Women Writing Together

One of my favorite parts of last Saturday was eating queso and chips with Tonia and Lissa.

We spent the time talking about our current projects and all the ways that poetry influences our process. We have each taken classes with Holly Wren Spaulding and found such richness in her prompts and readings. It feels like the sum is greater than the parts in Holly’s work–a shared poem and a few writing suggestions. But those poems and prompts open up space for play and whimsy that flows into our larger work.

In addition to these serendipitous meetings, Tonia has created space for local women writers to gather by the seasons. We’ve shared bowls of soup as snow fell and walked together in the late Summer afternoon.

If you would have asked me before we started meeting if I needed this sort of companionship, I probably would have said no. My days are full. But these seasonal meetings have given me so much. Like Holly’s classes, they have opened up creative space that I didn’t know was there.

Being with these women, sharing in their work, has been a wonderful surprise and honor!

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.