La Bloga: Report from the field: Alburquerque, 10th NLWC Day One

A busy, fully engaged day. From 8 a.m. until who knows what hour tonight.

Clara Apodaca, Chair of the NHCC Foundation. Apodaca's incredibly dedicated staff make NHCC programming possible by fundraising fundraising and more fundraising.

Among the many vitally important experiences available only to NLWC attenders: hanging out with friends and new friends.

Hanging out.

Volunteers. Believe it, these volunteers work hard. Thank you, volunteers for your help and commitment to community and arts.

Volunteers. These volunteers staffed the breakfast buffet. Thank you ladies for a beautifully presented table and excellent choices.

Open Microphone at lunch gives numerous writers the opportunity to read their stuff to their fellow artists. While no one wins a standing ovation, everyone earns warm feelings and pats on the back for superb writing and performance. It's a lottery system, and these writers are winners of day one.

NLWC presents a single limitation, time. Five workshops run simultaneously, meaning one must pick and choose and miss the other seminars. Topics get repeated, so if a writer misses Tim Hernández' fiction workshop day one at 10, day two at 9:00 Tim's workshop runs a second time.