Cas Taylor (she/her, they/them) is an award-winning Pacific Northwest-based queer indigenous creator with ties to the Nisqually Valley and the Iñupiat people of Alaska’s north slope. They are also the Writing Academy’s creative content consultant. They grew up in Olympia, WA, where long soggy weekends meant days spent inside watching old films on a small television that only received three channels. This meant they quickly acquired an appreciation and interest for movies, e

by Kimberly Cooper Griffin Was it really only three years ago that I graduated from the GCLS Writing Academy? I can’t tell you how much I miss those Saturday morning classes where I hung out with my writer friends and learned about writing from some of the best authors out there. Woman in dress and hat sitting on books and working on laptop A lot has happened since then. I recently published book number seven and just signed another contract with Bold Strokes Books for my ten

by Joy Van Stralen Today’s blog post will be a little different. The Writing Academy administration asked me, a Writing Academy graduate, to provide an insight into someone who graduated but did not go on to publication. I did complete a manuscript during my year with the WA, but I never completed revisions nor submitted the book for publication. Some reading this may question why take the class, a year-long commitment, if you don’t go on to publication. I had dreams of publi