Learning to be a writer? Clinic topics include ChatGPT and getting an agent – NOLA.com
A writers’ clinic is coming up Aug. 19 at the Metairie Library.
A writers’ clinic is coming up Aug. 19 at the Metairie Library.
Local authors and educators Gary Arnold and Alexandra Weiss will be featured in the August Saturday Writers’ Clinic beginning at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 19 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie.
9:30 a.m.: Gary Arnold, “ChatGPT Is Coming Your Way”
Arnold, owner of Windhorse Corp., a publishing and media development company, will discuss the new technology ChatGPT, a natural language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence that allows people to have humanlike conversations with a chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist with tasks such as composing emails, essays and code.
Released in November 2022, it can have conversations on topics from history to philosophy, generate lyrics in the style of James Taylor or Aretha Franklin, and suggest edits to computer programming code.
Arnold has circled the globe 22 times to deliver more than 1,200 presentations on branding, web marketing, strategic planning, and personal and corporate development. He has written 15 books, and produced more than 100 audio books and 12 DVD movies.
11 a.m.: Alexandrea Weiss, “Every Writer’s Dream — Getting an Agent”
The session will help attendees decide if getting an agent is the right thing for them to do. “Every writer’s dream is to acquire an agent, but it wasn’t mine,” Weiss said. “I was comfortable in the self-published world, and gave up attempting to find an agent. That’s when I found mine. It didn’t happen in the traditional/query letter way, but once I had signed on the dotted line, doors opened, and my career changed.”
The session will break down a process that goes beyond the query letter by using research, social media and a little self-promotion.
Weis, a native New Orleanian, is an advanced practice registered nurse. Raised in the motion picture industry, she began writing at age 8. Infusing the rich tapestry of her hometown into her award-winning novels, she says that creating vivid characters makes a story moving and memorable.
ROMANTIC POETS: Library staff member Christie Cognevich, Ph.D., will give a lecture titled “Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and the English Sonnet Tradition” at 7 p.m. Aug. 21 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie.
Attendees will explore how Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese” and Rossetti’s “Monna Innominata” are groundbreaking sonnet sequences which offer women’s voices responding to and reimagining the sonnet traditions named for Petrarch and Shakespeare.
Cognevich earned a master’s in English literature from the University of New Orleans and a doctoral degree in English literature from Louisiana State University. She taught English literature and writing for more than a decade. Her scholarly specialties include Romantic and Victorian poetry.
GENEALOGY SERIES: Gwen Kelley, a librarian who specializes in genealogy and local history, will lead a presentation on Facebook and genealogy at 6 p.m. Aug. 16 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie.
The next session focuses on ways that Google can help track down genealogy information. It happens at 6 p.m. Aug. 23 also at the East Bank Regional Library. Music is provided before each session by Memory Lane.
FOOD AND COCKTAILS: The monthly cocktail and food demonstration will be held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Jane O’Brien Chatelain West Bank Regional Library, 2751 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey.
The cocktail portion starts at 6:30 p.m. and features cocktail historian Elizabeth Pierce, who will discuss hurricanes and Prohibition. This talk is followed at 7:30 p.m. by the demonstration of making spring rolls by Ann Nguyen.
BOATING SAFETY: The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will conduct a boating safety class from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Terrytown Library, 680 Heritage Drive, Terrytown.
Students who complete the course will be issued a vessel operators certification card. Preregistration is recommended by going to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries website.
‘NINE LIVES’: Michael Parker leads a group discussion of “Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans” by Dan Baum in remembrance of Hurricane Katrina, from 2 to 3 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Rosedale Library, 4036 Jefferson Highway.
The book is a multi-voiced biography told through the lives of nine unforgettable characters and bracketed by two epic storms: Hurricane Betsy, which transformed New Orleans in the 1960s, and Hurricane Katrina, which nearly destroyed it.
MARS TALK: NASA Ambassador John Martinez will give a presentation titled “What’s New on Planet Mars?” at 7 p.m. Aug. 22 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie.
The presentation will include an overview of the mission, scientific findings, the possibility of past life, progress on core sample collection, and a brief discussion of the proposed sample return mission scheduled for 2030.
GROUP READ: JPL staff and patrons will read the classic poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, at 7 p.m. Aug. 31 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” recounts the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest’s reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner’s story progresses.
The longest major poem by the English poet, it was written in 1797—1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Those interested in reading a portion of the poem should contact Chris Smith at (504) 889-8143 or wcsmith@jplibrary.net.
Chris Smith is manager of adult programming at the Jefferson Parish Public Library.
Chris Smith is manager of adult programming at the Jefferson Parish Public Library.
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