writerly world: news & tidbits
December 2024
In this issue: Amherst Writers & Artists ~ Word of the Year; January workshop series; golden lines group poem; AWA anthology; Write Around the World; sorrow/beauty in a poem.
word of the year
Nearly 18 years ago my wife and I spent our first New Year’s day together at the beach, sharing our intentions for the coming year, which we distilled into a word. Now it’s become a tradition. My 2024 word was: Experiment. For 2025: Expansive?
Not sure about yours? Join Amherst Writers affiliate Kimberly Lee for Discover Your 2025 Word of the Year! Start a new tradition of self-discovery and growth using the power of SoulCollage®, expressive writing, and imaginative activities, in community with others on the same quest. You’ll create a practical plan to incorporate this meaningful word into your life, making it a catalyst for positive change.
Saturday, January 4, 2025, 8am–11am Pacific Time via Zoom: $80
Following the workshop, each participant will receive an elegant wooden card, laser-etched with their personally chosen word by ohlittlewren. Learn more & register here.
writing workshop series: january
Is your heart bursting with things you want to say on the page? Do you yearn for self-expression or storytelling, but hesitate to get your words down? You’re hardly alone. Most people who reach out to me feel excited — and a bit nervous — about joining a writing group or receiving individualized feedback. Writing is vulnerable work. Sharing our writing with others requires courage and trust.
I just completed two 5-week series on Zoom, each with 8-9 participants. In our closing circles people talked about the joy (and surprise) of writing freely and unencumbered, with boldness and courage, with a softening inner critic. One said listening to others’ writing transports us to other worlds: a kaleidoscope of words.
I still have a few spots left in my next AWA workshop series, Weds or Thurs:
From Memory or Imagination starts in January. Register by Dec. 21!
$240 for each 6-week series:Wednesdays, 10am–12pm Pacific: Jan 8, 15, 22, 29 + Feb 5, 12
Thursdays, 10am–12pm Pacific: Jan 9, 16, 23, 30 + Feb 6, 13
We’ll write to prompts that spark memory, imagination, or observation, then receive positive group feedback to support our creative practice. You’re free to experiment.
Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) defines a writer simply as "someone who writes." The basic philosophy: Writing as an art form belongs to all people.
Nicole’s generous, down-to-earth spirit made a writing group that was almost instantly—like, from the very first prompt—both comfortable and generative for me. I felt like I could truly write what and however I wanted, and know that my words were safe with her and the group she attracts. I've just signed up for another series and I can't wait. – Katherine S.
What do you dream of? What do you seek? Here’s what others say:
to write my story for my own benefit
to document and share feelings and impressions
trying other styles, writing something new and different
a way back to writing with more practice and reflection
to get started again or keep my writing going
inspiration for memoir/fiction/poetry I'm working on
golden line group poem
On Monday I led AWA’s December Online Monthly Write, accompanied by breakout room facilitators Isabella Moreno, Lisa Orlick, and Fran Gary. I offered several prompts, which are always invitations, never assignments. Here’s an example:
“Go talk to the moon tonight. Release your fear, worries, and doubts. None of them will last anyway. La luna reminds us of this: That night will always find its morning. That everything comes to an end. And that even when you appear to be in total darkness, there will always be a light who finds you, who shows you the way.”
~ Xelena Gonzalez, We’Moon 2024 datebook Luminations
Returning from our breakout rooms, I asked the participants to find a golden line in whatever they wrote during the session: anything that shimmers or gleams. We each typed our lines into the “chat” to compile a group poem, then read aloud:
Two spirited women sharing the dawn.
And somehow I knew the name before they told me.
Slaying the dragons sorting junk mail with the Biblio therapist reading excerpts from an unopened book.
Well, the list is long, mom.
She envisioned holding a pillow over his face and pressing down hard—really hard.
But you’re so quiet in your broken branch tiara.
How many times have I talked to the moon, La Luna, who takes my sorrows?
There’s been so many before you, we’ve lost count.
I may not always be visible, but I am always here.
Oh! How I wish to remember moments like this. What if all we were were moments?
Hours later I remember what I intended to do. My life is full of what I intended to do and did not do.
These moon phases are sacred. And practical; just ask the tides.
An avalanche of words.
To go where there be dragons.
Never enough snow in Tennessee.
Moon lantern for the lost.
I hope to be a blessing in your eyes.
Thank you, sister moon, for keeping me companioned as I wait for solstice.
There are three incarnations existent here, but hopefully today will be my final one.
reshaping narratives
Join AWA for an inspiring evening at the launch of We’ve Got Some Things to Say, now available for purchase—including my list poem, “There Was a Man Who.”
Date: Saturday, January 25, 2025
Time: 5 p.m. EST / 2 p.m. PST
Location: Zoom
“This powerful collection of survivors' stories gives voice to their truths, stories, and experiences. With work from more than 35 authors representing a diversity of voices, this anthology forms a magnificent tapestry of unflinching truth.”
The anthology is edited by Mary Simmerling with whom I’ve facilitated writing workshops for RAINN staff & volunteers. Her 2014 poem “What I Was Wearing” inspired worldwide WIWW art installations & exhibits.
writing around the world
Amherst Writers is offering a monthlong marathon of writing groups in February (previously running throughout the month of May) as a fundraiser for AWA programs. Each session is by donation ($20–$40). I’ve volunteered to lead 4 single workshops on a theme. During each 2-hour session we’ll follow the AWA method, mirroring what’s strong and memorable in one another’s writing. No critiques or suggestions!
Here’s a sneak peek before the sessions are posted to the AWA calendar:
Prompted by Literary Publications: Using submission calls to spark writing
Friday, February 7, 10am–12pm Pacific
We’ll write to prompts provided by literary journals seeking new pieces. You're introduced to several literary outlets, either as a possible home for your work or simply for your reading pleasure — whether or not you choose to submit any poetry or prose for consideration.Writing As Spiritual Practice (on Super Bowl Sunday)
Sunday, February 9, 10am–12pm Pacific
Whether or not you catch the game, let’s spend the morning writing in contemplation. Taking inspiration from AWA founder Pat Schneider’s book, How the Light Gets In: Writing as Spiritual Practice, we’ll draw upon wise words from several traditions.LGBTQ+ Community Valentines Day: Practicing “S(h)elf-Love”
Friday, February 14, 9am–11am Pacific
“I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act.” – Janet Mock, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More
Let’s gather with fellow queer/genderqueer folx to celebrate Valentine’s Day by practicing self-love — from the bookshelf. We’ll express ourselves on the page, prompted by writers like Jonathan Van Ness, Alison Bechdel, and Janet Mock.President’s Day: Finding consolation in poetic expression
February 17, 3–5pm Pacific
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
War. Climate crisis. Another Trump administration. Rather than commiserate, let’s find consolation in poetic expression. We’ll spend this President’s Day writing, prompted by poems and other forms from literary luminaries like Toni Morrison, Dorianne Laux, Nikki Giovani, and Ellen Bass.
grateful, and
This week a friend sent me this poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, who gave both the keynote address (“The Art of Not Being Good: Creating Space for Authenticity”) and a masterclass in poetry that I attended for AWA’s online professional development retreat in early October. At the time I knew that her teenage son had died, but I didn’t know it was by suicide. Nor did I have any clue that just 10 days after her workshop (Sorrom: How Writing Helps Us Show Up in Difficult Times), we’d learn that my nephew took his life soon after he turned 21.
Rosemerry keeps a weekly podcast on creative process, Emerging Form, and writes a daily poetry blog, A Hundred Falling Veils, from which her poem emerged this week. I found her words relatable as I continue to navigate grief (“in the midst of beauty and luck and laughter and joy”) while sometimes slammed by sleeper waves of sorrow:
Of Course I Am Grateful, And
Forgive me if, as we wade through
December’s blue shadows,
if, as we pull the wood toboggan
across the basin of field,
if, as we wander through spruce,
as we traverse the crystal petals
of hoar frost, forgive me if, on this most
perfect day when I am so deeply
in love with my girl and my husband
and the day itself, forgive me if
as we cut down the finest,
most symmetrical Christmas tree
we’ve ever found, if in the midst
of beauty and luck and laughter and joy
I also feel inside me the ache
for the boy who would now
be a man who is not
with us here. Forgive me.
It’s all so beautiful. And still
this sorrow. How they mix together
like vinegar and pure water—
completely dissolved into each other.
I couldn’t begin to tell you what it means,
this tear.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Next week we’re headed to Tahoe for some R&R (and snowshoeing) then going off-grid at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center as volunteer staff (kitchen/dishes) in support of the annual Tassajara Wildland Firefighter Retreat, which offers refuge, rest, and renewal for the wildland fire community, with mindfulness, meditation and sensory awareness practice led by Chris Fortin, Zen priest of our sangha, Dharma Heart Zen.
Take it easy, everyone, however you spend your days. See you soon in 2025!
