Erma Bombeck, who chronicled the foibles of family life with humor and heart, first heard the words, “You can write!” from her University of Dayton English professor.
That’s the workshop’s mantra as we encourage and support writers whose work and the spirit of the workshop are featured in these books. Proceeds benefit the workshop’s endowment fund, which helps keep the event affordable for writers.
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One Heart with Courage: Essays and Stories
Teri Rizvi
Teri Rizvi, the founder and director of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, brings a powerful, original voice to a collection of essays that shows why our dreams matter. Woven throughout her writings is a deep faith in what’s possible when we open our hearts.
A journalist and storyteller who has traveled widely, Rizvi writes with grace and eloquence about her marriage, which spans two cultures and two religions in a world that’s too often divided. Her lyrical writings illuminate our shared humanity through a series of small, everyday moments — a child’s T-ball practice, a socially distanced parking lot lunch with a friend — as well as recollections of major life milestones such as joyful weddings in foreign lands.
The book takes its title from a phrase that Martin Sheen uttered when he received an honorary degree from the University of Dayton: “Remember this above all: One heart with courage is a majority.”
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Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter
Marcia Stewart and Teri Rizvi
Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter explores the humorous, nobody-else-could-ever-understand, magical, cherished world of sister relationships. Features 21 hilarious (and true) stories by the winners of Nickie’s Prize for Humor Writing from the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. Plus dozens of funny contributions — from New York Times bestselling authors and Saturday Night Live legends to comedians, podcasters and other creatives.
Edited by Marcia Stewart and Teri Rizvi. Designed and illustrated by Drue Wagner. Honors include:
- First-Place Winner in the 30th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards Competition in the memoirs/life stories category.
- Winner in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Program in the nonfiction (relationships) category. Finalist in the gift books category.
- Finalist in 2022 International Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest in humor/comedy/satire category.
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Laugh Out Loud: 40 Women Humorists Celebrate Then and Now … Before We Forget
Allia Zobel Nolan
Remember ironing your hair? Rolling it in soda cans to straighten it? Lacquering it with enough spray that it could ward off bullets? Ever slather on cement-colored lipstick so heavy, you looked like a zombie princess? Remember hot pants and platform heels? The danger of patent-leather shoes? Were you a secretary, nurse, or teacher, but only, as our mothers urged us, until you found “Mr. Right.” Allia Zobel Nolan and 40 funny ladies from the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop chronicle these blips in time as they look back at life in the past lane. Zobel Nolan and the other dancing queens then fast forward to today and write about what it’s like to blink and wake up to be 50, 60, 70, and beyond — experiences ranging from cremation ceremonies to marrying younger men, from senior online dating to finding yourself a menopausal maniac in Mexico.
