In June 2014 I attended VONA
Voices, a writing workshop for people of color. I participated in the memoir
track taught by Andrew X. Pham.
For the first time in my life, I had the luxury of a week spent reading,
writing and workshopping my writing.
We devoted at least two hours to each
story; exploring, critiquing, sharing our thoughts and giving suggestions on
the work. I got invaluable feedback from Andrew and the team but most of what I
learned came from paying attention to the comments given to other people’s
writing. I got a better grasp of constructing
a story, creating compelling characters and making scenes pop by studying the
work of my colleagues.
We took turns reading excerpts from our
memoirs, pouring our hearts and souls into the room, trusting each other with
our deepest fears and darkest moments.
I was humbled by the care and commitment everyone brought with them.
Every day I came prepared to give,
engage, listen and write. I’ve
never felt this sense of community with any of my creative endeavors, the
experience has been life changing.
Andrew was a marvelous teacher; kind,
patient and generous with his time. My classmates were a gifted bunch of
storytellers, I am grateful and humbled by the wonderful people I had the
pleasure of meeting.
After the workshop, I felt an urgent
need to surrender to the calling I’ve never had the courage to pursue. This time I would not squash my desire
to write.
Since the workshop, I’ve kept myself
busy writing and reading. Tomorrow, I start the rewrite of what I worked on at
VONA. I wanted to distance myself from the piece so I can work on it with as
new a perspective as possible.
I strongly urge anyone who writes to
attend a VONA workshop.
L
