Temescal Writers

Joan Marie Wood is founder and director of Temescal Writers, which she established in 1995 in the Temescal neighborhood of north Oakland, California. Her poetry has been published in Rag Mag, Peregrine and other literary magazines, and in the anthology Essential Love. She has studied with Susan Rawlins, Pat Schneider and Diane di Prima. Her book of poetry, Her Voice Is Blackberries, was published in 2004 by Amherst Writers & Artists Press. She has also edited and published her father’s memoir, Making Observations First: My Life and Science (by Alfred H. Woodcock), 2007.

At each meeting we write together. I suggest exercises that can be useful to get you started—or you can adapt or ignore what I offer and write what you wish. Later you’ll have an opportunity to read your fresh writing to others, if you so choose. They will respond by mentioning only what they love, what’s strong or effective in the writing.

We receive all writing as fictional. That is, we keep a safe boundary between the voice in the writing and the writer’s life. For example, we use the phrase “the narrator” instead of “you” when responding to first-person writing; we say “the grandmother” rather than “your grandmother.”

Adhering to the subtle discipline of these core Amherst Writers & Artists method practices, and encouraging trust in our unique voices, we nurture a writing community that is healthy and deeply supportive. As Pat Schneider says, “Supportive community is the setting in which significant writing is most easily and effectively accomplished.” A separate process of critiquing work-in-progress during the course of the workshop is available if requested.