What Change Looks Like
It has been an unusually busy fall, enough to keep me from my twice-monthly posting. But I suspect your inbox has been as full of political email these past months as mine, which has made logging in even more overwhelming than usual.May this message offer you a brief respite from all of that, bringing you literary news and perhaps a twinkle of inspiration.Since we were last in touch, I'm delighted to share that Thread has:
- earned a spot on the Notable list in Best American Essays 2016 (page 320)
- published its sixth issue
- hosted its fifth live lit event
- posted its fifth 100-word flash essay in Stitch
More important to me than the numbers is what I’m seeing in the variety of submissions. I was determined to publish a diversity of voices across gender, age, perspective and geography. Contributors to Thread, Stitch and the live readings write from as nearby as Chicago to as far away as Switzerland and Spain and their experiences were formed in the United States, Great Britain, South Africa and Hawaii.I’ve been teaching “Writing for Personal Discovery” workshops in my home since January and thrilled that the work of six students - John Hahm, Ellen Hainen, Marie Davidson, Nina Kavin, Brad Rosen, Michael Rabiger - made it into Thread, Stitch or a live lit reading this year. While it isn’t everyone’s goal to write for publication, I am committed to publishing emerging writers who are seeking just that.Next winter and spring, I’ll be trying something different by offering shorter-length workshops - one day and four-week sessions - for busy people who would like to give this personal narrative thing a try. I’m also teaching a morning workshop on Friday, December 16th titled “So That Your Values Live On: Writing Your Ethical Will” at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue. Check the Workshops page of my website for more about my winter and spring workshop schedule.Finally, I promised to keep you updated on my inhale year. I’ll provide you with a complete report in my next post, but until then, let me say that the experiment in not writing has had some very surprising writerly results.I leave you with a quote I found in a wonderful book I’m reading called The Artist’s Torah by David Ebenbach. He reminds us that creation is the result of destruction. Change is hard. Scary. Our tendency is to keep what we know, because even our current scary is a known one. But he reminds us that,As artists we are asked to the truth we see, without and within. It asks us to be willing to grow - to destroy what we've been so that we can be something new.What better example of this than in autumn's own natural art exhibit?