TLA classes are different

It's true any writing workshop has the potential to help us to see ourselves or the world differently.

But, classes at TLAN are designed and facilitated specifically to be spaces where using language to invite transformation is the point. 

We offer online classes to help you deepen your understanding of Transformative Language Arts, explore the craft of various genres and arts related to TLA, and develop your livelihood, community work, and service related to TLA.

Designed and taught by leading teachers, transformative language artists and activists, and master facilitators (want to be one of them?), these classes offer you ample opportunities to grow your art of words, your business and service, and your conversation with your life work.

The online nature of the classes allows you to participate from anywhere in the world (provided you have internet access) at any time of the day while, and at the same time, the intimate and welcoming atmosphere of the classes helps students find community, inspiration, and greater purpose.

While each class is unique to the teacher's style, all classes include hands-on activities (writing, storytelling, theater, spoken word, visual arts, music and/or other prompts), plus great resources, readings, and guidance. We use the online educational platform, Wet Ink for our classes, and many combine in-person meetings on Zoom and asynchronous gatherings via Wet Ink:

Our Community Online Classes have a set period of time, ranging from one day to eight weeks with a small cohort of typically 5 to 25 people. Every Wednesday a new weekly module opens for you to engage with on your own time, with forums and opportunities to share, interact, and receive feedback from peers and the teacher. If the teacher wants to schedule a live meeting, they will coordinate directly with enrolled participants. Classes remain open and available to enrolled participants for at least a week after the class end date.

Enrollment Cost

Classes are priced by the number of weeks they run, and members can register at the discounted member tuition rates. (For example, members pay $255 for a 6-week course, while non-members pay $295.)

Each registration is for one participant only, and all classes, unless arrangements are approved beforehand by the teacher and the TLA Network coordinator, are for people age 18 and up.

Cancellation & Refund Policy

Cancellations: A nonrefundable fee of 10% is included in each registration. There are no cancellations after the class begins. For the purposes of cancellation, the class beginning date is defined as the start date published by TLAN on the class registration page.

Low Enrollment Cancellations: Classes that do not meet a minimum enrollment may be canceled a minimum of 3 days prior to the first class meeting with full refunds for all registrants.

Incomplete: Students seeking the certificate in TLA Foundations who cannot complete a class due to circumstances out of their control may be granted a discounted registration on the next available offering of that class. To be eligible for the discount students must communicate their circumstance to the teacher as soon as possible.

Community Online Classes

  • Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles

    • 18 May 2025
    • 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (EDT)
    • online
    • 13 registrants


    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.

    Show details

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

    • 04 June 2025
    • 15 July 2025
    • Online
    • 15


    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. 

    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. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    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

    Show details

  • TLA Network Virtual Salon

    • 08 June 2025
    • 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (EDT)
    • online
    • 2 registrants


    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!


    Show details

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

    • 11 June 2025
    • 22 July 2025
    • Online
    • 18

    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. 

    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. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    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.

    Show details

  • The Magic Eye and Writing From Body and Place: A Workshop and Reading// with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

    • 26 July 2025
    • 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (CDT)
    • online
    • 30

    Come discover and unearth more about how writing can be a practice of coming home to our bodies, communities, and eco-communities.

    By writing about our most local address of the body as well as the places where we live and find sustenance, we can continually cultivate deeper vision and perspective while also writing our way toward greater awareness, presence, and true homecoming.

    In this writing retreat, we will explore writing about body and place as well as how to open our vision to where and who we are through the act of turning words into poems, essays, journal entries, songs, or whatever other genre calls our name. 

    This workshop also includes Caryn giving a a mini reading from her new memoir, THE MAGIC EYE: A STORY OF SAVING A LIFE AND A PLACE IN THE AGE OF ANXIETY,  which unfolds her twined stories of journeying through eye cancer and, with a cast of unforgettable family and friends, saving a place: a fifth-generation farm where she and her husband live. 

    Beyond being detailed, caring, and brilliant in her editing, teaching, and consulting work, there is something about Caryn’s warm, authentic, empowering, Inspiring, and joyful presence that I have rarely observed in other leaders. – Harriet Lerner

    What We Will Be Experiencing Together

    We would begin with a welcome and introductions that help us name and share places where we felt most at home.

    Caryn would then share a short talk on writing from body and place before sharing writing ground rules and a short writing prompt. Participants would share their writing altogether or in breakout rooms, depending on the number of people there, and then we would discuss insights and questions that arose in the process.

    We would then discuss the theme of homecoming through writing: what it can mean to us and how we can better use writing to re inhabit our bodies and places, leading to Caryn sharing a short meditative writing prompt to help us bring more embodied ways of knowing into our writing before a short writing prompt.

    After each class I recognize the peaceful place the class creates in me. My response to listening to others and hearing your responses to our work fills me with contentment, joy ,and satisfaction. The level of trust that we experience opens us to heartfelt honesty even as deeply painful experiences are shared.  Thank you for the sparks your words create. –  Patricia Durkin

    Caryn would then give a short 15-20 minute reading from her forthcoming memoir (out July 17), The Magic Eye.

    We would conclude with a closing exercise.

    All participants receive an ample handout of writing prompts, free access to a PDF of THE MAGIC EYE, and free shipping for a hard copy of THE MAGIC EYE if they wish to purchase the book.

    This workshop is also a fundraiser for the TLA Network, so please join us to support TLAN's good work for many bodies in many places.

    Who Should Attend?

    Writers in any genre (poetry, memoir, fiction, mixed genre, spoken word, songs, etc.)  -- whether they're writing to share their words with a cast of thousands or their own trusted journal -- who wish to bring into their writing a deeper sense of being a body and living in a specific place. This workshop could also be beneficial for people writing about the specific ecology and where they live as well as people drawn to narrative medicine (writing about health, illness, and healing). Finally, since our bodies, and often our places too, change as we and they age, this workshop would also speak to people facing new phases of their lives.

    I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and working with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for the past decade, and have rarely encountered a more insightful, compassionate, or integrous teacher and coach. —Mark Matousek, award-winning teacher, author, and mentor

    Format

    This class will be presented Saturday, July 26, 2025 from 3-5PM ET/ 2-4 PM CT/ 1-3 PM MT/ 12-2PM PT / 8-10 PM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session. The day after class a recording, as well as notes and resources from the class, will be emailed to class members only. 

    Your Registration Fee is a Donation

    Because this event is so generously being offered by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg as a fundraiser, your entire registration fee will go directly to support scholarships, program development, and other offerings meant to expand and enrich our community. You will be helping programs like:

    • Power of Words Scholarship Fund
    • Online Class Scholarship Fund
    • The Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund (conference and online class support for both BIPOC people and people who are living with serious illness and/or disabilities.)
    • Our free and open to all Community Circles and Virtual Salons

    Registration Levels:

    • Level I – $200.00
    • Level II – $150.00
    • Level III – $75.00
    • Level IV – $50.00
    We thank you. 

    About the Facilitator

    Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, PhD is the founder of Transformative Language Arts, the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 25 books, including the recent The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety, and How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel. 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 offers the weekly “Write Where You Are” through her Patreon page, and her long-time blog is “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. 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. 

    You can connect with Caryn at:

    https://www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com/

    Show details

  • TLA Network Virtual Salon

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


    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!


    Show details

  • 2025 Power of Words Conference

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


    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, add them to your order when you register for the conference. 
      • Pre-conference costs: $65 (Members); $75 (Non-Members)
      • Optional meal package: $150 (Four meals: Friday dinner, Saturday lunch & dinner, Sunday lunch)
    • Partial scholarships and work-study opportunities are available if cost is a barrier. Submit your application before you register. Scholarship and work-study applications close September 19, 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.)

    Show details

  • Embodied Storytelling through Song // with Elizabeth Addison

    • 29 October 2025
    • 02 December 2025
    • online
    • 15


    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.

      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. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.


      “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. 

      Show details

    • TLA Network Virtual Salon

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


      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

    Past Classes

    05 March 2025 Foundations of Facilitation // with Amanda Faye Lacson & Tracie Nichols
    23 February 2025 TLA Network Virtual Salon
    15 February 2025 Writing, Love, and Courage in Tender Times // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    02 February 2025 Seeding change: Creating When Life is Hard // with Tracie Nichols
    26 January 2025 Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles
    22 January 2025 The Arc of Storytelling from the Writer’s Subconscious // with Riham Adly
    15 January 2025 Integrating the Arts with Medicine // with Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy
    12 January 2025 New Visions for Your Life's Work in the Arts and Beyond // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Kathryn Lorenzen
    08 January 2025 Mindful Writing: A pathway to inner freedom // with Marianela Medrano
    11 December 2024 Monologue Showcase: Voices of Healing and Transformation
    08 December 2024 TLA Network Virtual Salon
    18 November 2024 Playback Theatre: Embodied Empathy and Stories of Neurodivergence // with Christopher Ellinger & True Story Theater
    02 November 2024 Envisioning TLA in the World: A Community Conversation
    30 October 2024 Changing the World With Words: TLA Foundations // with Amanda Lacson & Tracie Nichols
    02 October 2024 The (Extra)Ordinary Moment: The Art and Craft of Micro-Memoir // with Elizabeth Lukács Chesla
    26 September 2024 Celebration with Midwest Poets Laureate: An evening with the Power of Words
    14 August 2024 How to Design and Facilitate On-Line Classes // with Caryn Mirriam Goldberg and Joy Roulier Sawyer
    11 August 2024 TLA Network Virtual Salon
    15 June 2024 A Banquet of Transformative Language Arts!
    05 June 2024 Writing Hard Things: Approaching Difficult Topics with Sensitivity and Candor // with Autumn Konopka
    04 May 2024 How to Write About Life's Hard Stuff // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    20 March 2024 Foundations of Facilitation // with Amanda Faye Lacson & Tracie Nichols
    20 March 2024 Talk To Me Nice: Using The Word as a Healing Modality // with Zena Robinson-Wouadjou
    06 March 2024 Real Talk: Writing Intergenerational Dialogue // with Lyndsey Ellis
    06 March 2024 15 Poets to Open Your Heart and Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    06 March 2024 Storytelling and Therapeutic Persuasion // with Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy
    24 January 2024 Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Creative Adventure (part 1) \\ with Robbyn Layne
    10 January 2024 Flash Fiction Forms: Exploring Elements of Craft Through Archetypes & Metaphors in Dreams, Tarot, & Fairy Tales // with Riham Adly
    07 January 2024 Building Connections to Create Sustainable Work in the Arts // with Caryn-Mirriam Goldberg & Kathryn Lorenzen
    03 December 2023 Monologue Showcase: Voices for Healing & Transformation
    26 October 2023 Your Memoir as Monologue - with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
    25 October 2023 Identity and Belonging: An Exploration through Visual Art and Creative Writing // with Renu Thomas
    25 October 2023 Journaling the Heroine’s Journey // with Kate Farrell
    23 October 2023 TLA Network Global Virtual Salon
    09 September 2023 Wounds of Wisdom // with Anjana Deshpande
    06 September 2023 Telling It Slant: The Art of Autofiction // with Elizabeth Chesla
    06 September 2023 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
    06 September 2023 Liminal Spaces: The Poetry of Transitions and Change // with Angie Ebba
    15 August 2023 TLA Network Virtual Global Salon
    13 August 2023 Leading Transformative Writing Workshops // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
    25 June 2023 TLA Network Virtual Salon
    07 June 2023 Twelve Poets to Change Your Life // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    07 June 2023 Flash Fiction: Writing from the Subconscious // with Riham Adly
    15 March 2023 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    27 January 2023 What Next? Launching Your Work in the World // with Caits Meissner
    18 January 2023 This is Who I Am: Exploring Personal Identity through Poetry and Art // with Angie Ebba
    18 January 2023 Flash Fiction Forms: Exploring Elements of Craft Through Archetypes & Metaphors in Dreams, Tarot, & Fairy Tales // with Riham Adly
    18 January 2023 Pathways to Wholeness: Mindful Writing Toward Momentous Leaps of Meaning // with Marianela Medrano
    04 December 2022 Re-Visioning TLA in the World: A Community Conversation
    03 December 2022 Your Calling, Your Livelihood, Your Life: Making a Living from TLA // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Kathern Lorenzen
    26 October 2022 Identity and Belonging: An Exploration through Visual Art and Creative Writing // with Renu Thomas
    12 October 2022 Monologue Showcase: Voices for Healing & Transformation
    15 September 2022 Flash Fiction Showcase & Open Mic with Riham Adly & Friends
    14 September 2022 Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Exploring the Paths of the Heroine, Healer, and Seeker // with Kimberly Lee
    07 September 2022 Your Memoir as Monologue - with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
    15 June 2022 How Pictures Heal: Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
    15 June 2022 Leverage Your TLA Expertise as a Social Arts Practice, for Community Engagement, & Radical Livelihood // with Yvette Hyater-Adams
    18 May 2022 Flash Fiction: Writing from the Subconscious // with Riham Adly
    20 April 2022 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
    09 April 2022 What Is Your Poem Begging to Look Like? Finding the Best Form Through Revision: How to Take Your Expressive Writing to the Next Level // with Fleda Brown
    16 February 2022 Not Enough Spoons: Writing About Disability & Chronic Illness // with Angie Ebba
    14 January 2022 The Quest of Purposeful Memoir: Exploring the Past, Creating the Future // with Jennifer Browdy, PhD
    12 January 2022 Grief Pages: Moving Through Change and Loss with a Creative Notebook Practice // with Lisa Chu
    17 November 2021 Pathways to Wholeness: Mindful Writing Toward Momentous Leaps of Meaning // with Marianela Medrano
    10 November 2021 Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Art-Making Adventure // with Robbyn Layne McGill
    28 October 2021 Monologue Showcase: Voices of Healing & Transformation
    28 October 2021 2021 Power of Words Conference
    15 September 2021 Your Memoir as Monologue with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
    30 August 2021 For the Love of it: A Mindful Moment of Rejuvenation for Educators // with Joanna Tebbs Young
    07 July 2021 Future Casting: Writing Towards a Just World Vision // with Caits Meissner
    02 June 2021 The Art of Facilitation: Facilitating for Change & Community // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
    17 May 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Curriculum // with Liz Burke, EdD
    26 April 2021 Tools for Teachers: Marketing Your TLA Class // with Liz Burke, EdD
    18 April 2021 Monologue Showcase: Voices of Change
    05 April 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Proposal // with Liz Burke, EdD
    24 March 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Curriculum // with Liz Burke, EdD
    24 February 2021 Tools for Teachers: Marketing Your TLA Class // with Liz Burke, EdD
    03 February 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Proposal // with Liz Burke, EdD
    03 February 2021 Your Memoir as Monologue: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
    20 January 2021 Fantastic Folktales & Visionary Angles to Transform Our Stories // with Lyn Ford
    06 January 2021 Kissing the Muse: (Another) Messy, Magical, Art-Making Adventure // with Robbyn Layne McGill
    09 December 2020 TLA in Action: Connection, Collaboration, & Community
    05 December 2020 Fireside Tales: A Virtual Camp In // with Lyn Ford
    04 December 2020 A Virtual Greenhouse: Cultivating, Nurturing, and Sustaining Creative Growth through Literary Friendship
    04 November 2020 Leverage Your Expertise as a Social Arts Practice, for Community Engagement, and Radical Livelihood // with Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams
    28 October 2020 The Art of Facilitation: Roots and Blossoms of Facilitation // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
    18 October 2020 Writing to this Moment: Taking Uncertainty to the Page // with Joanna Tebbs Young, MA-TLA
    14 October 2020 Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Art-Making Adventure // with Robbyn Layne McGill
    23 September 2020 How Pictures Heal: Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
    05 August 2020 Pathways to Wholeness: Mindful Writing Toward Momentous Leaps of Meaning // with Marianela Medrano
    24 June 2020 The Art of Facilitation: Facilitating for Change & Community // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
    24 June 2020 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
    25 March 2020 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
    25 March 2020 The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir // with Jennifer Browdy, PhD
    15 January 2020 Your Memoir as Monologue: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
    15 January 2020 The Art of Facilitation: Roots and Blossoms of Facilitation // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
    23 October 2019 15 Poets to Change Your Life & Spark Your Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    23 October 2019 Poems As Prayers: Writing Towards a Just World // with Caits Meissner
    04 September 2019 Speaking Your Truth: Creative Writing in Political Times // with Angie Ebba
    26 June 2019 15 Poets to Change Your Life & Spark Your Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    24 April 2019 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
    06 March 2019 Fantastic Folktales & Visionary Angles to Transform Our Stories // with Lyn Ford
    16 January 2019 How Pictures Heal: Honoring Memory & Loss through Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
    24 October 2018 Coming Home to Body, Earth, and Time: Writing From Where We Live // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    24 October 2018 Leverage Your TLA Expertise for Publication, Community, Business, and Livelihood // with Yvette Hyater-Adams
    05 September 2018 Cultivating Our Voices: Writing Life Stories for Change // with Dr. Liz Burke-Cravens
    05 September 2018 The Five Senses and Four Elements: Connecting With the Body and Nature Through Poetry // with Angie Ebba
    27 June 2018 Wound Dwelling: Writing the Survivor Body(ies) // with Jennye Patterson
    27 June 2018 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
    27 June 2018 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
    16 May 2018 Values of the Future Through Transformative Language Arts // with Doug Lipman
    04 April 2018 Stories with Spirit: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice // with Regi Carpenter
    14 March 2018 Writing for Social Change: Redream a Just World // with Anya Achtenberg
    21 February 2018 Funding Transformation: Grant Writing for Storytellers, Writers, Artists, Educators, & Activists // with Diane Silver
    10 January 2018 Fantastic Folktales & Visionary Angles to Transform Our Stories // with Lyn Ford
    18 October 2017 Writing Our Lives: The Poetic Self & Transformation // with Dr. Liz Burke-Cravens
    18 October 2017 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
    06 September 2017 Your Memoir as Monologue: How to Create Dynamic Dramatic Monologues About Healing and Transformation for Performance // with Kelly DuMar
    06 September 2017 Wound Dwelling: Writing the Survivor Body(ies) // with Jennifer Patterson
    14 June 2017 The Five Senses and Four Elements: Connecting with the Body and Nature Through Poetry // with Angie River
    14 June 2017 The Poetics of Witness: Writing Beyond the Self // with Caits Meissner
    19 April 2017 Diving and Emerging: Finding Your Voice and Identity in Personal Stories // with Regi Carpenter
    01 March 2017 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
    01 March 2017 How Pictures Heal: Honoring Memory & Loss through Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
    11 January 2017 Values of the Future Through Transformative Language Arts // with Doug Lipman
    11 January 2017 Writing from the Root & Through the Body // with Marianela Medrano
    11 January 2017 Your Callings, Your Livelihood, Your Life // With Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    26 October 2016 Leverage Your TLA Expertise for Publication, Community, Business, and Livelihood // with Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams
    26 October 2016 Not Enough Spoons: Writing About Disability & Chronic Illness // with Angie River
    14 September 2016 Wound Dwelling: Writing the Survivor Body(ies) // with Jennifer Patterson
    14 September 2016 Creating a Sustainable Story: Self-Care, Meaningful Work, and the Business of Creativity // with Laura Packer
    29 June 2016 Coming Home to Body, Earth, and Time: Writing From Where We Live // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
    29 June 2016 Making the Leap into Work You Love // with Scott Youmans
    18 May 2016 Saturated Selfies: Intentional and Intense Photography and Writing
    18 May 2016 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs Young
    28 March 2016 Gathering Courage: Still-Doing, Big Journaling, and Other (Not So Scary) Ways to Begin Accommodating the Soul
    15 February 2016 Living Out Loud: Healing Through Storytelling and Writing
    15 February 2016 Soulful Songwriting: How To Begin, Collaborate, And Finish Your Song
    04 January 2016 The Five Senses and the Four Elements: Connecting with the Body and Nature Through Poetry
    04 January 2016 Your Memoir as Monologue: How to Create Dynamic Dramatic Monologues About Healing and Transformation for Performance

    The TLA Network exists to support and promote individuals and organizations that use the spoken, written, or sung word as a tool for personal and community transformation.

    The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our offerings, organization, and aspirations. Words have the power to question, subvert, and transform limiting cultural narratives as well as reinforce entrenched stories and stereotypes. The TLA Network wants to make clear that we celebrate and uplift conversations across identity and difference, whether rooted in race, religion, social class, ethnicity, disability, health, gender, sexual orientation, age, military service, and other identities. 


    Access our policies: Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use


    The Transformative Language Arts Network is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

    1741 Valley Forge Road, #175, Worcester, PA 19490 | tlan.coordinator@gmail.com

    Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software