Thursday Evenings with Jennifer Springsteen 6 sessions: September 10- October 15th Time: 7-9:30pm (Sept 24, 7:30 start) Location: Milagros: 5429 NE 30th Ave Portland, OR 97211 (30th and Killingsworth) Cost: $125
Turn your notebook to the next blank page. Breathe. Dig in. Give yourself six workshops this fall to tease out the stories you carry, take risks, listen to the call and response of your own voice. Interesting and challenging prompts let you explore and move forward in your craft. Then, give and receive insightful feedback.
Friday Mornings with Alida Thacher October 30 - December 4 (No workshop
Thanksgiving week, November 27 ) Time: 10am-12:30pm
Location: NE Portland Cost: $100 women only workshop
*Still room in Summer Friday Mornings with Dawn Thompson August 21- October 2 (skip Sept 4) women only workshop
Writing the Stories of Our Life with Dawn 4 Tuesday evenings, September 22 - October 13 6:30-9:00pm Location: SE Portland, Sellwood $80.00
"Everyone has the right to tell the truth about her own life." -Ellen Bass
The story of your life is the most important story you’ll ever write. There has not been one exactly like it in all of human history. You are its author, constantly writing its unfolding. What fires have you walked through? What have you lost? Who and what have you loved? What experiences have you lived that have changed you forever? Which stories from your life are calling to be shared? If you do not tell your story who will? When we write what we know, our words carry a depth of feeling and a truth that have the potential to change lives, including our own.
In this workshop, we’ll have the opportunity to go within to mine the stories of our life that are calling to be recorded. We’ll explore how to write our stories without necessarily having to stick to the facts, blending memory with the fertile realm of our imagination. We’ll experiment with drawing connections between our stories and with uncovering the often hidden opportunity for transformation they contain. No writing experience necessary. To register, contact Dawn: dawn@pdxwomenwriters.com, 503-568-6145.
Writing Our Stories of Loss and Grief with Dawn 4 Tuesday evenings, November 3, 10, 17, 24 6:30pm-9:00pm Looking for a workshop host in exchange for fee $80.00
"The only real guarantee is change. The very cells in our bodies are constantly dying and being re-born. We must learn to honor that which is leaving so that we can embrace the new life."
Each of us carries in our bones profound stories of loss. These stories become part of the contours of our heart and sometimes live in unexpected places in our bodies. They deepen our capacity to experience the full range of what it means to be human. Sometimes these stories of our letting go and our grief whisper from the realms of our unconcious. Sometimes they are the shrill cry we hear first thing each morning. Our stories of loss and grief come in many forms. The death of someone we love. The ending of a relationship. Illness. Leaving home. The aging of a parent. The loss of freedom when a a child is born. The unexpected letting go of an old way of being.
In our culture we do not learn to honor these stories. However, they are stories that wish to be told back to ourselves. They are stories that want to be shared. Your story is my story told by a different teller. When the whisperings of these stories remain unconscious, they significantly impact our lives because our decisions and ways of seeing ourselves must first pass through their filter. In this workshop we'll create a safe space to explore our stories of loss and grief, both as profound material for our writing and as an essential source for our personal evolution.
No writing experience necessary. To register, contact Dawn: dawn@pdxwomenwriters.com, 503-568-6145.
Substitutes
If you have participated in a previous
Portland Women Writers workshop or retreat, you are welcome to sign up
as a substitute for a weekly workshop. Substituting is a great option
for writers who are unable to commit to a full ten-week workshop, but
who want to stay connected with our writing community.
How it works: Your name will be on a substitute list for a
particular workshop, and if a regular participant knows she will be
absent for a session she can contact you. If you want to attend, you
pay the participant directly for the cost of that session.
If you are interested in substituting for any of the weekly workshops, contact the facilitator of that group.