down. So take a final look these next few days, and then it's see ya at Wordpress! But don't worry. The content will be the same.

Only better.

New Blog on the Block: The REAL Deal

Live, from the National Council for Research on Women, it's The Real Deal! The Council and its network of 115 research, advocacy, and policy centers are rolling up their sleeves to make sure that women's and girls' real-life challenges and concerns are placed front and center in the national debate. The blog will feature guest bloggers and lively commentary from a wide variety of experts and thought leaders.They've launched a mini-site that serves as a resource center of fact sheets, policy briefs, and reports produced by women's research and policy centers and the more than 2,000 researchers in our network.

Check it out, and a hearty welcome to The Real Deal!

GWP Group Launch Just Days Away...

I'm back from the holiday and, even though the world is melting, I am SO EXCITED SO EXCITED because we are just a few DAYS away from launching GWP in group form! Can't wait to share it with you, and I'm SO not good at secrets, but I'm sworn to keeping the new url to myself until we're ready. So all I'll say is, here's to a new year, and a new Girl w/ Pen!!!!!

And the Winner Is...

Thanks to all of you who responded to this month's GWP poll. You have spoken, and we listened. We're keeping the "feminist" in our tagline, rather than changing it to "gender." And, thanks again to a reader's suggestion, we are shortening it a bit. The new tagline will read:

"Bridging Feminist Research and Popular Reality"

Group launch is just around the corner...for reals!

My Fall Bloginar - Join Me!

Ok you GWP readers who want to learn more about how to blog, this one's for you. Here's the descript:

Girl w/ Keyboard: Making Waves through the Feminist Blogosphere
(Strategic Blogging for Advocates, Experts, and Organizations)

In this 5-week bloginar offered through the Women's Media Center, author and blogger Deborah Siegel will lead participants through the basics of blogging—both logistical and philosophical. Participants will leave with an understanding of how blogging is changing the media landscape—especially for women!—and the tools needed to start a blog or improve one that's already off the ground. Topics include: State of the Blogosphere, Tour of the Femosphere, Finding Your Niche, Creating Your Blog, Rules of the Road, Bells and Whistles, and more.

About the Instructor
[shameless self-promotion alert] Transforming her own blog, Girl with Pen, into required reading for the up-to-date feminist, Deborah has successfully created a presence in the world of Web 2.0. Deborah now keeps a daily web community in dialogue on the latest debates surrounding intergenerational feminism and research on women and girls across academic and popular realms. [shameless self-promotion alert ends] In this online workshop, Deborah, a graduate of the first class of the WMC's Progressive Women's Voices program, will take you on a guided tour through the blogosphere and teach you how to get your voice and ideas out there, too.

Details
5 Tuesdays starting October 14, 7-8:15pm ET, via conference call / online

Register early and receive a discount!

For more info, please contact girlwpen@gmail.com. And please spread the word!

New Offering from GWP: Wordpress Website Customization

So my dear colleague Kristen Loveland, the mastermind behind www.deborahsiegel.net, my new customized Wordpress site, is currently engineering the look of the new Girl w/ Pen group blog launching later this month. I can't say enough good things about this gal, who is joining me as co-Girl w/ Penner-in-Chief as we relaunch in group form. Her work speaks for itself.

And lucky for others, she is branching out with her customization services, and offering a 10% discount to anyone who comes to her through GWP! Ladies and gents in need of a website, I give you: Kristen. Here's a description of how it works:

Need a website—fast—but don't have vast resources to invest? Kristen Loveland, a Wordpress customization consultant and web site builder, offers a unique solution. Skilled at using Wordpress' free and open-source platform to build personalized websites for authors, thinkers, feminists, and really, anyone else, Kristen is a writer/feminist blogger herself who understands how to create that unique internet presence in order to mainstream your blog, advertise your workshops, or highlight your latest publications. Because Kristen uses Wordpress as a platform, her websites are cost-effective and easy-to-use. Once built—in only four to six weeks after consultation—Kristen will teach you how to make most updates to the website yourself.

Mention GWP and receive a 10% discount! For more information, contact Kristen at Kristen.Loveland@gmail.com.

Vote Acqui

Monday greetings!

Ok, so it's not Nov 4th yet and this current poll is of far less magnitude, but the votes over here at this month's GWP poll (-->) seem to be favoring keeping the current tagline vs. changing it. Interesting. 5 more days remaining to throw your 2 cents into the pool.

We're also playing with a title for the group version, which is launching real soon. Girls w/ Pen? Girls w/ Pens? Something else? We're open to suggestions! If anyone's got one, please share in comments. Thank you!!

New Blog on the Block: Upstate Upstarts

Last week I gave a blogging workshop at the University of South Carolina Upstate, where I also did a talk. And I'm thrilled to share that the feminist group on campus has now launched their blog! I love their description:

"UPSTARTS IS THE ONLINE VOICE OF UPSTATE FEMINISTS, A STUDENT-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION ON THE CAMPUS OF USC UPSTATE DEDICATED TO COMMUNICATING IN CLEAR AND ENERGETIC TERMS THE RELEVANCE OF FEMINISM TO TODAY'S COLLEGE-AGE WOMEN AND MEN."

Yesssss! And a hearty welcome to you from all of us here at GWP.

Keep an eye out for these upstarts. They are utterly setting the world on fire down there.

Kudos to Faculty Advisor Dr. Lisa Johnson, President Andrea Miller, Vice President Lindsay Harris, and Secretary Candace Lamb, pictured left. And for those of you who know Lisa (editor of the stellar anthology Jane Sexes It Up), check out her new hair. You can't tell from the picture, but she's got a blue streak running through it. Made me want to come back and do something funkier with my hair!

Take the New GWP Poll!

It's over there -->

Yep, you found it. Right there.

Start WAM!ming

I've presented at the Women, Action, and Media (WAM!) Conference twice now and highly recommend it for its colleagiality and bloggy networking opportunities. The organizers are currently collecting proposals for their 2009 conference, which takes place on March 27-29 this year at MIT. CFP embedded below (you can click on the image to make it larger). Have at it, GWPers.

WAM!2009CFP - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: WAM!2009CFP

Sneak Peak

As a very fun distraction (though also out of necessity), I am redoing my personal website. The new one will launch soon, but just thought I'd share a snapshot of the new header, because I'm stoked. Thank you M! Thank you Kristen!

I'm also getting VERY excited about the unveiling of the new format for the group blog. Yes, it's confirmed--GWP is going group this fall for reals, with contributions from some amazing women crossing academic and nonacademic (er, postacademic) worlds. More on all that soon.

Ok ok, now back to work....

Blogging Girls

A quick pic from the Writopia Lab blogging workshop I led last week. Stay tuned for more posts from the girls coming next week! In the meantime, we're loving everyone's comments on Jessica's post (below)...

Have a good weekend, all!

COMING SOON: Guest Posts from the Girls of Writopia Lab

So I've been spending part of this week teaching a blogging workshop for girls over at Writopia Lab. The posts these girls are writing are SO GOOD that I'm posting them here on GWP. Stay tuned for some thoughts from the next generation of thinkers and writers. They will knock your socks off. They are definitely knocking mine.

(cool logo design by Marco Siegel-Acevedo!)

Girl Re-entering World, Slowly

It's my first day back and I'm still feeling as high as I felt when I was carried into the air on this chair!

Before anything, I wish to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who kept GWP going while I was gone, and particularly Kristen, blog steward extraordinaire. The wedding was bliss, the honeymoon was delicious, and coming back to a blog in full swing was a gift like none other.

Going away gives one a sense of perspective and, upon return, I feel we've really created something here, this lil GWP community. I love the plethora of voices these past few weeks and would so hate to give that up. I LOVED the content our guest bloggers posted (and will be contacting you one by one to follow up and express more personal gratitude)!

Speaking of which, I feel us naturally evolving into more of a group forum -- possibly even a group blog. Do you agree? Please let me know what you think of the idea of turning GWP into a group blog in comments here -- and also if you would be interested in being considered as a regular contributing blogger (you can also email me at girlwpen@gmail.com)! And soon, I'll post a survey to get more of a sense of your feelings.

Meanwhile, a hearty welcome to new readers (traffic and subscription were both UP UP UP while I was away!!), and to you loyal standbys, thank you for being here!

I'm off to catch up on a thousand emails and will be back posting GWPish content tomorrow, but wanted to leave you with my gratitude -- which, as I learned while putting together a wedding toast to our guests, has been called by someone or other "happiness mixed with wonder." That's absolutely what I'm feeling right now, post-wedding/honeymoon high, and returning to a virtual community that has become so very meaningful to me and so very, very real.

Live Blogging Blogher: Political Commentary

Claire Mysko here, reporting from the BlogHer '08 conference! My first session today is on political commentary with Jennifer Pozner of Women in Media and News and Catherine Orenstein of the Op-Ed Project.

Jennifer opened the session with this question: How many of you have engaged with media outside of your blogs? Most people in the room raised their hands, but those who didn't said they haven't engaged because they are nervous about putting themselves "out there" and exposing themselves in their communities especially when it comes to politics. Jennifer made the point that as women, we must be willing to engage in a competitive landscape. The media landscape does not look the way we want it to. Women are marginalized and "hard news" is still seen as the realm of men (white, privileged men for the most part).

Jennifer gets tons of hate mail after her TV commentary. Perhaps not so surprising (but still pretty depressing), most of those comments are usually about her physical appearance and almost never about what she actually said.

The more popular your blog is, the more likely it is that mainstream media outlets will come to you. When you get that call, you have to be prepared. Jennifer mentioned the brother-in-law test. If you can get your brother-in-law to understand your point and frame your argument in a way that he gets it, you'll know that you are better prepared to address a broad audience beyond your niche.

Catherine Orenstein posed five questions:
1. what is credibility?
2. how do you create an argument that is a contribution?
3. What is the difference between being right and being effective?
4. how can you see what you care about as part of a bigger picture?
5. how can you see your knowledge and experience in terms of its value to others?

Some stats: 85% percent of op-eds are dominated by men, 84% of political pundits are men, 84% of Hollywood producers are male, 84% of Congress are male. Get the picture?

Plenty of women are blogging, but not in the places where it has the most influence. One out of 20 political bloggers are women. Sadly, these numbers convey the idea that women's voices don't matter and that women aren't leaders.

Three things happened when Catherine published her first op-ed: She got a book deal, she was went on national television, and she was invited to speak with a Clinton adviser. In other words, there are incredible opportunities presented to those who do put themselves out there. If you're not writing your own story, someone else will. And probably not in the way you would tell it.

Public conversations are happening in an echo chamber. Catherine compares this to what happens in the movie Being John Malkovich when John Malkovich goes through the John Malkovich tunnel. That's what public debate looks like these days.

Women don't submit op-eds. Shouldn't we all be projecting our opinions into the prominent forums? So here are Catherine's thoughts on some of those questions.

What is credibility: Accountability to knowledge. What are you an expert in and why?
Creating contribution: What would be valuable? What's the evidence (statistics, quotes, news information, research).
What's the difference between being right and being effective: She shared a letter she received after she wrote an ope-ed that was critical of Sex & the City. "It's Sex & the City, not Jobs & the City," the writer pointed out. "Your version: Boring." Catherine realized that she had alienated a large portion of the audience she wanted to reach. What she learned is that before she concludes an argument, she needs to put herself in the shoes of someone who disagrees with her. Remember two words: empathy and respect. Assume that the other party is both intelligent and moral.

This content is cross posted at 5 Resolutions.

Guest Posting Opps While I'm Away

Instead of going dark while off doing wedding and honeymoon during the last two weeks of July, I'm pleased to announce some rather FABULOUS guest posting coming our way! Claire Mysko and Gloria Feldt will be among the lineup, with some live blogging from BlogHer and some posts about the election. The fearless Kristen Loveland of The Choice will be blogsitting (and crossposting!) for me while I'm away.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to open the doors wide open to the GWP community. Your comments are always so smart and insightful, your emails always teach me. I'd love to bring more GWP readers into fuller view. So here's the chance. If you have an idea for a guest post and would like to run it by me before I take off, please email me at girlwpen@gmail.com. The last day I'll be checking email will be July 17.

Want to Write for HuffPo?

This just in from The Huffington Post, where I occasionally post commentary when I feel like not getting paid. Publishing at HuffPo is a great opportunity for exposure, but for working journalists, well, let's just say I've slowed down my contributions over time. Nevertheless, it is a WONDERFUL opp for visibility and I can't recommend it enough for those seeking to break into print. So here's the announcement about their new initiative, because I definitely want to help them spread the word (and because I hugely admire the new initiative's clever logo, and because I recently met -- and loved -- Eat the Post editor Rachel Sklar!):

It's the electoral race of the century. Political maps are being redrawn, and rules are getting rewritten across the board. Fundraising records have been broken. The candidates are even comparing the sizes of their email lists.

The mainstream media is tripping over itself to report on every last press release and campaign announcement. But do any of us REALLY know what's going on?

With you helping from the frontlines, the Huffington Post can change campaign coverage. OffTheBus is HuffPost's citizen-powered and -produced election site, and we're depending on readers like you to tip us to what's going on or, better yet, to write up the stories you think should be covered.

WOULD YOU HELP US?
Chances are you're a political junkie. That's why you got involved in HuffPost's community as a commenter. But why stop there?

By becoming a member of HuffPost's OffTheBus, you can publish op-eds and news stories to the Huffington Post. You get first-hand access to editors. The best citizen reporting is cross-posted to the politics page and homepage. Or, you can jump into our collaborative reporting assignments, like our Superdelegate Investigation or OffTheBus Party Map.

GET PUBLISHED AT HUFFINGTON POST.
Last October OffTheBus members dropped in on Sen. Barack Obama's Nationwide Canvassing Day from more than two dozen locations. Hours later every observer independently relayed to us that the economy, not the war, was the voting issue. Twenty-four hours later we reported on the significance of the economy, beating the mainstream media to the punch by a few weeks.

As our numbers grow, the same collaborative reporting model that got HuffPost's OffTheBus the scoop on the economy may tell us a lot more about what's happening nationwide.

YOU GAME? JOIN HUFFPOST'S OFFTHEBUS.
Click here to sign up.

Where I'm Teaching Next...

July 11-13, Amcrandale, NY:
Woodhull Institute Nonfiction Writing Intensive. It's not too late! Join me--and Catherine Orenstein and Kristen Kemp--up in Ancramdale this weekend for some oped, magazine article, and book proposal writing good times! To register, email ecurtis@woodhull.org pronto and she'll set you up.

August 11-13, NYC:
AFTER the honeymoon, I'll be teaching a special three-day workshop this summer for the girls of Writopia Lab and am excited about the possibility of publishing some of the pieces that emerge from that workshop here on GWP. In the spring, I posted one by 14-year-old Writopia Writer, Sam French, on why she was supporting Hillary. In case you missed it, here tis.

Online seminar, 5 Tuesdays this fall:
Back with Version 2.0 of my Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade bloginar! Have you successfully tackled the book proposal but are struggling to find the right structure for your book, themes for your chapters, or hooks and anecdotes to draw the reader in? With In Progress: Getting Your Book DONE, I'll take you beyond the book proposal and into the process of writing your first book.

Are you writing a book but lacking an author’s community? A writers’ group and the advice of someone who has done it before can aid you to overcome writer’s block or plain old frustration with structure and content. This one's a hands-on seminar and author-led writer’s group for those in the middle of writing their first books for the public.

The course will offer:

-Exchanges with professionals in the field and your chance to ask those questions that have been plaguing you.
-Strategies for getting unblocked in the middle of Chapter Four
-Tips for crafting introductions and conclusions for the popular reader
-Workshops on playing with structure, chapter titles, and format
-And more.

For more info or to register, please email kristen.loveland@gmail.com.

And lastly, a fall blogging bloginar (how's that for meta) may very well be in the works. If interested, please let Kristen know and we will send a heads up when details are underway.

Any Takers for Live Blogging from BlogHer Here on GWP?

Ok GWP readers out there, make my day. I'm so SAD about missing the BlogHer conference this year (timing, timing) and would still very much like to somehow be involved. So here's what I've come up with: Would anybody who is planning to attend the conference in SF like to do some live-blogging here at GWP while I'm off getting hitched that weekend (July 18-20)? If so, please email me at girlwpen@gmail.com and we can discuss!

Pity party over. And happily back to wedding planning. This weekend Marco and I are staying at the home of the friends whose backyard will be the scene of our wedding--it's so beautiful here. And I'm getting all verklempt.

So I'll be signing off now for the weekend. I wish everyone a VERY HAPPY 4th! ENJOY!

Blogging, Brown and Female

My dear fellow WGL (short for WomenGirlsLadies) Kristal Brent Zook wrote a great piece yesterday over at the Women's Media Center, Blogging While Brown (and Female). In case you missed it, here's the summary:

In a preview of the "Blogging While Brown" conference (Atlanta, July 25-27), WMC author Kristal Brent Zook spoke with Gina McCauley, founder of www.whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com and one of the organizers of the upcoming conference. McCauley's foray into blogging began one year ago, when the Texas-based personal injury attorney was compelled to respond to the demeaning characterizations of black women that she saw making headlines. McCauley's blog demonstrated the power of individuals to speak out and demand change, when she took on offensive programming from BET. McCauley's righteous indignation helped to generate a wave of protest, leading BET to reposition, and then cancel, the show.

Then, in the midst of their success, everything changed for supporters of What About Our Daughters as its readers and writers were blindsided by a tragedy that would dramatically alter the tone and content of the site. As Zook reports, a tragedy at Dunbar Village, a West Palm Beach, Florida, public housing complex, helped bloggers at What About Our Daughters and other sites to find their voices on issues of misogyny and violence.

Read the article here.

And by the way, the WGLs (aka, our traveling panel "WomenGirlsLadies: A Fresh Conversation across Generations") appear next in Washington DC, at the Association of Women in Communications Conference and at Georgetown on September 26. Details coming soon!