Take a Writing Course with Mary this summer - C'mon

Have you missed our time creating new works? Do you enjoy the company of other writers? Then come join me for one or both of the following summer treats.

WRG-313-301 Creative Journaling 6/15 - 6/29 Tuesday 6:30-9:00 PM
This is not a class to teach how to make homemade journals or to document your vacation. This is a writing class that uses journal activities to awaken the creative spark, to mine the depth of an undeveloped idea. The journal becomes a unique treasure chest of material. Surprise yourself. This class focuses on the artistic process and resources include Walking on Alligators and The Artists Way and several Anne LaMott exercises (plus some unique ideas of my own - challenge your creativity).

WRT 312-301 How to Write/Sell Short Stories 7/13-7/29 Tuesday and Thursday 6:30-9:00 PM
The short story market is one of the expanding markets in publishing. Digestible media (given the sparse time that consumers have available after work and family demands) that can be enjoyed is increasing in demand. Short story construction is sparse, tight, with close attention to meaningful details. Come write and polish a short story and get it into the marketplace in just three weeks.

Visit AACC to register.

Eliot Leads Me Back

In 1985 I studied T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets and it became my bible. I have a paperback edition that has followed me into every classroom, that stays in my car when I'm not teaching, that is rarely beyond arm's length. The whole collection is always teaching me - and right now this is the passage from which I am learning, again.

"You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not."