President to President: A conversation between TK Thorne and TJ Beitelman.
TJ Beitelman: Like a lot of organizations, AWC really seems at an inflection point. The world is changing—the world of writing/writers is changing—and it can sometimes feel daunting to keep pace and look to the future. It’s really exciting, though, too. Before we do that, though, I want to hear some of your reflections on your tenure as AWC President. What’s your proudest accomplishment in that role?
TK Thorne: I am most proud of bringing onto the board amazing people like you and Alina Stefanescu and Ashley Jones. I’ve found that leadership is often a matter of not standing in the way of good ideas and energy and figuring out ways to support, implement, and augment them. The new energy on the board and the resulting ideas have catapulted us forward, enabling a new website and newsletter which have been keys to fulfilling our mission and resulted in increasing memberships.
I’m proud that AWC was able to support Alina and Ashley in their initial efforts to bring about the Magic City Poetry Festival, which now stands on its own. Their efforts have also brought a local chapter of PEN America to our region. And I’m really proud of the work we did to navigate a name change and a strategic planning process that has examined who we are and where we want to go.
TJ Beitelman: That’s a lot to be proud of, for sure. I’ve really admired your vision as a leader, and it doesn’t surprise me that relationships are where it starts for you. What are some other relationships that have been valuable to you in your time as President?
TK Thorne: I’ve particularly relied on Hank Henley who has served as membership chair and treasurer over the years. I have told him often that he is my “rock.”
TJ Beitelman: I feel lucky that he’s agreed to stay on board as treasurer. He’s so often the smartest guy in the room, and he’s so good at both listening and then synthesizing information.
TK Thorne: AWC is a bunch of great, supportive people. Others have contributed in many ways and without them we would not have been able to put on the annual conference (thank you, Jessica Jones), organized the writing contests and publications (thank you, Linda Parker, Carol Hull, Mary Murphy and Anne Bailey). Dean Bonner, as historian, has worked to provide an archival home for our history and a richer layer of the past, a foundation for where we are heading. Claire Datnow, in addition to taking on the position of Recording Secretary, has initiated a program to support workshops in local communities as supplementation to our annual conference. Of course, I can’t say enough about our past presidents, especially Sue B. Walker, who led AWC through challenging times and has been my mentor, always there when I had a question or needed a sounding board.
TJ Beitelman: That’s a lot to be thankful for.
TK Thorne: We have competent board members, both new and experienced, ready to support the new leadership. It gives me great pleasure to know the organization is in sound hands, and I am looking forward to continuing to serve as past president. Now I have a question for you: What do you see in the future for AWC?
TJ Beitelman: First I need to learn the ropes. Our succession has been a little unconventional, with JJ choosing to stick with the VP role as opposed to assuming the President’s role, as it has typically been done in the past. I’ll be glad for all of that support you mentioned earlier.
TK Thorne: I’ll be around too, like Sue was for me!
TJ Beitelman: I’m grateful for that, and for the momentum you’ve created around expanding and diversifying our membership. And the new name is a big reflection of that, by the way. It will likely go down as one of your big legacies as President of the organization. What was that process like for you?
TK Thorne: Consideration of a name change began with input from members about a negative, outdated connotation to the word “conclave,” which means “a private or secret meeting,” the opposite of our vision of an open, inclusive organization. That perception was confirmed for me when I asked a prominent author in Canada to be a speaker at our conference, and she said she hesitated at our name. As a co-chair of the Long-Range Planning Committee, TJ, you took on leadership of a comprehensive, deliberate process that included a membership survey, a working committee, and the board. The recommendations that came out of that were ultimately put to the general membership. I’m happy with our new name, Alabama Writers’ Cooperative" and feel that it represents who we are as an organization, while keeping our sharp new logo and website and linking to our history with “AWC.” I’m really pleased with process and the result.I’m grateful for that, and for the momentum you’ve created around expanding and diversifying our membership. I love our new “tagline”—Engaging and nurturing a diverse community of Alabama writers. I want us to use that as a litmus test for all our programming, and if we do, I see no reason why we can’t really grow in healthy, sustainable ways.
TJ Beitelman: Well said. I also love our new “tagline,” which came out of that process as well—Engaging and nurturing a diverse community of Alabama writers. I hope we can use the name and that new tagline that as a kind of litmus test for all our programming. How are we fostering a spirit of cooperation among writers and writing organizations in Alabama and beyond? How are we engaging and nurturing a diverse community of those writers? If we work with those questions in mind, I see no reason why we can’t really grow in healthy, sustainable ways. The two places I’d like to focus our energies the most are in the conference itself and in supporting the poet laureate in outreach activities throughout the state. Those are the two historical pillars of the AWC’s enterprise—the conference and the poet laureate—and I want to make sure those pillars are as strong as they possibly can be.
TK Thorne: It’s an exciting time to be involved in the Alabama Writers’ Cooperative.
TJ Beitelman: Yes it is. I’m looking forward to the next two years. Thanks for taking the time to volley back and forth like this!
TK Thorne: I’m happy to do it. Onward and upward!
T.K. Thorne (our Outgoing AWC President) is a retired police captain, explores murder, mayhem, and magic when a police officer discovers she’s a witch in her newest novel, House of Rose, the first of the Magic City stories. T.K.’s childhood passion for storytelling deepened when she became a police officer in Birmingham, Alabama. “It was a crash course in life and what motivated and mattered to people.” Her writing reflects her eclectic interests. Both of her award-winning debut historical novels, Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate, tell the stories of unknown women in famous tales—the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. Her first non-fiction book, Last Chance for Justice, the inside story of the investigation and trials of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, was featured on the New York Post’s “Books You Should Be Reading” list. T.K. loves traveling and speaking about her books and life lessons. She writes at her mountaintop home, often with a dogs and cat vying for her lap.
TJ Beitelman (Our Incoming AWC President) chairs the Creative Writing department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, where he’s taught writing and literature since 2002. A graduate of the University of Alabama’s MFA program in Creative Writing, he’s been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. In addition to his role on the AWC board, he’s also on the board of the Alabama Writers’ Forum. His work has appeared in various literary venues, including DIAGRAM, Posit, Blackbird, Quarterly West, Colorado Review, New Orleans Review, and Bellevue Literary Review. The author of six books, his latest poetry collection, This Is the Story of His Life (2018), is available through Black Lawrence Press. He can be found on-line at tjbman.me and on Twitter: @TJBeitelman.