Reflect: January 2019
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
--Mary Oliver
Save the date for Art Party #3: March 16
The Art Party is coming out of hibernation! Mark your calendar for March 16, when we will celebrate the 3rd iteration of the Art Party as well as the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the Mothership (by 3 co-owners!) with an evening of local artists sharing their written and visual work. It's a whole lot of fun.
Sign-ups will open in February to present or RSVP your attendance (I'll send you the link!). Hope to see you there!
On January 17th, the great poet Mary Oliver died. There has been much well-deserved memorializing of her. I particularly enjoyed this lovely description of her life with partner Molly Malone. Her appearance on the podcast On Being was also amazing. Read some Mary in the coming days if you haven't lately. What a balm for the soul.
Upcoming Non-Fiction Workshops
There are two upcoming workshops on nonfiction writing I want to highly recommend to you non-liars out there. Meghan Florian is teaching Introduction to the Personal Essay in April (evenings) and Allison Kirkland's class What’s Your Story?: A 6-Week Personal Essay/Memoir Writing Workshop starts in March (mornings). Both of these ladies are phenomenal writers are teachers and if you're aching to tell your story, I highly recommend!
Speaking of nonfiction, I just tore through The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert and Hunger by Roxane Gay. Very different books, both riveting in their own ways. Gilbert's book is an interesting example of how writers evolve over their career--in places, I found the book overwritten, but the story is gripping and well-told. Hunger is riveting, heartbreaking, and crucially important. If you're looking for some engrossing narratives, give one or both of these a try.
To Go Prompt
Many of us start the year off with resolutions or intentions. On this last day of the first month of a new year, your writing prompt is to imagine a character, their list of resolutions, and their reflections on January 31st about how those resolutions are going. You might explore what they've done or not done and how they feel about it. If you write nonfiction, you can write about yourself. Set a timer for 15 minutes and see what happens!