Joanne Fay Brown offered a session on May 1.

Joanne was certified as an Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) Affiliate in 2012, after taking two workshops with Pat Schneider, the founder of Amherst Writers & Artists. Those workshops transformed her life as a writer, and she has been leading and loving AWA workshops ever since — in Oaxaca, Mexico; Oakland, California; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

She has been writing since about the age of seven, and now devotes her time to the magic of writing with others; guiding writers on their unique journeys; and to reading, writing and publishing poetry. She also offers AWA writing workshops for cancer patients and survivors. She worked as a writer in the corporate world for 25 years, and I have an MBA, a Master in Social Work, and a BA in English Language and Literature. 

Joanne brings to her work a love of language and irrepressible curiosity. While she’s pleased that her poems have found their way into journals and my corporate work has won awards, her truest satisfaction is in her never-ending amazement and delight at the beautiful writing that occurs in each of her workshops, and in helping other writers move their work forward. 


The Question of Gaining Knowledge by Leanne Nelson

At 62, and with Google
there was nary a question
her tangential nature couldn’t answer
at least to her own satisfaction.
Even before that huge marketing marvel
sucked in everyone who ever used its information
and spewed it out to companies
vying for consumer dollars
by selling targeted ads
she knew the ins and outs
of card catalogs
well before they became repurposed
as dispensaries for seeds
as a pocket in community libraries
to meet growing hipster urban gardening dreams
shelves of slowly disappearing
paper and leather bound volumes
replaced by more computers
And was there ever a question that couldn’t be answered
by Siri or Alexa?
Was there ever a need – even to know –
that could not be quelled by a little
shopping therapy?


Thank you for joining us for 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!

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