In a wonderful two-day workshop with the poet, Ellen Bass, I learned about a poetry form she called “The long-armed poem.” About Frank Gaspar, the inspiration for this form, she wrote: “(Frank Gaspar) reaches out a long arm and scoops so much disparate, seemingly...
For several years I’ve been participating in prompted writing workshops, and last year I became a certified writing workshop leader in the AWA (Amherst Writers and Artists) method of facilitation. I’ve written many pieces about the magic of this process;...
It is 25 degrees Celsius. Even the bees languish in the Umbrian sunshine. Twelve women and men have come to this peaceful place set among quiet green mountain slopes write, to stretch, to commune, to feast, and to reacquaint themselves with their authentic voices....
I’m thrilled to announce that I have just completed the Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) Workshop Leader training, and am now a certified facilitator. Several years ago I took my first AWA based workshop with Sue Reynolds, and haven’t put my pen...
Today, in Sue Reynold’s divine Sanctuary Sunday – a full day to dive deep into words, to come at ideas, images, and stories in fresh ways – she offered up as a prompt Thomas R. Smith’s poem, Baby Wrens’ Voices. With the invitation to use...
There is ongoing dialogue regarding the relative efficacy of academic versus more experiential approaches to developing the creative process. And I would like to go on record as one who is bursting with gratitude for alternative methods of learning. I learned...
