Writing to this Moment: Taking Uncertainty to the Page // with Joanna Tebbs Young, MA-TLA

Fires, protests, a pandemic, a pending election. It's a lot to process. Do you feel the need to write about it? To express difficult, complex, and confusing emotions? Do you want to be able to share these thoughts with others who may be struggling with their own tangled emotions? 

In this series of four Sunday afternoon Zoom workshops, you will have the opportunity to record experiences and express feelings about these unprecedented times with prompts as a “trail-head,” then learn some basic creative nonfiction methods to turn your writing into a crafted personal narrative. Students will have an opportunity to share their writing in the final session.  

Who should take this class 

This class is open to anyone interested in taking their personal writing to the next level.  

Format

• Four three-hour live sessions over Zoom; three hours of asynchronous work;
  
• Zoom sessions would be made up of lecture and discussion;
  
• Handouts would be emailed to participants prior to class;
  
• For approximately every half-hour on Zoom, there will be a 15-minute off-camera writing break;
  
• Asynchronous work would comprise of reading and writing/revising;
  
• A non-obligatory sharing session/open-mic would make up a portion of the final session.
  

About the Facilitator

Joanna Tebbs Young, MA-TLA is author of the award-winning biography of Vermont historian, Lilian Baker Carlisle, and has both a memoir and personal essay collection in the works. She holds a BA in History, an MA in Transformative Language Arts, and is currently an MFA-Creative Nonfiction student at Goddard College. A writing coach since 2009, Joanna is also a facilitator for Vermont Humanities Council and teaches online for the Transformative Language Arts Network. Historical articles written during her time as columnist and feature writer for the Rutland Reader can be found at Rutland When...  Joanna lives in Rutland, Vermont with her husband and two teenagers.