Tag: Prompts

The Uses of Silence

At the beginning of the year, we started a podcast called United Against Silence, which is an opportunity for to hear from (and gush over) the artists who facilitate for CBAW, and learn about their processes, rituals, and approaches to creativity. The name of the podcast came from the name we gave the collective of brilliant and accomplished artists who facilitate our workshops. In “Notes on Truth-Telling,” an essay that closes my first book, I wrote about the value of refusing silence, and how systems of abuse (even the systems of abuse we maintain inside ourselves) thrive on silence. I was thinking then of violent silences.

Breaking it Apart to Prove it’s Whole

I’ve been thinking a lot about measurement and proving, and just spent a few days receiving a great deal of data. I am working with an incredible, capable team to develop ways to measure the benefits of our creative writing workshops, but I also feel really, really, really certain that breaking it apart and looking…
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Writing a Scene of Solitude

I was reading an essay about teaching creative non-fiction in Creative Non-Fiction Magazine a couple of months ago (I know, I know, we gaze so studiously at our own navels, writers), and came across a reference to Jo Ann Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter.” The reference was matter of fact, sort of assuming that if…
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unexpected beauty

The kid in the featured photo is graduating from high school this week. He read that hardcover Dick and Jane until the spine basically dissolved. He just felt so happy to be a person who could read, so impressed by himself (and with good reason, if I may say so–he was barely four). He doesn’t…
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News of Our Lives

I came across this interview of Mary Oliver done by my dear friend Renee Olander. I don’t agree with everything anyone says, not even the very clever and brilliant Mary Oliver, but one thing she said in this interview has been turning over and over in my head. I never had any other notion than…
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