I got a pleasant surprise a week ago. An email began, "Congratulations!" and after reading it, I discovered a letter I had submitted for an upcoming anthology Letters Never Meant to Be Read (vol. III) has been accepted.
My letter is to an ex from almost forty years ago. It's scathing. The venom drips from every line.
Time and time again, I hear how much better people feel after they write about a difficult or unpleasant experience. Natalie Goldberg has said, "Writers live life twice," which means writers get to rewrite life. As they write about an experience, they can heal. They can come up with a better ending. They can be the voice for others who've had similar experiences.
This summer I've worked with teachers of writing. Many of them know they're able to teach their students how to write... and yet they don't think of themselves as writers. The class is an intense one. It's six graduate hours, it's only four weeks long, so it's every day, all day. And because we spend all that time together, we build a strong-knit community... in a short period of time. And, in a month, they start to realize how strong and skilled they are as writers.
When I shared my letter aloud with the teacher-writers, I actually shed tears. Even though those feelings had been buried for almost four decades, the pain was still there. During the course of the class we've cried many times, along with lots of laughing.
Marc Crepaux is working on another volume of Letters Never Meant to Be Read. They're looking for submissions for volume 4. Their call-out is ongoing. This could be the chance to thank someone, to mourn someone, to ream someone.
What do you need to vent? What do you need to unload? Write a letter... and live life twice.
Sioux is a teacher, a writer, a dog rescuer, a grammy, a mother and a wife. In the summer she catches up on some of her reading. If you'd like to read more of her musings, check out her blog.
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| This is the cover for the previous collection. The new cover hasn't been revealed yet... |
Time and time again, I hear how much better people feel after they write about a difficult or unpleasant experience. Natalie Goldberg has said, "Writers live life twice," which means writers get to rewrite life. As they write about an experience, they can heal. They can come up with a better ending. They can be the voice for others who've had similar experiences.
This summer I've worked with teachers of writing. Many of them know they're able to teach their students how to write... and yet they don't think of themselves as writers. The class is an intense one. It's six graduate hours, it's only four weeks long, so it's every day, all day. And because we spend all that time together, we build a strong-knit community... in a short period of time. And, in a month, they start to realize how strong and skilled they are as writers.
When I shared my letter aloud with the teacher-writers, I actually shed tears. Even though those feelings had been buried for almost four decades, the pain was still there. During the course of the class we've cried many times, along with lots of laughing.
Marc Crepaux is working on another volume of Letters Never Meant to Be Read. They're looking for submissions for volume 4. Their call-out is ongoing. This could be the chance to thank someone, to mourn someone, to ream someone.
What do you need to vent? What do you need to unload? Write a letter... and live life twice.
