Welcome...join me for a year of transformative and collaborative inquiry with a focus on women bloggers.

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Photo Poem Montage

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Transformative Blogging

Typewriter e by Robyn Beattie

Letter Blog Posts: Epistolary Heavens

A letter is a Joy of Earth / It is denied the Gods—Emily Dickinson, 1885 Letter writing may be denied the Gods, but Emily’s turn of the phrase, with her distinctive finality inspires a creative challenge—so try it, poets: choose a couple gods and draft up a set of letter poems between them; for reminders on backdrop, visit Poets.org’s Poetic Form, Epistle. Or succumb to your blogger self, forgo the poem, and take a look at what happens when bloggers get ahold of the epistolary form. Imaginary Letters: Dear Mr. Postman begs the question, What would you say to your postman in a letter? We expect letters on a variety of tangents which is just what the blogger, Maggie MK Hess, delivers. How clever to choose a specific audience of one (postman), a regular familiar (at your residence daily) who is also a complete stranger. Here we have the blog functioning as confessional booth, postman ... more

astral butterfly acrylic Tania Pryputniewicz

How to Use Images on Your Blog: Imaginal Cells, The Fantasy Astrology Store, and Alternate Histories

The human family is now in our own chrysalis. Our Butterfly is soon to be born. You and I are the “imaginal cells” directing that birth.—Carol Lynn Pearson Given their power to instantly tell a story, ignite curiosity, provoke emotion, extend intuition, or inspire debate, images need little explanation for their purpose in augmenting a blog post. Using an image post as one of your regular features can give you and your readers a breather from text heavy posts. Let’s start with an aside on synchronicity and the creative process before we get to our blogosphere riches (the examples of stellar blog post and image pairings). Writing and creating artwork to explore the inner world have always been priorities for me which is why mask making figures in my courses on blogging. While pursuing my MFA in the heartland, I spent weekends either roaming the cornfields or rubbing shoulders with a wonderful group ... more

list 7

The Attractant Power and Poetry of List Posts

Did you ever make a list of the qualities you wanted in a lover? Did your list draw to you the one you love? Mine did—eventually--after a string of sour love stories featuring Midwest bars, triangles involving the preacher’s daughter, botched trips to Paris, sports cars that only drove in reverse and more (traversed, written up, thankfully never published). This week we discuss the attractant power of list posts. Since April is National Poetry Month, I have more than my usual excuse to begin with poets. Nic Sebastian, who blogs at Very Like a Whale, not only cleverly combines list post structures and interviews but makes stunning video poems. In the column The Third Form, Erica Goss turns the spotlight on Sebastian’s work over at Connotation Press. Scroll down midway to see “let me tell you about yourself” with its gorgeous celestial footage (a la Hubble--taken in outer space), the haunting underscored by ... more

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Classes

Tania Pryputniewicz mask shrouded

Transformative Blogging: Inquiry via Mask

Writing exercises bookend the making of a three-dimensional mask that serves a dual purpose: to provide ... more

pregnant belly and flower

To The Cradle and Beyond: Excavating and Writing the Poetry of Motherhood

To The Cradle and Beyond: Excavating and Writing the Poetry of Motherhood This course (forthcoming again and ... more

thirde eye butterfly, descending figure

Transformative Blogging

Beginning Blogging: In Person, Coronado Adult Education 2014 Dates:  Session one: Jan 9-Feb 20 7 weeks (Thursday ... more

Green Man

Writing and Excavating the Poetry of Fatherhood

Writing and Excavating the Poetry of Fatherhood Join this on-line poetry class (forthcoming and running again February ... more