San Fernando Valley Branch
Hits an Anniversary Milestone
Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and Motion Picture and Television Fund CEO Bob Beitcher commemorated the 30th anniversary of the California Writer Club’s San Fernando Branch during a special ceremony held at SFV’s meeting on Saturday, October 7, in Woodland Hills. Blumenfield presented a proclamation to the branch while saluting its role in supporting and educating the community and its writers.
Beitcher said the Motion Picture and Television Fund has been privileged to host the club for the past 10 years, saying the club’s mission is compatible with the MPTF’s “in helping navigate life with a purpose and living with dignity. In fact, over the years various residents from our campus have participated in and benefited from the club. And the club has been wonderfully generous in supporting our own Grey Quill Society — residents on our campus who gather weekly to share their own writing projects. . . . It’s really been a blessed partnership.”
Former CWC presidents Yolanda Fintor and Mary Freeman, who both helped the branch charter in 1986 and are recipients of the CWC’s prestigious Jack London Award, hosted the event.
Southern California Writer
Named 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow
The MacArthur Foundation has announced the 24 recipients of the 2017 MacArthur Fellowship. The recognition comes with a no-strings-attached $625,000 award, paid out over the course of five years. The list includes Los Angeles fiction writer and cultural critic Viet Thanh Nguyen for “challenging popular depictions of the Vietnam War and exploring the myriad ways that war lives on for those it has displaced.”