Writing Workshops
Silence: A Daily Practice of Attention
Poetry Workshop with Chris La Tray
Saturday, February 1, 11am-6pm
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” — Mary Oliver
The late Ojibwe writer Richard Wagamese opens his book Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations, with the following passage:
"I am my silence. I am not the busyness of my thoughts or the daily rhythm of my actions. I am not the stuff that constitutes my world. I am not my talk. I am not my actions. I am my silence. I am the consciousness that perceives all these things. When I go to my consciousness, to that great pool of silence that observes the intricacies of my life, I am aware that I am me. I take a little time each day to sit in silence so that I can move outward in balance into the great glamour of living."
Wagamese's path is not an easy one to follow. Sitting with oneself is often like the worst kind of bushwhacking; the trail is sticky with mud and imperiled by rocks that rise up to trip you … there is broken deadfall to clamber under and over. You will usually find yourself gouged and bruised and bleeding from wounds you don’t even recall receiving. And yet there is much to be gained in pursuit of this silence.
It is important to note that silence does not mean the absence of sound. Rather, it is the absence of the self trying to constantly impress its own noisiness upon the world. Its constant questions and judgments. Its own stuff. Silence means listening. Silence means paying attention. To others. To the world we seek to inhabit fully.
This workshop will be dedicated to finding a way to maintain a steady practice in embracing this silence, this stillness, this attention, this "endless and proper work" ... and how the pursuit will serve your writing.
The day will consist of two workshop sessions, breaks and time for writing. Lunch will be provided and we’ll have a poetry share to close out the time at the end of the day.
Cost: $60-100, pay what you can. Limited to 12 participants.
From Observation to Inspiration
Nature Writing with CMarie Fuhrman
Saturday, April 26, 12-1pm
Embrace and share the essence of Roscoe's natural beauty in a flash! This one-hour workshop guides you in crafting a vivid micro-essay inspired by the world around us. Learn to distill your observations into potent language, focusing on sensory detail and concise storytelling. Leave with a finished flash nonfiction piece and the skills to write more.
CMarie Fuhrman is a poet, writer, and teacher. Her work has appeared in Terrain.org, Emergence Magazine, Alta Magazine, Northwest Review, Ploughshares, and many others. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Camped Beneath the Dam, and co-editor of Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations, and the award-winning anthology Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry (winner of the PNBA and several other awards). Her forthcoming book, Salmon Weather: Writing from the Land of No Return, is due out in 2025. CMarie is an award winning columnist for the Inlander and the voice of the NPR podcast, Terra Firma. Fuhrman directs the Elk River Writers Workshop and serves as the Associate Director for Western Colorado University's Graduate Program in Creative Writing where she teaches poetry and nature writing. She is a former Idaho Writer in Residence and lives in the Salmon River Mountains of Idaho.
Suggested donation $25. Limited to 12 participants.