Valley Haggard

(This is a 5-week session, with no class on 11/28, Thanksgiving Day)

Sharing our personal stories in community is a creative act of holy disruption. As we write the unique details of our lives, we discover a universal connection that contradicts our feelings of isolation and separation in a heartbroken and violent world. Through first-draft, expressive writing, we mine our memories, traumas, and dreams to draw out the threads and themes of our deepest stories, the beginnings of our memoirs, essays, poems, novels, and journal entries.

Writers are encouraged to go at their own pace, but to push gently against their comfort zones, reaching for the layers of writing that exist beneath the surface of the day, in our supportive, non-judgmental, and confidential writing environment. We practice surrendering our weapons, seeking shelter, handwriting, free-writing, skipping the small talk, listening, and not apologizing for what we’ve written, as we write, share, listen, and heal together. We focus on the process rather than the product, allowing our best work and truest selves to emerge on the page– and in our lives.