February Newsletter
Dear Friends of Word House,
Welcome to the February Newsletter! We are excited that Word House, in its new iteration (a building on our farm in Marlboro, Vermont), has been operating for six months now. We are slow movers (and believers in slow growth), but we’re excited by all we’ve created and offered in the past half-year:
1. Weekly writing gatherings (free and by donation)
2. A beautiful and warm in-person fall writing workshop, with eight writers coming to work on non-fiction, fiction, poetry and hybrid forms
3. NaNoWriMo co-writing three days a week during the month of November
And more ideas (so many ideas, too many ideas) to come!
One of those is to launch this monthly newsletter that will include what we’ve been reading, news about upcoming workshops and events, and a writing prompt for each of you. Here it is. As always, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time. It is a gift and offering—to accept or decline.
Thank you for being here with us. We’re sincerely grateful for your presence, attention, and time.
What We’re Reading:
ALPHABETICAL DIARIES, by Sheila Heti. This is not a book for those of you looking for plot, characterization, setting, or scene. Claire dederer describes it this way in The Guardian. Lynn Steger Strong describes it this way in the LA Times. (Both critics and thinkers I follow and admire.) I loved the book like they did. It made me feel less unhinged and alone, and also less of a stable or concrete self, a sensation which is both terrifying and liberating, and a fabulous reason to read.
A MAP OF FUTURE RUINS: ON BORDERS AND BELONGING, by Lauren Markham. Two years ago Lauren sent me the opening thirty pages pages of a new book she was writing. She said she didn’t know if it was a thing. She wanted me to tell her if it was something, or nothing, and if she should keep working on it. I told Lauren (a dear friend) that yes, indeed, it was a thing, and a powerful one at that, and important, and beautiful, and here it is, two years later, a thing indeed. This book is necessary, nuanced, as brilliant as Lauren, and essential reading for our times. I hope every one of you goes out tomorrow to buy or borrow it.
FIFTY BEASTS TO BREAK YOUR HEART, by GennaRose Nethercott. GennaRose comes to Word House once a week to write (she likes to sit on the golden couch and sip her coffee), so although this book wasn’t written here, it still feels a bit like a Word House Baby. And what a beautiful and mystical one it is. Fantastical beasts, ghost tweets, bittersweet yearnings: this is a master class in fabulism, experimentation, language, and form.
I also loved this essay in Orion Magazine by my former student Heidi Lasher. We worked on this essay in a class I taught last summer, and it has just become more tender and nuanced and polished since then. Congratulations, Heidi!
What We’re Offering:
An in-person spring writing workshop, running April through June. You can read the details here. Applications are due March 1st. Please spread the word: tell your sister, tell your friends. Or apply yourself. Quick decisions=good decisions. It’s nearly spring. :)
Coming Soon:
I’m creating a four-session class called WORK IT: DESIGNING A SUSTAINABLE, CREATIVE LIFE. This is new for me. I’ll bring in some fabulous pros, gather lots of tools, and create a supportive community where we can share, ideate, collaborate, and make concrete and unique plans for the future together. Stay tuned!
A Writing Prompt for You:
Late-winter/spring, sap running, birds returning to the feeders, bulbs pushing up from the wet, dark earth. What has been hiding under the soil for you? What has been fallow, and what is waiting to spring forth? What might that moment smell like, sound like, feel like, look like? To emerge, to be reborn?
Support:
Word House has fiscal sponsorship from the Marlboro Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit I helped found over the past two years. This means we can accept tax-deductible donations. If you would like to support Word House scholarships and help our vision grow, you can donate HERE. We appreciate you.
See you next month. Keep writing.
With sincere gratitude,
Robin
founder of Word House, 2018