Amherst Writers and Artists Monthly Write
I’m looking forward to facilitating Amherst Artists and Writers Monthly Write for March! Come join us!
Awakening Our Senses: A Mindful Writing Workshop
In this workshop we’ll slow down and practice tuning into the sensory world with curiosity and a beginner’s mind. Through mindfulness practices and creative prompts drawn from poetry, we’ll explore how attending to smells, textures, and sounds inspires writing that feels alive and immediate.
This is an invitation to move beyond observation and into presence, writing to inhabit the world more fully. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just beginning, you’ll leave with fresh material and new tools to bring vivid, unforgettable details into your work.
Offered through Amherst Writer’s and Artists Write Around the World fundraising event (sliding scale, $20-40).
Creative Witnessing: Writing as Resistance and Reclamation
Many of us feel stunned and overwhelmed by the pace and scale of what we are witnessing on the world stage and in our own backyards. Rights and freedoms once taken for granted feel newly fragile, while violence, cruelty, and abuse of power feel omnipresent. In moments like these, writing together can help us bear witness, reclaim voice, and sustain compassion in community.
This online workshop offers a steady and supportive space to pause, breathe, and write into the present moment. Participants will write from prompts designed to give language to what has been difficult to witness and hold. Participants will have time to write, share if they wish, and receive strengths-based feedback. No prior writing experience is necessary. This workshop is for anyone impacted by the fear, violence, or instability of this moment who longs for a way to remain grounded, human, and connected through story.
Offered through Amherst Writer’s and Artists Write Around the World fundraising event (sliding scale, $20-40).
Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Working with Trauma Survivors
Join Amherst Writers and Artists facilitators Mary Simmerling, Ph.D., Meadow Jones, Ph.D., Karen Rosenberg, Ph.D. to explore best practices and lessons learned in leading workshops with survivors of trauma. Drawing on group therapy practices adapted for non-clinical use and combined with the AWA methodology, this session will share actionable strategies for creating safe, supportive spaces, as well as key cautions that may compromise individual or group safety.
The Writing We Keep: Working with Old Notebooks and Generative Writing
As AWA facilitators and lifelong writers, many of us are surrounded by the fruits of our practice: shelves of journals, boxes of notebooks, scattered generative pieces written in community. These pages hold energy, brilliance, and moments of clarity—but they can also feel overwhelming.
What do we do with all of this writing? How do we begin to revisit the words we’ve poured onto the page without getting lost or emotionally snagged by their vulnerability?
This session offers a gentle, practical framework for engaging with our own archive of writing. We’ll explore approaches to reviewing old notebooks with discernment and compassion, identifying pieces with creative or personal potential, and deciding when to let go. We will support each other to develop a plan with optional accountability check-ins after the session.
By the end of the session, we will have:
Tools for organizing and tending our personal writing archive
Supportive practices for navigating the emotional experience of revisiting old writing
Strategies for identifying material that wants to grow into finished work
Gentle guidance around privacy, purpose, and legacy
A concrete plan of next steps and optional check-ins after the session
Generative AI: Friend or Foe to Writers
Generative AI: Friend or Foe to Writers?
A panel discussion led by Matthew Curlewis; with Karen Rosenberg PhD, Meadow Jones PhD, and special guest Zanni Louise – Australian author of over 40 children’s picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels.