National Writers Union, Tucson Chapter

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.

Words and Work: a New Weekly NWU Tucson Podcast

words_and_work

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 1^st 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
Request contract advice

The National Writers Union will be hosting a reading and open mic on Monday, January 16, starting at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will be held both in person and on Zoom (information below).

The featured reader this month will be Greg Evans, a member of the NWU, who will be discussing his translation of the Czech writer Karel Teige’s The Marketplace of Art (Rab-Rab Press, 2022). Though the title of this 1936 essay might make it sound, in our contemporary context, like a primer on the business side of art, it is in fact a radical critique of an art world driven by business interests and profit. Questioning the value of art (and literature) produced under market conditions while at the same time highlighting the integrity and importance of dissident and avant-garde art produced on the fringes of the marketplace of art, Teige includes in his essay a description of what forms art might take in a society that no longer “degrades reciprocal human relationships into commodity relationships.” Karel Teige (1900-1951) was a leading theoretician of avant-garde art and architecture between the world wars and was a founding member of the Czechoslovak Surrealist Group.

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

The meeting will be held at the Pima Area Labor Federation Office at 5630 E Pima St. in Tucson, which is a block east of Craycroft Road (Pima is between Grant and Speedway). It is on the south side of the street and ample parking is available both behind the building and on its east side. There is also limited parking directly in front of the building.

For the Zoom link, please contact nwutucson@yahoo.com.