writerly world: news & tidbits
March 2025
In this issue: self-preservation; journal burning; artist residency auction; lit mag writing prompts; workshop openings; free craft sessions; immigration; lit crawl & film fest.
February 14 marked four months since my nephew took his life; next week marks five. I’ve shared some of my journey here in the wake of this tragedy, including the “grief bundle” I wrapped with herbs and threw onto a new year’s eve bonfire at the Tassajara Wildland Firefighter Retreat where I volunteered:
I carried this bundle like a dead bouquet, like a baby. The weight of it made my sorrow tangible, visible. “What a beautiful bundle of grief,” said the Tassajara gardener.
Firefighting was one of several professions Christopher was drawn to but never pursued—an occupation that requires passion and is often imbued with loss. This week the Tassajara retreat leaders sent this message to firefighters who attended:
“Your dedication to firefighting, your professionalism and care of the forests and land, and to protecting people and homes shines brightly in the midst of the current uncertainty that many of you, your colleagues, families and friends are experiencing as federal employees or in the ripples and waves of potential or actualized layoffs and firings…”
Part of the intention of that Zen retreat is to bring healing and renewal to those embattled by firefighting via mindfulness and meditation, and to “build supportive community through witnessing, speaking and listening.” The latter is also what we do in Amherst Writers workshops through sharing our stories and attentive responses.
I spent this Valentine’s Day, my 4-month marker of mourning, leading an AWA workshop for the LGBTQ+ community (10 days after celebrating 18 years with my wife-partner). The theme of this workshop was self-love—from the bookshelf—especially timely as our federal administration works at erasure. I offered words from the late activist poet Audre Lorde, from her 1988 essay collection A Burst of Light":
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare. Self-care, and self-collection, and kindness towards others, are acts of resistance.”
weave it or leave it
One of my biggest fears is that a fire will eradicate my “archives”: files of research, notes, and essay/story drafts—and journals. So many journals! Since I cleared out my wife’s three-generation family farm two years ago, I’ve pared down my belongings to a small closet of clothes; just one bookcase. But I’m a paper hoarder.
I’ve saved all of my journals since the first diary I kept when I was twelve years old: records of heartache, from the anguish of almost-romance in adolescence to the fevers of first love, plus unrequited crushes and friendship entanglements gone awry. For 40+ years I carted them from place to place—more than 15 homes!—storing them in crates, drawers, trunks, and file cabinets. In 2009 I began to transcribe them, but after completing 1994–99 and discarding the original pages, I ran out of steam.
Last week I began anew. But instead of typing up those old words, I ripped them out, page by page. With the exception of excerpts that illuminate a significant event or insight, which I did set aside to weave into an essay or my memoir, I no longer feel compelled to retain all these handwritten pages. It may take months to read and relinquish them all, but I’m determined to discard the weight of past grievances.
Into the wood stove they go! It’s satisfying to watch the flames turn my words to ash.
sitting room round table
Join my FREE creative writing workshop in person tomorrow (International Women's Day), Saturday, March 8, from 10am–12pm, at The Sitting Room, a treasure trove of women’s literature and art. This event is part of the Round Table series: small groups in conversation using the rich resources of the Sitting Room Library. I’m commemorating my first Amherst Writers workshop series, which I began here in person in March 2020 before we pandemic-pivoted to Zoom.
During this creative workshop (or playshop) we will use books, art, and ephemera from The Sitting Room surroundings to prompt our writing. We’ll play with forms, such as erasure poetry and bibliomancy, as we explore the library and write expressively. Participants will have time to share writing aloud (always optional). Attentive listening and affirmative feedback will guide our practice.
RSVP: joannborri@gmail.com. Limited to 10 participants (5 spots left)
in cahoots
I invite you to bid on a writing workshop series I donated to the In Cahoots Residency annual (online) fundraising auction. Bidding ends on Saturday, March 15, with an in-person party, including a live & silent art auction, during an afternoon of music and food. All proceeds go to the In Cahoots grant program, which supports talented artists and writers to attend an in-person residency in pastoral Petaluma, CA.
In Cahoots Residency provides housing and studio space to both emerging and professional artists in a variety of mediums, with a focus on artists books, letterpress, printmaking, writing, and collaboration. Several years ago I had the pleasure of staying for a week in the Hen House cottage and working in the writing studio.
Browse items in the Auction Gallery, now available for bidding!
Value $240 / Starting bid $90 / Bid increment $20
lit mag prompt: resilience
Both of my 6-week workshop series took off two weeks ago with seven participants in each: From Memory or Imagination + Prompted by Literary Publications. In last week’s session for the latter I offered the prompt RESILIENCE, which comes from the EcoTheo Review—at the intersection of ecology, spirituality, and culture—for its themed Spring 2025 issue. I often use calls for submissions to literary magazines to help me shape a piece and use the deadlines as motivation. More often than not, despite my best intentions, these become missed opportunities. This time, however, I completed a 1,500-word piece called “Cease Fire”—a collage (or segmented) essay developed from notes I began in October 2023 to process the news.
Do you have “Send out my work” on your to-do list but never seem to get to it? Join a FREE Submission Party hosted by AWA affiliate Barbara Krasner on the third Friday of each month from 5-6pm ET. (Also: 4 weeks of Ekphrastic Writing, starting April 7.)
Interested in joining my new workshops? Registration is open for the following:
Plus: I’m offering a 6-week series for Newly Trained AWA Workshop Leaders
If you’re an AWA-certified facilitator who hasn’t yet fledged, join other newly hatched workshop leaders in the same “nest.” You’ll gain more experience using the Amherst Writers method and develop more confidence to “fly” on your own.
Thursdays: April 24 – May 29, 2025
10am–12pm Pacific on Zoom
free craft workshops
Writers Forum (with Marlene Cullen) hosts free writing workshops featuring teachers, workshop leaders, and experts in the writing arena, Tuesdays, 6–7:30 p.m. on Zoom:
March 11, Matthew Félix: Get Out of Your Head & Into Your Flow
March 18, Christine Walker: Sensory, Whole-bodied Writing: Bring memorable characters alive on the page
April 15, Rebecca Evans: Part 1: Crafting Flash in Creative Nonfiction
April 22, Part 2: Crafting Flash in Creative Nonfiction
(You can attend Part 2 without attending Part 1.)
Whether or not you attend any, it’s worth reading “Mapping Out the Human Experience,” an account of resilience and fortitude through writing by Rebecca Evans, a memoirist, essayist, and poet whose writing explores “what it means to navigate this world as a woman, a Jew, a single mom, a veteran, dwelling in broken body and heart”:
“The page always opened itself as my sacred and safe space, allowing me to lean into the mystical and magical, the fractured and disassembled, the stories we fail to speak aloud, and the way silence spills into self-destruction.”
presidential woes
Nearly all of the four Write Around the World workshop sessions I led for the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) annual fundraiser in February filled to capacity, including President’s Day: Finding consolation in poetic expression.
Each one was enriching, for me as well as for those who attended (based on their powerful writing and responses), such as this President’s Day participant:
“Thank you for a wonderful AWA workshop where my soul could speak and my tears flow.”
To spark our writing I centered the words of African-American women in honor of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March)—and in defiance of the spray-tan commander who demands compliance to stripping DEI, whitewashing the country’s history and its future.
“If now isn’t a good time for the truth, I don’t see when we’ll get to it.” — Nikki Giovanni
We revisited Amanda Gorman reading “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration. Here’s part of an (edited) poem I wrote, prompted by hers:
I see a young queen, yellow-robed with red crown and shimmering skin,
Carrying a ring-caged bird Oprah gifted in homage to Angelou:
I know why, I know why she sings, this self-identified “skinny Black girl
Descended from slaves,” the youngest inaugural poet at twenty-three—
“Not because we will never again know defeat” she speaks, of a country
Bruised, as Kamala nods knowingly in her purple suit.
Just one inauguration ago, and it already feels like eons.
And, finally, this quote from Toni Morrison who, in 1993, became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, among multiple accolades:
“This is precisely when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.” — Toni Morrison
make america welcome
Here’s my Viator article from New York in October: Visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Gave Me a Deeper Appreciation of Immigration History in America:
“My paternal grandfather, born in 1915, was one of 11 siblings, half of which were born in NYC like him. Their father Chaim (later Americanized as Hyman) emigrated via Ellis Island in 1901. Four years later, their mother Dora arrived with her eldest three in tow: Rosa (Rose), Reisie (Bessie), and Mindel (Minnie). I’d brought along a studio portrait of Dora with a baby in her arms and two girls in matching coat dresses, possibly taken before her husband boarded a steamship. We learned that it was common for men to emigrate first to secure work, then send for family.”
film fest + lit crawl
Don’t miss these events in conjunction with Sebastopol Center for the Arts:
Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, produced by Cynthi Stefenoni (who participated in my workshops several times, including last year’s LitCrawl). It make be a small-town production, but this film fest is designated as an Oscar® qualifying festival for short documentaries!
March 27–30 in-person schedule + March 31–April 9 virtual streaming.
Check out the catalog and trailers of 16 virtual films (available March 31): With each purchase you have 10 days to start watching and 48 hours to finish once you begin.
“Nonfiction storytelling has always been intriguing to me. I have always been an activist for social justice… I continue to be amazed by those who show me worlds I might never encounter otherwise. I believe that there is a need for my bubble to be pierced by the stories of others as often as possible.” — Cynthi Stefenoni
I’ve already got my eyes on The Apology (“a thriving Bay Area community wiped off the mat”); No One Asked You (“fighting misogyny with comedy”); The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing (“reclaimed film archive of Palestinian wildflowers”).
Purchase passes: 6-Film Bundle ($75) to reserve up to 6 tickets for live or streaming films or short film blocks, or an All Streaming Pass for any virtual screening ($125).
Lit Crawl Sebastopol
Saturday, May 17th from 12–6pm
Applications are due March 15 for Sonoma County’s second annual literary pub crawl, which will feature 200+ authors during “six hours of literary mayhem.” Lit Crawl accept submissions from literary organizations, writing groups, reading series, and publications. Last year I curated my own fabulous group from my workshops. This year I was invited to participate in a group representing The Sitting Room. Put the date for this Litquake event on your calendar if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area!
community building business
Last month I celebrated the website launch for my business:
Pencil & Pen speaks to the physicality of writing and its revisionary stages — from those first pencil strokes to committing ideas to paper with a pen. I meet you wherever you are in the writing process, with a mutually supportive writing community and mentoring support.
I hired Squarespace designer Rachel Rosenthal, who posted my testimonial:
Rachel featured my website project in her portfolio, with a behind-the-scenes peek:
“We are thrilled to announce the successful launch of Pencil & Pen, a fresh new brand that brings creativity and connection to writing enthusiasts!”
Click on my Home page for an intro to my services, the Workshops page for upcoming offerings; and the Events page shows upcoming readings or special events!
