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Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools as well as with adults, teachers and youth-at risk, brings tools and techniques to a workshop designed to make you feel excited about writing (and teaching) poetry. Susan has found that in a safe, free setting, surrounded with words, most everyone can write poems and they’re often extraordinary.

Susan starts us off playing with language. First, she helps us create “wordpools,” helping us see we’re all immersed in an ocean of words we largely ignore. We learn to create images, practice close observation, begin to develop metaphor, and gradually move into “dreamsense,” where we can explore who we are, where we come from and where we’re going.

Music, paintings and “word tickets” are all used to help us enter the realm where we begin to write poems that express more than words can say, an act Allen Ginsberg called “ordinary magic.”

Susan offers workshops ranging from two hours to two days for people of all ages--at conferences, in schools, businesses and homes. In longer workshops we may gather objects, write invocations and meet with our shadows.

Susan’s book poemcrazy: freeing your life with words was published in May 1996 by Clarkson Potter/Random House. The hardcover edition went into five printings, was selected by Quality Paperback Book Club and Writer’s Digest Book Club. The paper back edition came out in April 1997 and is now in a thirteenth printing. Poemcrazy is a Book Sense 76 Pick (Independent Bookstores) and though written for adults, is on the New York Public Library List of Outstanding Books for teens.

Bathing with ants, a chapbook of Susan’s poems was published in 2004 by Bear Star Press.

Susan recently completed a series of workshops in libraries throughout California sponsored by Poets and Writers and the Los Angeles Center for the Book. She’s been invited to do a similar tour to reach even more libraries this spring and summer.

SCHEDULE

Hello everyone. Thanks for checking in. Keep your eye on the schedule because more workshops will be added soon.

(free unless fee listed)
All ages welcome

Mon., Feb. 9
North Kirkwood Middle School
1287 Manchester Road
Kirkwood Missouri 63122
3 Student classes
1 teacher training
Barry Crook, librarian
(314) 213-6100 x7060

Sat., March 7
10 am presentation
WOW (Women on Writing) Conference
Skyline College
San Bruno, California
Marijane Datson, (650) 726-1411
mjdat@pacbell.net

Thurs., March 19
6 or 7 pm Free Workshop
Sutter County Library
750 Forbes Ave.
Yuba City, CA 95991
James Ochsner, (530) 822-7137
JOchsner@co.sutter.ca.us

March issue
North State Parent Magazine
Feature in Be The Change column

Wed. March 25
6:30 pm workshop/talk
Spiritual Enrichment Center
Chico, CA 95928
Karen Kahn, mamarevkk@comcast.net

Wed. April 1 to Sun. April 5
ARTFEST, 2 daylong workshops
Port Townsend, WA
Teesha Moore, artgirl777@aol.com

Fri. April 10 or Sat. April 11
Cesar Chavez Library
Stockton, CA
Contact MaryJo Gohlke for exact date, time and address, (209) 937-7539
MaryJo.Gohlke@ci.stockton.ca.us

Sat. April 18
FREE workshop
Stanislaus County Library
Modesto, California
Contact Vicki Salinas, (209) 558-7839
vsalinas@scfl.lib.ca.us

Fri. and Sat. April 24 and 25
Oregon State Poetry Assoc.
Reading and two workshops
Portland, Oregon
Constance Hall, mjmnv@hotmail.com

Sun. April 26
Daylong workshop
Portland, Oregon (Clackamas)
Diane Havnen-Smith, 503-314-6349
diane@innerstandings.com

Fri. May 1
Poetry Reading, 7 to 9:30pm
Stage Door,
Mt. Shasta City, CA
Beth Beurkens, (530) 938-4377
spiritquest@cruzers.com

Thurs. to Sat. May 14, 15, and 16
Check contacts below for exact time and day
FREE Thursday, Friday and Saturday workshops

in Alpine County Library, Markleeville
Rita Lovell, rlovell@alpinecountyca.gov

South Tahoe Branch, El Dorado County Library
Katharine Miller (530) 573-3186
kmiller@eldoradolibrary.org

Mand Eldorado Hills Branch, Eldorado County Library
Carolynbrooks@eldoradolibrary.org

Sunday, June 28, 2009
2pm (Check this with librarian below)
Free workshop, all ages
Shasta Library
Redding California
For more information contact
Diane Gustafson, dianeg@shastalibraries.org

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
7pm in San Rafael
West End Cafe
(on 4th Street....across from San Rafael Movie Theater)
followed by an Open Mic, in case anyone might like to join us!

Saturday, September 12, 2009
All Day Creative Writing Retreat
With Susan Wooldridge and Claire Braz-Valentine
Chico, California
10 am to 5:30
75$ includes lunch
See below for more details:

Creative Writing Retreat
Sept. 12 Saturday 10am – 5:30 pm
at the serene Sky Creek Dharma Center, Chico
Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer. Barbara Kingsolver

Come for inspiration and reflection as we wander, write, read, and come together with our words in this daylong creative writing retreat. Beginning and advanced writers welcome.You’ll have a chance to write/play/work with both Claire and Susan in separate morning and afternoon sessions.

Due to limited space, advance registration is required. Contact: Willow (rdejesus@csuchico.edu)
Cost: $75 (includes lunch)

Claire Braz-Valentine is a widely published poet, playwright and journalist. Her plays have been produced in five countries. She conducts writing workshops locally and has been a prison workshop artist for many years. Susan Wooldridge is author of poemcrazy: freeing your life with words (in a 21st printing) and Foolsgold: Making Something from Nothing and Freeing Your Creative Process (both Quality Paperback Book Club Selections) and a chapbook of poems, Bathing with ants.

Late summer and fall workshops
in Taos, New Mexico
and Phoenix Arizona
check the website!