Creative Writing Workshops

Every day, we use a variety of tools as writers to communicate, identify with, and persuade others. But how can we use writing to better our own health, improve our wellbeing, and find clarity in our own lives? How do we use writing to better our communities and the world we live in?

Writing for Better Health will introduce you to expressive writing as a healthful and transformative activity. In this six-weekend, all-adult-ages workshop, you’ll have opportunities to learn writing craft toward personal wellness and acquire skills to help you become a more reflective writer, listener, and community member. To explore these skills, our workshop will undertake distinct, yet equally important, activities. One will involve studying and discussing a variety of life-writing samples to apply to our personal and communal improvement. Another will involve our own life-writing toward understanding and putting into practice the writing concepts and techniques we encounter—so that we can collaborate within a shared space, and with intention.

The goal of the workshop is to become more knowledgeable about the role of writing in health and wellbeing, and to be able to share and explore what you’ve learned with others. Finally, we’ll approach these topics by offering a conception of health as shared experience—that is, through understanding that we’re at our healthiest when those around us are at their healthiest.

Robin McCrary, PhD, MFA, MPH(c) is a Creole public health humanist. Author (as Micah McCrary) of Teaching Cultural Dexterity in Creative Writing (Bloomsbury) and Island in the City (University of Nebraska) his work also appears in College English, the Journal of Creative Writing Studies, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, and Essay Daily, among other publications. A contributing editor at Assay, Dr. McCrary lives on Haudenosaunee homelands where he is associate teaching professor in the Writing Studies and Health Humanities programs at Syracuse University. He also serves as mentor-teacher and low-residency faculty in Wilkes University’s Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

Each week, we will read a different play (mostly comedies) and then we'll meet on zoom to discuss and/or read aloud parts in order to discover the many aspects that make up a play. Writing prompts will also be assigned: either for further analysis or inspired creative writing. No knowledge of playwriting is necessary. Plays aren't just for seeing - but reading too.

Fletcher has been on the playwriting faculty in the MA/MFA Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing since 2007. Over a dozen of his plays have been produced. Five essays have been published, plus two short stories, a 2-book series Other People’s Crazy and Other People’s Drama, a 2-book novella series entitled Inclusive Bedtime Stories, and the craft book, Short and Briefs, a collection of short plays and briefs principles of playwriting.

Gregory Fletcher's Website external website

Finding Your Poetic Voice: "For Life’s Not a Paragraph" (titled from E.E. Cumming’s poem [since feeling is first]) will help you find the poetry in life and your own unique poetic voice. In a stress-free, generative workshop series spanning six sessions, we will examine poetry, looking for the muse that inspires you to capture a piece of yourself in words. You will walk away with a better understanding of poetry and your poetic voice, all in an inclusive, encouraging environment that fosters confidence, sincerity, curiosity, intuition, and an ever-vigilant eye for your muse.

Justin Ogline possesses three degrees (BSEd in Education, MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction, MA in Poetry), ten teaching certifications, and over twelve years of teaching experience. Justin is working on his fourth degree (M.F.A. in Fiction Writing). His works in progress consist of four poetry manuscripts and three working novels. He has been mentored by Angelique Palmer, Philip Brady, Ken Liu, and Jessica Goudeau.