Education at GCLS
One of the primary mandates of the mission of the GCLS is to provide opportunities for education of our members and the general public regarding lesbian literature. This includes authors, readers, editors, and more. Currently, our educational offerings include: an Annual Conference, online webinars and a mentoring program.
The GCLS Annual Conference (aka "The Con")
When the GCLS first formed, the education component of the organization was limited to the annual conference, which continues on today, offering master classes, presentations, panels and general sessions as our educational component, along with author readings and author chats.
Today, our educational offerings have expanded to include mentoring opportunities for our up and coming new authors, plus online webinars on the third Saturday of each month in 2013/14. Learn more about these great educational opportunities below.
"GCLS Presents" Webinars
Attendees of the GCLS Webinars have raved about the quality of our webinars and the ability to talk one-on-one with noted authors willing to share their knowledge and expertise. These webinars are not used to promote specific authors or publishers, but rather to provide educational opportunities for unpublished authors, or published authors wanting to expand their horizons - and of course, readers are absolutely welcome to join in - we count on you being there !
Join us as we learn from experienced authors and teachers such as Lee Lynch, Lori Lake, Ellen Hart and more!
This year we are expanding the types of webinar offerings to include three distinct areas of expertise:
- Content Experts (non-authors or authors with expertise in areas of interest to writers),
- The Craft of Writing, and
- General Topics in the Writing Career category.
If you are looking to expand your knowledge or you just want to hear one of your favorite authors speak - please join us at one of our "GCLS Presents" webinars.
If there is a person or topic that you would like to see in our webinar line up, please
contact us!
Visit the GCLS Webinars home page for more information
SUBMIT A PROPOSAL ONLINE (There is a small stipend as a token of our thanks for your time and energy to put together a webinar for us.)
Mentoring Program
The GCLS has a very successful Mentor Program that connects new and aspiring authors with experienced, published authors for the purposes of providing advice and/or help with their writing. Both mentees and mentors in the past have reported tremendous experiences from working with someone in this manner, and the program has had some great successes. Some examples of how the mentoring program can be used are:
- The mentees submit 5,000 to 8,000 words of their novel to the assigned mentor, for a general overall review;
- The mentee submits a sample of their work that demonstrates a particular area that they feel they need help with (e.g. character building, POV, Story line)
Generally, mentoring relationships last anywhere from a couple of weeks to three or four months - depending on the complexity of the issues, the time required to work through them, and the time that the mentor has available to give.
NEW - in 2012/13 we are now opening up the mentoring program to include published authors who feel they could still use some help with their craft, and would like to be mentees.
If you would like to participate as either a mentor or mentee, please fill in the appropriate application form: MENTOR APPLICATION MENTEE APPLICATION
Training Webinars
In 2012/13 we are requiring those who wish to volunteer as judges for the 2013 GCLS "Goldie" Awards, to attend two (2) "Training Webinars" prior to final approval as a judge for the GCLS. These webinars will provide a background in the awards history, the awards process (including the judging process), ethics, confidentiality, conflict of interest, and a detailed review of judging forms and expectations regarding how judges respond to and analyze nominated books.
If you are interested in becoming a judge for the GCLS Goldie Awards, please check back to see when the judge application forms are available. It won't be long !!
