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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

  • TBA

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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