Recently, in a workshop I was leading in the southern United States, an affiliated workshop leader asked me to tell her how AWA began.  We had time, good glasses of iced tea, and I began with the earliest stories.  When I finished, she said, "Thank you, Pat.  We have a right to know, because we are so committed to the AWA method."  I have thought about the truth of that, and about having such a story-telling history among our archives, housed in the Jones Library, Amherst. Part One of the history appeared in the September 2009 newsletter and Part Two appeared in the January 2010 newsletter. What follows is Part Three.

Part III: AWA's Origins: 1972 - 1982

 

Sometime around 1972, an event occurred that I consider the actual pin-point beginning of the Amherst Writers & Artists method.  My brother did not escape poverty as I did, and he arrived at our home one day, homeless and drifting.  He took from his wallet a folded and worn piece of paper and asked me to read it.  It was just one paragraph, written in pencil, barely legible.  It described a character name "Rebel" who was being chased by motorcyclists from hell.  I thought, "That is a brilliant metaphor for alcoholism," which I knew was chasing Sam, "and he is as much an artist as I am, but no one will ever know it, because he can't spell, he can't type, and only I can read his handwriting."

 

I told that story in an application for a Danforth Foundation Grant to do graduate work, and detailed a vision of teaching writing that would value the voices of those denied voice by poverty, class, and other impediments.  In 1979 I completed my MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts.  I am grateful for many good things about that program, but I came out of it with an even more fierce conviction that writing as an art form belongs to all people, and that our criteria for excellence eliminates every voice except the voice of economic and educational privilege.

 

Although I did not know it at the time, I was part of a groundswell of educators who shared my desire to make writing accessible to everyone. It actually began with two writers in the 1930's - both women - who had an early vision of a different way to become and to grow as a writer.  Their books are still available, classics now, and yet they are not often given credit for the origin of what much later, in the 1970's, became known as "The Writing Process Movement." I consider Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write, and Dorthea Brande, Becoming a Writer, the "mothers" of what became later known as "freewriting" (Peter Elbow), "the Amherst Writers & Artists Method" (Pat Schneider) and "morning pages" (Julia Cameron.)

 

This morning (September 21, 2010) I went to the Jones Library in Amherst and asked for the first two boxes of archives of Amherst Writers & Artists - and there, beautifully preserved in the library's Special Collections, were our first days, our first announcements.  There was my own single workshop started in 1980, and first documented in 1981.  By the end of 1982 it had grown to two workshops and I was opening a third with a total of 32 participants. Gene (Genie) Zeiger was beginning a workshop for young writers, Elizabeth Finn and Walker Rumble were dreaming of beginning a literary journal, and energy was building to form "some sort of association" for not only writers, but artists in music and painting and theater, all working together.

 

I remember clearly that I was advised by someone older and more experienced than I that I should go to Amherst College and find some famous writers to be my board of directors.  I didn't do that.  I wanted leadership to come from the ground that we felt we were breaking, people I knew and trusted.  In the archives are copies of formal letters I wrote asking Sharleen Kapp to be chair of a new board (I was too inexperienced to know that the board should elect its own chair, but we were not incorporated, so I got to do it my way!) Sharleen is wise and funny and she served as chair of the board for many years. Other long-term members of that first board were Genie Zeiger and Anna Kirwan. As a group we named ourselves "Amherst Writers & Artists" because there were both writers and artists in several disciplines among us. We decided to keep the leadership team small, and to do only those things that had our board's unanimous consent. On December 6, 1982, we had our first organizational meeting.

 

We were full of dreams.  It cannot be said that we did not have high hopes.  Here is what the archived report says we dreamed in our first meeting:

 

Persons in the meeting were asked to share dreams for what might be.  The following were mentioned: Our own building, in which we could do work in dance, theatre, music, arts, cinema, have a coffee house and studio space.  A retreat center.  Writer's conferences advertised nationally, held in the Lord Jeff [Inn, Amherst]. . . using local writers as guests.  Poetry as therapy; workshop for former mental patients.  Provide encouragement and support for artists and writers, writers' support group.  Publishing calendars, posters. . . . a journal for AWA. A reader's theatre. Self-publishing; arts and community affairs center; art supplies and resources center; legal advice; involve seniors; literary programs; teach reading through theatre; computer art and publishing on disc. Workshop in news writing for adults.  Publish a children's newspaper (written by children.) Research models for cooperative publishing.  Edit and broker university and research news for wire services and national publications.

 

These last three stones completed the foundation: Let leadership come from the ground up; Keep the leadership team small; Have high hopes but act only with unanimous consent.

 

Wow!  Next Installment:  The Early Years:  Furious Growth.

 

Training Schedule 2010

November 5- 7  Post-Certificate Retreat  Amherst, Massachusetts
Pat Schneider's home; non-residential: meals only.  Cost: $700


Training Schedule 2011

May 23 - 28  Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland  Glencomeragh House;
all accommodations included.  Cost $1,900

July 13 - 17  Alamo, California  Westminster Retreat;
all accommodations included.  Cost: $1,900

September 23-28 Amherst, Massachusetts  Pat Schneider's Home;
non-residential: meals only.  Cost $1,400
Pat will visit on the 28th

More dates and locations forthcoming.

A Gift of Inspiration