Pat Schneider, the founder of AWA, passed away on August 10, 2020. We are organizing this page of our blog as a memorial to her.
Please share your stories and memories of Pat, or of how Pat’s work influenced your life, in the comments section. You’re also welcome to include photos in your comments or to email your photos to info@amherstwriters.org for inclusion in this post.
You can watch the virtual memorial that was held for Pat on August 29, 2020 below. Click the “pop-out” icon in the top right-hand corner of the video to be able to view it full screen. Pat’s obituary is posted on our Founder page.
If you’d like to donate to AWA in honor of Pat, we are extremely grateful for your generosity. Thank you for helping us to honor the legacy of this incredible woman.
Like so many others, I am grateful for Pat’s gentle insistence on nurturing the creative spark that lives in all of us. I first learned of the AWA method when I attended Dina Friedman’s weekly writing workshop many years ago. I met Pat through my late wife, Andrea, who loved attending Pat’s workshops and eventually became an AWA certified workshop leader. The AWA method has been instrumental in my mustering enough courage to write from my heart and eventually have some of my own creative work published. Pat also encouraged me to develop writing-focused support groups for the bereaved. With Pat’s blessing, I’ve led bereavement writing support groups and trained hundreds of grief counselors to carry forward a grief support writing group model inspired by the AWA method. I will always be grateful to Pat for her many gifts and her heartfelt generosity. Her poem, Instructions for the Journey, my favorite of Pat’s poems, has been my guiding light in my efforts to practice mindful living.
This (writing with a focus on the grief process) is exactly what I would like to do and I would love to talk with you about your experience. If you would be willing, please let me know. Thank you!
Pat is a shining star in all of our hearts. One of the most giving persons I had the honor of knowing.. always supportive of her many students Rest in power …
So sad to hear about the loss of Pat Schneider, who was a mentor and special friend to me and to so many others. While I had already been on the writing path, being in her workshop as a young 20-something changed my life. Her belief that “a writer is someone who writes,” and that everyone can take power in simply telling their truth in whatever form that takes, and her gentle and wise reader-centered approach to providing feedback in a way that always validates the writer’s intent has continued to inform my writing and teaching nearly 40 years later. Even though I hadn’t seen her very often in the last few years, I felt Pat breathing over my shoulder last February, when I co-led a writing workshop for asylum-seekers on the border in Matamoros, where for a couple of hours, women were able to bond with each other and share their stunning stories. Pat will forever retain a front-row seat in my consciousness, her presence always a force for healing and inspiring. Rest in Power, my dear friend. I will miss you.
I read How the Light Gets In and now must reread it again for Pat taught me so much about forgiveness, the sturdiness of love and the magnificence of resiliency. I met Pat at the Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn years ago. I’d just finished reading How the Light Gets In. I had to meet her! I got there early and caught a seat up close. Turns out I was sitting next to her husband. Pat had a little nose trickle and he handed her a Kleenex several times. I walked home after the reading, thankful to have met her. Now I know her writing style and path of peace had planted a seed in me. My writing reflects it now. Te amo, Pat. Forever.
No words can tell u how much your missed
Corinna
Rest in peace. You’ve earned it. Thanks to Amy Lyle’s Wilson for introducing me to the AWA way!
Dear Pat,
May you rest on the clouds / Sing with the sun / Light as a feather / Love more than ever.
With gratitude and love, Anne
Pat worked collaboratively as writer with Serious Play’s Sheryl Stoodley and Ronin Doty on a new play which became A QUESTION OF PLACE. The play was performed in the Brick Church, in Historic Deerfield in 1984 with a run of sold out audiences. She was a disciplined, insightful and caring artist. Pat went on to begin Amherst Writers and Artists, and Sheryl
Stoodley met a writer through Pat, who went on to be a collaborative partner for Sheryl’s thesis project at Smith College- The World Split Open Theatre and Writing with Women In Prison and the play written with inmates AIN’T NO MAN DRAGGED THAT MOON DOWN YET.
Thank you Pat for the inspiration you gave to me and so many others. You will be greatly missed….
Sheryl Stoodley, Artistic Director SERIOUS PLAY THEATRE ENSEMBLE/ seriousplaytheatre@gmail.com
I had the honor of speaking to Pat over phone and her reviewing my first book of poems. Just a few days ago, I had placed “The Patience of Ordinary Things,” in my poetry post that sits outside my house. I also just shared it with my poetry group. I will miss her. I hold a special place of Pat in my heart.
As a participant in the NYC Writers Coalition, I thank Pat Schneider for making my life as a writer possible – even though I never knew this great lady.
My writing life was transformed into something wonderful in the two workshops I took with you, Pat, at Pacific School of Religion in 2010 and 2011. I will be forever grateful to you. You know, in 2012, after becoming an AWA Affiliate, I began giving workshops using the AWA method in Oaxaca, Mexico, Berkeley and Oakland, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. And after I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, I adapted my AWA workshops for cancer patients and survivors. That is what I am doing today — always with great reverence for you. You live in my workshops. I love you.
I had the honor of writing with Pat twice and these encounters changed me forever. She taught to always see the good in others and that every voice is sacred. I lived from these principles ever since and I am thus connected to Pat in ways I can not express. I send gratitude for Pat to her family– for her life and for having received her gifts.
I met Pat at one of her workshops, but prior to that I had met her through her books. Particularly influential to me was WRITING ALONE AND WITH OTHERS. I have read a passage from the book to so many of my writing students that the page is worn thin. It is the part about detail being the “open sesame” to emotion (pages 6 – 9) – To quote: “Childhood images are remembered – and forgotten – for emotional reasons.” The passage goes on to describe her own delving into the scant memories she had of her father, and how that mining made her trust what she knew – that he loved her. I loved her too, as did many. Pat was wise and courageous in her explorations of writing and into leading others there. She was a giving soul. Oddly, on August 10th, without knowing of her passing, I chose to read one of her poems (WHAT I WANT TO SAY) to one of my classes that I am now teaching on Zoom due to the pandemic. The class appreciated its message, as I knew they would. She continues teaching and I am grateful.
When I walked into Pat’s house for the first day of AWA facilitator training in 2004, I was feeling beaten down by my assumptions of what a “real” writer looked like and desperate for some way to move writing closer to the center of my life. Pat gave me that and so much more. The time I spent with her and my colleagues that spring opened me up to what truly matters to me and gave me my vocation. Her fierce beliefs and gentle heart have guided my writing and writing group practice ever since. The light she let in and through her keeps shining, keeps finding new dark rooms to light up. What a legacy! Rest in peace, Pat.
Pat’s writing method changed my life. After struggling for years to get anything down on paper, her approach got my writing flowing. I had the privilege and pleasure of being gifted to go to Patricia’s group in Amherst while I was in Massachusetts several years ago. I am so grateful I had that experience and got to meet her. She was an inspiration. My heart goes out to her family, friends and colleagues
We have truly lost a deep soul, one who has untold impact on thousands of lives with her work. The Amherst Writers and Artists method changed my life and set me on a course to over come trauma that ran so deep I never thought I would ever find the roots. Her work helped me to find my voice and in turn helped me help others find their voice. I had the honor and privilege to attend a workshop with Pat and I have never met a more genuine authentic soul. Thank you Pat for all you did for writers and artists everywhere who were told, no not you. You showed us that everyone is writer.
Writing Lessons
dedicated to Pat Schneider, with love and admiration
Of all the souls
that’ve helped me write,
Pat Schneider tops the list.
Her words remain,
her love, felt bright,
but soul? It’s gone to mist.
Her gentle tone,
her wrinkled face,
they eased me to my words.
When it’s done, she said,
it’s not a race,
but an opening of new doors.
You’re the one,
the only one,
to write the way you write.
Your story’s good,
your voice is true,
your cadence is always right.
So put it down,
that ink on sheets
you fill with words and thoughts.
Let it be the light
that shines upon
us all, no more oughts.
I could hear her saying these words as I read them and it brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for capturing her instructions so precisely.
“Your story is good. Your voice is true. Your cadence is always right.” What an affirmation! She birthed so many writers!
Sometimes you meet someone who is a North Star.
And then their inner light dims, is gone.
But we still see that light before us,
some strange aura in the eye,
leading us on to our better selves.
Miss you, Pat.
Jane Yolen
I remember a workshop I had taken with pat years ago called “Working with Underserved Populations.” At the time, I was teaching in an alternative high school program. I had a young 15 year-old student who had dyslexia and always struggled every day with trying to read and write.
I had a small tape player I would use sometimes in English class. We would talk together and then sometimes he would just begin to tell me stories as he created them. One fall afternoon for class, we decided to walk through the Amherst College campus and his imagination soon began to run wild. He looked at the different open windows, building entrances, fire escapes, and level roof tops. I quietly started the tape and he began to tell stories about zombies invading the Frost Library and the different SWAT teams coming down from the top windows to try and capture them all.
His energy was strong, his voice excited, and his motivation non-stop. To have tried to capture his story in writing would have been a struggle for us both, but with the recorder, his voice and his imagination both became free!!!
Thanks Pat
I will never forget how Pat changed my life when I took the training almost twenty years ago. I will always treasure my memories of my experiences in her writing workshops. I met her in my darkest hour, and she gave me light, hope, and a mission to carry on. I am forever grateful for my time with this beautiful angel.
Dear Pat.
I was so sad to hear of your passing. You were my mentor ever since I spent two summers on Holy Hill in Berkely, California.with you in 1995 and 1996. You always remembered me whenever I saw you in the years following. You were so sweet, patient and kind, someone I would have loved for a best friend. Your writing inspired me. I read all your books and was surprised to read about your spiritual awakening in the roofless church in Donegal, Ireland. That is the area my ancestors came from and I’ve been in that church. In 2016 I published a book about my great grandfather, Setting Donegal on Fire. I wish I had told you about it. Thank you for inspiring so many people around the world.
Diane, I was in one of Pat’s workshops many years ago with you. I still remember one of the powerful pieces you wrote and Pat’s response. A memory of a moment embedded in my soul. Amazing things happened when Pat was in the room. Thank you for your own words and presence.
Judy Davis
So sad to hear of her loss. Her writing touched me very deeply. It will always be a comfort to return to her writings and lovely poetry and be inspired again. Her words were so real and brought to mind lovely pictures. I recall my first encounter with her work was her “love song” about cutting hair. Makes me teary now just to think of it. She will be missed so much but very grateful for the life and love she offered. My life has been better for it.
Dear Schneider Family:
My thoughts and prayers are with you. Though I never met Pat, years ago when I reached out to her via email she responded with kindness and the type of encouragement writers need when words fail us. Her authenticity and honesty left a lasting mark. . .
I became aware of Pat as part of participating in Joan Marie Wood’s local AWA group. My first contact with Pat took place when I sent her an email and she replied within a day. Her message was entirely supportive and kind–exactly like Pat, herself, who I met and learned from on several fortunate occasions.
I met Pat in 1955 when the two of us joined other young people in training to build a Methodist Youth Camp in the wilderness near Juneau, Alaska. We were such innocents about building, bears, and “boys”. Pat was one of the wise ones—already like a spiritual mother to the “girls. She was sensitive, and I could tell there was a sadness in her core that would later add so much depth to her writing. But she also loved the fun and comaraderie that only camping and living in untamed nature can provide. I reconnected with her later at PSR when I took her two week writing workshop. It was inspirational to be with the beautiful woman she had become. She was warm and loving to all. Her life, her compassion and her writings were a blessing. Love to Peter and the children and grandchildren, and to all those, like me, who will miss her forever. Berta Conklin Cohen
Gracias Pat. Descansa en Paz.
my profoundly deep dear friend from Across The Tracks
as she would say..It was in ST L.. ( she was raised in a tenement just a few blocks from the gated streets where i was raised, ( and fled from) where the couple brandished guns at
the protestors )
. We met in Berkeley when she came to speak
about her auto bio. 1997 ?? I was in her audience at Black Oak Books because she was from STL and an anti Vietnam war activist from the opposite side of the tracks , so I sat in the audience weeping with the joy of all that wrapped up into one person reading from her wonderful bio.
and afterwards I went to Saul’s Deli to recover, and there she was.
I dared to explain what all was going on for me, and she took me in in every possible way starting with her generous heart… I would visit her and vice versa each year in Berkeley , at Saul’s, and her classes, and where she stayed at PSR,Pacific School of Religion where she had studied and met her dear husband Peter..
Then I would see her when I went to my boarding School reunions every 5 years up the road from Amherst , plus any other trip to Amherst.. she would insist. Bless her. We last saw her as the first March on Washington started and Laura Lovett came and blessed us with her hand made pink hats, woven by her and her daughter..
She has always been on this, our Mass.. list.. 2 of you met her live..
http://Shailja.com in Berkeley at the class she taught,
and Tobias Baskin, our prof at U Mass Amherst in Amherst.
Otthers of you may have seen her poems and writing books, and her responses to this list.
She would tell me I was a poet.. and I would laugh because she tells everyone that.
Then, one time I found a published poem of mine in my grade school newspaper.. 5th grade.
Another time I wrote a tiny howl about the buffalo staying up upstairs at the hotel I stayed in.
She took it and punctuated it into a poem! Otherwise untouched! She was undeterred in her mission!
I dunno if I ever told her I had a therapist in the Sixties who told me I should be a poet because I free associate so well. Of course that was the style in the Sixties, but it likely never left me( some people complain, and even accuse me of ADD, so it must be still there!! :))
My sister Nina wanted to take her poetry writing classes, and I lost her July 22 to cancer, and then Diana Russell a week later, and now this.. Waaaaay too much pain..
I have not yet read about how she passed, or where, or with whom.. I will soon, though.
Do you know ? I hope she visits me on the 49th day as she taught us that Native American Ozark tradition..She was born in Ava, Mo.
As I wrote her family , I recall now the line in her poem about her mom passing…
My mother’s death made a hole in the universe my rage ran through..
or words to that effect. To check that, I will go to my special place for Pat, she has a
file cabinet all her own here in my home, in a special place.. a former broom closet, where i have my special private stuff.
I googled it and her phrase was not in the top ten.. alas. and alack of Pat..
Sigh.. weepy times..
et toi ?
How are you ??
Laura
Laura X, founder/director of the former
National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape
Women’s History Library
(510) 587-3372 Berkeley, Ca.
http://ncmdr.org
New website: http://lauraxinstitute.org
for Laura’s Social Movement Archives
Facebook: https://facebook.com/laurarorthweinjr
Although death is as much a part of life as living, it never fails to shock. I am eternally grateful for Pat’s work and for the creation of AWA. I attended workshops, received training, and was able to start my own business as a result. I’m a better writer, a better teacher, and a better person because of my training with AWA. What struck me most about Pat was the humility with which she did everything. A giant has left the building. But she will forever be in our hearts, even for someone like me who physically only met her once, but encountered her a thousand times through her work, the method, and the teachers she’s trained. I’m sending my love to the family, knowing that “nothing is ever lost… everything is transformed.” And so it is. Axé.
Dear Pat,
I met you at a time I needed hope and a way through.
You gave me this and so much more.
You welcomed me with open arms into your home. Your generosity knew no bounds.
Your teachings opened my heart to inner beauty.
Following your guidance, I bled on these pages and they healed many wounds.
I had the honour to welcome you to my home. You loved coming to Ireland. The mystery of this sacred land appealed to your spirit.
I led many workshops inspired by the trainings I did with you and it warmed my heart to witness participants blossoming through this process.
In spite of the distance, I always felt close to you and you will always have a special place in my heart.
Writing with light and colours, beautiful scents, soft music and much needed healing in this unrecognisable world, I salute you for you are possibly the most amazing and inspiring leader I have had the pleasure to learn from.
May your spirit be lifted through new adventures in a tapestry enriched by all you created.
With much love and deep gratitude
Marie Angeline
Dublin, Ireland
Pat was a shining star in my life from the first time I discovered her in a poem on A Writer’s Alamanc. I hadn’t been writing. My seven-year-old grandson had died. Her poem lit my way forward. After purchasing all her books, we wrote occasionally to each other. In 2009, I never thought I’d write again. I’d had a cellular breakdown and had just learned how to write again. Not Poems. I wrote to Pat, maybe responding to another of her poems. She responded from the hospital. She asked if I’d like to see a draft of her first chapter of How the Light Gets In. I spent a lot of time thinking about that chapter she so generously sent me and I wrote a long letter back. She told me she put it in her archives. Wow! Reading that chapter again set me on the path once again. I dedicated a poem to her in my second book.
I thought finally I’m going to meet and write with you. Everything was set. I’d stay at her home and then the Nile virus cancelled the workshop. The last time I wrote, I asked her about some awful advice on a poem I wrote. Her response, ” Call Me.” We spoke several times. And then through many crisis here at home, I commented only on her blog a couple of times.
Pat encouraged and affirmed and helped me move forward so many times. She speaks in my head now. I will always be grateful for her help. i carry her in my heart.
Jo
Thank you so much for these beautiful works of art that remember her. How she would love the wonderful writing done in her memory! She was a miracle in my life, giving direction and purpose. May her rich legacy continue forever. Rest in peace, lovely angel.
Dear, inspiring mentor and friend. I met you at a critical time in my life–and was forever changed and inspired to do the work I love. Your power, inspiration and generosity will never be forgotten–you helped me find how how the light can get in when I needed it most… Thank you Pat. Your memory, words and influence will live in our hearts forever.
Sharon
Pat was my mentor for only about a year, before she got sick again. I had stumbled on her work when searching online for a “meaningful poem”. I found so many in her books! The greatest gift she gave me – and gave to many, so freely – was that she believed in me. Me, not my writing or who I could be, just me. Always a fair and humble critic, she could point out “where you would benefit by stretching, Melissa, that’s all it is.” And when I saw – in her faint pencil scratch on my page “lovely imagery!” or “You tried and you did it! I like this version even better!” – it was amazing. Pat embodied the patience of ordinary things, to borrow her phrase, and her authenticity frequently brought me to tears.
On the Death of My Mentor
Her pen now at rest.
Her chair by the view, empty.
She is gone, work done.
Gentle critic, more
powerful encourager.
Mentor, never met.
I’m sad. “Good,” she’d say,
“I’m concerned. Your happy ends
weaken the power.”
“Good,” I’d say.” Tonight
my heart needs to grieve before
the light comes back in.”
(Yes, dear Pat, I was a slave to syllables here, and yes, I’ll try it in another form. But notice the words you don’t see – I pared it down pretty severely! And so the teacher keeps on teaching.)
With loving respect from Melissa
I am so glad I attended in the late 1990s a workshop facilitator training program directed by Pat in her home. What I remember now about that experience is how
quietly Pat attended to participants’ words, how sensitive she was to each participant. She made art of her own life and showed writers and so-called nonwriters alike how to do the same. Her attention was a profound confirmation, inclusive and inspiring. My deepest sympathy to her family and friends.
I attended the AWA training in 2003 – it transformed my life and set me on a path to becoming the teacher I am today-
I learned so much in those few days, and was so deeply impacted by Pat’s example. For years afterwards I would send her
a new year’s card and touch base with her. She always replied with encouragement and genuine interest.
To have the example of someone who was both artist and
social activist was so key to finding my own balance. She is one of those quiet forces of nature – so attuned to the nuances
and complexity of life and language. I’m so happy we have her
poetry and memoir to continue guiding us. She will be missed.
With all love,
Monona Wali
I am filled with love and appreciation for the wise, compassionate, visionary life of Pat Schneider. From the moment I attended my first AWA class ten years ago, I knew I had found my home and my mission, the writing methodology that I would spend my life sharing with others. Because of Pat Schneider and the genius of her Amherst Writing Method, I have been able to build an entire nonprofit dedicated to the empowerment of teenage girls—using AWA to find their voice through writing. Indeed, anytime I get positive feedback on the strength of our programs, I always attribute it to its source. “The magic is because of Pat Schneider,” I always say. So thank you, Pat, for creating the most beautiful, nurturing, spiritually and psychologically empowering writing method on earth. Because of you, we have been able to serve—and will continue to serve—countless teenage girls. Your work is giving voice and wings to the next generation of young woman. There are no words to describe my gratitude.
I met Pat in the summer of 1992 at PSR when I took her writing workshop for a week. I went back in January 1993 and the summer of 1993 for more of her workshops. That fall I enrolled in seminary at PSR, and my long friendship with Pat had begun. In October 2001 I spent a week in her home with her leadership training. As so many others have said, a relationship with Pat Schneider is life-changing. It was for me. My ministry in leading writing workshops and in pastoring, had it’s beginning that summer of 1992 when I met Pat. I love her. I always will. Her legacy lives on in so many lives she touched and so many lives each one of us touch as we carry her love and wisdom with us forever.
Judy, you’ve done amazing work in her name all this time. Your ministry, wonderfully enhanced by using the Pat Schneider method, has been a healing and uplifting gift to everyone who’s been touched by it.
An Empty Chair
(For Pat Schneider)
Goodbye is a blank page
waiting for stories
of the past
and of the future.
It is an empty chair,
placed just so before
a garden-facing window,
a parking space
where no car is,
a pillow
on which a beloved
head once rested,
and now will not.
Goodbye is the lyrics
without the melody,
a poem,
without language or form,
an empty space
in the inverted V
of a flock of geese,
flying southward in September.
Goodbye is unresolved,
a question
without answer,
a dream
without a dreamer,
a map, continuously unfolding,
urging us toward
the unbearable treasure
that is our birthright.
by Hannah Six
This poem is so beautiful! And you’ve honored Pat with your deep, straight-from-the-soul insights. This captures grief as nothing else I’ve ever read. She would be so pleased.
Wow, an amazing poem and tribute to Pat! Thank you for sharing this moving artistry of words.
Hannah, thank you for sharing your beautiful poem.
Melissa
I trusted Pat. She offered the honesty of her life. She was a part of what gave me back mine.
In gratitude,
Marti
When I was a young man, Pat’s feedback about my poems and her questions about my intentions as a writer helped set me on the right path. Her method taught me how to create a safe space for myself where I could create (and showed me how to do this for others). When she suggested that AWA Press publish my first chapbook, she made possible everything that has happened since for me as a poet. She generously devoted precious time to promoting my work. Not enough can be said in tribute to her.
I will eternally be grateful for the time I spent in Pat’s presence. She made me feel special as a writer and a person, as she did everyone.
Thanks to all of these beautiful tributes, poems, and stories, so evocative of the amazing presence Pat was/ is. I met Pat in person one summer years ago, at her PSR writing workshop. She gave me hope during a very difficult time. I’m so thankful for her listening, caring spirit. I still feel her close-by, as so many on this thread have described so lucently. Thank you.
I am so grateful to have met and written with Pat at one of her weeklong workshops in Salem, North Carolina. I was in the midst of a project for which I felt ill-prepared and overwhelmed. That week with Pat gave me faith and fuel to step forward. Her call for our workshop members to stand in the light, to claim our space, and to speak from the heart will always be with me. I’m so glad that I met Pat during my creative journey. What a gift she was.
Tribute to Pat:
She was born into a pocket of poverty nestled in Missouri’s Ozarks, where the tenement walls gave thin protection and a father who ran off left behind two children and a struggling, yet loving mother. Mama taught her prayers and the local church took her under its wing, perhaps aware of a glowing potential beneath her hand-me-down appearance. An education was the gift that began her on a journey to reach out to a world of silent voices and help them see the value of their stories and the unique ways in which they could tell them.
Her humble beginnings connected her with people both poor and wealthy, those lacking in schooling and those with advanced educations, inner city dwellers and comfortable country folk.
Her important messages were, “A writer is someone who writes,” and “Each of us has a unique voice and creative genius.”
She began with practically nothing and later built a worldwide community of support called Amherst Writers and Artists.
Pat Schneider’s physical body is no longer among us but through all whose lives she touched, her breath continues through their words, and the heartbeat of her legacy rumbles on.
Simply beautifully stated! You’ve written a prose poem she would have loved to reflect out loud on.
I was only recently introduced to Pat’s work through her two poems published in the anthology “Poetry of Presence” edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson. I belong to a women’s writing group, and we have been exploring this volume together over the summer. Every poem is wonderful. We decided to each select one poet to delve deeper into, and then report back to the group. I chose Pat, after I learned that in addition to writing in genres of poetry, memoir, and nonfiction, she had taught writing. Also, in the brief notes I read about her spiritual journey, I saw many reflections to my own life, growing up in a strict religious community and later becoming disillusioned. I feel a strong connection to her.
However, when I visited her website I saw that she had recently died.
Initially disheartened, I took heart in the fact that she had written–so I’ve been reading and appreciating her work, feeling her presence through the words.
For various reasons, I am not a Facebook user, or active on social media.
So I am writing here because I want Pat’s family and community to know that her influence lives on, and if there is anything anyone would like to tell me about Pat and her work–perhaps a “signature poem,” a “must read” book or a telling quote or anecdote, please feel free to write me at barbittner (at) aol (dot) com.
I look forward to learning more about Pat through the work she left us all.
Barbara
Denver, CO 80211
I live in India.
I had bought Pat’s book, “Writing Alone & With Others” on the 9th of July, 2007.
I did go through the book then and did many of the exercises. It’s 2020 now, and I am going through the book again. After leaving my corporate career several years ago, I have now decided to focus on one part of my ‘business’ on photography and creative non-fiction. Storytelling. We all love stories.
When I read through Pat’s material, I realize that she was a superb teacher and a marvelous human being. It’s rare to find such people.
I Googled her this morning, while going through her suggestions on writing exercises, and was saddened to know she had passed.
We never met, but in her own way, she has touched my life in a positive manner.
May her soul rest in peace. She has enriched many lives, I am sure. This is the best legacy any human can leave behind.
You were wonderful to take time to write this beautiful tribute. Thank you.
I went to writing classes in the 90s in Ireland run by an Irish poet called Dorothy Carpenter.
She taught Pat’s method and even invited Pat over to Dublin to teach a weekend class.
I will never forget the way I felt in those workshops. How it was to finally come out of creative hiding
after a lifetime of shame about my creative impulses.
I still remember the very first piece I wrote and images and stories the others in the class wrote still come back to me.
I remember, almost verbatim, a piece Pat wrote in that Dublin workshop about walking across a bridge over a
busy road to come to teach the class and glimpsing a couple in their car below, the woman’s hand on the man’s knee.
Her playful imagining of the intrigue of image, the erotic possibility.
I have forgotten almost every film I saw in the 90s, almost every book I read. But these images come back to me.
I went on to write 4 novels. something I would never have done if were not for finding Pat’s path.
I didn’t realise that Pat had died until today. I’m so sorry that she is not here on earth, playing, writing,
and creating. And so grateful for her generous spirit that is still in my heart, , encouraging,
nurturing and inspiring.