RJ Hembree (Bob) Created WVU in 1995.

I have been part of Writer’s Village University for a few years.

What WVU has done for me?  One day in October of 2015, I was a passenger in a car that was rear-ended while we were sitting at a red light. I was talking to the driver, turned to my left when the force of the impact lifted me and threw me towards the windshield. My seatbelt engaged and slammed me back into my seat. My left side hit the seat first.  I was able to hobble away -due to pure luck. My doctor told me, that if I had hit straight back, I would have died instantly; instead, I damaged the left side of my cerebellum and my optic nerve. One- of many -very scary issues was that I couldn’t read and understand anything. I would try and read and reread a sentence and I couldn’t understand a word. It took me months of piecing together one word at a time.  I used a piece of paper to block all words except for the one I needed to read.

How does this wiggle into WVU?

Those classes, at WVU, helped me to keep trying. Keep reading. Keep learning, even if it was only one word. I am stubborn. I had paid for a WVU membership and I planned on getting my money’s worth. So I pushed blindly forward.

I found a wonderful group of writer’s who share, learn, and have fun with an exchange of views in classes, and on the forums.

If a book is needed for class, there will be a link where you can buy it, usually at Amazon. I have saved a lot of money by finding the reading material either from eBay, at my library or on Hoopla digital.

If you sign up for a class then find you can’t finish the class, you can drop it and try again the next time it comes around.  Usually, the next date will be posted under the class information.  Labeled: Event repeats.

Sure, you can read and do the lessons by yourself. But, when you interact with classmates through comments and questions you will learn ‘how to see’ and ‘fix’ your own writing.

The length of each class is shown on the class sign up page. The course page will have information and each lesson listed.

By joining an open class, ( one posted on the calendar)  you will receive a lot more information than is listed on the course page. You will be able to ask questions of the Mentor or the Facilitator

A moderator adds welcome posts and extra information. Answers questions, post assignments, and track’s attendance.

A facilitator is more visible steers communication, welcome and introduction posts, posts assignments, texts, and feedback instructions. And is the go to person for reporting problems, while taking the class.

I would recommend, that once you completed a class that you enter it into the MFA program.

Credits are counted by weeks. A two-week class is 2 credits, four weeks is 4 credits.

Once you have gone through the core classes and submitted into each workshop.    You will be eligible for an MFA certificate.

Writer’s Village University is not an accredited school.

Please, make sure to keep a copy of your finished and entered classes. I keep a hard copy in a folder. (No I don’t but I am printing that out as I am typing this (um, not really but I will)- Major problem-My printer is out of ink.)  {{GRIN}}

On WVU you will meet wonderful writers of all ages, in all stages of learning.

Downside: Writer’s Village University is not an accredited school.

Writer’s Village University Publishes an  E-zine called the Village Square. Submissions are restricted to members of Writer’s Village University in the MFA program.   Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Photography; Writer’s Village University (WVU) also, has a photography group.

Here is my prose poem, from the July 2018 issue. I tend to take from my life. Can you guess what was going on when I wrote this?

Dump The Core!

By Gerardine Baugh

It is just after ten at night. Michael changes the channel so Captain Janeway shows up in black and red; she is leaning over Ensign Wildman and strokes Naomi’s chubby baby cheeks. Can all that new baby smell come through the screen? The Captain wants to add the baby’s name to the blanket she had knitted. Michael imagines her with balls of yarn rolling across her ready room, knit-one-pearl-two, she shouts out, warp core breach, which brought Michael to his feet, and sends him rushing to the toilet. “Dump the core!” He yells as the door slowly closes behind him. Explosions pour from the television rousing his cat. The cat stands up slowly stretching, paying homage to the assault on his nap with a sun salutation; then leaps off its pillow, and with padded paws hurries across the floor to the bathroom door, pushing it open with its head. The thud could be heard over the rising volume. Just as the phase discriminator of the sensor array brings tears to the cat’s eye’s it runs back to the living room. Where it steps on the remote changing Michael’s world into the horror of home shopping. He shuffles out of the bathroom, his pants dusting the floor. He grabs the remote and helps Voyager realign in the correct space as a grappler draws him back to his warp core breach.

LOL! 

There is so much more at WVU then I can list here. Come in for coffee and stay awhile. You won’t be disappointed.