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• Unlock Your Narratives: Contributing to Anthology Essays and Blogs // with Meghna Bhat

  • Start
    02 April 2025
  • End
    29 April 2025
  • Location
    online
  • Spaces left
    12

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  Stories move people.

  People change systems.

  --Favianna Rodrigues, 2023 CA Arts Summit

  Writing our stories in a blog or an anthology essay has the power to shape our culture.
  

  Writing, sharing, and listening to true, personal stories can be powerful in fostering empathy, bringing communities together, and deepening our understanding of others’ experiences.

  Authentic true stories can show up in our lives in so many ways. The art of writing authentic and personal stories for essay submissions to anthologies and blogs may appear similar to those found in long-form mediums; however, the process and elements involved are unique.

  How much should we write about our true stories in these shorter forms of creative writing platforms to engage our audiences? How can we zoom into a moment from our lives to maximize our call to action in our story?

  Grounded in a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, and safe space where imperfection, messy, and incomplete writing will be embraced and welcomed, participants will leave the class with two final(ish) drafts of blogs or essays.

  Participants will have time to share with peers and facilitators, sufficient time for feedback and reflections, and be provided with resources and strategies to own their narratives.

  
  

  "I participated in two different story-writing workshops with Meghna and thoroughly enjoyed my time with her. She is a very patient instructor/facilitator making sure everyone follows along with what she is saying. She is an effortless facilitator who comes prepared. She doesn't waste participants' time and keeps the conversations/work moving along. She is highly inclusive and makes sure the space you are in is a safe and brave space. She creates conditions of belonging for everyone. She is very empathetic and made sure I felt comfortable sharing my story. I really enjoyed learning how to structure my story from her. She guides you and nudges you along but is not overbearing. Her feedback is very constructive and gentle which helps you further refine what you are writing. I highly recommend Meghna." SURABHI JAIN, Independent Consultant | Chief Catalyst, Surabhi Jain Consulting

  
  

  Week By Week

  Week 1: Unpacking Authentic Storytelling, and identifying stories from your own lives for this class

  In this class, we will:

  • Explore the purpose, structure, and elements of blogs and anthology essays

  • Define, explore, and reclaim the aha moments from our lives, and the communities we want to engage with

  • Identify our writing goal and purpose of taking this class: blog or anthology essays.

  • Write a rough draft or outline of our true personal stories written from a first-person voice based on grounding and interactive writing prompts.

  Week 2: Revisit Examples of Blogs/ Essays, and Identify Elements to Write and Reclaim Our Short Narratives

  In this class, we will:

  • Examine the emerging elements and themes from current blogs and anthology essays.

  • Identify elements that would be helpful to highlight the underlying message of our blog/ essay.

  • Ask important questions: Who are we writing for? Why this topic/ story? What impact do we envision? 

  • After some quiet dedicated writing time, we will have an opportunity to share a pitch of our short narrative with peers in breakout rooms and receive specific compassionate feedback as requested.

  Week 3: Discuss and strengthen our narratives through mutual compassionate feedback.

  In this class, we will:

  • Start the session by providing time to share a revised rough draft or outline of our short narrative. (blog or essay) with the group, and continue receiving reflections and compassionate feedback.

  • Identify milestones as well as hiccups we experienced while writing the short narratives.

  • Write a rough draft on a second topic of a blog or essay (during dedicated quiet writing time and story prompts) using the elements we learned in previous sessions.

  • Share our second narrative (or an updated draft of the 1st narrative) with different peers in breakout rooms for more feedback and reflections.

  Week 4: Final-ish showcase, and discuss our next steps and resources to continue with our writing journey. 

  • Share one of our final-ish writing pieces (blog or essay) with the group.

  • Identify the next steps and goals to continue reclaiming our short narratives.

  • Discuss resources and tools to help our writing journey.

  "I had the privilege of working with Meghna during the Gulabi Stories project in 2022 and what impressed me most was how she created an incredibly supportive and empathetic environment for all participants. She led us through the process of unpacking difficult personal narratives with so much care and understanding, checking in at every step to ensure we felt safe and validated. Her thoughtful questions not only helped us reflect on our own experiences but also inspired us to see the power and impact of sharing our stories. I highly recommend Meghna—whether as a workshop facilitator, keynote speaker, or story coach—because of her remarkable ability to foster vulnerability, trust, and meaningful growth in her sessions. One particular highlight was the reflective exercise she used to guide us through our storytelling, which made me feel included and heard while learning a new way to give voice to our stories." PRIYA DHANANI, Queer Social Justice Feminist Activist
  

  Who Should Take This Class

  Storytelling in this session means true, personal stories shared from their lived experiences using a first-person voice. This class is ideal for anyone who wishes to start blogging or writing essays in an anthology and is open to learning creative writing beyond our books, novels, and other long-form publications. However, this course especially invites those who are new to creative and non-fiction writing and don’t know where and how to start writing. In this interactive course, participants will be guided into breaking down the elements of storytelling in alternative communication platforms such as blogs, anthology essays, and Op-Eds. This class is also ideal for anyone who has to write social impact blogs or anthology essays and doesn’t know how to write their lived experiences in these formats. 

  Format

  Course materials will be delivered through a hybrid of weekly Zoom sessions, WetInk, and Google Doc resources sent via email.  Zoom sessions are scheduled for April 2, 9, 16, and 23 from 4 to 6 pm PT and will be recorded and made available to students only. 

  About The Facilitator

  Meghna Bhat, Ph.D. (she/her) is a social justice consultant, writer, multidisciplinary storyteller, feminist educator, and an aspiring cultural practitioner based in California. Born and raised in India and currently living in the US, Meghna's experiences encountering and witnessing gender injustice deeply motivated her to be an outspoken advocate, writer, and storyteller. She believes in the power of arts, writing, and storytelling in creating community dialogue, shifting culture, and fostering ongoing decolonized narrative change. Meghna is a published author, including academic publications, anthology essays, articles, and blogs. Her story “Metamorphosis” was published in the 2024 SANCTUARIES anthology of survivor stories published by South Asian SOAR. Her articles have also been published in Ms. Magazine, an international feminist platform. As a 2022 Seeding Creativity artist grant recipient, Meghna created Gulabi Stories: A South Asian Healing Initiative, which taught, coached, and empowered South Asian storytellers to reclaim their narratives of healing.

  Dr. Bhat facilitated a warm, vulnerable, and culturally relevant writing space that inspired me to identify, write, capture, and share a moment of community in my life - which aligns with my desire to share more stories of joy outside of my identity of survivorship. RISS M

  
  

  
  

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• Storytelling and the Body // with Danielle Bainbridge, Jane Hseu, & Kimberly Gomes

  • Start
    06 May 2025
  • End
    27 May 2025
  • Location
    online

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  A new approach to deepening your creative relationship with your body.

  Each new form/method introduced will open up new ways to approach memoir and personal writing.
  

  In this class, creatives will learn how to use four different mediums to write about the body: memoir, poetry, song, and oral storytelling.

  Taught by the skilled, creative trio of Danielle Bainbridge, Kimberly Gomes, and Jane Hseu, each week will feature a different style of writing and a way to intersect with the body. Your facilitators will model ways to tackle memoir writing through a variety of disciplines and each new form or method introduced will open up new ways to approach memoir and personal writing.

  Students will leave the course with:

  • a mixed methods approach to memoir writing and writing about the body
  • the start of one new prose/memoir piece, poem, song, and oral story

  This will give participants a treasure trove of inspiration to launch from in the coming weeks.

  Class will culminate in a salon-style session where writers inspire each other by sharing a piece they created during the course.

  Week By Week

  May 6th—Week 1—Danielle Exploring the Body through Mixed Media 

  • 15 minutes: introduction to the class, our objectives, and what you will gain from participating in this session. Also intros from students/attendees 

  • 20 minutes: Writers will be asked to bring in a piece of art in any medium that reflects their relationship with their writing and their body. Each participant will give a brief explanation of the piece and how it relates to their practice.

  • 30 minutes: Free writing using the piece you brought to class as a jumping off point/inspiration.

  • 30 minutes: For this time period writers will be asked to take the writing they did during the free writing time and turn it into another art piece of their choice. This can be a song, a poem, a collage, a visual art piece, a skit, etc. 

  • 25 minutes: open sharing about what was discovered during the 2 creative free writing sessions, conclusion, and wrap-up for session 1. Artists will share both pieces and see how they inform each other. Discussion of what will be covered in session 2.

  May 13th—Week 2—Kimberly: Writing from the Body with Poetry & Song 

  • 10 min Opening check in & somatic, dance exercise to drop into our bodies and channel specific emotions/phys sensations we want to release and dive further into for today’s writing. 

  • 15 min We’ll then read 3 poems from different poets, one of which writes viscerally about the body from a shadow angle, another that uses form as an interesting container, and another where the poem speaks about the body with levity or sensuality. 

  • 30 minute writing session intended to draft 1-2 poems

  • 25 Switch to songwriting where Kimberly will give the group a melody/beat to work with to create a very simple, mantra-like song where we use body metaphors to each write our own (possibly our very first) song. 

  • 30 minute sharing of what we wrote 

  • Closing check-in + optional homework

  May 20th—Week 3—Jane: Writing/Storytelling about Mental Health and the Body

  • 15 mins.: Check-in (how do you come to the workshop today) 

  • 30 mins.: Presentation and discussion about different works that write and tell stories about mental health (memoir, fiction, poetry, and oral storytelling)

  • 15 mins.: Discussion of various ways participants creatively express and cope with mental health issues

  • 30 mins.: Practice: Time to write; create (draw, play music, etc.); reflect/meditate; rest; and/or dream/daydream

  • 30 mins.: Sharing and discussion, including thoughts about the salon

  May 27th—Week 4—Salon + sharing takeaways from the class + optional sharing of goals/hopes we each have for our practice in the next month/season

  Who Should Take This Class

  All levels of prose writers, oral storytellers, poets, and songwriters interested in exploring a variety of mediums to express experiences, feelings, and new perspectives about the body.

  People who will benefit from this are both beginner or seasoned writers who:

  • feel like they’ve been wanting to explore stories about/from the body but are nervous to go there without structure.
  • have previously written a lot about the body but want a new angle to approach the topic.
  • are looking to explore a new creative medium in safe, supportive environment.
  • are interested in learning how to use somatic practices to dive into and out of writing.

  Format

  Class will meet using Zoom on four consecutive Tuesdays: May 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2025 from 7:30-9:30 PM ET | 6:30 - 8:30 PM CT |  5:30 - 7:30 PM MT | 4:30 - 6:30 PM PT.

  About The Facilitators

  Danielle Bainbridge is an Assistant Professor of Theatre, Black Studies, and Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Her first academic book Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive is forthcoming in 2025 from NYU Press. Her first memoir Dandelion: A Memoir in Essays is forthcoming from Jaded Ibis Press in 2025, where it was the winner of the inaugural Uplift Voices Nonfiction Prize. Dandelion was a semi-finalist for the 2016 Kore Press Memoir Award, the 2023 St. Lawrence Prize from Black Lawrence Press, and the 2024 Creative Nonfiction Award from Autumn House Press and has received scholarships/residencies from Tin House, the Adirondack Center for Writing, and the Banff Centre in Canada. Her web series and media work have been nominated for 3 Daytime Emmy Awards and 1 NAACP Image Award. She lives and loves in Chicago with her partner and 3 naughty cats. 

  Kimberly Gomes is a California-based writer and music maker. She’ the author of poetry collection, Love Notes the Body (Dancing Girl Press, 2019), women’s travel novel, A Road of Her Own (Red Light Lit Press, 2025), creator of a spoken word and musical album, First Bloom, and is currently writing a collection of personal essays. Her novel was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Black Lawrence Press Prose Book Award, her prose was named a top personal essay of 2021 by Entropy Magazine, and her poetry and has been featured in a variety of literary journals and performance art shows. When she’s not writing, she’s hosting community events for creatives, speaking on topics she’s passionate about, and trekking trails in her coastal home of Santa Cruz. Learn more about her work at kimberly-gomes.com or @writeon_kim.

  Jane Hseu is Professor of English at Dominican University outside of Chicago, where she teaches classes about racial minority US literatures, writing, and storytelling. She has published personal essays on funky Chinese American names, growing up in her mother’s Shiseido cosmetics store, and mental health and recovery. Jane is currently working on her memoir, Growing Up Evangelical, Chinese, and Depressed. She is a board member for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and core organizer for Banyan: Asian American Writers Collective. She is committed to building community by bringing people together for literary events and workshops, and so has contributed presentations and organizing for venues such as the American Writers Festival, Printers Row Lit Fest, Transformative Language Arts Network, Pour One Out storytelling series, AWP, APIDA Arts Festival, and Casa de Las Americas. Find out more at janehseu.com.

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• Sustainable Marketing Strategy for Writers, Changemakers, and other Magical TLArtists // with Tracie Nichols

  • Start
    07 May 2025
  • End
    27 May 2025
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  
  

  I’ll bet your work and art is quietly (or not so quietly) life-changing. 

  I’ll also bet not enough people know about it—or you—right? 

  Sustainable Marketing Strategy for Writers, Changemakers, and other Magical TLArtists will help you (re)define marketing and promotion (as well as terms and concepts like business growth, strategy, and community building) as practices that can be both sustainable and successful while also being aligned with your values, creative and business goals, and available expendable energy. (In other words, how many spoons can you devote to this?)

  At the end of our three weeks together, you will: 

  —Know what you want your marketing to do for you/your business

  —Have the foundation of a sustainable marketing strategy grounded in

  • language and methods of communication meaningful to both you and your community
  • knowing the best pace for your available time and energy
  • researching the best places/platforms for the ways you most effectively and genuinely communicate

  —Be part of a network of other creatives working to build sustainable marketing practices

  —Be supported by a collection of resources and tools

  In short—this is a professional development course designed to make strategies for growing your community and business sane and sustainable. 

  Week By Week 

  Week 1: Evicting your inner late-night infomercial huckster, (or how your assumptions about marketing are probably not helping you grow your business) 

  This week we will:

  • look at the ways ubiquitous, relentless, mainstream marketing consciously and unconsciously shapes what we think marketing is, the language we use to define it and ourselves, and what it must look or sound like. 
  • redefine and/or reclaim “marketing” and “promotion” as actions you take to help your community understand what you do and how it helps them so they can make a conscious, informed choice to work with you, (buy from you, join your thing).

  Week 2: You & your community—intersecting ecosystems. Creating a sustainable marketing strategy starts with knowing yourself and your community.

  Our activities this week will:

  • delve into who you are as a TLArtist; your values, your native communication style, the personality and neurologic traits that underpin how you think, create, and take action. 
  • explore who are the people in your community, how can you connect with them, what are the ways they will be looking for help?
  • clarify/define the kind of conversation and/or reciprocal relationship you and your community want to be having.

  Week 3: Market like a tree. Be rooted. Offer oxygen—Your sustainable marketing strategies. This week we will plant the seeds of a marketing strategy:

  • aligned with how you communicate, your goals, your working rhythm and expendable energy.
  • that feels genuine and inviting to your community.
  • that is both a short and a long-term strategy—meaning actions you can take right away and actions you can build up to over time.

  Who Should Take This Class

  You should join us if you're a TLArtist* interested in building your community and/or your practice without burning out, becoming overwhelmed, or feeling inauthentic, pushy, or like you’re imposing on anyone. This applies to both solo practitioners and people who are responsible for community building for an organization.

  NOTE: While this approach to marketing is especially helpful for introverts, ambiverts, Highly Sensitive People (HSP) and/or people with ADHD, anyone who feels alienated by traditional marketing methods will definitely find inspiration here. 

  *Who are TLArts practitioners? Teachers, counselors, writers, storytellers, performers, songwriters, poets, community leaders and activists, and other artists using language for individual or community transformation.

  We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  Course materials will be delivered through a hybrid of weekly Zoom sessions and written resources sent via email.

  The majority of the work will happen in the weekly two-hour Zoom meetings, held on three consecutive Saturdays from 11 AM-1 PM ET (10 AM -12 PM CT | 9-11 AM MT | 8-10 AM PT | 4-6 PM UTC): May 10, May 17, and May 24, 2025. Sessions will be recorded and made available to students only. 

  This class utilizes personal reflection, group discussion, and writing exercises to explore and redefine marketing so it becomes a useful and sustainable business strategy for creatives like TLArtists. You should plan to spend about three hours per week on course work between the Zoom meetings and outside writing exercises and research. 
  

  About the Facilitator

  Tracie Nichols is a poet, facilitator, and the current Managing Director of The Transformative Language Arts Network. Over the past 20 years, inspired by her graduate work in Transformative Learning and Change, she has designed and facilitated hundreds of virtual and in-person learning experiences for people seeking personal transformation and growth. Tracie spent ten intense, wonderfully complex, and successful years as a business and life coach, finally closing her coaching practice two years ago and turning her creative energies to writing (mostly) poetry. Her poetry has appeared in Rogue Agent, Text Power Telling, and kerning. You can connect with her on her website or her Substack Breathing Space.
  

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• Revisioning Motherhood: Writing a new Story of (and for) Mothers// with Amanda Lacson

  • When
    10 May 2025
  •  
    2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    online

  Register

  

  This class is for anyone who is passionate about raising up and dismantling limiting myths about motherhood.

  In this workshop we will examine pictures of motherhood handed down to us through poetry, pop culture and by examining photos from your own mother figures.

  • What do these images tell us about the expectations set upon mothers?
  • How do they impact the way that you mother or have been mothered?

  We will discuss myths of motherhood, how we can unpack these myths, and what myths, stories and real-life examples we can look to, in order to create liberating stories about what Motherhood can be. I broadly define “myth” to mean ancient mythologies and their descendants in folklore and fairy tales; cultural expectations that pervade Western society; and the myths closest to home, the family stories that you grew up with.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This class is for anyone interested in motherhood, whether they consider themselves a mother, have been mothered, or would like to understand more about Motherhood images and expectations in the Western and non-Western world.

  People who have felt limited or stressed by common Western motherhood expectations, especially in regards to maintaining work, self, or creative identity will also benefit from this workshop.

  As the mother of a three-year-old, I know that time can feel compacted for mothers: yet, I also know the importance of staying grounded in my creative practice which started long before I became a mother.

  Since motherhood expectations don’t change without the support of societal structures, this class is for anyone who is passionate about raising up and dismantling limiting myths about motherhood.

  No prior writing experience is necessary. Participants may bring photos of their own motherhood figures to write from if they wish. For privacy sake, this workshop will not be recorded; however notes and resources will be emailed to all registrants afterward. 
  

  Format
  

  This workshop will meet live from 2 PM - 5 PM ET/11 AM - 2 PM PT on Saturday May 10, 2025 using Zoom. For privacy sake, this workshop will not be recorded; however notes and resources will be emailed to all registrants afterward.

  About the Facilitator

  Amanda Faye Lacson is a Filipina-American writer, photographer, and historian. Her work, both personal and community-oriented, is centered on exploring how our identities are shaped, how they impact the way we move in the world, and how we write our history. She aims to bring forward voices that have been less-studied through creative nonfiction and playwriting (fellow with Primary Stages’ Echoes Writers Group 2024-2025 cohort); photography that documents the artistic process at work; oral history-oriented podcast interviewing; and community-based workshops for the family historian. When her son was almost two years old, Amanda joined the Raised Pinay community, a group of Filipina (Pinay) mothers that gathered to write together, reflect on their Pinay childhood, and how it affects their experience raising Pinay children. Amanda received her MA in TLA at Goddard College in 2010, and currently co-teaches the required classes for the Certificate in TLA Foundations. 

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• Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles

  • When
    18 May 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    online
  • Registered
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  Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles

  
  

  The work of Transformative Language Arts

  is rooted in community.

  TLAN Community Circles provide a welcoming space to connect with fellow practitioners, share our stories, practices, ideas, and challenges, and deepen our understanding of this powerful work.

  These online gatherings foster thoughtful conversation, creative exchange, and meaningful community building around the shared belief in the transformational power of words.

  Whether you are just beginning or well along in your TLA journey, Community Circles offer a supportive space to connect, explore, and grow alongside others who share your passion.
  
  

  Who Should Participate?

  Community Circles are open to everyone—whether you’re a seasoned TLA practitioner, a curious newcomer, or someone passionate about using words for healing, change, or creativity. Writers, artists, educators, healers, activists, and anyone who values the power of language and seeks to feel supported in their TLA journey will find connection, inspiration, and belonging here.

  Format

  When: Every other month in 2025 (1/26, 3/23, 5/18, 7/20, 9/21, and 11/16) from 5–6:30 PM ET.
  Where: Virtual on Zoom (join from anywhere!)
  What to Expect: Each session features an opening and closing ritual, a brief check-in and writing practice, and a facilitated discussion around a TLA-related topic.
  Cost: The circles are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

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• Twelve Poets to Change Your Life // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

  • Start
    04 June 2025
  • End
    15 July 2025
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    22

  Register

  
  

  Poetry can foster healing, advocate for liberation, break silences, create community, grow courage, and continually give us new maps to find our own true north. 

  This six-week class leads you on a journey through illuminating poetry from contemporary and historic poets who speak from a multitude of communities, places, times, and traditions.

  We’ll read some of the writing of Ilya Kaminsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Czeslaw Milosz, Muriel Rukeyser, Joy Harjo, Galway Kinnell, Diane Seuss, Li-Young Lee, Emily Dickinson, Linda Pastan, Walt Whitman, and Ada Limón.

  Come immerse yourself in poetry you may already love or poetry you will get to fall in love with while also generating a lot of new poems of your own!

  

  Each week features two poets, including a sampling of their poetry, links to articles and interviews, and a summary about what their work offers us as readers and writers. Additionally, each week includes craft lesson, writing tips, and lots of writing prompts to help you open doors to your new poems. We’ll share our writing and positive responses to each others’ writing online in a warm and welcoming community. By the end of the workshop, you'll have a big bunch of new poems and, through the poets we're exploring, lots of new poet-companions.

  Week-by-week

  Week One: Who We Are Alone and In a Crowd: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson: This week’s historic poets deeply consider what it is to contain multitudes (Whitman) and speak in deep solitude (Dickinson), both of whom have a lot to show us about identity, history, and voice. 

  Week Two: The Extraordinary in the Ordinary: Linda Pastan and Gwendolyn Brooks: Find the magic in everyday life through writing about the seemingly ordinary in all its extraordinary specifics, all of which shows us more of real life in real life. 

  Week Three: Liberation and Illumination: Ilya Kaminsky and Muriel Rukeyser: Poets, including one current (Kaminsky) and one historic (Rukeyser) poet this week, who write of transformation and freedom shine a light on what it is to survive and build greater community with others who seek liberation. 

  Week Four: Healing Fountains: Li-Young Lee and Ada Limon: Through exploring the poetry of personal and communal healing in Lee’s and Limon’s poetry, we can find and write some of our own healing fountains, surfacing what's ripe for revising in our lives and life stories to craft more authentic and generous narratives to write and live. 

  Week Five: Finding Home: Galway Kinnell and Czeslaw Milosz: Poets who write deeply about home in multiple dimensions can help us see where we live, from our bodies to the cosmos. This week's poets open windows into the ways we come home to our bodies, places, and ecoregions. 

  Week Six: Maps to a New World: Diane Seuss and Joy Harjo: Poetry can also help us re-envision where and how we live, lighting from within the details and big picture views of our lives. By considering the work of these poets who write so vividly of the present, stretching language to show us new maps, we can better comprehend the possibilities of our time and place.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This is a generative class for all people who drawn to poetry, whether you're just getting started or have a long-time practice. All the writing prompts and interactive activities are designed to meet you where you are and gather us into a vibrant poetry community for the duration of our time together. 

  Format

  This is an online class in which we come together through an interactive website in council, reaching across the miles to hold one another's words and reflect deeply on what we discover individually and together. Each week includes ample writing prompts, a short essay on the poets we're visiting with this week, a discussion and examples of the craft of strong writing, and a short meditative piece (often a podcast) about this week's theme, including considerations for your own immersion into the writing life. Expect to spend a minimum of 2-5 hours per week on writing poems and responses to each other on our site. Participants are also asked to respond to at least three other participants' work each week, deepening our dialogue altogether. Most of the exercises will give participants options to write in the genre of their choice.

  We will also meet in two optional Zoom meetings -- at the beginning (to get to know each other) and end (to celebrate our writing) of the class.

  About the Facilitator

  

  Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, PhD is the founder of Transformative Language Arts, the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a non-fiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body. A beloved writing workshop facilitator and writing and Right Livelihood coach, she offers writing workshops widely, particularly for people living with serious illness, adults in transition, humans looking for greater connection with the earth, and poets and writers seeking their most courageous voice on the page and in their lives. She loves life-giving collaborations, including YourRightLivelihood.com with Kathryn Lorenzen, Bravevoice.com with Kelley Hunt, and TheArtofFacilitation.net with Joy Roulier Sawyer. She offers weekly “Care Packages for a Creative Life” through her Patreon page, and her long-time blog, “Everyday Magic” at CarynMirriamGoldberg.com. 

  Born hard-wired to make something (in art, music, and especially writing), Caryn’s long-time callings include writing as a spiritual and ecological path, yoga, cultivating a loving marriage, family, and community, and helping herself and others make and take leaps into the miraculous work of their lives. For over three decades, Caryn has worked with many arts and ecological/bioregional not-for-profit organizations as a grant-writer, fundraiser, staff or board member, and consultant on collaborative and community arts, group process, and better meetings. She lives in the country on land she and her husband, ecological writer Ken Lassman, have put in a conservation reserve and are restoring as prairie and woodlands. See more at www.CarynMirriamGoldberg.com

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• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • When
    08 June 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    online
  • Registered
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  TLA Network Virtual Salon

  Sunday, June 8, 2025

  Join Us!

  5:00–6:30 pm ET (UTC-5)
  

  4:00–5:30 pm CT // 3:00–4:30 pm MT // 2:00–3:30 pm PT // 10:00-11:30 pm UTC

  Click here to find your timezone.

  Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.
  

  The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

  Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

  After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

  You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  The salons are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

  Stay Tuned for Our June Presenters!

  
  

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• Telling It Slant: The Art of Autofiction // with Elizabeth Chesla

  • Start
    11 June 2025
  • End
    22 July 2025
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    19

  Register

  

  This generative class invites you to explore new ways to “tell the truth, but tell it slant” by exploring the powerful, playful world of autofiction.

  We’ll examine examples of autofiction and analyses of autofictional texts to develop a working definition of the genre and its techniques, then put those techniques into practice, deliberately blending autobiographical fact with fiction to tell it true.

  Through weekly readings and discussion, we’ll consider the conventions of autobiography and fiction and what happens when we crisscross the liminal space between the two. Weekly writing prompts will give you the opportunity to experiment with ways to consciously reconstruct, revise, and reimagine life events and to give and receive kind, constructive feedback in a supportive, compassionate community. We’ll also have three optional Zoom classes where you can ask questions, dive deeper into texts, and share your ideas and explorations with each other.

  We all have stories to tell. By blurring the boundary between genres, autofiction invites you to tell your story without the constraints of memoir or autobiography and see what new stories can emerge by casting yourself as a character and (re)writing your past.

  Week by Week

  WEEK 1:  What Is Autofiction? — Beginning with a series of excerpts from autofictions, we’ll define autofiction and its conventions. How is it like and unlike fiction, memoir, and other (sub)genres? We’ll discuss the challenges of defining autofiction and its controversies and consider reasons to choose autofiction as a storytelling vehicle. Prompts will invite students to explore their expectations as readers of different genres and their reactions to texts that break those expectations and consider how fiction can sometimes “be a better vehicle for truth than nonfiction” (Dorothy Allison).

  WEEK 2:  Author (vs.) Avatar — Students will be invited to experiment with the foundational feature of autofiction: author as avatar. We’ll discuss the impact of social media, gaming, and the pandemic on our ability and willingness to turn ourselves into characters by modifying, enhancing, or downright fabricating our identity. Prompts will invite plenty of play as students develop a series of performative “selves.”

  WEEK 3:  Remembering and Reimagining —Taking the opening line of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five as our motto—“All of this happened, more or less”—we will dive into the neuroscience of memory and then reconstruct memories, allowing ourselves to play in the realm of the imaginary. From Natalie Goldberg’s “detail transplants” to radical re-visions of events, students will be invited to see how fiction opens up new possibilities for telling it true.

  WEEK 4:  Bearing Witness — Autofiction offers a framework that allows storytellers to transform the raw into the readable and relatable. This week, we’ll look at the ways autofiction creates distance that allows us to bear witness to the deep, the difficult, the transformative. Students will be invited to use autofiction techniques to document moments of personal and/or global significance.

  WEEK 5:  Crisscrossing Borders: Following and Upending Storytelling Conventions — This week we will dig deeper into the techniques of autofiction, looking at models and experimenting with “enhancers” that challenge traditional contracts between writers and their readers. Students will be invited to apply these techniques to pieces they’ve already drafted or to new pieces and consider their effects.

  WEEK 6:  Autofiction as Collaboration and Protest — Our final session will include discussion of the many ways autofiction is both an act of collaboration and an act of resistance. Students will be invited to share and discuss their work in a final showcase/celebration of their autofiction adventures. Students will also be given resources for continuing to read, write, and perhaps publish their autofiction work.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This course is for language artists of any genre interested in exploring the genre-bending and genre-blurring realm of autofiction. It may be especially helpful for anyone wishing to write about difficult personal experiences, especially if a memoir is not a viable option, or for anyone exploring personal or family histories where information about the past is unavailable, unknown, or unclear. 

  What former Telling It Slant students have to say
  

  “I learned that I can be free as a writer to tell the truth as I know it . . . I didn't realize just how much it was holding me back until taking this class and allowing myself that freedom to explore.”

  “Liz allowed us to enter a space of writing with freedom. The responses and engagement from others in the class was nourishing and kind.” 

  “In this course I wrote and shared from places of trauma. I had not ever done that before, except in private. I will remember this course for doing that for me.”

  “This class introduced me not only to a new form of writing, but to new ways of thinking about truth, fiction v. non-fiction, what it means to write anything, and what forms that may take. Quite a lot in six weeks, I'd say. It has opened a door that has been closing me off from writing what I feel I need to write but have been afraid to try, fearing ‘what they'd say.’ Forever grateful!”

  Format

  This is an online class, hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. Coursework for each week will be posted by 6:00 AM EDT each Wednesday beginning September 6. 

  Three optional 60-minute Zoom sessions will take place. Dates and times to be announced.

  This class utilizes personal reflection, group discussion, and both individual and collaborative writing exercises to explore the topic of autofiction. You should plan to spend about three hours per week on the class writing and sharing your responses to the readings, discussion questions, creative writing prompts, and posts by your peers. The class is formatted so that you can engage with the material any time throughout the week. At the end of the class, you will receive an email that contains an archive of all your content and interactions.

  About the Teacher

  Elizabeth Lukács Chesla is the author of You Cannot Forbid the Flower (2023), a hybrid novella based on her father’s experiences in World War II and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The daughter of Hungarian refugees and a mother of three, she earned her MA from Columbia University and spent a decade teaching writing and literature in New York City before moving back home to the Philadelphia suburbs to raise her family. There she wrote books on reading, writing, and critical thinking skills for educational publishers; served as an editor for nonprofit organizations; taught online writing and literature courses for homeschoolers; became a yoga teacher specializing in support for hypermobility and trauma; and co-founded a weekly embodied writing group for women. She teaches writing and literature at Gwynedd Mercy University, provides writing and editing services for a wide range of clients, and serves as fiction editor for Consequence Forum. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Quarter After Eight, Another Chicago Magazine, Hungarian Literature Online, and Flare: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Told in Flash Narratives. Learn more here.

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• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • When
    24 August 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    online
  • Registered
    Be the first

  Register

  
  

  TLA Network Virtual Salon

  Sunday, August 24, 2025

  Join Us!

  5:00–6:30 pm ET (UTC-5)
  

  4:00–5:30 pm CT // 3:00–4:30 pm MT // 2:00–3:30 pm PT // 10:00-11:30 pm UTC

  Click here to find your timezone.

  Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.
  

  The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

  Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

  After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

  You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  The salons are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

  Stay Tuned for Our

  August Presenters!

  
  

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• 2025 Power of Words Conference

  • Start
    03 October 2025
  •  
  • End
    05 October 2025
  •  
  • Location
    Unity Village, 1900 NW Blue Parkway, Unity Village, Missouri

  Register

  
  

  Join our 20th annual Power of Words Conference to explore the written, spoken and sung word to find how it can bring liberation, celebration and transformation within our communities. 
  

  Network with writers, storytellers, performers, musicians, health professionals, educators, and change-makers to connect with those who share your passion of making a difference with words.   

  Discover diversity and experience visionary voices at keynote sessions. Get inspired with workshops in five areas:  Social Transformation, Right Livelihood, Engaged Spirituality, Narrative Healing and Ecological TLA.

  Conference Costs:
  

  • Your registration payment of $275 Members or $315 Non-Members includes main conference events only.
  • Pre-conference events and our optional meal plan are sold separately. To purchase either of them, you will add them to your order when you register for the conference. 
  • • Pre-conference costs: $65 Members; $75 Non-Members
    • Optional meal package: $150
  • Partial scholarships and work-study opportunities are available if cost is a barrier. Submit your application before you register. Applications close September 7, 2025.
  • Transportation and lodging are not included. 

  Lodging & Meals: 

  LODGING 

  The conference is being held at the beautiful and welcoming Unity Village in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

  We have reserved blocks of rooms at both Unity Village Hotel and at Holiday Inn Express for $139/night.

  Holiday Inn Express is only 2 miles from Unity Village, and we encourage people with their own transportation to consider staying at this lovely hotel since we have a limited number of rooms at Unity Village.

  MEALS

  We are very pleased to be contracting with a new caterer who is providing excellent food, including ample gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian options as well as beverages and desserts. 

  Meals are a package deal: $150 includes Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and dinner, and Sunday lunch. You won't be able to buy individual meals, so please purchase the whole package if you need meals. Please note that there is only a small cafe with limited hours and offerings on the Unity Village campus and no dining options within walking distance.

  While our meal plan is optional, please strongly consider joining us for meals – it's a perfect way to connect with others, make new friends, and find new possibilities for your art and work. 
  

  (Breakfast is provided for free at the Unity Hotel and Holiday Inn Express for people staying at those hotels.)

  Detailed Meal, Lodging & Travel information is on our dedicated conference page.

  Meal, Lodging & Travel Info

  PLEASE NOTE OUR CANCELLATION & REFUND POLICY:

  If you need to cancel your registration, please refer to the following schedule.
  

  • Aug. 14, 2025: Last day for full refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
  • Sept. 1, 2025: Last day for 75% refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
  • Sept. 11, 2025: Last day for 50% refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
  • No refunds available after Sept. 12, 2025

  We will not issue refunds, transfers, or credits after SEPTEMBER 12, 2025. (In the case of unexpected life circumstances—such as hospitalization or death in the family—contact us and we will try to do what we can.)

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• Embodied Storytelling through Song // with Elizabeth Addison

  • Start
    29 October 2025
  • End
    02 December 2025
  • Location
    online
  • Spaces left
    15

  Register

  
  

  Looking for a deeply moving experience that builds connection and healing and celebrates your resilience?

  This incredibly unique and innovative workshop builds on our other storytelling programs with the addition of music, guiding participants to discover a story within themselves and turn it into a song.

  Techniques combine narrative and drama therapy with a fully embodied songwriting process that requires no instruments and no prior skill, leaving participants with a deeply moving experience that builds connection and healing and celebrates their resilience.

  Week By Week

  Week 1

  • Identifying home - songs that give you a sense of comfort
  • Group ground work and community building through play
  • Finding the story for your song (prompts and verbal sharing)
  • Writing time

  Week 2

  • Music Therapy exercise 
  • Fleshing out your story
  • What is the most important thing of your story
  • Elements of a song
  • Writing time

  Week 3

  • Song structure
  • Coaching the heartbeat and melody
  • Finding your hook
  • Writing time

  Week 4

  • Time to share (you do not need to have a finished song!) 
  • Process and reflect

  
  

  “I didn’t know anything about song writing before taking Elizabeth’s innovative workshop. My experience was nothing short of amazing and by the time I left I felt I could actually use these new tools. I also witnessed others in the group have powerful experiences with her methods. I highly recommend her class whether or not you have ever written a song before.” -Kerrie Taylor, Recovery Coach and Facilitator

  
  

  Who Should Take This Class

  Anyone who has a story to sing. There is no "right" or "wrong" in this workshop. You do not need to be a songwriter or a singer or play an instrument.  You just have to have the willingness to play, try something new and be open to letting this work and this process work its way through you.  The process is the product.

  
  

  “Having participated in one of Elizabeth’s embodied storytelling through song workshops before, I was amazed by the ease with which she encouraged us all to forgo expectations of perfection and instead lean into our vulnerability—the heart of storytelling. She’s able to hold space for this work in a way that’s unavailable in traditional academic settings.By the end of the workshop, I realized that the work that she does is not just about supporting others in becoming great storytellers, but exploring the beauty and complexity of the human experience in a way that enhances our ability to form true connection with others.“ -Indie Recording Artist, Zakiyyah Sutton

  
  

  Format

  Course materials will be delivered through weekly Zoom sessions and a Google Classroom. Because the real creative work/play of the course will happen mostly in breakout rooms (which Zoom doesn't record) in the live Zoom sessions, the Zoom meetings are not going to be recorded. 

  About the Facilitator

  Elizabeth Addison is an award winning multi-hyphenate whose work exists at the intersection of recovery and the performing arts. She has written three musicals inspired by her recovery journey, one of which, “Chasing Grace,” is set to have an Off-Broadway run in 2025/26. Elizabeth is a Creative Recovery Coach, Story Coach and Trauma Informed Facilitator with The Meghann Perry Group where she facilitates Recovery Storytelling, Embodied Storytelling and Embodied Songwriting workshops.  She is also a consultant for The Opioid Response Network (ORN) and The Grayken Center at Boston Medical Center. Her website. 

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• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • When
    07 December 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (EST)
  • Location
    online
  • Registered
    Be the first

  Register

  
  

  TLA Network Virtual Salon

  Sunday, December 7, 2025

  Join Us!

  5:00–6:30 pm ET (UTC-5)
  

  4:00–5:30 pm CT // 3:00–4:30 pm MT // 2:00–3:30 pm PT // 10:00-11:30 pm UTC

  Click here to find your timezone.

  Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.
  

  The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

  Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

  After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

  You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  The salons are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

  Stay Tuned for Our

  December Presenters!

  
  

  Show details