Ellen Bass Workshop Toronto, Oct. 24 & 25, 2015
Photo by Irene Young
Ellen Bass is an extraordinary poet, teacher and author.
Having been lucky enough to study with her in California and in Mallorca, Sue and James dearly wanted to bring her to the writing community in Toronto.
The stars (and the International Festival of Authors!) have finally aligned.
Ellen will be here teaching a 2 day workshop and reading at the IFOA the weekend of October 24 & 25. The way Ellen teaches poetry is not to be missed!
Click here for more information about the weekend, and to register
Biography:
Ellen Bass’s most recent book of poetry, Like a Beggar, was published in April 2014 by Copper Canyon Press. Her previous poetry books include The Human Line (Copper Canyon Press), named a Notable Book by the San Francisco Chronicle, and Mules of Love (BOA Editions), which won the Lambda Literary Award. She co-edited (with Florence Howe) the groundbreaking No More Masks! An Anthology of Poems by Women (Doubleday).
Her poems have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and The Sun. She was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Elliston Book Award for Poetry from the University of Cincinnati, Nimrod/Hardman’s Pablo Neruda Prize, The Missouri Review’s Larry Levis Award, the Greensboro Poetry Prize, the New Letters Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Poetry Prize, a Fellowship from the California Arts Council, and two Pushcart Prizes.
Her non-fiction books include Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth(HarperCollins), I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse(HarperCollins), and The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse(Harper Collins), which has sold over a million copies and has been translated into ten languages.
She currently is teaching in the low residency MFA program at Pacific University and has taught poetry and creative writing in Santa Cruz, CA and at other beautiful locations nationally and internationally.
Click here for more information about the weekend, and to register
Sue Reynolds List of Events and Courses for Fall 2013
Dear Writing Friends,
I hope you’ve had a wonderful, languid, restorative summer.
It’s been months since I’ve sent out a communication, and in the time in-between I have filled my well deliciously with retreats, poetry writing, performances, and a Zen meditation retreat on the West Coast. Back in June, I was honoured to be asked to do a TED Talk for the TEDx Stouffville event. If you’re interested, you can see it here: Writing our way out of trouble. In it I talk about my work teaching creative writing to criminalized women and what we can all learn from research into the health benefits of writing.
With the sense of fall coming on now, I’m ready to pick up the pieces of my teacher’s life, and this is a brief email to let you know what’s going on in the next few months.
Because I’m a writer, I tend to be wordy, so I’ll just give you the links, so you don’t have to wade through a lot of verbiage; you can just click on whatever might interest you.
Rhymes at the ROM: We’ve made an arrangement with the fabulous Royal Ontario Museum to let us do a one day writing workshop on September 21 – come write with the dinosaurs and the pharaohs! And in the process, excavate some of your own hidden material…
AWA facilitators’ training in Chicago: September 11 to 15 (I’m co-leading with Maureen Jones, Executive Director of Amherst Writers) If you’ve ever thought of becoming an AWA workshop leader, this is the closest training to Canada being offered this year.
Courses I’m teaching this fall at Blue Heron Studio:
Intimacy and Solitude – exploring relationship issues through writing
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word “loneliness†to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude†to express the glory of being alone.
– Paul Tillich
Your Meaningful Life in Memoir – explore (and perhaps challenge) the guiding mythology of your life
Write and Create Your Own Children’s Book – Write and illustrate (even if you think you have no artistic ability!) a single book for that special child in your life. A gift that really will last a lifetime.
Pen in Hand, Ink on Page – Need time to write? This course offers a regular weekly commitment to your writing and focus on the craft.
Writers’ Sanctuary Dates for Fall 2013 Most dates for fall still have a space or two left in them at the moment, but they do fill up quickly.
Inkslingers Poetry Nights in Toronto – A free night of community once a month to craft your poetry and your presentation skills.
Winter/Spring 2014: International Writing Retreats – Costa Rica and Italy – we’ve added Italy to our workshop roster for 2014 – la dolce vita! For those of you who have experienced the combination of Esana’s yoga with our writing in community – you know just how dolce this vita can be!
I’m thrilled that Pat Schneider is coming back to Ontario to lead another 5 day retreat this year. The retreat filled within a few days, but she is also doing a launch of her new book How the Light Gets In while she’s here. Pat Schneider’s Ontario launch. The event will take place the evening of October 25th.
Fall always feels like a time of renewal for me, after the muggy heat of the summer. The crisp air and vivid colours make me feel like a kid again – hopeful for the school year ahead.
My very best wishes to you for this fall season. May you find renewal in your writing, and I hope to see you at an event in the coming months.
My warmest regards,
Sue Reynolds
In the summer of 2013 I was invited to do a TEDtalk on “Shining the light on our Changing Communities”. I talked about the therapeutic writing program I do with incarcerated women. You can view the talk here.
