Lisa Colburn and Summer Hardinge offered a session on May 1.
Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) and author of Writing Alone and With Others, said, “You have a voice, just as surely as you have a face, and it is already full of character, passionate and nuanced and beautiful.”
Lisa Colburn and Summer Hardinge, both members of Amherst Writers Capital Region, invited writers to join them in a special workshop celebrating their unique voice!
Lisa has over 20 years experience in writing, editing, and publications management. She was trained in the AWA method by Pat Schneider in her home and became a certified facilitator in 2012. Since then she has led many weekly workshops, one-day retreats, and weekend retreats in the Washington, DC, metro area.
Summer Hardinge has always loved stringing words together. As an actor, singer, and teacher of English and creative writing for 21 years, books and words have been her center. She was trained in the AWA method in 2013 and she has been attending and hosting workshops since.
Visiting My Mother
by Lara Bridger
My mother has an accordion in her chest.
It heaves and moans its song
All day long. Her mind has gone.
She has another mind now,
A musical one.
She hums.
Her mmmmmmmmms
Long and loose as streetlights
Unraveling on turbid Italian water,
Shimmering between the antipasti and dolce.
All night my father teased her
About nearly leading us to France,
Our Italian so broken,
The locals’ English, so Italian.
And we still laugh about it
In that picture
In a ristorante
In the hallway
Inside a glass case
That reminds my mother where she lives,
A place where we are both tourists,
Astonished by trite old songs
played far too many times,
The petal of her hand in mine,
Words scattering above our heads
like pigeons.
Thank you for joining us to Write Around the World!
For the rest of the summer, watch our blog! We are sharing writing from AWA’s yearly marathon fundraiser, which happened this year all-online throughout the month of May.
We offer this series in appreciation for the incredible community of writers and workshop leaders that sustain us. If you’re inspired and would like to be part of the fundraiser, please donate!