Haiku In Action: Submit Today

With the rapid pace of the events of our times, it had never been more important to share your perspective. What better form than haiku to get a snapshot of your thoughts and experiences!

Send us your haiku/senryu poems taken from the news of the week and observations of life in 2020. Whether snapshots from daily events, marches, quiet moments in quarantine or Zoom meeting frustrations, we want all your short poems anchored in the NOW. All are encouraged to submit. Submissions with racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic or other hate speech will not be considered.

The best will be showcased weekly here and on all our social media platforms, along with links to your media. The BEST of the best will be compiled into an anthology of haiku published by Nick Virgilio Haiku Association’s imprint Upright Remington Press.

Submissions close each week on Friday. Prompts are posted on Tuesday. The weeks featured 8 haiku are posted on Thursday.

To submit, please fill out our form here. Submit up to 3 haiku. Please consider a donation of $1 -5 per entry to support this and other NVWH programming.

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What is a Haiku poem in English today?
Haiku is a short form poem that often has these characteristics:

• Spare, lean: no extra superfluous words

• Not rhyming

• the words are images, not description of images 

• without metaphor and simile 

• often divided into two sections - that expose two subjects (example: something natural and something human-made, two unexpectedly similar things)

Senryu is short form poetry resembling haiku that deals with human nature. Unlike haiku it is sometimes humorous and may contain metaphor and simile.

For many years, haiku in English was taught as a three-line format with 17 syllables sometimes arranged in a 5–7–5 pattern. 

Today, haiku in English is better described as a one-breath poem – a short verse of about 10 to 14 syllables, with the second line usually the longest. Typically, haiku poems have little or no punctuation or capitalization, but may mark poem turning points with dashes or ellipses, and proper nouns are usually capitalized.

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Here are some examples from the writing of Nick Virgilio of Camden:

sixteenth autumn since:
the barely visible grease marks
where he parked his car

telegram in hand
the shadow of the marine
darkens our screen door

beneath the coffin
at the edge of the open grave:
the crushed young grass

boarding the wrong bus: the heat

the funeral Mass:
in the holy water font
confetti and rice

Thanksgiving dinner:
placing the baby’s high chair
in the empty space

For more on Haiku, see check out graceguts.com and hsa-haiku.org.

2020 Winners, Nicholas A. Virgilio Haiku & Senryu Competition

Elizabeth Crocket and Michael Dylan Welch, judges for Haiku Society of America, contest sponsor

The following poems, presented in no particular order, are but six out of dozens that made our short list of selections. These poems, whether haiku or senryu, celebrate instants of feeling and perception and share them with readers in momentary acts of vulnerability. As readers, we receive these moments and validate them by recognizing our own humanity in what they each offer. This is what every good haiku does. Thank you to all the poets who entered, submitting a total of 2800 poems, and thank you to the Nick Virgilio Haiku Society and the Haiku Society of America for the opportunity to serve as judges.

—Elizabeth Crocket and Michael Dylan Welch

summer night

the house creaks

a bedtime story

Sahil Gandhi, Grade 8

Two scenarios quickly came to mind reading this poem. Was the creaking house a foundation for a scary tale? Or was the bedtime story read to a child with a vivid imagination? The well-done juxtaposition made this both an interesting and worthy winner. —Liz

This poem’s clear and immediate images draw readers into what may well be a ghost story. The poem pivots on a clever use of the word “creaks.” Is the verb transitive or intransitive? Normally, “creaks” is an intransitive verb and does not take an object, so we can be satisfied that “the house creaks.” But perhaps the word is also being used transitively, taking an object, as if the house is producing a bedtime story. That makes the house especially scary! —Michael

girl of my dreams

in the crowd

the ball goes through my legs

Gabe Jones, Grade 8

I smiled reading this poem, and if truth be told, I cringed a little too, relating to the strong voice of the poet in what may have been an embarrassing moment. Reading this was a delight, and it definitely resonated with me, forcing me to remember clumsy moments from my own past. —Liz

For a moment the writer is conscious of wanting to impress a girl, but that distraction causes the poet to miss a ball, perhaps allowing a goal. This opportunity for achievement turns into embarrassment, and readers can feel compassion in sharing such an experience, one that’s not just private but magnified by being in front of a large crowd. —Michael

after my dog’s funeral

his imprint

still left in the bedsheet

Julia Kwon, Grade 10

This poignant poem was an easy favourite of mine, capturing perfectly that it is often the little things that can be the trigger for a wave of unexpected grief. It shows great depth in reminding us that life can change quickly, never to be viewed the same way again. Anyone who has ever lost a beloved pet will instantly empathize with the poet. —Liz

The objects that once belonged to pets (or human loved ones) left after they die create sad reminders of their owners’ absence. This image shoots straight to the heart with an overwhelming sadness. That sadness for loss is tempered, we can only hope, by a deep and ongoing love for the lost pet. —Michael

rainy afternoon

once-loved gifts

in the donation bin

Catherine Dwyer, Grade 8

The first line, “rainy afternoon,” sets the mood for the upcoming nostalgia of the second and third lines. It has been noted that Nick Virgilio called haiku “word paintings,” which aptly sums up the way I viewed this poem. It resonated with me, making me remember the things that were once meaningful to me that I chose to part with. Well done! —Liz

The rain is a necessary launching pad for the twinge of sadness of donating once-loved treasures. We see this image sharply, that moment of letting go, perhaps moving on from someone we’ve broken up with who had given us these gifts. And yet it’s the right thing to do, because these gifts, whatever they might be, are no longer loved—and now someone else might be able to love them. —Michael

cold night

a stray cat

laps the moon

Gus Critz, Grade 8

I felt the cold night, and I saw the cat lapping the moon in this beautiful poem. It stirs the senses of readers while they ponder the story behind it. I loved the strong image and depth of this artful haiku. —Liz

We may wonder where the observer is in this poem. In his or her room, seeing the cat outside? Or perhaps walking outdoors when they come across this cat? Either way, we can see the cat licking at water that reflects the moon—wishing, perhaps, not just for the moon but a home to live in. —Michael

New Year’s Eve

at midnight I kiss

my pillow

Andrew Reveno, Grade 8 

The strongest emotions in reading a poem are often evoked when poets are brave enough to lay bare their most personal moments. I found this to be a sweet and touching poem that was made even more moving by the opening line, New Year’s Eve. At some point in life many of us have had the experience of not being with the person we dream of, making the poem instantly relatable. —Liz

The loneliness of kissing one’s own pillow is intensified by the timing of this poem. New Year’s Eve provides a special opportunity, at midnight, to kiss a person you love when you’re together to celebrate the year to come. But here the person is alone, having no one to share that potentially magical moment. We can only hope that the year ahead will be less lonely. —Michael

Elizabeth Crocket has had two books shortlisted for the Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Books Award, Not Like Fred and Ginger and Happy Haiku. She currently has two Japanese short form books published with Cyberwit.net, Wondering What’s Next and How Soon the Colour Fades. She lives in Ontario, Canada.

Michael Dylan Welch has been investigating haiku since 1976, and documents his published essays, reviews, books, haiku, tanka, and longer poems at his www.graceguts.com website. Michael also runs National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com) and cofounded the Haiku North America conference and the American Haiku Archives.

Support the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association in Celebration of the 2nd Anniversary of our Writer's House!

In the spirit of giving: 

Support the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association in Celebration of the 2nd Anniversary of our Writer's House!

Founded in 1989 in honor of  Nick Virgilio, internationally renowned haiku poet and Camden native, the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association underwent construction on its Writer’s House in 2010, opening in 2018. With its three floors and garden, The Writer's House offers an open, safe, shared space for dynamic programming in the arts, sciences, health and humanities to the local Waterfront South Camden community, greater South Jersey, and Philadelphia. Our mission is to inspire lifelong learning of poetry, to bolster literacy and writing skills among under-served youth, to foster an appreciation of nature and connectivity in community through engagement with the arts, and to promote the healing capacity of creativity and self-expression.

This May, we celebrate the 2nd anniversary of our Writer's House located at 1801 Broadway in the heart of downtown Camden. Our May fundraising campaign is in direct response to our current global crisis and the needs arising from it. Using the Writer's House as a home-base, Mighty Writers Camden currently distributes 60 meals twice a week to the local Waterfront South community, as well as free books, diapers, and art packs.  Your donation supports the further expansion of our on-site and web-based programming to include arts, sciences, technology, and home-craft education, as well as nutrition and health, and to compensate our working-artists and staff. 

We hope you are healthy, active, safe, and in good company. 

Thank you for your donation!

Virgilio Haiku Manuscripts now Available Online

Readers of Nick Virgilio’s Selected Haiku (1988) may remember Nick’s poem about his “palsied mother”:

my palsied mother,
pressing my forehead on hers
this Ash Wednesday
(Selected Haiku, p. 59)

But they may not know that Nick used the same image of his mother in many other unpublished poems which, by connecting his mother with his brother Larry, who died in Vietnam, deepen the emotion of the connection between himself, his mother, and his dead brother:

my palsied mother
admiring the blooming plum
little brother planted

turning from the grave,
leading my palsied mother;
the hot morning sun

my palsied mother
placing a wreath on the grave
faces the cold wind

Thanks to the bequest of Tony Virgilio, and the work of a team from Rutgers University Library headed by Special Collections Librarian Julie Still, these unpublished poems are now available on a website accessible at collections.libraries.rutgers.edu/Nicholas-virgilio-papers. By searching the site with the phrase “palsied mother” or “palsied hands,” readers may find dozens of poems in which Nick contemplates the effect on his mother of the deaths of his brother and father. The result is a far richer understanding of his use of haiku to capture the emotions and tremors of love, death, and the seasons of life.

Because Nick Virgilio was a pioneer in the development of the American haiku idiom, the collection is a stunning resource in haiku poetry and American literature. The collection consists of 11 boxes, which are housed in the Special Collections department of the Robeson Library at Rutgers University-Camden. Each box contains up to 30 folders. Each folder contains about 50 sheets of letterhead paper, on the reverse side of which Nick typed multiple drafts of poems or critical musings on the practice of writing haiku. Some of the folders include correspondence with other haiku poets or with personal friends. All together, there are about 8,250 typed pages in the collection, each page containing from one to 15 items.  

The collection and its website are still under construction at this writing. We may look forward to a streamlined portal that will make the collection easier to access, and to an improved search box that will help readers find folders they want to see. For now, readers may go to the “Collections” department of Robeson Library at Rutgers University-Camden, scroll down and click on the “Nicholas-Virgilio-Papers” button, and browse among the many poems, published and unpublished, of Nick Virgilio.

Geoffrey Sill is a NVHA board member and former Department of English chair at Rutgers.

Center For Environmental Transformation Welcomes George Mason University to the House

In this entry, Cathy Nevins and Mark Doorley detail George Mason University’s alternative spring break program at the Center of Environmental Transformation and how NVWH serves their needs.

On the week of March 9, 2020, 10 visitors from George Mason University (GMU) in northern Virginia will be spending a week at the Center for Environmental Transformation(CFET). This local sister non-profit hosts groups of college and high school students who work at various agencies around the city of Camden, and then reflect on social and environmental issues in the evening.

The Nick Virgilio Writer’s House (NVWH) hosts the Mighty Writers non-profit that works with the children of the Waterfront South neighborhood, developing their writing skills, poetic voices and commitment to their city. GMU students will get a chance to work with the Mighty Writers students twice during the week of March 9th.

First the visitors will come to the Nick Virgilio Writers’ House to work with the children on a project that promises to lead to lots of interesting discussions. Where are you from? What do you like about your hometown? What is your favorite thing to do to have fun? What would you like to see happen in your town? An exploration of these questions, from both the GMU students and the Mighty Writers will provide ample material for everyone to write a poem, or short story or a bit of reporting!

Later in the week, the Mighty Writers will walk down to CFET, to work with the GMU students. They are going to plant peas outside in the Emerald Street garden, and they will learn what the peas need in terms of healthy soil, plenty of sun and water, and tender loving care. Surely there are poems and news reports that will blossom as questions pour out of the Mighty Writers, and their hands get dirty, and they encounter, perhaps, an earth worm or two!

So, what does GMU and NVWH have in common? Well, the visitors from GMU and the children from NVWH will discover so much that they have in common: a hometown they love, families that care for them, dreams about their futures, dirty hands from pea planting and a love for learning about each other and, most importantly, how much alike we all are.

Mariam I. Williams on Black Women Writing for Self-Knowledge

In this entry, we join writer Mariam I. Williams as details the birth of her new workshop series. You can register for the class and learn more here.

As a literary nonfiction writer, poet, and dancer with academic research interests and graduate education in Pan African Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and history, I see my art forms as powerful tools for exploring how the political, historical, and cultural affect the personal. My work strives to do for others what centuries of black women writing, choreographing, and performing literature and dances of the African diaspora have done for me: reveal black humanity, give dimensionality to Black womanhood, and provide new ways of thinking, healing, and being for all people.

I believe that for Black women, self-love in a world that upholds white supremacy, anti-blackness, and misogyny is one of the most subversive acts we can commit to. I believe we will find liberation for ourselves and our communities through radical self-love because it reminds us we are worthy of freedom, just as we are. 

Self-love begins with self-knowledge, and individuals can unearth self-knowledge by writing about the self and by listening to the wisdom and truths the body holds. That’s why my workshops range from introspective writing to dancing for performance, why my signature program combines writing and dance, and why my programs are as valuable for writers and dancers as they are for people who don’t consider themselves to be either one.

A literature and writing workshop with me is often about unearthing what’s beneath the surface. I always say I write not because I have answers, but because I want to find them. I know the curiosity many of us grew up thinking would kill us will actually set us free, so I ask workshop participants to explore introspective questions and to be brave when doing so, to continue even when what’s revealed in their writing surprises, challenges, or frightens them. I also ask participants to read texts they may have read or been assigned before, but to consider how and why a particular text speaks to them (or doesn’t). Within these investigations of lived experience, themes including self-love, sisterhood, body positivity, identity, and anger come to light, and workshop participants are able to see the effects history and larger systems have had and continue to have on their lives.

In 2019, I founded the Black Womanhood (Re-)Affirmation Project [WRAP] so that I could develop and teach a literature and dance curriculum that centers adult black women and our liberation, amplifies our stories, and builds on the existing sisterhood and community among us. The Black WRAP is a course and workshop series that builds radical self-love in and affirms the resilience of Black women, women of color, and other participants utilizing literature, writing, and dance that center Black women’s experiences. 

As part of Black WRAP,  Liberation Through Literature: Black Women Writing for Self-Knowledge and Self-Love invites you to unlearn the self-hate that misogyny and anti-blackness can produce and to build your toolbox for healing. We’ll honor our black female ancestors, read texts by legends like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, and hear from newer folks like Tressie McMillan-Cottom and ourselves. Liberation Through Literature is a writing workshop, but I’ll encourage the use of literary devices and revision only as it serves to clarify your lived experience to you. I’ll set aside time for those who are willing to read their work out loud so we can recognize common experiences, increase our confidence, diminish shame, and build community—just like a long history of black women writers has done for us.

Mariam I. Williams is a writer, dancer, arts educator, and public historian whose work aims to affirm black womanhood and to present the true stories of underserved communities whose narratives have historically faced erasure. An alumna of Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, Williams also holds an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in public history from Rutgers University-Camden. In the spring of 2019, she launched the Black Womanhood (Re-) Affirmation Project, an online course series that uses black women's literature, introspective writing, and dance to help black women pursue spiritually, emotionally, and physically healthier lives. Prior to launching this project, she facilitated in-school creative writing programs through The ArtWell and Rutgers Early College Education (REaCH) Program and also taught literature at Delaware College of Art and Design. Williams is currently writing a memoir about growing up in Kentucky with black radical parents, a churchgoing extended family, and a Christian sisterhood. Her work can be found in Women's Review of Books; on Salon.com; on Longreads.com; and on her website, mariamwilliams.com.

Mighty Writers Settles Into Its Second Year

Scared Heart middle schoolers pose for the camera.

One of my favorite places in the Nick Virgilio Writers’ House is what we’ve affectionately deemed the ‘comfy room’ on the second floor. Right about 4pm, when our after school programs are in full swing, the early setting sun will hit the white curtains at just the right angle, and no matter what’s going on—story time, quiet journaling, or an impromptu dance party—the room feels so perfectly full of creative joy that it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the life taking place within these four walls.

It’s one space we’ve used regularly for all of our programs over the past year and a half, but it’s not the only one by any means. On any given afternoon, you’ll find students curled up with a good book on the downstairs couches, snacking by the kitchen, or using the smart board to examine their ongoing photojournalism projects. Sometimes our students will get so enthusiastic (read: loud!) about their work that I’ll need to remind them that Warren is just upstairs, diligently bringing together new programs for the NVHA. 

In the new year, we’ve expanded our own offerings to reach a much wider number of students. Throughout the spring, we’ll have teenagers working on college applications, toddlers learning to spell out their names, and middle school girls creating vision boards based on role models they’d like to emulate. We’ll have new students stopping by for drop-in tutoring and learning about the space, and twice a month, we’ll welcome all families to join us for mindfulness and writing programs based on their histories and traditions. 

Last fall, we had workshops on poetry and mindful journaling, which culminated in a widely attended showcase at the Fireworks Gallery. This winter, students will focus on their areas of personal expertise by making How-To booklets and videos, showcasing their talents for the world to see. And for what it’s worth, we’re more than just fun—the academy program has the track record to prove it, with 87% of students scoring proficient or higher in grade level writing, and 81% of parents noting great or steady improvement in their child’s writing. For students who continue in the program through high school, we track a 100% graduation rate and 97% college acceptance.

I was never able to meet Nick Virgilio myself, but in conversations with members of the board and friends of the NVHA, I can’t help but think that the happy chaos of a lived-in writing space is just the right way for his legacy to continue. If you find yourself on the corner of Broadway and Ferry one of these days—stop in to say hello, and maybe you’ll catch the light of inspiration in those curtains too. 

Catherine Buck is the Program Director at Mighty Writers Camden. To learn more, register your student, or to sign up to volunteer, check out our current programming schedule or visit us at www.mightywriters.org.

Reflection on 30 years of NVHA

I met Nick in the early spring of ’85. In less than a minute he ‘hit me’ with two haiku. We soon discovered certain mutual interests in addition to poetry. He encouraged me to keep writing poetry after we attended a reading on Walt Whitman’s birthday at his tomb in Harleigh Cemetery. I became enamored of Nick’s poetry and marveled at his use of haiku to reveal truths about his surroundings in Camden and his experience of his brother’s death in Vietnam.

Nick Virgilio at Work.

Nick died in January, 1989. During his re-interment at Harleigh (a story for another newsletter), the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association was formed with the intention of keeping alive his legacy of writing and teaching haiku. I periodically attended the monthly board meetings after Sunday Mass in the basement of Sacred Heart Church. I soon became a regular attendee and began to help with logistics at events designed to spread the word about Nick and his revelatory take on this Japanese form of poetry.

Early on, the Association in partnership with the Haiku Society of America inaugurated the Nick Virgilio Memorial Haiku Competition for 7t​h​ through 12t​h graders. This contest endures and was administered by Nick’s brother, Tony for many years before he too passed away. Since then NVHA Secretary, Robin Palley, and I have received up to 6,000 poems submitted for the competition from students from the US and many foreign countries. We blind review the entries and pass them on for judging by poets from the HSA.

During the board presidency of Kathleen O’Toole, a long-time friend of Nick’s, the Association sought to have the proposed Writers House at Rutgers Camden campus named for Virgilio. After years of negotiations the campaign came to an end. It was decided to build our own Writers House in Camden’s Waterfront South neighborhood. An abandoned property across from the church became available and with funding from American Water, Campbell’s Soup, and PNC Bank, the Heart of Camden Building Association was able to start renovations.

After serving on the board for many years, I assumed the presidency after Kathleen’s retirement. In a list of the events the NVHA produced since Nick’s burial, we celebrate his birthday every June at his gravesite. Every ten years we hold special commemorative events culminating in “I Remember Nick Night” in 2009, and the showing of Sean Dougherty’s engaging, ​youtube hosted​ documentary, “Remembering Nick Virgilio”. At Haiku North America, 2011 in Ottawa, Canada, we met Rick Black who undertook, with the editorial assistance of Raffael de Gruttola, the publishing of “Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku” in 2012. The material for the book came from the Rutgers archive of Nick’s papers donated with a generous annuity by Tony Virgilio.

We commissioned playwright, Joseph M. Paprzycki, to write the poignant play, ‘Nick of Time’, which I directed and presented at the Waterfront South Theater in Camden and the Iron Age Theater Festival in Norristown, PA. At Haiku North America, 2017 in Santa Fe, NM, due to lack of theater facilities, we produced a film of the play which was well received by the larger haiku community.

Over the years, we have continued to produce workshops for students and teachers of haiku and related forms in various venues. A couple of them were led by Tom Painting, who successfully guides many students who garnish top prizes in our haiku competition. In the classroom, Therese Halscheid has taught haiku to 5t​h​ through 8t​h​ graders at Sacred Heart School, one of whom won one of six top prizes in the competition. Robin Palley and I have led workshops at retreats in the Poconos and at the Collingswood Book Festival.

Current Vice President Henry Brann and President George Vallianos.

Starting in 2014, work on the house finally began and took almost 3 years to complete. George Vallianos, our new board president and I took possession on behalf of the NVHA in August 2017. It took almost 8 months to complete undone work on the house, accessibility, roof trim, garden gate, telephone, internet, security, etc. and furnishings. We held our Grand Opening on April 28th​ and 29t​h,​ 2018 to a welcoming crowd which easily exceeded 100 guests. Among them were representatives from a Philadelphia based non-profit, Mighty Writers. They had long sought a location in Camden to launch their literacy programs and felt they had, at last, found a home with us.

We hired a program coordinator in the fall of 2018 and began to host Mighty Writers as well as offering workshops and readings by and for authors from South Jersey. I was moved to tears upon seeing the first class of students walk in the front door.

At our opening we invited the guests to submit haiku which we displayed in the garden on clothesline and our new cherry tree. We also invited haiku poets from all over to email their poems. Prompted by a single unattributed poem still hanging from our tree in March 2019, I undertook the editing and publishing of our first book of haiku and senryu under our own imprimatur, Upright Remington Press. We launched Nick Virgilio Writers House Poetry, Volume 1 (available on Amazon) at Haiku North America, 2019 in Winston-Salem and at our Writers House in Camden. Book projects in the works include an e-book edition of A Life in Haiku from Rick Black’s Turtle Light Press, and a textbook style treatment of Nick’s writing process helmed by emeritus professor from Rutgers, Geoff Sill. In addition, we plan to publish an anthology of winning poetry from our competition winners and runners up over the years and Writers House Poetry, Volume 2.

Concluding, we continue to host Mighty Writers and to develop programs, workshops, and events at our Writers House with the guidance of our new Program Manager, Warren Longmire.

Henry Brann is the Vice President of the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association.

Submissions are open for our 31st Annual Student Haiku/Senryu Competition

Students poets! your time to shine is now!

The 31st Annual Nick Virgilio Haiku/Senryu Competition, co-sponsored by the Haiku Society of America, is now open to all students in grades 7 through 12. All entries received on or before March 23rd will be accepted.

For contest guidelines and to read past years’ winners, visit the Haiku Society of America’s website.

Six winners will be chosen, and the results announced in early May. Each winning entry will be published in Frogpond magazine, here and on the HSA website.

For more information on the nature and style of award winning English Language Haiku/Senryu, please consult these resources from the Haiku Society of America.

Submissions are now closed. Thanks for submissions. Lookout for our winning entries.

Good Luck!

Healing Through Writing With Kathleen Volk Miller

Starting February 8th, we kick off workshops at the NVWH with a powerful 8-week Healing through Writing workshop. In it, professor and essayist Kathleen Volk Miller takes students through the science and application of how writing mends emotional trauma. Here, Kathleen takes us through her journey toward the creation of this class. For details, please visit us at nickvirgiliohaiku.org/events.

My husband died when our children were 13, 11, and 5. This was not how I had written my life story.

I had wanted to be a writer since I had been bedridden for a period in fourth grade and had turned to books as my lifeblood. Up until this death, I would ruefully say that my childhood had been idyllic, my life simply too pleasant to give me fodder for writing. Now, I was too overwhelmed.

But fairly soon, I was able to start putting words---and feelings----to the page. I had always written short stories and I imagined novels in my future, but personal essay became the form I was most comfortable in. I wrote about my husband, my children, my sister’s alcoholism, and found that not only was I being published in well-established venues, I was purging, working things out, getting into clearer, rejuvenated head spaces about the topics I covered. 

Four years ago, an essay I called “Choosing Happiness” was published in Oprah magazine. Almost immediately afterwards, I was asked to speak at a women’s conference on writing to heal. I knew what writing did for me, but I decided that I wanted to explore the science involved; I wanted to see if anyone knew how or why words on a page could help relieve a heart. 

That exploration led me on an unexpected and amazing journey. Not only are hard-to-measure factors like stress and anxiety levels abated, concrete measures like actual wound healing have been recorded. Writing as healing has become so legitimized that it’s no longer used only in therapeutic settings, but in medical environments as well.

After the women’s conference, I taught a community class on writing to heal and when the six-week session was over, several members asked me to keep working with them, and a “self-help through memoir” class was born. I am still working with those members and two of them no longer see the need to have a therapist. 

Since I began this work, I have done one-time workshops, one-on-one sessions, and group sessions. To call this work rewarding is a gross understatement=it’s been revelatory. One time, I watched a women in her 80’s continue to move her pen across the page as tears flowed down her face. I wanted to speak with her so badly, but it was a large group one-day session and I didn’t know if I’d get that chance. After the session, several people approached me to ask individual questions. As I spoke to them, I felt awful that I wouldn’t get the chance to speak to the crying woman. I spoke to each attendant that wanted a few words with me, and what do you know? She had stayed behind and gotten in line speak to me and was simply so tiny I hadn’t seen her. 

She took my hand and smiled a beatific smile: “I wanted to write about my father, but while doing so, things came up about my sister. I thought we never got along, but we really did. We really did. Thank you for helping me remember.”