five more voices
~ five writers, each issue ~
generations of West Virginia creative writing
You're invited
to feel proud!
For an
intro,
click the "About"
tab
Welcome! We're new and free of charge!
We're all about West Virginia! And we won't spam you!
Two good reasons to get on our mailing list: ​
(1) ... you'll be sure to get every issue, five more West Virginia writers every time. ​
(2) ... you'll help us be able to keep producing five more voices, free of charge! If 5,000 people sign up, we'll be in great shape to approach sponsors and funders at the end of the year.
If you already signed up, thanks! We won't give out your email, and you can quit any time.
What is five more voices?
West Virginia produces remarkable writers. Each issue of five more voices will introduce you to five more. Some will be well known, some won't. Some will be on their way. All will be interesting. Each time, at least one of the five will be 18 or under.
We hope to publish three to four times a year. We’ll email issues to our list as soon as they are released. You can un-sign up any time you want to. If 5,000 people have signed up on the mailing list after a year, we’ll keep it going.
Five more voices grew out of the original Voices of West Virginia web site. On that site, you can listen to wonderful audio visits with 14 of West Virginia's celebrated writers. They talk about their WV childhoods and writing habits. They give moving readings and solid advice about writing. There are hundreds of writing exercises on the Activities page.
People love the Voices site. If you haven't seen it, take a look. People get excited about West Virginia writers and start asking if there are more. You bet there are!
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Five more voices is an experiment. If people like it and all goes well, we’ll keep doing it. So if you like it, help us get started! Get on the list! Pile on! You'll get each issue, we won’t spam you, and it’s free.
You can already find 14 WV writers at www.voicesofwv.org. Now we're bringing you more.
Marshall University Libraries is our home base. The Marshall Foundation is our fiscal sponsor.
Five More Voices is funded this first year by the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation.
Why are we doing this?
For one thing, we want West Virginia kids to have easy access to writer role models.
Many West Virginians don’t know about our writers, in part because there's been no way to get to know them. We'd like to help change that. It's the power of role models. When a WV basketball team is winning, kids all over want to play basketball. We'd like to help connect students – and adults – with West Virginia writer role models, for inspiration, validation, motivation and just plain enjoyment.
Would you like to write for five more voices?
We're looking for experienced, high quality writers who are passionate about West Virginia. If that's you, you may want to apply to write for five more voices. Thanks to the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, we can pay you!.
Look at the stories in this issue to get a feel for it. Send samples of your writing, tell us what you've done, and write an email telling why you'd like to help connect West Virginians with our writers. Send to: info@voicesofwv.org.
Staff and advisory board
At this point, we have a staff of one volunteer editor, one tech consultant and one intern.
We hope to expand. We also have a terrific group on our advisory / brainstorming board. And, thanks to the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, we are able to sign up some fine writers to help put the stories together. Click on the Word icon for a list of the staff and advisory board. The advisory board includes people from the state Department of Education, the Library Commission, Culture and History and multiple colleges and universities.