An award-winning local author is now being recognized for her volunteer work with Wyoming Writers, Inc.
Alethea Williams of Green River was presented with the Emmie Mygatt Award at the 44th Wyoming Writer Conference. She was honored for the work she did while on the Wyoming Writers Board. Williams served on the board for seven years. During her time on the board, she served as the president, vice president and treasurer. Williams also wrote grants and served as the institutional memory.
“The biggest part of having to stand up at the banquet and get the award is trying to get others to volunteer,” Williams said.
After Monday when Williams relinquishes her treasurer spot on the board, she will no longer be on the board.
“I’m going to take a break,” she said. “Somebody else needs a turn.”
To encourage others to volunteer, Williams made sure to tell everyone she didn’t have any experience prior to serving on the board.
In fact, during her term as president, she said she never would have been able to do it had past presidents not given her advice.
Over the years, Williams has noticed a change with who Wyoming Writers members are. She said at first is was a lot of people around her age, but now she is seeing younger authors joining and she’s excited.
Williams sees it as an opportunity for the younger writers to gain volunteer experience not only to build a nice resume, but for the experience they will get. She said they will also make a lot of friends and future reference contacts.
Williams joined Wyoming Writers in 1991 and as she put it, was talked into joining the board at one of the conferences where everyone was having a good time and happy. One benefit to Wyoming Writers is it’s open to all Wyoming writers.
“We get people from all kinds of diverse backgrounds,” she said.
In other states, it’s common for them to have numerous writing groups from fiction, nonfiction and poetry to various groups for specific genre writing. Even though Wyoming does have its own poetry group now, there are still a lot of poets who have remained Wyoming Writers members.
When Williams isn’t busy with her volunteer work, she’s working on books for her Irish Blessings series. Her first book “Walls for the Wind,” received many awards. The second book in the series, “Joy That Long Endure,” was published in May. Williams said she will at Bunning Park at International Day, July 14, to sign books, but she wouldn’t be there all day.
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