Come spend a day in community, writing and exploring together.

There’s no question that the times we are in can make us feel like retreating inward, going dormant for a spell, protecting ourselves and our beloveds. Necessary, and more than ok. And perfectly autumnal.

But guess what? Any watcher of a winter forest will tell you that at the end of dormancy is a flourishing – a regrowth, a burst of light. So even as we hunker down at the turn of the season, and draw our strength into our roots for a time of quiet, we are also preparing for the awakening that is to come. 

As we spend a day together, writing towards dormancy and regrowth, we’ll delve into our own stories as well as stories from the natural and human worlds around us to create a mosaic of mutual flourishing. 

We will listen, we will read, we will write, and we will be together. We’ll generate at least 3 new pieces, a list of topics for later exploration; we’ll laugh and respond to each other using the Gateless Method, which is all about finding what is outstanding in our work and each other’s.

Designed with an eye toward nourishment, this workshop is being offered free of charge, and soup will be served. Please feel free to make a small donation to help support the day, but none is required. We just want you here, writing with us!

Workshop facilitators Kate Gray and Abby Braithwaite are excited to spend the day with you. A little more about us:  

Almost all the time, Kate feels just plain grateful, to be living on the Olympic Peninsula, tending land within the traditional territory of the Coast Salish Indigenous peoples, to live with her partner and two feisty dogs, to have taught at a community college for 25 years, to have been a writing coach for ten, to have two full-length poetry books , two chapbooks, and a novel published. Lucky on top of lucky, she’s escaped to writing residencies and to Baja for half the year. Best things ever? Writing with others. Teaching. Independent bookstores. Zumba. Blue Moose coffeecake. 

In between writing about pigeons and her own belly button, Abby is learning how to parent two teenagers at the same time, and  is grateful for all the abundance that life lays down amidst the madness of these times. She’s been a volunteer facilitator for Write Around Portland since 2024; as initiator of the PN Farm Arts Initiative (situated on traditional Cowlitz and Chinook lands), she is fortunate to be able share the beauty of this landscape with other artists, creating a space for all of us to shape and share the stories of this place. Trees and rivers, ferns and feathers are among her favorite things these days.