Connect: February 2019
And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together.
--Dar Williams
Next Art Party is March 16!
The Art Party is back! Local creatives will gather at the Mothership to share work and creative energy. Whether you present or listen, the night is a blast and you will come away feeling inspired and energized. Sign up to attend or present here. Hope to see you there!
One Day Escape: Spring Writing Retreat
I'm very excited to offer another one-day writing retreat, on Sunday, April 14, 2019. What's a writing retreat, you ask? Writing retreats come in various lengths and settings, but the underlying idea is to step out of the routine and flow of daily obligations and enter a focused space with time to write and think about writing. The fall retreat was a wonderful respite from daily busyness; eleven of us gathered to tend to our writing and engage with others' and came away with a stronger sense of connection to our writing and each other.
The full schedule and details of this retreat can be found here. If a one day escape from the hectic lives we all live into a quiet space devoted to your writing and creativity energy sounds appealing, you should register now. I look forward to your creative company!
If you've ever wondered what exactly a draft consists of (how do you know when it's done? how do you know when to start a new one?) or worried about whether revising might steer you farther away from what you're trying to say rather than get you closer, you should read Joseph Scapellato's piece from LitHub, What If All Writing is Just Drafts, Forever? Then take a moment to admire the above image, a page from a draft of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. Finally, take a deep breath and know it's hard work for all of us.
I just learned that U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith has a podcast, The Slowdown. Not surprisingly, it's amazing--a five minute break from life, shot through with beauty and wisdom, and a great showcase of a wide range of poetry. If you haven't read her work, here's The Weather in Space and The Good Life. Thanks to Allison for the tip!
There's nothing that makes me feel more like a princess than possessing a bunch of really good books at one time (shoutout to the work-study students at the UNC library who fetch all the books I binge-hold before bedtime!). I've already finished The Incendiaries, which is a slim, sad book with very unusual sentences. Worth a look. I also read the title story in Friday Black, which blew me away. I'm ready to see the sun, but rainy days sure are good for reading. Hope you are enjoying something engrossing!
To Go Poems
Here's something I don't tell a lot of people: one day I'd like to teach writing in a correctional facility. I believe everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard, and it pains me that there are some in our society whose voices have been silenced. So I was struck this week by the poems featured in Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day, which were created in workshops offered by the Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, an organization that elevates voices of those directly impacted by the prison system through creative writing. These poems are raw and beautiful and moved me deeply. Spend some time with them and see what happens.
A Cell
Sometimes I Cry
War Within Myself
A poem from a father to his youngest son.
My Eyes Have Seen What My Heart Has Felt