National Writers Union,
Tucson Chapter

The National Writers Union national office in New York can provide you with contract assistance and help with grievances. Our Tucson, Arizona, chapter is here to answer questions; update you on issues like copyright protection and how new technology affects writers; and help you make contact with other members at events like our Friday breakfasts and our Monday readings.

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Words and Work: a New Weekly NWU Tucson Podcast

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In addition to our monthly reading and open mic, the Tucson chapter of the National Writers Union is now presenting a weekly broadcast program and podcast on union and writer’s issues titled “Words and Work.” Hosted by NWU member Ted Prezelski, it features interviews with authors and labor leaders.

It’s broadcast at 11:30 a.m. on Sundays on Downtown Radio. It’s at 99.1 on the FM dial but it’s LPFM which means that it reaches only a few miles outside of Downtown Tucson. It can also be heard streaming at downtownradio.org.

The podcast is posted the Monday after the broadcast. It can be found on Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic and Spotify. Please see the links below.

Guests so far have been David Hill (writer and 1st Vice-President of the NWU), A. J. Flick (free-lance journalist, former crime reporter for the daily Tucson Citizen), Fred Yamashita (Executive Director, Arizona AFL-CIO), Lydia Otero (historian and author), and the organizers of the United Campus Workers of Arizona (CWA).

Links to the podcasts:

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/ted-prezelski
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/words-and-work
Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81MTdiMjY5NC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==
Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/3435puy4
RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/words-and-work-WPDb0k
Spotify: Words and Work

Check Out the National Writers Union Website

You’ll find it at www.nwu.org. You can use it to:

  • Build your talent profile on our new searchable database
  • Submit news items about your writing—or any relevant event—for publication by tagging your NWU chapter.
  • Apply for a press pass
  • Renew your membership

Recent Resolutions Passed by NWU Tucson Chapter

Venezuela Resolution 1 passed on January 12 by the Steering Committee

venezuela_resolution1Download

Venezuela Resolution 2 passed on January 12 by the Steering Committee

venezuela_resolution2Download

Monday Readings

The National Writers Union will be hosting a reading and open mic on Monday, May 18, starting at 6:00 p.m. at 2955 E. Broadway in Tucson.

This month our featured reader will be the poet Chelsea Guevara. Chelsea is a fruit metaphor obsessed U.S.-Salvadoran poet and performer from Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2024, she won the Womxn of the World International Poetry Slam, becoming the first Salvadoran and Utahn to win a national individual slam title. Her first full-length poetry collection Cipota, debuted with Button Poetry in September 2025, explores the depths and limits of memory, storytelling as a mode of generational reclamation, and interpreting the self through periods of transformation. In 2023, Chelsea’s micro-chapbook Somewhere Over the Border was a finalist for the Gunpowder Press Alta California Chapbook Prize, and most recently in March 2026, Chelsea represented the U.S. diaspora in the Latin American regional Slam Abya Yala. As a graduate from the University of Arizona’s Latin American Studies program, Chelsea utilizes her academic research to inform her creative work centering transnational culture, family history, and identity rooted in the Salvadoran diaspora.

The open mic is for spoken word only, but is open to all forms of spoken word (fiction, essays, poetry, articles, polemics, etc.). So bring something to read!

The event will be held at the UFCW Union Hall at 2955 E. Broadway. This is on the north side of Broadway, immediately west of the large and fancy Chase Bank, which is on the northwest corner of Broadway and Country Club Road. Parking and entry are from the rear.

There will not, unfortunately, be a Zoom option this month.Hope to see you there!

Steering Committee

Our elected Steering Committee members are Co-Chairs Keith Bagwell and Barbara Wright; Secretary Alice Whittenburg; and Events Coordinator Greg Evans. The Steering Committee usually meets on the second Monday of each month. Contact us at nwutucson@yahoo.com to confirm the date and location of the next meeting.