About Amherst Writers & Artists Trainings
Writing transforms lives, and this training
can transform yours! Learn the acclaimed, time-tested writing group
method pioneered by Amherst Writers & Artists. AWA has taught over
600 trainees how to help writers express themselves more deeply and
naturally. AWA's comprehensive training program provides leadership
skills, hands-on experience, and practical information on how to form
successful writing groups for writers at all levels and from diverse
backgrounds. Whether you want to start a business leading writing groups
for the general population or want to work with specific populations
such as women in prison, low-income youth, or people dealing with cancer,
this training will give you the skills and information you need.
Writing Group Leadership Training
- Post-AWA-Training Retreat - Locations
Cost - Schedule - Trainers
- Download 2009 Application
Writing Group Leadership Training
The AWA Leadership training is a four-day intensive course
in the AWA method. The guidelines and practices that shape AWA writing
groups are quite specific, and the leader's in-depth understanding of
them is vitally important to the effectiveness of the group. This training
will prepare you to lead groups for the general population and for traditionally
silenced people in places such as public housing, shelters, hospitals
or prisons. In addition to the specific AWA practices, skills that will
be taught include:
- Creating and maintaining a safe and hospitable writing
environment.
- Choosing effective writing exercises and prompts.
- Being a clear, supportive leader.
- Running workshops as a business.
- Understanding the transformative power of the method.
- Structuring the writing group to accommodate the needs
of diverse people.
- Understanding essential differences between writing
for healing and therapy.
- Inviting experimentation and growth in participants'
writing.
AWA Leadership is taught through writing sessions, talks
by experienced leaders, group discussion, role playing, film, and guest
speakers, giving participants a full experience of the AWA method in action.
Upon completion of the training, participants will have a thorough understanding
of the AWA method, our practices and guidelines, and will be able to convey
them effectively to their workshop members.
For further information about the trainings and an application,
please write to amherstwriters@gmail.
You may also download an application here.
Post-AWA-Training Retreat
The Post-AWA-Training Retreat is led by Pat
Schneider with Kate Hymes. This
event provides trained leaders with the opportunity to further their knowledge
of the AWA method. Each Post-AWA-Training Retreat is built around the
individual concerns and questions of the attendees; topics may include
the teaching of craft, manuscript review, publicity, dealing with emotionally
charged writing, and many others. This is an extraordinary opportunity
for leaders who have taken the training to have their questions answered
by, and to write with, the founder and director emeritus of Amherst Writers
& Artists. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to have
a private conference with Pat Schneider.
Email us at amherstwriters@gmail
for further information about the training and check
the schedule below to see upcoming dates.
Training Locations
AWA trainings are held in self-contained retreat locations
conducive to a good group experience, with quiet for writing and lots
of outdoors space for exploration and exercise. Please check the websites
listed below for this year's training sites. Most locations offer both
shared and single accommodations, and all have comfortable meeting space
and delicious food. Many offer silent space indoors and/or out, exercise
areas, and a walking labyrinth.
The Post-AWA-Training Retreat is held in Pat Schneider’s
home, a hundred-year-old farmhouse near the center of Amherst, and a short
walk to Emily Dickinson's grave and homestead.
Cost
The cost for the AWA Writing Group LeadershipTraining in
the US is $2,050 for double accommodations and $2,200 for singles where
available. The cost for the Ireland Training is 1,250 Euro. The cost includes
tuition, training materials, accommodations for four nights, meals, and
a six-month membership in AWA's Affiliate program. A deposit of $200.00
is due with your application, which will be applied to your tuition upon
acceptance and returned to you if you are not accepted. Upon acceptance,
AWA will send you a complimentary copy of Pat Schneider's book Writing
Alone and With Others. The remainder of your tuition is due eight weeks
prior to your training. The cost for the Post-AWA-Training Retreat will
be $850.00, which includes materials, training, private conference, breakfast
and lunch each day and one dinner.
Schedule
of Trainings
Writing Group Leadership Training
2009
All trainings for 2009 have been postponed while AWA restructures its curriculum. Please revisit the site for updates on when the trainings will resume.
Post-AWA-Training
Retreat
Trainers
The AWA Leadership Trainings are led by two or more trained
and experienced AWA writing group leaders including Patricia Lee Lewis, Celia
Jeffries, and Maureen
Buchanan Jones. When her schedule allows for it, Pat
Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists will also take
part in the training.
Pat Schneider is the founder of Amherst Writers &
Artists and the author of Writing Alone & with Others (Oxford
University Press, 2003) as well as books of poetry and prose. For over
20 years, Pat has led writing workshops and retreats in her home in Amherst,
MA and at other sites across the country and in Ireland. Along with the
members of her original Chicopee workshop for low-income women, she developed
the training to teach people how to lead workshops using the AWA method.
As of this date, more than six hundred people from all across the U.S.,
Canada, Ireland, Denmark, Japan and other countries have taken the training,
and many currently lead writing workshops in a wide range of settings.
(For more about Pat Schneider, please go to www.patschneider.com.)
The Post-AWA-Training Retreat is led by Pat Schneider with Kate
Hymes, a long time AWA writer and writing group leader.
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