writerly world: news & tidbits
July 2024
In this issue: learning modern love; high sierra hikes; story pitch successes; trigger warning: Trump!; writing workshops; komorebi with bethanie; what’s pressing on our hearts…
modern love
I just finished the final session of “Writing the Modern Love Essay,” a 4-week Masters’ Series Course I attended online via Off Assignment. It was taught by Lavinia Spalding, a two-time contributor and The Best Women’s Travel Writing series editor, whom I met at a Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference.
Each week includes a craft talk, followed by Q&A with several essayists published in the New York Times’ Modern Love column, plus a visit from projects editor, Miya Lee, who helped shape my Tiny Love Story, “How To Repair.” We read selected essays, free-write to a prompt, and work on ~550 words a week toward a submittable piece.
For a year or so I’ve compiled notes for a personal essay that periodically gnaws at me: googling my first love only to find a photo of his 52-year-old face with obituary dates.
I’ve culled love letters from our late adolescence (18–22), unearthed old diary entries, and reread a yearlong email exchange from our mid-thirties that briefly ignited an old flame—some of which I wrote about in a 2009 anthology, Relationship Obits: The Final Resting Place for Love Gone Wrong—to come to grips with this strange grief over a romantic partner relegated to the past, while grappling with death’s permanence.
I’m not yet sure Modern Love is the right match, but I’ve learned so much from each session on straightforward storytelling, leaving me eager to explore more material.
sierra silhouette
Yesterday I picked up Kristen—my life partner and presumed last love—from her final trail exit of a 3-week backpacking trip with several pals hiking Nüümü Poyo (the People’s Trail), aka John Muir Trail (JMT), from Independence to Mammoth, a backcountry section of the High Sierra that overlaps with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I’m their trail angel, transporting them to/from trailheads and hosting overnights at my monthlong Airbnb so the crew can refresh with showers, laundry, meals, and resupply their 30-lb. packs each week. I’m so proud of her, especially after spraining her ankle the prior week hiking at Grover Hot Springs State Park.
It's practically a part-time job tracking weather (Sierra thunderstorms!) and wildfires on Watch Duty (so much of the West is on fire or under red flag warnings!)—but I spend most days editing Viator articles and travel itineraries on the deck before the 96–106° heat sets in, or writing indoors with the swamp cooler or a/c. I joined a yoga studio and swim at the Bishop City Park pool, with evening strolls along the canal.
On trail drop-off days I hike a few miles in with them or go solo. My personal fave: Lake Sabrina to Blue Lake, where I swam in the chill of a glaciated granite bowl then descended with a bald eagle flying 50 feet away, before afternoon thundershowers.
Tomorrow we may hike another beloved trail we’ve tackled several times before on car camping trips along scenic Highway 395: Big Pine Creek North Fork Trail, where Jeffrey pines and sage slopes meet granite steps, waterfalls, and glacial lakes.
pitching (hitting?) home runs
I often mix up my idioms, and it’s no surprise I’d “strike out” with a sports analogy. But I have forthcoming publications to celebrate! Since joining The Pitching Hour on Wednesdays with the amazing Amber Petty, who compiles three new freelance pitch calls each week with a Q&A and live pitch critiques, I’ve upped my game. Plus, TPH includes Friday co-working sessions with freelance journalist Sara Murphy—another powerhouse who helps writers get off the plate—and knock the ball out of the park!
First, in May I responded to this pitch callout from Apartment Therapy:
“We want to hear from freelancers who live outside of major cities and would like to write about how their local areas have impacted their home and style.”
The Special Projects Editor approved the “great pitch” I proposed: an essay about the Heritage Home we now rent in Petaluma, California. The edited piece (with photos I took) will appear live on August 7 in their Vibiest Towns in America vertical.
Then, after devouring the refreshingly frank stories on Jenny, a magazine-style website “for women who read,” I pitched a (partially prewritten) personal essay on bikini waxing that humorously examines my historical relationship to body hair removal.
“I love this detailed pitch and think it could definitely be a fit on Jenny.”
Jenny was founded by three midlife writers “for Gen X and elder Millennial women who don’t see themselves reflected in online media today.” (Hello, perimenopause!) My draft is due Aug. 7 to be edited then published Aug. 14 for the Style & Beauty vertical.
trigger warning
This week I reshaped an opinion piece, “Trigger Warning: And Once More, Again,” which I’d initially pitched to the Life Stories section at Salon, pegged to Trump's civil liability for sexual battery in the defamation lawsuits he lost to Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Instead I’ve sent it to About Place Journal for Shaping Destiny, an October issue “reflecting the pre-election, election, and post-election periods.”
In addition, I submitted a shorter (and less politicized) version of the essay, which began as a companion to “There Was A Man Who” and reflects on the vulnerability of disclosure, to Amherst Writers & Artists’ second anthology of writing by survivors of sexual assault called We've Got Some Things to Say (forthcoming 2025).
writing workshops
Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) recently sent participant feedback from a Write Around the World online session I led during its annual fundraiser in May. Out of 250 overall responses in AWA’s exit surveys, time management and maintaining a non-hierarchical atmosphere, even in craft-focused groups, were noted as crucial skills. It was satisfying to read this excellent feedback from those who wrote with me:
“Nicole was an excellent facilitator and brilliantly managed time while giving participants opportunities to write and be heard.”
“The workshop facilitator put forth effort to help me and other new AWA writers feel comfortable.”
“Nicole has a wonderful Zoom presence; she seems joyful and someone I'd like to write with on a regular basis. She is welcoming and managed a missing participant really well.”
“Really enjoyed it. The prompts were fun and we had a great group.”
“The facilitator made it feel very intimate for a large-ish group.”
“Nicole has a smooth air of ease in her encouragement and feedback to the writers in the room.”
With the final Thursday session of my current 8-week workshop series next week, I’ve scheduled another series (Aug. 15–Oct. 3), which quickly filled with 10 recent participants. Look for more offerings in late fall and 2025, hopefully on a new website!
komorebi with bethanie
Bethanie Humphreys, a wonderful AWA colleague and poet who was part of my workshop facilitator training cohort, is offering a series of 1-day, non-consecutive online generative writing workshops via Zoom. Sign up for one session or more:
August 6, 13, 20, 27, 4:30–6:30 p.m. (Pacific); $25 per session
Komorebi is a Japanese word, loosely translated as “scattered sunlight that filters through branches.” Bethanie poetically says:
“Scattered in need of trees to filter light, soften sounds, lengthen the distance between inhale & ex-. We will write to explore what light comes filtering through, to honor, to witness, and to connect.”
Each session begins with a reading and brief discussion of one poem. Participants write in response to craft-driven prompts (no limitations on genre, form, or content) with the opportunity to share your work for gentle AWA-method feedback, if desired.
Learn more about her Komorebi Writing Workshops on Bethanie’s website. Or, sign up for asynchronous, self-paced, online generative writing workshops:
Science Ekphrasis: Writing Scientific Imagery-Inspired Poetry
Where Arts Collide: a 30-Day Poetry Marathon
BIPOC Muses: a 30-Day Poetry Marathon
Women & Non-Binary Muses: a 30-Day Poetry Marathon
The cost without feedback is $100 per workshop (or $75 for BIPOC participants in BIPOC Muses) or you can choose to receive feedback on all poems written during the session for an additional fee. Learn more or email bethaniehu@hotmail.com.
pressing on our hearts
In response to ongoing crises in the Middle East and the world, AWA is also offering another writing session of What's Pressing on our Hearts:
Our intention and hope is to support all writers toward finding common ground and fostering understanding and peace in the world.
Join the session on Sunday, August 18 from 11am–1pm EDT.
The event is by donation with proceeds to be split among Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
leaning tower of books
With a 2-fer memoir offer at Spellbinder I couldn’t part without purchasing books!
What a rich and vibrant day in the life of a writer. A pleasure to read and so many deep issues to read through, the beauty of immersing one self in pristine nature, the inevitability of death, loss and love.