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Featured Writers
Daphna Kohn & Kelly Tadlock
Daphna Kohn, 35, and Kelly Tadlock, 52, loved writing in community so much they haven’t stopped. The pair met in Write Around Portland workshop at the Portland Women’s Crisis Line for six weeks of writing prompts and emerged with a lasting friendship.
Daphna and Kelly recently completed their second Write Around Portland group together and plan to continue meeting regularly in coffee shops and hotel lobbies, just as they did when the first session wrapped.
Daphna is nearing her license in acupuncture and Chinese medicine. She plays the violin and enjoys traveling. Kelly is the owner of three cats – Venus, Pluto and Zeus – and exercises her green thumb over a small garden.
When asked, the duo could barely contain their excitement over their experience with Write Around Portland. You can read their interview and writing below. The title of our summer 2010 anthology, Follow Me, Move the World comes from Daphna's piece, The Kid.
The Kid
by Daphna Kohn
One kid on the street doesn’t act like they should
One kid on the street has the wrong brain – head – face – clothes – mother – pool
One kid has the screaming in them, the echoing, the stench, the stinging stench of chlorine, poison gas
is over the limit
is out of the world
is crying alone....
Great Grandma Emma
by Kelly Tadlock
The crystal door knob I look into:
The light filters through it.
I know that I will never forget this.
I don’t want to ever forget this.
I am two years old.
I will hold onto this image for the next fifty years....
Interview with Featured Writers
Daphna Kohn & Kelly Tadlock
Biography writer and interviewer: Bob Albrecht, Volunteer
How did you become such fast friends?
DK: Kelly is hilarious and dark at the same time. That shone through her writing.
KT: She’s just a creative angel.
Ten weeks of the Write Around Portland workshop wasn’t enough?
DK: We were meeting every couple weeks and writing and sharing together.
KT: Daphna had a really good idea about meeting in the lobbies of hotels. Already, there’s drama.
DK: We got to make up our own writing prompts. It’s amazing how much you can get out of those.
What did you enjoy most about the first workshop at the Portland Women’s Crisis Line?
KT: I got very attached to all the people. I could remember all their names. They were all really engaging, smart people.
Have you always enjoyed writing?
KT: I wrote a little in college. The Write Around Portland workshop was very inspiring.
DK: I was doing some writing on my own. But there was no way to go through the process by myself.
What process?
DK: I loved the opportunity to read my writing out loud. It helps me know it’s alive. I’ve developed enough of a style that I can see published work that looks like me. That’s encouraging.
KT: I appreciate editing things. It’s so fun to get positive feedback and to give it. You always feel like it’s worthwhile, whatever you got on the page.
What’s so great about writing in community?
KT: I like that you’re not isolated. It’s fun to get with a group of people to play around.
What did you think of your volunteer workshop facilitators?
DK: Eloise was a doll. Maddy has this feeling of inclusiveness and camaraderie. She assumed everyone who was writing in our group was equal and had limitless potential. It was a great feeling.
KT: Eloise was so good at keeping us focused and not distracted. Maddy was very inspiring, too. I got a lot of good tips from her.
What stuck out to you about Write Around Portland?
DK: I’ve just been really impressed and delighted with how committed everyone is. They think of everything. It’s really hard when it’s over. It sucks when the workshop ends.
"I was doing some writing on my own. But there was no way to go through the process by myself."
--Daphna Kohn
"I like that you’re not isolated [when you're writing in community]."
--Kelly Tadlock
Featured Writers
Daphna Kohn & Kelly Tadlock