Georgia Writers Association - Serving a diverse writing community

Our Guiding Principles

Georgia Writers Association is a nonprofit,501(c)(3) organization that works across the state to encourage and strengthen the proficiencies of writers in both the creative and the business aspects of the writing life. We do this through an array of speakers and programs at regular meetings. GWA sponsors workshops, conferences, seminars, contests and other events. We encourage the formation of satellite groups, critique groups, and other writer resource groups. We encourage the funding of guest authors to various Georgia counties.Our online publications are an attempt to educate and inform the diverse literary community of Georgia.Accomplished Georgia writers are recognized through the Georgia Author of the Year Awards.

Affiliations
Georgia Writers Association (GWA) is housed and supported in part by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of Kennesaw State University. Our office is in the English Department of KSU.

What is the definition of a 501 (c) (3) organization? | Answerbag

What is the definition of a 501 (c) (3) organization? The 501(c)(3) is the part of the Internal Revenue Service tax code that defines how an organization qualifies for tax-exempt status. History...

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GWA Board of Directors

Kelly Whiddon, President of the Board

Kelly Whiddon received her Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the Florida State University in 2002. She has published poetry in Crab Orchard Review, Poetry International, Meridian, Spoon River Poetry Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Slipstream, among others and was an associate editor for Appalachee Review, as well as on the staff of International Quarterly. She is a founding board member of the Crossroads Writers Conference, and is an advisor for the Macon State chapter of the Georgia Poetry Circuit. Her interests include creative writing (poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction), American literature after 1875, contemporary revisionist fairy tales, women’s literature, southern literature, poetry, and storytelling.

Susan S. Cochran, Secretary of the Board

Sue Cochran is a technical editor for CBIZ, Inc., with a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in professional writing. She has been a member of the Georgia Writers Association since 2008. Sue is also a freelance editor and graphic designer. Sue is an adjunct instructor of English for Dalton State College.

Raymond Atkins

Raymond L. Atkins resides in north Georgia with his wife.  They live in a 110-year-old house that they have restored themselves and have four grown children who drop by from time to time.  Raymond has had a variety of occupations during the past 35 years, but now that the children are grown, he is pursuing his lifelong ambition of being a novelist and writer.
 
His short stories have been published in Christmas Stories from Georgia, Christmas Through a Child's Eyes, The Lavender Mountain Anthology, The Blood and Fire Review, The Old Red Kimono, Long Island Woman, The Red Clay Review, and Savannah Magazine. 
 
His humorous columns appear regularly in The Rome News-Tribune, Like the Dew, The Baby Boomer News, and Memphis Downtowner Magazine. 
 
His first novel, The Front Porch Prophet, was published by Medallion Press in June of 2008 and is available at your favorite bookseller. Raymond was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel as well as the Independent Book Publishers Awards Gold Medal for Best Regional Fiction, Southeast, for this novel.   
His second novel, Sorrow Wood, was published to critical acclaim by Medallion Press in June of 2009 and is available at your favorite bookseller. His third novel, Camp Redemption, was released in  2011.

Gloria Bennett

Gloria Bennett earned a master of arts in professional writing degree from Kennesaw State University with a concentration in creative writing and support areas of composition and rhetoric and applied writing.  She writes poetry and prose and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and reviews. She is a tenure-track instructor of English at Gainesville State College, where she teaches composition and creative writing and serves as a faculty advisor for The Chestatee Review, an award-winning, student-produced journal. She is currently at work on a memoir.

A. Louise Staman

A. Louise Staman is an award winning author for her book, Loosening Corsets: The Heroic Life of Georgia’s Feisty Mrs. Felton, First Woman Senator of the United States. Staman has also won awards for poetry and publishing. She won the Grand Prize of the Jekyll Island Millennium Time Capsule Contest for her poem, “Future, Past, and Present,” Semifinalist in the 2006 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for the poem, “My Five Breasts,” and was the 2006 winner of a writing competition by Illuminati Press of Miami University of Middletown for the poem, “Clippings,” published in the anthology, Under Our Skin.

Mrs. Staman has an M.A. in Humanities from Old Dominion University, an M.A. in French from University of Illinois, a B.A. in French and History from Kent State University with additional French study and research in Paris, Montréal, and Neuchâtel, Switzerland. She is the owner of Tiger Iron Press in Macon, Georgia.

Chris Ward

Kennesaw State Webmaster, Christopher Ward, joined KSU in April 2002. As webmaster, he designs and maintains the top levels of Kennesaw.edu as well as multiple academic and administrative department sites. In addition to his primary Webmaster duties, he also teaches Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Web Usability courses for faculty and staff through the Center for University Learning; he has designed numerous print pieces for departments, including Intercollegiate Athletics and Academic Affairs; and he produces "OwlTalk," a weekly podcast for the university's athletic program. His achievements at the university include a 2004 CASE Award, a 2004 COSIDA Award, the Center for University Learning's Fall 2008 Facilitator of the Quarter, and recognition as the 2004 Kennesaw State Staff Employee of the Year.

Prior to working at KSU, Chris worked in the Marketing Department at Interland, an Atlanta-based Web hosting company. In his two and a half years at Interland, Chris served as the Webmaster of Interland.com. He also designed and maintained the company's support, newsletter, and intranet sites.

A Kennesaw State alum, Chris graduated in 1995 with a degree in Political Science. His work career also includes three and a half years at the Profit Recovery Group and as the marketing director for On Axis Systems, a small audio/visual company in Kennesaw.

An avid sports fan, Chris is a devout follower to "his" favorite teams - the Super Bowl XXXV Champion, Baltimore Ravens and the 3-time World Series Champion, Baltimore Orioles. Chris has been married for thirteen years to his wife, Michelle (who he met at KSU). They have two daughters, Gracie (8), and Reagan (5).