This supportive, productive writing workshop gives moms the opportunity to explore your role as a mother- and a person- during this challenging and important time of your life.
Whether your kids are forthcoming or already grown, you will gain a sense of self as you put a voice to your experiences on the page.
In weekly meetings that are part writer’s group to get your writing flowing and part mothers’ group to share in the joys and difficulties, participants support each other as writers and mothers and explore the ways those roles inform, challenge, and fortify one another.
Instructor Keri Bertino is a writer, writing instructor at Columbia University’s graduate writing program, and mom of two, the second of which was born in the backseat of a car. Keri recently wrote about her “extramural birth” in a beautiful essay, “Pull Over, I’m Having a Baby,” for Topic Magazine.
Note: this session is closed. Please reach out any time to chat with us about how we can support you with your writing.
Over the course of our eight online meetings, through reading, writing, and discussion via video conference, participants will:
Receive and contribute to the support of a community of writers and mothers—a community with the potential to continue and thrive after the workshop ends.
[ezcol_1quarter]Dates:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Next Session- TBD[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Length:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]9 weeks[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Where:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Online[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Format:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Live weekly meetings over video conference and conversation, resources, and information in a secure online One Lit Place classroom (available 24/7)[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Weekly Meeting:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Thursdays, 8:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. EST [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Instructor:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Keri Bertino[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
Why a writing workshop just for mothers?
Because if I read another piece in which the writer wonders whether it’s possible to be a mother and a writer, I’m going to tear my hair out.
More seriously, I’ve hit my stride as a writer since giving birth to my children. As I’ve spoken to and worked with other writers who are mothers over the years, I’ve discovered that there are strong patterns in the challenges writers encounter in early motherhood, and in how those who find their footing again adjust their practices in response to those challenges. I’ve learned, too, that a significant set of challenges for nearly everyone is loneliness, artistic isolation, and not yet knowing that these struggles are universal and at the same time temporary and surmountable. Unfortunately, the structure and focus of most writing workshops—where writers often seek community—don’t typically respond to or accommodate the needs of writers in early parenthood. So I created one that does.
Whom do you mean by “mother”?
If you think of yourself as a mother, you are welcome.
What work will be expected between meetings?
You’ll be expected to make progress on your weekly writing goals—goals that you set, that make sense for you, your life, and your work. That might mean writing 100 words a day, or 500. It might mean taking down three story ideas. It might mean blocking out time to write for 20 minutes three days a week. It might mean revising one page of your novel, or five, or a chapter. Everyone’s goals will be different. There will also be short weekly readings. Everything we do between video meetings can be posted and talked about in the online classroom, which is always active and available so you can dip in and engage on your schedule (or, realistically, your child’s).
Unlike many workshops, the cycle of preparing submissions and reading and commenting on the work of others will not be a component of this workshop.There will be opportunities to share work, but no pressure to create full pieces on deadlines or to provide written feedback to others.
What kind of writing is welcome? Will the focus be only on writing about parenting?
Any kind of writing you’re working on is welcome, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, academic writing, children’s writing, or anything else. While writing about parenting is completely welcome, it’s by no means expected.
