Workshops
Monthly Writing Group
Our Monthy Writing Group is starting a new six-month series in June 2025! Our small group of writers meets once a month in the Zoom studio to generate new writing (in any genre) in response to creative prompts, read aloud, and offer each other supportive feedback. If you’re ready to commit to the accountability and camaraderie of a regular writing group, with the support of professional leadership, please get in touch at wildfernwriters@gmail.com.
Poetry Workshops at Coffee Creek
The Oregon chapter of Poetic Justice is seeking new volunteers. We offer a unique service opportunity that will open your heart and expand your mind. At Coffee Creek women’s prison, we read, write, and share poetry and make art together. Our goal is to help incarcerated women heal, express themselves, find their voice, and build community. No prior writing or facilitation experience required. Women who have taken our program have this to say:
- “Poetic Justice touched my untouchable soul and opened a heart I thought had closed forever.”
- “Poetic Justice made me feel like there was more of me to discover.”
- “This is a class that is respectful & confidential. It feels safe to open up to others without judgment.”
For more information about volunteering, please get in touch at oregoninfo@poeticjustice.org.
If you are able to support reduced or waived workshop fees for other writers, your donation in any amount is welcome here.
Are Wild Fern Writers workshops for me?
These workshops are for you if :
- You are ready to write your truth.
- You want to write deeply into the heart of things.
- You are ready to strengthen your writing muscles.
- You crave a community of writers to inspire and support your writing.
- You need structure to get writing, but once you get started, there’s no stopping you.
- You are poised to move out of your comfort zone and make some writing magic!
What to expect at a Wild Fern Writers workshop?
- Our workshops are designed to offer inspiration, motivation, and camaraderie in a community of writers.
- In a virtual (Zoom) writing studio, we gather in an intimate group of writers guided by an experienced facilitator.
- We introduce ourselves and get centered with a brief guided mindfulness exercise.
- We review the Amherst Writers & Artists’ guiding values and practices. The Amherst Writers & Artists’ method follows two practices that distinguish it from other methods you might be familiar with.
- First, we treat all writing as art, created narrative, or literature. Even if it is written in the first person, we never assume the writing is autobiographical. While this may feel artificial at first, it allows us as writers and listeners to experience the distance between who we are and how we tell our stories.
- Second, AWA workshops ask us to listen in a different way than we usually do in our lives. We don’t listen to help the writer or fix the writing. We are asked to leave behind our own experiences and expectations and enter into the universe that the writer has created. We listen for and notice the craft choices a writer has made.
- We freewrite in response to creative prompts for five, ten or more minutes, followed by an opportunity to read aloud what we’ve written, with or without feedback from other writers. Writers are welcome to write in any genre and reading is always optional.
- Unlike traditional workshop critiques, when we offer feedback, we focus on what is working well, what is strong, and what is memorable in the writing. We believe newly drafted writing isn’t ready for a full critique, and that affirming feedback helps writers build on their strengths.
- Workshops often close with the reading of a poem.