The mission of Amherst Writers & Artists, through the use of its method, is to support established and emerging voices, to free the silenced voices and to respect the artist in all writers. To accomplish this mission, AWA will promote and serve writers and those who love literature through public readings, events, retreats, and workshops; provide specialized workshops with under-served and at-risk populations; publish books of poetry and prose by emerging and established writers; and train leaders in the Amherst Writers & Artists Workshop method as developed by Pat Schneider and described in her book Writing Alone and with Others, Oxford University Press and its companion DVD, Tell Me Something I Can’t Forget by Florentine Films.
“Everyone is a Writer. You are a writer. All over the world, in every culture, human beings have carved into stone, written on parchment, birch bark, or scraps of paper, and sealed into letter—their words. Those who do not write stories and poems on solid surfaces tell them, sing them, and, in so doing, write them on the air. Creating with words is our continuing passion. We dream stories; we make up stories, poems, sounds and tell them to ourselves. All alone, we write.
We also write with others. Every time we open our door at the end of a workday and say, ‘You’ll never believe what that [bleep] said to me today. . .’ We create story. ‘I was minding my own business, and go right into my face! And then he said . . .’ Already we are creating character, voice, suspense—story. It may not be committed to paper, but the artist, the writer is at work.” -Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others, Founder of Amherst Writers & Artists
The mission of WritersGathering is to provide a safe and supportive environment to write, where all who write are taken seriously as artists who want to create good work.
Our words reveal truth and beauty, nourish our souls, heal, bring out our playful spirit, release tears, cause us to belly laugh—even piss us off. Words, when received, always whisper or shout: come alive, be fully human. When we write and share our writings with others, we enter into a sacred space called love.
