Creative Empowerment

In today's world of heartache, struggle and strife, it is important to shine a spotlight on a non-profit arts organization that offers a salve for some of the world's pain. Amherst Writers and Artists, located in Amherst, Massachusets believes that "a writer is someone who writes," and it reaches out to fold its arms around many underserviced populations here and around the globe to tell them so.

Teachers, psychologists, writers, clergy of various faiths and others join their training classes to become ceative writing workshop leaders, taught to nurture and cultivate the creative spirit. They then go out and hold workshops across the country and beyond to empower people to express themselves and build self-esteem.  Some people never thought they could write,were afraid to try, had no time except for work and family, could not afford it before, or hesitated because of various other life situations. Writers and Artists has outreached to low-income women, children and youth, bereavement groups, participants in recovery programs and others in need and who thirsted to get what they wanted to say out on paper. Workshops can be found in living rooms, prisons, hospitals, church basements, homeless shelters, schools, universities and retreat centers. The results for both students and leaders prove to be enriching, exciting, rewarding, and well worh the time, regardless of educational level or experience. Having been certified as one of their workshop leaders some time ago, I still consider it one of the most rewarding experiences of my writing life.

In the middle of all this, Writers and Artists somehow manages to produce books of poetry and prose, as well as a yearly journal of poetry and fiction.

Pat Schneider author of Writing Alone and With Others, Oxford University Press, founded Writers and Artists over thirty years ago. I don't think she would mind my quoting her basic philosophy at the very foundation of this shining light of an organization. She says, "You have a voice, just as surely as you have a face, and it is already full of character, passionate and nuanced and beautiful."

Research: One for the Books

I started out as a journalist and business writer. So I knew from the beginning that I would spend a lot of time researching for information and accuracy. Fiction, for me, was to be read, not written . . . until I had a dream shortly after my husband passed away.

It had me sitting in Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy (where I had never been). When I looked around, I spotted a man who looked like my husband in a wheelchair, wearing a beret. (My husband had never had any contact with a wheelchair or a beret.) I walked over to him and asked his name. In a loud voice, he said, "My name is Irwin Cappella." At that point, I woke up and almost fell out of bed laughing. "Who is Irwin Cappella?"

He was so loud, and the dream was so vivid, I knew there must be a book in there somewhere. A short time later, I was packed and on my way to Rome . . . to do research. Well, it was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it! That's when Rome Is Waiting, a novel, was born (not yet published). All the aspects of this fiction were explored every inch of the way: historical, medical, psychological, geographical and cultural. (Old habits die hard.) I kept remembering a book I once had started to read about Chicago that had State Street and Randolph Street running the same way. That was enough to make me research even further.

So keep that "R" word close to your heart to hang onto your credibility. It's amazing how much you can learn and how it can sometimes surprise you. You might even take a trip to Rome.