Featured Online Grief Writing Class

SORROW’S WORDS: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief by Sheila Bender

START DATE: The first Monday of the month

DURATION: 6 weeks

LOCATION: Email tutorial or Google group, depending on the number of students enrolled

COURSE DESCRIPTION: There are periods in our lives when we deeply mourn losses, whether they be of loved ones, colleagues, friends, opportunities, or declining health. Using writing strategies in the company of others also writing from grief can help us come at our feelings directly as well as slant to face challenges and restore our life spirit. In our six weeks together, we will create narratives of our loss and use inventive writing exercises to re-vision our lives so we can carry the lives of others (including our own pasts) as we travel a new path.

Each week participants will complete a piece of writing and may also submit a revision after they have received instructor responses. The course material will share exercises from the instructor’s book, Sorrow's Words: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief, which offers help and inspiration for those who mourn.

Having lost her son in a snowboarding accident in 2000, Sheila leads writers in using craft techniques to articulate not only the pain and sadness of loss, but also to find a route into reclaiming joyful memories as well as gratitude for having known the deceased. The narrative from the author's journey, the examples from her writing and the writing of others, as well as assessable writing prompts, make this workshop a treasure for those who need to learn the power of memories and a new way to appreciate beauty in the bittersweet nature of human experience. The course includes lessons and videos from the instructor, as well as encouraging feedback.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: To use writing as a way of exploring the pain of loss so that the joy of life is restored despite sadness and sorrow. Publishable writing may result and the instructor will share venues looking for writing that helps others in grief.

Sheila, I will take every possible class you teach that I can get to. Your insight, knowledge, and incredible warmth and encouragement made our class the highlight of all those I’ve ever taken. Can’t thank you enough. ~ Shirley Clukey

I have taken several online courses with relatively famous women writers, and you have been the most giving and involved with genuine feedback and follow-through. I thank you for that. I have learned from reading your remarks to others and the assignments have been thought-provoking and challenging—just the right mix for an aspiring writer. ~ Lori Talarico

My participation in Sheila’s “Creating the Five-Minute Memoir” class greatly expedited my work on my own memoir. Every single prompt resulted in an essay that I will easily be able to incorporate into my book; moreover, they are also evergreen and can be written from again and again. Sheila’s advice, edits, and coaching not only improved my writing, but also delivered a boost of confidence about the themes in my book. As part of our work together, she brilliantly whip-stitched my inner and outer questions together, a step that will save me untold hours as I go forward. Sheila is unique among teachers in that I believe she cares as much about her students as people as she does about their writing. This is my first class with her, and I know it will be one of many, many more! ~ Ashley Memory

This has been the most wonderful and challenging workshop I’ve ever taken. You introduced me to authors, techniques and mind-blowing assignments. Before this workshop, I would have never thought of writing a memoir in an essay format. You taught me a very powerful lesson of how writing to myself through a historical figure (very mysterious) can heal the spirit within, softly approaching life’s most heart wrenching problems on paper. I can’t wait to sign up for another one of your thought provoking workshops online. ~ Cheryl Kesling

. . . this has been a very productive class for me. I’ve learned a lot and feel like I have grown a lot in the process. ~ Margaret Riordon

First, I just want to say thank you for this course. I began focusing my time on writing last fall, but found that I needed some guidance. I was looking for a new perspective, a container that would help to create a form for what I was trying to capture. You have introduced some new authors that will help me to move in new directions. ~ Debra Gilbreath

I’ve taken several classes with Sheila. Always, she’s provided generous support, great tips for writing skills, and the kind of encouragement that makes me want to write more. I look forward to the process of learning how to write better. I think due to her instruction, I am becoming a better writer. ~ Cassandra Hamilton

What I am particularly struck by with Sheila is that she presents a great comforting wisdom from her background and experience; yet she also has an enthusiasm for the craft of writing that feels like she just got started yesterday. The enthusiasm is contagious and really inspired me to open up and let my inner critic take a break... it is a great skill and talent to mix nurturing support with honest critical comments. I feel Sheila possesses that type of talent and finesse. ~ Wendy A. Johnson

WEEKS AT A GLANCE:

Each week comes with a written lesson or video, writing exercises, and an assignment. Drafts are submitted each week to the instructor for feedback.

Week One: Tell Your Story
The Outside, the Inside – Questions to consider

Week Two: Poetry Helps Us Find New Voices Inside
Using poetry structure as models

Week Three: Visual Art Helps Us Write Grief’s Wisdom
Models for Ekphrastic writing (poems in response to the feelings engendered by art)

Week Four: Writing Letters Helps Us Find Lost Parts of Ourselves
Catching up even after the loved one is gone

Week Five: Fully Alive
Finding the “as if” Creation wants us to know there is something beautiful and larger than ourselves.

Week Six: Continuing
How to continue writing to fully enter our lives as they are

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Sheila Bender, founder of WritingItReal.com, is the author of many books on writing, including the popular Writing Personal Essays: Shaping and Sharing Your Life Experience and Creative Writing DeMystified. Her memoir is entitled A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief. Her newest book, Since Then: Poems and Short Prose was published in spring 2022. She has been updating previously published books. Two of them are now available in print and digitally on Amazon and through bookstores: Writing in a Convertible with the Top Down, co-authored with Christi Killien Glover, and Sorrow’s Words: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief. As a writer, teacher and editor, she believes that writing so others understand our hearts and minds helps us understand ourselves, heal grief and sadness and grow. She has presented at conferences and writers' centers including Centrum Foundation's summer Port Townsend Writer's Conference, the Whidbey Island's writer's conference workshops, the Writer's Workshoppe in Port Townsend, WA, and the Kahini writing program's writer's workshops and served as a Distinguished Lecturer in Poetry at Seattle University. You can read years of her instructional articles at writingitreal.com and visit her on SheilaBender.Substack.com.

COST: $210, which includes instructor lessons and encouraging feedback.

BUY NOW: Sorrow’s Words: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief, by Sheila Bender (6-week workshop, starts first Mondays) Limit: 5 students.

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Notes: Upon successful completion of payment, your name, email address, and contact info will be submitted to your instructor.

Questions? Email Marcia & Angela at:
classroom[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com

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