Over the weekend I received two new writing awards.
My poem “Unexpected Beachfront Property,” won second place with my local Saturday Writers guild! Poetry and I have a funny relationship. I don’t write it often, but when I do it kind of hits. I try to avoid it whenever I can because my generation’s handle on poetry is so fast and lose that I’ve read my share of bad poems and have no interest in creating more of it. I also hate modern poetry’s vapid concept of the art form. But there is a classic air to playing with verse that I can’t avoid and sometimes it’s just the only way to tell a story or get a point across.
I wasn’t present to receive this award because I was at the Missouri Writer’s Guild conference during the regular local meeting. My book, “The Magic of Trees,” was up for best nonfiction title and I hadn’t been able to go to one of the big conferences yet, so I wanted to check it out.
It had its ups and downs. My book won third place, which was pretty cool, and I met a fun kindred spirit named Laura Evans and got to hang out with two of my fav Satuday Writers people. But the conference was pretty disorganized, and the first panel was… disheartening. One of the panelists monopolized the conversation about his “trans” kid. I’m all for letting people have their say and whatever, but I do NOT condone the sexualization or experimentation of children. I also believe in the laws of biology, so I walked out of that one.
Even if you put aside the fact that the long-term side effects of puberty blockers and hormone therapy are still being realized (and are terrifying), or that mental issues in trans kids are NOT fixed by playing along with their mental illness, and even ignore the fact that trans children are being hypersexualized by the LGBTQ+ community, this dude was up there capitalizing on his child’s pain. That sickens me as much as all of the other things I listed. When my children are ailing, they often do not want it publicized. How disgusting that a parent would do that. The entire thing was another “look at me and my child” attention grab which makes me question the mental state of the panelist himself.
I was so pissed I almost left altogether, but as a free speech absolutist, I argued with myself. Unfortunately, when I went back, the second panel was full of editors talking down to writers as if we weren’t already published authors…and then there was a talk about using AI in our work–a topic that is completely unethical, and frowned upon by most publishers.
So, needless to say, I left early and won’t be renewing my membership. There is nothing for me there. The awards aren’t worth the affiliation.
I’m not an attention-seeking liberal. I’m a full-time writer seeking to navigate this profession well and reach out to readers on a personal level. There is nothing more personal than writing. And writers don’t need guilds to get jobs, if anything the guilds need us to exist. But I do have to say, the contrast in the guilds is measurable.
While the state guild was a letdown and hasn’t offered me many benefits, my local Saturday Writers Guild has been a blessing. The people are wonderful, the guild is organized, and best of all, our writing speaks for itself. The work is what matters and it stands out in this group.
Jessica Marie Baumgartner 