By Grace Chan
As we close out 2025, my first WiPS festive dinner represented many firsts for me.
My first time meeting WiPS friends who I had known only through Zoom. We shared stories of everything – from personal writing wins and challenges, to paper versus Kindle, to faraway travel adventures, to the secret to making butter thick and creamy.
“Lovely to finally put faces to the names I see so often! Glad I made it back from Melbourne just in time to meet these amazing people.” – Erin Chung
My first time having pink butter. It was like having a scoop of strawberry ice cream on my bread plate but without the sugar. I should’ve exercised better self-control because the food kept coming – Caesar brussels sprouts, Heirloom carrots, Vodka nduja cavatelli, and more. Well done, Crushed Wines. I’m definitely coming back.
“It was so fun to share the joy of literature, the joy of food, and most of all, to learn from all the warm and passionate people around me.” – Lani Chan
My first time participating in a Book Exchange, orchestrated by Gentle Books. Once you pick out a book from The Bag, you could either keep it or force-exchange with (i.e., steal from!) someone else. This started with lots of courtesy and no steals…until one inciter (will not name) decided to shake things up – sparking strategy and laughter in the room.
“Despite the ruthless book stealing, we all managed to walk out of there with two books that we’re pretty excited about.” – Rinkoo Ramchandani