To be connected with any board member who doesn’t have a listed email, please reach out to info@amherstwriters.org.
Our Board of Directors is currently full – we are at the maximum number of directors as allowed in the AWA bylaws. However, there are lots of other ways to get involved if you want to be part of all the new initiatives at AWA.
You could facilitate one of our new monthly sessions for writers everywhere, including our Affinity groups. Or maybe you’re interested in becoming involved with our Annual Write Around the World program, or helping organize our conference this year. Or maybe you’re interested in becoming involved with our literary division- Amherst Writers & Artists Press, or our project of developing the AWA training in other languages and other countries.
Please go to this link and let us know where your heart lies in terms of forwarding this important work that AWA does.
Chair: Sue Reynolds
inkslingers.ca
Sue Reynolds is a psychotherapist, a writer and a writing facilitator passionate about the Amherst Writers and Artists method. She is both past president of the Writers Community of Durham Region and past vice-president of the national Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs (Canada’s version of the AWP). She has served on the board of AWA since 2014.
For thirteen years she led writing workshops for female inmates at Central East Correctional Centre, a program for which she received the 2007 June Callwood Award for Outstanding Volunteerism.
Through workshops, international retreats, sanctuaries and courses, Sue helps writers dig deep to mine their own authentic treasure.
Vice-Chair: Kate Marshall-Flaherty
katemarshallflaherty.ca
Kate Marshall Flaherty’s sixth book of poetry, “Radiant,” launched in 2019 with Inanna Press. She was shortlisted for Arc’s Poem of the Year 2019, and for Exile’s Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize 2018, and won the 2018 King Foundation Georgian Bay Project Award for her nature poetry. She has been published in numerous Canadian and International Journals and Anthologies, such as Vallum, Malahat Review, CV2, Grain, Saranac Review, and was shortlisted for Descant’s Best Canadian Poem, the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Prize, the Robert Frost Poetry Award and others. She was in-house editor for Quattro Books and edited Best New Poets in Canada 2018. She was Toronto Rep. for the League of Canadian Poets 2012 -2018, and inaugurated Toronto’s “Poetry in Union” in 2018, and “Poetry and Healing” for Sick Kids in 2019. She guides StillPoint Writing Workshops and Editing Circles in the AWA Method in schools, youth shelters, universities and hospitals. She was on the Canadian Team of AWA Trainers in 2017 and 2018. See her performance poetry to music on her website.
Secretary: Carla Hanson
jockoriverwriters.org
Carla Hanson retired from teaching English in public schools—both high school and college—and served as the Writing Coordinator for her California school district. She holds a master’s degree in Composition and finds the subject of writing endlessly fascinating. As a Teacher Consultant with the California Writing Project, she designs and provides professional development workshops for school faculties. She teaches free workshops for low-income high school students, focusing on the essays for the SAT, ACT, and college admissions. Carla has led an AWA-based writing group for eleven years and gives workshops that focus on personal and spiritual growth. Carla reads voraciously and is fascinated by creative nonfiction, writing about place, and the impact of writing on healing.
Treasurer: guy howard klopp
– really does write his name in lower case – perhaps it is a core belief he must accomplish great deeds to deserve capitalization. He fell in love with language as a child actor going on to earn his Equity card and performing in classical theater all over the country.
Guy has written with AWA groups for over seven years now and was certified as a facilitator in 2018. He has facilitated two ongoing AWA groups, one through Bread of Life in Sacramento California. Most recently, he has been hosting a group for writers working on their novels or memoirs. He spent twenty years in social services working in alcohol and drug services, senior and adult services, and finishing with 10 years managing in child protective services.
Guy writes poetry, memoir, short stories and fiction.
Jan Haag
janishaag.com
Jan Haag leads writing workshops using the Amherst Writers & Artists method in Sacramento and is the editor of AWA Press. She began writing as soon as she could hold a pencil, her mother says, eventually completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and English at California State University, Sacramento.
Jan worked as a reporter and copy editor for newspapers and an international wire service, before serving as editor of Sacramento magazine. She has been a professor of journalism and English at Sacramento City College since 1993, where she launched the campus literary journal Susurrus and created a class using the AWA method, “Writing as a Healing Art.” She is currently the chair of the journalism department, where she advises the campus newspaper and journalistic magazine.
Jan is the author of a book of poems, Companion Spirit, published by Amherst Writers & Artists Press, has written two novels as well as a history of Sacramento City College, and has had her poetry and prose published in many journals and anthologies.
Consuelo S. Meux, Ph.D.
consuelomeux.com
Dr. Consuelo first experienced the AWA method with Patricia Schneider at the Pacific School of Religion and was later certified as an AWA Facilitator. She has a Ph.D. in Human and Organization Systems, is a Certified Creativity Coach, and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV). She is published with Jossey-Bass, Peregrine Literary Journal, and other sources. During her years as a university business professor, she created AWA writing workshops to encourage diverse students to own their voice and to improve their writing skills.
Consuelo provides workshops on nonprofit diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DEI) issues and partners with a nonprofit consulting firm to provide strategic planning and board governance trainings for national and international nonprofits. Her AWA workshops include an affinity group for African American/Black women writers. She also uses the AWA method to support web writers with various forms of online content creation.
Andrea Vassallo
Andrea Vassallo joined a weekly AWA group at her local library in 2014 and became a workshop leader in 2018. She lives on the coast of Maine, where she is a writer, nonprofit development director and founder of Damariscotta River Writers. She is a recent graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing at The University of Southern Maine. She was nonfiction co-editor for The Stonecoast Review and is a current reader for The Maine Review. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, named a Maine Literary Awards finalist and cited in Best American Essays notable essays. Andrea is passionate about making more room for women’s voices on the page.
Meadow Jonesmeadowjones.com
Meadow Jones, Ph.D., received her doctorate from the University of Illinois. Her dissertation, Archiving the Trauma Diaspora: Affective Artifacts in the Higher Education Arts Classroom, is an interdisciplinary investigation and extended case study into the role of material and artistic practices in the redress of trauma. She has participated in and facilitated arts and writing practices and groups in both formal and informal education environments and has worked with undergraduates, artists, activists, teachers, teenagers, trauma survivors, prisoners, physicians and friends. Her words have been published in literary journals, peer reviewed research journals, and poetry anthologies and chapbooks. She became and AWA certified affiliate in 2011. She writes with others because she must. Some work doesn’t happen unless others are close.
Anke Spory
ankespory.de
Anke Spory, Ph.D., is a theologian, writer and facilitator of writing workshops for many years. She received her doctorate in Theology from the University of Hamburg and she is trained in Biblio- and Poetry Therapy. She works as a protestant pastor at the University Chaplaincy/Pastoral Care, Frankfurt. Additionally, she is a Certified Life and Vision Coach.
She is the first German-national AWA facilitator. Anke is convinced of the potential for healing and change through the AWA Method and sees the AWA network as a community that supports each other in a generative, supportive and artistic way.
Her writing workshops focus on personal and spiritual growth. She is currently leading workshops with young adults at the Goethe University, Frankfurt and she writes with adults at the Center for Spirituality and Meditation in Frankfurt. She also teaches online courses.
Kimberly Lee
kimberlylee.me
Kimberly Lee left the practice of law some years ago to focus on motherhood, community work, and creative pursuits. A graduate of Stanford University and UC Davis School of Law, she is an Amherst Writers & Artists facilitator, and is also certified by the Center for Journal Therapy, the Center for Intentional Creativity, and SoulCollage®. She has led workshops at numerous retreats and conferences and is a teaching artist with Hugo House, Loft Literary, and Literary Arts. A former editor and regular contributor at Literary Mama, Kimberly has served on the staffs of Carve and F(r)iction Magazines. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications and anthologies including Minerva Rising, LA Parent, Fresh Ink, Words and Whispers, Toyon, The Ekphrastic Review, Wow! Women on Writing, Read650, I Am Woman: Expressions of Black Womanhood in America, and elsewhere. Kimberly trusts in the magic and mystery of miracles and synchronicity, and believes that everyone is creative and has unique gifts to share. She lives in Southern California with her husband and three children.
Raquel Ruiz
Raquel Ruiz has been an independent multimedia journalist, content creator and marketing expert for more than 30 years. She has received awards for her journalism, including the Jose Marti National Silver Award in Education and Immigration, for her articles in Viva Colorado, and (on numerous occasions) “best story of the week” for the Associated Press.
Her articles have been published on assorted journalism platforms in Germany, Spain, Canada, Colombia, Argentina, London, and in other countries. The Guardian, in the UK, hired Raquel to tweet about boxing during the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She is a women’s boxing writer pioneer; recently the Colombian Institutional Channel made a 30 minutes show about her life.
Raquel trained as AWA Facilitator in 2010 in Amherst Massachusetts, at the Pat Schneider home. She now leads groups in Spanish and Bilingual: English/Spanish and is working to make her dream a reality: developing a strong Spanish AWA Chapter and taking the method that changed her life as a writer to Latin American and Spain.
Sarah Kerrquillandquirewriting.ca
Sarah Kerr lives near Ottawa, Ontario. After decades of unschooling her own children, Sarah now works with Brave Writer to design, write and teach Language Arts classes to families, middle schoolers, and teens. She also facilitates AWA workshops both online and in her community.
After first experiencing the AWA method for herself a few years ago, Sarah takes deep pleasure in sharing the transformative power of this work with others, which led her to join the board. Sarah is particularly interested in writing about chronic illness, nature, and working with teenagers. In her spare time, you can find Sarah in the woods, foraging for edible and medicinal plants, or surrounded by her rescue animals, a mug of coffee in hand. You can find her writing, and information on upcoming writing sessions at quillandquirewriting.ca.
Elizabeth Perlmanintuitivewritingproject.org
Elizabeth Perlman is the founder and Executive Director of The Intuitive Writing Project, a writing-based empowerment program for girls and gender-expansive youth, grounded in the Amherst Writing Method. She created this organization because it was what she wanted and needed when she was young. (If only she had known Pat Schneider when she was fourteen!)
Elizabeth has a master’s degree in Transformative Arts, the study of creative expression as a tool for personal growth—which is where she first read Pat’s life-changing book, Writing Alone and With Others. From the moment she attended her first AWA workshop in 2012 to the moment she completed her AWA training a month later (led by our very own Jan Haag), she knew she’d found her creative home. For the last ten years, Elizabeth has been single-minded in the work of running her org and supporting young voices. For as long as she lives, she is committed to offering a safe space for girls to hone their voice, own their strengths and declare what they know to be true.