Facilitator’s Guide to WAW

TABLE OF CONTENTS

We invite all AWA-certified writing workshop leaders to be a part of this fun event! One of the few times our international writing community is connected by more than our methodology, WAW is an opportunity to lead in a low-stress way (AWA provides prompts, advertising, and promotion) while still making a big difference.

As a quick reminder, the format of Write Around the World, AWA’s month-long annual fundraiser in May, is:

  • Workshop leaders volunteer to lead one or more writing sessions. In the past, we’ve found that the ideal session length is from two to three hours. You choose the time frame and it will become part of your session description.
  • AWA advertises all WAW sessions on our website and in our event calendar. We promote your work on our social media, in our newsletters and emails, and in the thank you letters we send to all of our donors.
  • On the day(s) you’ve chosen, you’ll facilitate a writing session using the AWA method with the group of writers who signed up (you’ll get an email each time someone registers). After the session, we invite you to collect excerpts of the day’s writing for publication on AWA’s website (more on that below). That includes your writing, too!
  • At the end of the month, we say thank you! You’re entered to win a scholarship to the next AWA professional development and writing retreat.

FAQs

How is the money raised? Do I need to do anything? What makes this a fundraiser?

Donations are collected when writers register on AWA’s website. AWA sets three levels of suggested donation that writers choose from when registering for your session. We manage all these donations—leaders don’t have to do any accounting. Simply by leading a session, you’ll be entered into our raffle drawing (mentioned below).

How do I enter the prize drawing?

For each Write Around the World writing session you lead, you will automatically receive one chance to win a scholarship to our next Professional Development and Writing Retreat. The retreat is planned as an in-person/online hybrid event in 2023. The in-person part will be held at a retreat centre in Canada, near Toronto. We’ll draw names randomly and notify the winner by the middle of June. Good luck!

Is it okay if I’m leading for the first time since my training?

Definitely! We hope that WAW can be a great starting place for those who’ve struggled to launch a workshop. Read on for a suggested format or attend one of our FAQ sessions (dates & times TBD). We can even partner you with an experienced mentor who can co-lead with you or just help you plan.

What if I don’t want to use any of the shared prompts?

That’s fine with us. Since writers may join more than one WAW group, it can be helpful if some leaders bring their own prompts. You can save ours for the future if you prefer.

How can I help promote my WAW group?

We will send you a link to your event page that you can share. You can also use the WAW logo on your own website or social media to help spread awareness. We’ve provided some tips and sample posts below. We are also leading a ZOOM session about how to use social media just for WAW leaders. It will be recorded and shared with you, so even the inexperienced can join our online conversation!

What are we raising money for?

Funds raised support AWA’s social justice programs. Primarily, this year, that’s been the Kate Hymes Scholarship for BIPOC trainees who need financial assistance and the Lane Goddard Scholarship for other candidates who have transformative aspirations for themselves or their populations and need help to attend the training.

Updated AWA Guidelines

These updated guidelines include the new, sixth essential practice: listening.

THE FIVE ESSENTIAL AFFIRMATIONS

  1. Everyone has a strong, unique voice.
  2. Everyone is born with creative genius.
  3. Writing as an art form belongs to all people, regardless of economic class or education level.
  4. The teaching of craft can be done without damage to a writer’s original voice or artistic self-esteem.
  5. A writer is someone who writes.

THE SIX ESSENTIAL PRACTICES

  1. In the workshop we maintain a non-hierarchical spirit regarding how we treat the writing  (e.g. the facilitator is not the “expert” & no one’s writing is treated differently than anyone else’s); at the same time we keep writers safe through a series of guidelines and practices which we adhere to in a disciplined way.  These practices are simple to follow and have been demonstrated to be effective for the safety of the members of the group through thousands of workshops.
  2. Confidentiality about what is written in the workshop is maintained at all times, and the privacy of the writer is protected. We maintain confidentiality by treating all writing as fiction – feedback is offered to the writing not to the life of the person writing. We refer to the “I” voice in the piece as the speaker, the narrator, the character, etc. At all times, writers are free to refrain from reading their work aloud. The work is only open for feedback at the moment it is offered.  Once the discussion has moved on to another piece of writing, no one refers back to it again.  This means that no one will question or address the writer about their piece afterwards in any way, particularly any way that breaches the contract that all work offered here is fiction. And finally, we don’t talk about any work we’ve heard here to anyone outside of the workshop space.
  3. In an AWA workshop we are asked to listen differently than we usually do in our lives. We are not asked to listen so that we can help or fix or sympathize with the writer. We are not asked to listen so that we can add our own story. We are asked to enter into the universe that the writer has created. We are asked to leave behind our own experiences and expectations. We are asked to listen to how the story or the poem is told. In an AWA workshop we listen for and notice what works. We listen for and notice the craft choices a writer has made that help to create success in the writing. 
  4. Absolutely no criticism, suggestion, or question is directed toward the writer in response to first-draft, just-written work. A thorough critique is offered only when the writer asks for it, and only when he or she has distributed work in manuscript form. When work has been offered in manuscript form, critiques are balanced; there is as much affirmation as suggestion for change.
  5. The teaching of craft is taken seriously, and is conducted through exercises that invite experimentation and growth.
  6. The leader writes along with the participants, and reads that work aloud as well. This practice is absolutely necessary, for only in this way is there equality of risk-taking and mutuality of trust.

Sample Structures

THIS SAMPLE STRUCTURE WAS CREATED  BY MAUREEN JONES AND EDITED BY KATIE FRANK:

The collection of prompts can be used as you think best. You can structure the workshop so that writing times vary and responses allow for everyone to be heard. To follow the example below, allow at least three hours to include all the steps.


Sometime the week before your group, send an email to all participants (BCC is preferred) sharing the ZOOM link (or other online platform invite) and asking anyone who won’t be able to join to let you know. You may also choose to share an attached on-chairs, your guidelines for how to write and respond in the AWA method (you may have some newbies in the group), and any other materials you’d want to share with a first-meeting group of writers.

When it’s time to write, go around the group and do introductions. You may have to call on people or invite them to call on each other, since over video chat we can’t easily go in a circle. To save time, you can suggest a quick intro like sharing your mood in one word or naming a favorite flower.

Offer a first, warm-up write for 5 minutes with everyone reading around without response.

Offer two to four prompts with writing times between 10 and 20 minutes.

Give a final quick write. Everyone will write then read around without responses.

If there’s time, suggest that writers choose one piece that they would like to submit for publication on the AWA website. Invite them to email you one page of poetry or prose (prose double-spaced) after the session. Mention the date by which you’d like to receive the submission (our overall deadline is June 7, but yours might be a week or two after your session).

Close out the space however you’d like. Some just say thank you while others ask writers to share one word in closing. It’s up to you!

THIS STRUCTURE WAS CREATED AND SHARED BY SUE REYNOLDS:

Day or two beforeSend out joining instructions, AWA guidelines, Online Etiquette, plus on chairs
An hour or two beforeSend out joining instructions again, and copies of prompts.  You can ask them in your note not to read them ahead of time.
15 minutes before handFacilitator online in zoom room – to greet participants and make sure any tech issues are solved
START TIMEGreetings and Welcome. Thanks for joining us.
Brief introduction to Write Around the World and AWA (1 minute only)
Brief introduction by participants.
Brief overview of the most important principles and practices.  They will have already read them ahead of time, so no need to go into it in depth.
Brief outline for the shape of the workshop – number of writes, time of break, etc.We’ll mute you during writing.  During the Feedback, because of weird lag times, please raise your hand when you want to offer something back to the writer.  We’ll name you – hopefully that will stop us from cutting each other off.Perhaps talk about the practice of writing on the spot to a prompt.  How there’s no way to do it wrong in first draft writing.  Ignore the prompt if desired.  Etc.
15 minutes inoptionalIntroductory warm up write  – 3 – 5 minute write Read around with no comment. It’s just a chance to get our words into the virtual room.  Facilitator just thanks each reader and then calls on the next person.
30 minutes in
2 writes is optional		First “real” write to prompts.  Can do one or two writes with just one read.  Look at the algorithm – plug in your numbers to calculate how long this is going to take.  For instance, 2 writes of 10 minutes each, back to back will be 20 minutes of writing.  Then one reading each of one 10 minute piece with feedback will take about 5 minutes per person.  With 9 participants in the group (8 writers plus the facilitator) a session like this would take approximately 59 minutes of reading and feedback plus the 25 minutes or so of writing (two 10 minute writes plus the introduction by the facilitator of both prompts.)The algorithm is not exact.  Some people write longer, some shorter.  Some feedback is more robust.  If someone passes on reading, this part will be shorter.  You need to be flexible with the next part.
Use algorithm (a separate spreadsheet created by Sue)  to figure out timing on this. (depending on number and length of writes)Calculate the time remaining.  Adjust your prompts, reading and feedback to how much remains.
7 minutes before the end of the workshop.Post the evaluation link in the chat.  Ask them to click on it and open it in their browser so they can fill out the evaluation afterward.Link will be supplied before the beginning of May.
5 minutes before the endClosing ritual.Have them look through their writing and find one sentence that they particularly like. Put up their hand when they’ve found it.  We’ll go round and read one after another, creating a found poem.  Other options – one word about how they’re feeling now.Read a closing poem by a published poet.
Ending Reminder that they’ll be getting a follow up email from you with an invitation to post a piece of writing from today on the AWA WRITE AROUND THE WORLD website.  Thank them for coming.

THIS IS A FILLED-IN VERSION OF THE STRUCTURE ABOVE, CREATED AND SHARE BY SUE REYNOLDS FOR A CO-LED WAW SESSION:

Writing for Resiliency and Connection 

1:00 – 3:30 CT/2:00 – 4:30 EDT Monday May 3, 2021

What We Promised:  This two and a half hour workshop will joyfully engage with writing in the AWA Method to facilitate resiliency and inter-connection during these times of distress and isolation.  

Prep early morningSend out joining instructions again, plus on chairs, one example and the 2 prompts  – Could Have by Wisława Szymborska
12:45 CT1:45 EDT  pm.Sue & MeadowBoth online to greet participants and make sure that tech issues are solved
1:00 pm. CT2:00p.m. EDT





Sue Greetings and Welcome. Thank you for your support of AWA, for joining us. We’re so pleased to be with you today and looking forward to all of us sharing out words in this space.  2 ½ hours is going to fly by, so we’re going to dive right in.
(If we’re going to do land acknowledgements, this is mine: As a gesture of friendship and respect, we acknowledge that we are meeting on the treaty land of the Williams Treaties First Nations, the traditional territories of the Wendat, the Haudeno-saunee, and the Anishinabek peoples, and other indigenous peoples whose presence here continues to this day. We thank them for sharing this land with us as we remind ourselves to seek out the many practical ways we can all participate in the spirit of reconciliation.  We also acknowledge the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation as our close neighbours and friends.
(Put up 01 Introduction on Screen)  Sue can do the mechanics while Meadow introduces the exercise.MEADOW:  Because this is a writing group, we’re going to do our introductions through a written check-in.  Sue will mute the participantsMeadow will have to unmute to time the 3 minutes and 3 minutes.Meadow to invite people to lead.  Ask for the first volunteer, and then call on people on the circle on the screen.  Sue or Meadow will respond to each piece – just one thing that strikes them  from the check in.
1:25ish/2:25 ishSue: go briefly over the AWA practices – how we’re going to hold the space. Remind them that there is no way to do this wrongly, that the prompts are only an offering, and their first response can be to completely ignore them.  This is about creativity and joy, not compliance.
Sue –  brief outline for the shape of this session and then what the rest of the workshop series will look like, including etiquette. We’ll mute you during writing.  Also, short workshop so there will be no formal break but of course, look after yourself.  During the Feedback, because of weird lag times, please raise your hand when you want to offer something back to the writer.  We’ll name you – hopefully that will stop us from cutting each other off.
 Turn it over to Meadow to lead the first write   
1:30ish/2:30 ish


Meadow – to deliver the prompt  (Put up 02 – 5 things up on the screen)  Sue can do the mechanics while Meadow introduces the exercise.  Sue will mute participants.  Meadow will time and call the end of the exercise
1:40ish/2:40 ishSue – to deliver the prompt  (Put up 03 – Thanks )  Sue will have the prompt ready to go and then will introduce the exercise and mute participants.  Sue will time and call the end of the exercise
1:50ish/2:50 ishMeadow will lead. Invite Feedback.    Ask for a volunteer to read first, then just go round her screen and call on the next person.  Halfway through we’ll switch and Sue will handle the rest of the feedback.
3:00ish/4:00ishMeadow to lead – (Sue will put up 04 – Witness ) Meadow will read the poem and then the invitation is: “from Life or Imagination, show us you or your character reconnecting with a presence that stabilizes them, animate or inanimate.”  Maybe just 7 minutes or so?  We’ll judge and adjust as needbe.Sue will handle reading and feedback.We’ll check our time and see what kind of feedback to offer.  Maybe just “recall.”
3:25 ish/4:25 ish Meadow:  Put up the evaluation in the chat.  Ask people to open it in a browser so it’s waiting for them when they go. (Sue can handle this tech).  https://blog.amherstwriters.org/waw-writer-survey/ 
Sue:Tell them we’ll be sending out a follow up email inviting them to submit a piece of writing from the workshop. They can send it to Sue.sue@amherstwriters.org 
Final ClosingInvite them to find one sentence they’re really happy with from today. We’re going to go around and create a found poem.  MEADOW to call on people one after another, for their sentences.
Meadow – to call on people one after the other to create the poem
Sue and MeadowThanks everybody!!

Sharing Writing to AWA’s Blog

In the interest of posting everyone’s work more quickly, we came up with a new process for 2022. If you’ve participated in past years, read on, because things have changed. This year we’re asking session leaders to collect writing from their groups, consolidate it into one Word document, and send it to AWA using these steps.

After your session, you’ll likely want to follow up with the people who attended. You can find a template and suggestions for how to do that at this link. In that email, you can invite each member of your group to share a page of writing from your WAW session. 

To be featured on AWA’s blog, please pull any writing participants share with you into one document and send it to Danielle, danielle@amherstwriters.org, by June 7th (or preferably, as soon as you can). It’s helpful if you also include details about the session in which the pieces were written. We love it if you send any extra info about yourself as a writer/workshop leader to enhance that post. Feel free to attach photos! 

Reach out to Danielle, danielle@amherstwriters.org, with any further questions. 

Marketing Resources

Here’s some sample copy you can use on your website:

On Friday May 14th, I will be leading a writing workshop as part of AWA’s Write Around the World series, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm EDT (Toronto time).

A Write Around the World workshop event allows beginner, emerging and experienced writers to experience a workshop space that holds safe and creative space using the Amherst Writers & Artists Method. This is also a once-a-year fundraiser to support the social justice programs offered by AWA.

Registration is by donation – $30, $20, or $10.  You can also choose a different amount if you’d like to make a bigger gift.

Click here to go to the AWA website to register. [Link]

Time: 1:00 to 3:00 pm EDT

Date: Friday May 14th

Place: online on Zoom – you will get the link after registration

Here is a sample email you can send to your usual workshop participants or to other communities you’re a part of:

Dear Workshop Participant,

You likely know that the writing workshops I provide are held in the Amherst Writers Method (AWA). This method is what I use to keep our workshops safe, creative and productive.

May is the month when Amherst Writers reaches out to writers everywhere by holding Write Around the World (WAW). This is the yearly fundraiser for that organization.

I will be donating my time to lead a WAW workshop on THIS DATE at THIS TIME (Time Zone). [Put in the link to your specific workshop that Katie sent you here.]

Write Around the World raises funds to support AWA and its writing for social justice programs. But even more than raising money, our goal for Write Around the World in 2022 is to introduce people to AWA’s revolutionary writing workshop method.

This is an opportunity to raise awareness of AWA’s method and its uses, to bring people together in our writing communities of care and comfort, to offer them a therapeutic experience of creativity, and help people claim their voice as writers. The monetary stakes can be very low. Suggested donations are $20, $15 or $10 with exceptions made to include those who are experiencing financial distress.

I would love you to come and write with me during my session. If that’s not possible because of timing, or if you want more time and space for your writing than just my session, I invite you to sign up for one or more other WAW sessions. You can see them all, and sign up HERE. [Insert link to WAW event calendar.]

And finally, I invite you to forward this information about WAW to your friends, family, and fellow writers. Think about the relief and joy you felt when you found the safe space that an AWA Method workshop provides. This is an opportunity to offer that gift to others.

I hope to see you in my Write Around the World session. Once again, you can find my session HERE. [Again, link to your specific event page.]

Your Signature

Here are some sample social media posts:

Facebook

Facebook

I’m leading a group for Write Around the World, a fundraiser for @AmherstWritersandArtists! Join me on [day of the week], May [X], for a fun afternoon of writing and sharing our work. It’s an easy way to experience the AWA method for a low cost and a good cause. #WAW2022 [insert your link here]

Seeking some creative inspiration? Join me for a #WAW2022 writing group on May [X]! I’m leading a group in the @AmherstWritersandArtists method. It will be a really generative and generous space. Hope to see you there: [insert your link here]

What: Writing prompts, a chance to share your work, positive feedback about the strengths of your story. When: This [insert your time and day here]. Why: To support @AmherstWritersandArtists, giving back to writers everywhere. Where: Online! 

Here’s a link to sign up: [insert your link here]

Instagram

Right click and “Save As” to use any of the images below as an Instagram post.

Twitter

I’m leading a group for Write Around the World, a fundraiser for @AmherstWriters! Join me on [DATE], for a fun afternoon of writing and sharing our work. It’s an easy way to experience the AWA method for a low cost and a good cause. #WAW2022

Feeling lonely, seeking some creative inspiration? Join me for a #WAW2022 writing group on May [X]! I’m leading a group in the @AmherstWriters method. It will be a really generative and generous space. Hope to see you there: [insert your link here]

What: Writing to prompts, sharing your work, receiving positive feedback
When: This [insert your time and day here]
Why: To support @AmherstWriters, make new connections, get inspired
Where: Online!
Here’s a link to sign up: [insert your link here]

Here is a sample follow-up for the writers who joined your group:

(again, sending BCC is preferred unless group members have agreed to share emails with one another)

Hello writers,

Thank you again for writing with me this week. Your contribution supported AWA’s social justice programs and the writing you shared inspired me. Thank you for nurturing your own creativity and providing the healing power of art to others. [Or another sincere thank you.]

To share a piece of writing from the day, please email it to me (one page or less, with prose double-spaced) by [X date]. I will compile all the writing from our session and send it on to AWA for inclusion on their blog. Once it is shared, it counts as a publication, even if you ask AWA to take it down later. 

Rights will revert back to you, but without significant revision, you won’t be able to submit it anywhere that asks for previously unpublished work or for the right of first publication. Please be aware of that when deciding what to send.

If you want to write with me again, here’s information about my upcoming workshops:

[insert your information here]

[If you don’t have any workshops scheduled, let them know how they can sign up for your email list or opt to have you reach out when your next offerings are available.]

Thanks again,

[Your name]

Prompt Offerings

Below are the 2021 prompts, compiled by Belinda Edwards, Maureen Buchanan Jones, Sue Reynolds, Fiona Clarke, Katie Frank, and Betsy Abrams. We’ll be updating the list for 2022 soon!

The invitation with all prompts is to write from whatever is sparked in memory or imagination. Writers may always follow wherever inspiration leads. Because we’re online again, there will be writers who are attending several AWA writing sessions. We’ve provided a long list of prompts so hopefully there won’t be too many overlaps. If it happens that a writer has written to a prompt before, you can suggest it’s possible that new inspiration might arise from the same source. If it isn’t working, remind writers that they’re always free to set the prompt aside and write about whatever they want.

Starters

The back door slammed once and then once more.  She knew it was time . . .

The second time around . . .

“I did not start that fire.”

Six words: lavender, turbid, pincher, fantail, accordion, streetlight

If I were God, I would make a world . . .(inspired by Pat Schneider)

Maybe none of this will happen . . . (inspired by Pat Schneider)

Quotes

For supper, a hundred old people gathered in the formal dining room around which hung Enlightenment . . . 

Barbara Baer

This time we cannot cross until we carry each other. All of us refugees, all of us prophets… This time it’s all of us or none.

Aurora Levins Morales, “Red Sea”

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, 
and the norms and notions 
of what just is 
isn’t always just-ice. 

Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”

the scientist of sleep has claimed
that without warm blood a creature cannot dream.

Kimiko Hahn, “The Dream of a Fire Engine”

I could say grace was a woman with time on her hands, or a white buffalo escaped from memory.

Joy Harjo, “Grace”

Don’t bother the earth spirit who lives here. She is working on a story. 

Joy Harjo, “Don’t Bother the Earth Spirit”

“When my grandmother, Vivian entered her life in the world of air, I was at her emergence to greet her and to cut her cord, the sustaining link between her and her mother, her origins. When the bronze-colored stem of the baby dried, we placed it in a tall black pot until I could make and bead an umbilical bag to contain that first point of connection to this life, to keep her with us, safe, and well.” 

Linda Hogan, Dwellings

“Perhaps there are events and things that work as a doorway into the mystical world, the world of first people, all the way back to the creation of the universe and the small quickening of earth, the first stirrings of human beings at the beginning of time.”

Linda Hogan, Dwellings

“What holds the water? What holds the light?”

Linda Hogan, Dwellings

“When a house is abandoned, it begins to sag.  Without a tenant, it has no need to go on.” 

Linda Hogan, Dwellings

Have a name that brings the tongue to worship. 
Names that feel like ritual in your mouth.

Assétou Xango,  “Give Your Daughters Difficult Names” 

We are blessed with distinct and melodious tongues. 
Our languages are treasures of stories, songs, ceremonies, and memories. 
May each of us remember to share our stories with one another, 
because it is only through stories that we live full lives.

Luci Tapahonso, “A Blessing”

donning skin like battle gear
dawning skin like evening gown

Elizabeth Acevado, “A Daughter Named After Nina”

ghosts of my past failures
walk, stalk me with their sad,
ineffectual eyes.

Pat Schneider, “In the Still, Dark of Night” from The Weight of Love

Sleeplessness convinces me
that blinded by daylight
I have not been wise,

Pat Schneider, “In the Still, Dark of Night” from The Weight of Love

I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things

Pat Schneider, “The Patience of Ordinary Things” from Another River: New and Selected Poems

what is more generous than a window?

Pat Schneider, “The Patience of Ordinary Things” from Another River: New and Selected Poems

I thought, Oh! This is what safety feels like!

Pat Schneider, from the Introduction to The Weight of Love

You are no longer required to believe.

Pat Schneider, “Hush” from The Weight of Love

Receive the gift of listening.

Pat Schneider, “Hush” from The Weight of Love

A woman stands in the doorway
and calls.

Pat Schneider, “About, Among Other Things, God” from Another River: New and Selected Poems

The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don’t grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.

Pat Schneider, “Instructions for the Journey”

The end of anything can be an art.
Giving up the greed, the lust for winning
Is the hardest part.

Pat Schneider, “Ending” from Another River: New and Selected Poems

It’s what we love the most
can make us most afraid

Pat Schneider, “Going Home the Longest Way Around” from Another River: New and Selected Poems

I love this wakeful time while others sleep.

Pat Schneider, “Love Song for Sister Age” from The Weight of Love

I picked clean the bare bones of hurt and burned them in
the furnace of my rage.

Pat Schneider, “Love Song for Sister Age” from The Weight of Love

There is nothing like transience to make the ordinary flare
into incandescence.

Pat Schneider, “The Day of the Diagnosis” from The Weight of Love

Tonight I am thinking of you.

Pat Schneider, “Tonight” from The Weight of Love

In time,
if nothing else can be destroyed, you come to understand
it is yourself you have to kill to be free.

Pat Schneider, “The Garden” from The Weight of Love

She saw me, and I saw her, and for the first time I
knew that I existed. That I was me.

Pat Schneider, “The Crawdad” from The Weight of Love
Poems

Kissing in Vietnamese by Ocean Vuong 

This Morning by Luci Tapahonso 

Caged Bird by Maya Angelou  

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou  

Blessing the Boats by Lucille Clifton

An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo 

A Map to the Next World by Joy Harjo 

Have You Prayed? by Li-Young Lee

Brokeheart: Just like that by Patrick Rosal

American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [When James Baldwin & Audre Lorde each lend] by Terrance Hayes 

Barberism by Terrance Hayes 

OBIT by Victoria Chang

A Kiss by David Tomas Martinez

Odd Jobs by Jericho Brown 

A Small Needful Fact by Ross Gay 

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

dear white america by Danez Smith

Córdoba by Eduardo C. Corral

Movement Song by Audre Lorde

Who Said It Was Simple by Audre Lorde

Chinese Quatrains (The Woman in Tomb 44) by Marilyn Chin

“Altar (#3)” from “Broken Chord Sequence” by Marilyn Chin 

I Make Promises Before I Dream by Tongo Eisen-Martin

Quinceañera by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Before by Ada Limón

This body is not an apology by Sonya Renee Taylor (video)

Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye  

Song at Midnight by Lucille Clifton 

I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party by Chen Chen 

From Fog by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge  

Changing Places in the Fire By Li-Young Lee 

All Trains Are Going Local by Timothy Liu 

Cold Sore Lip Red Coat by Hoa Nguyen 

The Glass Larynx by Monica Ong Reed (visual art)

Belonging as Consequence: On Poetry by Prageeta Sharma 

Before Completion by Arthur Sze 

Broken Sonnet by John Yau 

Invitation to Brave Space by Micky ScottBey Jones (shared by Kelly Giles)

Anthologies and Collections

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song: A Library of America Anthology, Edited by Kevin Young

New Poets of Native Nations, Edited by Heid E. Erdrich

The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall

When the Light of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, Edited by Joy Harjo, Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster

Songs We Learn from Trees: An Anthology of Ethiopian Amharic Poetry, Edited by Chris Beckett, Alemu Tebeje

Several collections of international literature: https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/books/

Asian American Literary Review 

Contemporary Asian American Poets: A Top Ten List 

Feedback Forms

Here is an evaluation form we ask that you share with your participants in the chat at the end of your group: https://blog.amherstwriters.org/waw-writer-survey/

We will also share the above link in our follow up email to WAW writers.

Here is an evaluation form that we ask you to fill out as a workshop leader: https://forms.gle/g326TsAook8Xs8AdA

Both forms are due by June 7th so we have time to review the feedback and incorporate it into our plans for next year. We will send a reminder that week as well