Class size: Each retreat is limited to 6 writers.
Session Dates:
May Daylong Writing Retreat in Alameda — Wednesday, May 17, 10:00am – 4:00pm
July Daylong Writing Retreat in Alameda — Saturday, July 22nd, 10:00am – 4:00pm
Cost: $175
We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded. This is how writers must think, this is how we must sit down with pen in hand.
—Natalie Goldberg
·Do you dream of putting pen to page to tell your stories?
·Would you like to find a surefire way to jumpstart your writing?
·Are you ready to learn how to bypass the inner critic and make room for your inner creative?
Then join us for this writing retreat. Together we will:
*Claim permission to speak our stories
*Build muscle memory to keep our pens moving
*Bolster courage to continue our journey
*Find the joy of our creative impulse
*Align with Higher Self and Inner Ally
What to expect on the day
·Using the Amherst Writers and Artists Method as our foundation, we will write to specific prompts during the course of the retreat with time for 4-5 writing exercises.
· To sustain our home writing practice, each attendee will receive a further writing prompt via email the week after our retreat.
·During the retreat, we will write for an average of 30 minutes per exercise. Each prompt will build upon the last to provide a cumulative sense of confidence and deepening content.
·After each exercise, we will be invited to read aloud a portion of what we have written. Sharing is entirely optional but is encouraged as a way to claim our voices in a supportive and nurturing environment.
·Feedback focuses solely on the strengths of the writing with very specific instruction given on the day as to how to format this simple but powerful feedback technique. This allows for brand new words to birth themselves onto the page and to be applauded and encouraged in their courageous emerging.
This is a generative writing workshop. Writers of all ability and experience levels are welcome.
Whether you wish to examine areas in your own life hungry for airing, or you are working on a specific fiction or non-fiction project (memoir, novel, short story, personal essay), this is the right place for you.
Experience the fullness of joy that comes when you Unleash The Creative inside.
Testimonials
“Writing with Eanlai was a pleasure. I went to her group to do some deep diving and soul searching and it was a wonderful experience. Eanlai creates a safe and inviting place for each writer to express herself openly and authentically. Things came out of me through my writing that I had no idea were there; this was both an exercise in being able to write again and to discover more of myself. Thank you to Eanlai for the safe space, the insightful writing prompts and to helping me get back to writing once again.”
—Amy J. Pleasanton, CA
“Eanlai Cronin is both a poet and a healer. Being in her AWA writing workshop gave me a profound and unprecedented experience of being truly seen, heard, and supported, Eanlai listens deeply and knows how to nurture the Soul. In her workshop I felt safe to speak my truth, affirmed in the dignity of my own voice. Eanlai is one of the wisest, most courageous women I’ve ever met; just to be in her presence is to be uplifted and transformed.”
—Elizabeth Perlman
“Eanlai is a sure hearted writing guide whose skillfulness inspires a writer to dive deep beneath what she thinks she knows, surfacing with surprising and provocative writing.
I’ve written through two 8-week sessions with Eanlai. In each my writing traveled to places I would never have imagined. When words seemed to abandon me, she gently encouraged me to keep the pen moving and trust the force of a truth that wanted to be heard. Her thoughtful encouragement allowed me to write beyond the limits the voice within wanted to impose. So did the courage and quality of her own writing, as she too writes and reads during each writing round.
I relished her enthusiastic and innovative feedback which continued to companion me in the week between classes. Eanlai is also an experienced and sensitive group facilitator completely committed to holding a safe and reliable writing space. Her commitment and skill in doing so calls the same forth from all in the group and in a remarkably short period of time, a lovely trust flourished both within and among the writers.
As a facilitator of sensitive group processes myself, I am impressed by the kind and wise group ethos that formed in her presence, as well as with the quality of support and carefully guided intimacy that naturally emerged as we shared our writing.
A thoroughly powerful experience!”
—Elenna Goodman, Oakland, CA