September was a lively month for me as a teacher, a writer, and a reader. I taught my first workshop, "Motherhood on the Page: Read and Write the Mothering Experience," on Saturday, September 26th. The nine women in attendance jumped into writing and sharing with gusto; they revealed insights about themselves and their relationship to motherhood and read some striking writing on the myriad conflicts of motherhood. The participants exceeded my expectations by deciding to form an ongoing writing group to elicit new work and share their experiences! I am excited to see what develops at the next workshop on October 17th at the Columbia Library. I learned in September that my essay, "Notes on Machinery," won Third Place in the Northern Colorado Writers 2015 Personal Essay/Creative Nonfiction contest, judged by BK Loren. The essay, originally published in The Louisville Review, will appear in Pooled Ink: Celebrating the 2015 NCW Contest Winners (due out by December 1, 2015).
Perhaps the most galvanizing event of the month was the reading given by Saul Williams through Seattle Arts and Lectures. Performing poems from his new book, US (a.), which also includes two plays, Williams was an electric and outspoken performer, challenging himself and the audience to question the hypocrisy, inequality, and indifference of our culture. He pitched his poems to the audience at a fast pace, the rhythms complex and compelling and contagious. My mind enjoyed the delicious struggle of trying to keep up, to make sense and how, just after the final beat of the poem, the meaning would coalesce and pop.
With my oldest child now in school, I return to the comforting structure of the school year calendar, which I could never quite shed after completing my own education. I am grateful to begin the year with momentum gained over the last few weeks.