Spring '22 Announcements
~ From My Writerly World ~
Ukrainian eggs (pysanky) by Andrea Kulish
“Spring in a cold place. Which means everything is so heartbreakingly tender – tulips lifting their dusky prom skirts, dandelions twinkling in their green sky.” Kathryn Petruccelli from “Gratitude,” published in River Teeth’s Beautiful Things
poetry month
April is National Poetry Month. This week I became a Poet-Teacher in training, observing several elementary and middle school classes with California Poets in the Schools, whose mission it is to “help students express their creativity, imagination, and curiosity through poetry.” Many people feel intimidated by poetry, alienated by lofty language and obscure references. As I wrote in my CalPoets application, it's important to demystify poetry to make it more accessible. My teaching approach aligns well with the AWA (Amherst Writers & Artists) philosophy, that writing [poetry] is an art form that belongs to all people, regardless of economic class or educational level. Believing everyone has a voice, I value creative expression through word play. Drawing on sensory imagery and figurative language, even young poets can forge meaning and evoke mood through compression and pattern, repetition and rhythm — what Ellen Bass calls “the production of awe."
In 2013, when I taught in local after-school programs via Take My Word For It, my 4th and 5th graders created similes to describe food using all the senses:
“Bubble gum as soft as a pillow.”
“Macaroni and cheese so slimy that you think it's worms slithering in your mouth.”
“Chips: crunchy like beetles getting crushed.”
“Salt looks like sparkling snow.”
“Corn on the cob: rubbery like a trampoline.”
Looking for more inspiration? CalPoets publishes Poetry Crossing, with 50+ lesson plans for poetry educators and lovers of poetry. Poets.org offers Materials for Teachers with poetry lesson plans, poems for kids and for teens, essays about teaching, and more. Or try them out yourself!
adolescent accolades
Congratulations to Tula Peltz whose poem “Conversations in the Sun” was accepted for inclusion in the 2022 edition of the Marin Poetry Center High School Anthology. Tula was one of three amazing 8th-grade girls whose creative writing I supported last year in a weekly Zoom workshop using prompts and AWA-style reflective group feedback to develop their voices. Her work was one of 52 poems selected by Judy Halebsky, who will choose 3 winning poems and at least 3 honorable mentions, among nearly 900 entries from the Bay Area. Tula's parents are “thrilled with her blooming passion for writing”!
I recently had the pleasure of working 1–on–1 with my niece Brooke and goddaughter Azalea on short essays for their respective college and high school applications. Each one was accepted into her top-choice school: University of California at Berkeley and Convent High School in San Francisco. I’m so proud of the hard work of these intelligent, artistic, socially conscious, and multi-talented students! In a few years they’ll be wearing their own caps and gowns.
awa anniversary
My 17th and 18th AWA 8-week workshop series each filled with nine participants. Our final sessions in March marked the 2-year anniversary of shelter-in-place, when midway through my very first series at The Sitting Room we pivoted to Zoom. Since then, nearly 60 women have participated in Writing From Memory Or Imagination, half of whom have returned at least once.
After I asked writers in my Thursday series to share several words describing any take-aways they received from the group, I created this ‘word cloud’ to showcase them:
Below are excerpts from two writers who were new to my workshops, generated during our last Tuesday session in response to the following 8-minute prompt, quoted from Brené Brown: “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
Here comes Tuesday… almost one o’clock, when I can click the little link and step into a different light. One composed of thoughtful listeners and people good with words — shaping ideas with letterforms, then sprinkling them in our ears. A place where it’s safe to leave the shell behind (over there in the corner) and take an easy breath, expanding tiptoe into new spaces, or darker ones long forgotten. Paint pictures within the mind’s eye — it doesn’t matter if you blink. Safety net is there below. So, share what the poet thinks. ~ Ronna Rajaniemi
‘Seen and heard, deriving sustenance and strength.’ Really quite simple, but band-width is so narrowed by the barrage of too much — too much information, too much uncertainty, too much to process. Allotting this time together, apart from the worldly input, is a kind of creative literary meditation in kind company. Here we have been seen and heard. Here we have gifted and been gifted with strength and sustenance. All that remains is a thank you, to each and to the All. ~ Nicole Bremness
I am taking a hiatus from leading workshops as I refocus my creative energies. In the meantime, please check the AWA calendar for other online offerings such as Tarot Tuesday. Write Around The World offers 52+ writing sessions throughout the month of May by donation.
golden lines
Kudos to Adrienne Momi, a visual artist and multi-series workshop participant, who created and generously contributed original editions of her letterpress mix-and-match book printed at North Bay Letterpress Arts in Sebastopol, Ca. Golden Lines were offered by half a dozen writers in a prior AWA series, and Adrienne used an individual font for each of us.
I donated one of my copies to Macy Chadwick, director of In Cahoots Residency, who has recommended many book artists, including Adrienne, to my workshops. I’ll offer the other one to The Sitting Room, which has generously announced my workshops throughout the pandemic. I hope we can resume there in person when it reopens its doors, someday in the hopeful future.
You can check out more work from Macy and NBLA, as well as Casey Gardner of Set In Motion Press (see the “Listening” linoleum carvings and wood type printed on a Vandercook letterpress below!) at the international CODEX 2022 Book Fair in Richmond, Ca. from April 10–13!
beyond the page
Last month I had such fun participating in a live reading at Da Salon, a monthly pop-up literary arts salon in the backyards of Petaluma. This lively event is spearheaded by the comedic duo, Alia Beeton and Shannon DeJong — “co-conspirators since their tweens, and still dishing up mischief and malarkey in middle-age.” Thanks to Molly and Sarah for coming to listen!
I was also a featured reader in a virtual event hosted by Los Angeles’s Roar Shack for GATHERING: A Women Who Submit Anthology, which includes my essay “The Distance Between,” originally published in the Mason Street Review.
encouraging notes
Amber Petty, whose Freelance Writing for Creatives course I took in December, sent this shout-out in her newsletter:
"Student Nicole Zimmerman had two wonderful stories published. One is a piece for Insider about avoiding conflicts with her wife by scheduling time for each of them to lead (it's really a great idea that most of us could probably put into practice in a lot of relationships) and the other is a beautiful reflection on the art of writing for Women Who Submit."
In response, a fellow student emailed me the following note:
“I just read your beautiful, meditative ‘Breathe & Push’ essay and I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading this. Thank you for so warmly stating our doubts and fears as writers, and offering rays of light on how to rise above them in small steps every day. It's just the message I needed to hear today. (And honestly, every day.)" — Michael Cirigliano II
I remembered this classical music writer for a personal essay he crafted about his He-Man lunchbox from childhood. He says “reconnecting with those characters showed me the ways the show had planted the visual and emotional seeds for shaping my queer identity and building the resilience needed to come of age during the AIDS crisis.” He also told me I “left beautiful comments on the piece that gave me a lot of confidence.” I’m so glad, and I hope to see his story published!
I recently received a coveted personalized rejection from River Teeth’s weekly series, Beautiful Things, and plan to comb through some AWA scribblings to revise and send:
“We enjoyed reading “Love’s Commencement,” but we're going to have to pass this time. We would love to read more of your work, and we hope you will submit to Beautiful Things in the future.”
But wait, there’s more! Kimberly Lee, an AWA workshop leader who attended my last series, offers 100 Words of Writing Advice at Literary Mama, where she is Literary Reflections Editor:
“Try to recapture that childlike state, when you wrote just for the sake of it, without concern for whether anyone outside of yourself will like it, publish it, or favorably review it. Write down every little idea that comes to you, no matter how silly it may seem, even if you don’t know what you will do with it. Release the sense that an essay or story must hit the page in a fully-formed, ready-to-go condition. Focus on the simple joy of creating. Remember writer and educator Pat Schneider’s simple words: ‘A writer is someone who writes.’”
nonfiction bootcamp
This week I received editorial feedback on my first submission of 30,000 words to Nonfiction Bootcamp, a year-long program run by More to the Story for women authors. My editor said she was “riveted” reading my book in progress, a memoir-in-essays entitled Just Some Things We Can’t Talk About, which she called “compelling.” In several pages of written comments she noted:
“Your language is fresh and descriptive. You have a nice balance between narrative and reflection. The structure and pacing of your book are working well. You have a knack for ending each chapter with a gut punch, leaving readers wanting more.”
Wow!! I’m not sure what I was expecting (or bracing myself for), but the largely positive in-line comments and overall feedback on things like narrative structure, setting, conflict, and point of view certainly blew a fresh burst of wind into my sails. Granted, most of the material I submitted had already been through multiple revisions — some of it was previously published work and only required light polishing, while other pieces were more heavily rewritten, with close attention paid to overall arrangement and sequencing to create cohesion — so I had a head start toward my finish line. Now I’m tackling a second 30,000 words, some of it newly generated, for a mid-June deadline!
I’m inspired that Susannah Q. Pratt’s More or Less: Essays from a Year of No Buying, which was completed in the program. It is now available from EastOver Press, which selected her work for their 2021 Prize for Nonfiction. The book includes a blurb from Eula Biss — perhaps best known for On Immunity: An Inoculation — who recently led an incredible 2.5-hour workshop for our cohort on The Art of Writing an Essay Collection.
Creative Nonfiction magazine also offers a 5-week and 10-week Nonfiction Bootcamp. Both are sold out, but I highly recommend their Wednesday Webinar series. In 2021 I took advantage of these informative 2-hour live talks, which were also recorded:
52 Snapshots: A Memoir Starter Kit with Sonja Livingston
Bringing Place to the Page with Clinton Crockett Peters
Revision Made Simple(r) with Marty Levine
Turning Rejections into Publications with Allison K. Williams
Telling an Engaging Narrative About Your Own Work with Chelsea Biondolillo
acknowledgments
I recently met a fellow writer friend, Angela Lam, for our monthly lunch when she surprised me with the gift of her latest book, The Fool and the Magician: a Memoir of Love Told in Tarot Readings. This just-published midlife memoir (available in paperback and Kindle) “explores the tug-of-war between free will and fate, family and desire, duty and selfishness, and the competing needs of security and adventure.” Not only am I pleased to see its completion after reading an earlier draft, but it’s an honor (and a first) to see my name listed on the Acknowledgments page as an accountability partner. Likewise, Angela has been an encouraging witness along my own path toward book completion. Congrats!
courage to complete
Speaking of which… I recently took this aptly named daylong workshop on “getting a creative project over the finish line” with master teacher, Laura Davis (author of The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother-Daughter Story) and award-winning writer/performer, Anne Randolf. Each of them interviewed the other on the type of grit and determination one needs to quiet the inner critic and persist, despite whatever obstacles arise. I was impressed with their fortitude prioritizing their work and resetting determination even when demoralized. As someone who mistakenly thought learning to read in 1st grade meant she must already know how to read (go figure!), it was good to be reminded that perfectionism is a self-limiting belief, making art is a process that requires mistakes, and failure is not an end point.
On April 13, I’m attending a free workshop by Laura Davis and Jeannine Ouellette, who will share decades of experience and perspective in Family Matters: The Ethics, Challenges & Rewards of Writing About Family.
Starting April 25, Anne Randolf leads Unmute Yourself: You Story Matters. This month-long series, M–F at 9am Pacific, includes writing, meditation, guidance, community, and teachings. In my last workshop series I used her promotional — and hilarious — video “Birthing Your Story” as a prompt then wrote and shared aloud the following:
This connection, so conducive to
creativity, our exploration prompted
by a poetic line, image, song, or
scent of memory. We follow them
down well-worn paths, weaving
our fingers through a web of words
finding the through-line, the metaphor.
Now I’m tongue-tied, too aware of time
slipping away. I want to hold onto these
sisters of story, our heart-swap between
squares on screen. It’s impossible not to
birth words into the world, but essential
to hold a receiving blanket for them.
welcome blanket
Feeling overwhelmed and heartbroken by this war-torn world? Handcraft makers are invited to knit, felt, sew, quilt, crochet, or weave a Welcome Blanket to “transform the abstract concept of immigration into a tangible crowd-sourced artistic action.” Created by Jaina Zweiman, founder of the Pussyhat Project, Welcome Blanket includes notecards with family stories about immigration/migration/relocation “to create symbolic and practical gifts of welcome for new refugees coming to the United States.” These gifts are collected, cataloged, and displayed at art institutions and exhibitions: currently at Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). Then 30+ partner refugee resettlement groups give "these tangible gifts of welcome to our newest neighbors.”