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Write Around Portland offers a unique generative workshop called Prompt designed for writers and aspiring writers in the greater Portland area who want to participate in a Write Around workshop and support the communities we traditionally serve who might not otherwise have access to writing and community.
Based on the acclaimed Write Around Portland model, this dynamic workshop incorporates many of our favorite writing exercises designed to inspire the writing life, including freewriting; work with writing elements; strength-building feedback and early-draft revision. The workshop caps off with a community broadside.
2012 Sessions:
Prompt #1: Ten Mondays, February 27-April 30, 6:30-8:30pm - Spaces filling fast!
Prompt #2: Ten Thursdays, April 26- June 28, 6:30-8:30pm
Prompt #3: Ten Tuesdays, July 24-October 2 (skip Sept 25), 6:30-8:30pm
Prompt #4: Ten Thursdays, August 16-October 18, 6:30-8:30pm
Prompt #5: Ten Tuesdays, October 9-December 18 (skip Nov 20), 6:30-8:30pm
Location: Powell’s City of Books
1005 W. Burnside, downtown Portland
Cost: $285 - Payment plans available
Cost includes free parking, snacks and access to the “Bowels of Powell's”
Workshop facilitators listed below
Proceeds help fund Write Around Portland programs, including our free workshops in hospitals, treatment centers, schools, senior centers, prisons, low income housing buildings and homeless shelters.
Pre-registration is required and is limited to 12 adults per workshop. IMPORTANT NOTE: Spaces fill quickly! Please call ahead (503.796.9224) to confirm there is space, to register and to discuss payment plan options.
Click here for information about our registration, payment options and refund policies.
2012 Prompt Workshop Facilitators:
Prompt #1 (February-April )
Workshop facilitator Thomas Cordova has facilitated numerous Write Around Portland workshops serving a variety of populations, both as a volunteer and in his current role on our staff as Program Coordinator. Thomas earned a BA in English from the University of Illinois. He was an editor and contributing writer for Mule Magazine in Chicago and was active in independent radio.
Prompt #2 (Apr - Jun)
Writing has been central to every aspect of workshop facilitator Matt Blair’s life, from earning his BA in music composition, to teaching English in Japan and China, to speaking at national conferences. He is currently working on projects which increase awareness of public art, highlight poetry boxes throughout Portland and encourage more people to try their pen at writing poetry. Matt has volunteered with Write Around Portland since 2009, facilitating workshops for low-income seniors, burn and trauma survivors and people living with disabilities.
Prompt #3 (July - Sept)
Workshop facilitator Sara Guest is a poet, novelist, longtime Write Around facilitator and former Program Coordinator. She is a former editor with Encyclopedia Britannica, Harpo Studios, Apple Computer and Lewis & Clark College and an adjunct instructor at Pacific Northwest College of Art. A William Stafford Writing Fellow and founding member of the VoiceCatcher Editorial Collective, Sara’s work has been featured on Inknode and published recently in New Orleans Review, Sir!, Octopus Magazine and the local anthology THE FROZEN MOMENT.
Prompt #4 (Aug - Oct)
Workshop facilitator Kristin Steele has facilitated Write Around Portland workshops for the last ten years, and also coaches playwriting for at-risk youth. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College, and has attended the Tin House Writers Workshop. Her writing has appeared in magazines, anthologies, online, and on stage. She is currently at work on her first musical and has been selected as the 2010 Gertrude Press Fiction Winner. Her chapbook, Focal Length, was released in 2011.
Prompt #5 (Oct - Dec)
Workshop facilitator Anne Scott has been involved with Write Around Portland since 2007 when she participated in our workshop at Legacy Emanuel’s Oregon Burn Center. Since then, she has facilitated numerous workshops for the diverse populations we serve. Anne earned a BA from Bennington College and an MBA from the Oregon Executive MBA program, an extension of the University of Oregon, where she is serves as Executive of Admissions. Writing has been an essential part of her career in marketing and communications. She is published in Write Around Portland anthologies and broadsides.
What Prompt participants are saying about their experience:
"Whether you’ve been writing for eons or have never shared your writing within a group, this experience is not to be missed."
"Prompt opened my writing in different ways. It pushed me past an extended period of writers' block into a new period of creativity."
"Prompt was fun and inspirational and a great place to meet other people who share the same passion."
"It's well worth the time, effort and money. You'll surprise yourself!"
"It was an amazing experience! I've always wanted to do something like this but was afraid to try until now."
"I felt exhilarated after each workshop. I'm inspired!"
"If you're in a rut, Prompt will get you out. If you're lacking confidence in your writing, it will build you up. And if you don't think you have a unique voice, it will prove you wrong!"
"I loved it! Prompt was everything I'd hoped for and more than I expected. Everyone should take it!"
"Prompt was like a door for me - it opened up my creative side again after a long time. I loved the non-pressure vibe."
"I loved the inclusive, community-building part of the workshop experience."
"This was an incredible experience. It's hard to express how much this has really impacted me and made me feel so much more confident about my writing."
"The facilitator was fabulous!"
"The sense of community was strong. It was a wonderfully diverse group of people that likely would not have otherwise met."
"It was great! Prompt helped me gain confidence and excitement about my writing."
"This is a great way to stretch yourself, deepen your experience of who you are as a person and a writer."
"I really enjoyed coming together with people from all walks of life and different age groups. It reminded me of what we share as humans - joys and sorrows."
"The facilitator was well-prepared, inclusive, supportive and an excellent writer."