Open Chalet: Live from Switzerland!
One free event, two special offers, and two new publications on writers and writing
Dear fellow writer,
The WriteSPACE is on the move this month!
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting up with members of our global writing community in a London pub, and next week I’m off to Switzerland to host my Mountain Rise writing retreat in the glorious car-free alpine village of Wengen.
Can’t make it up the mountain in person? Join me on June 27 for the next best thing: my annual Open Chalet on Zoom, which is FREE to all who register. I’ll take you on a virtual tour of our gorgeous retreat venue, Chalet Alpenheim, and guide you through a short reflective writing exercise designed to shift you into the relaxed-but-energized creative mindset of “retreat mode.” I look forward to chatting with you about all things writing and to offering you a sneak peek of my upcoming writing retreats, courses, and free events.
This free WriteSPACE Special Event will run in two 1-hour Zoom sessions scheduled twelve hours apart so that at least one of them will be accessible in your time zone, no matter where you live in the world:
8-9 am Central European Summer Time on Thur 27 June.
2-3 pm Eastern Daylight Time on Thur 27 June.
To find the best time in your own time zone, check out our guest calendar or use this handy time zone converter.
Register below to receive the Zoom link a few hours before the first session.
I’d love to see you there!
Upcoming Events and Special Offers
Stylish Writing Intensive (July 2024)
Transform your writing from stodgy to stylish, or from adequate to amazing, in just 3 action-packed days! My next Stylish Writing Intensive runs over three non-consecutive weekdays on Mon July 22, Wed July 24, and Fri July 26. Each day, I’ll guide you through a customized sequence of activities including advanced writing and editing workshops, dedicated writing and revision time, and curated writing breaks, plus two hours per day of live coaching.
SPECIAL OFFER (ends July 15): Sign up for the Stylish Writing Intensive and enroll in the Creativity Catalyst for FREE (a $550 value). Click here to learn more.Island Time Writing Retreat (January 2025)
Escape to one of the world’s most beautiful islands for 7 idyllic days and 6 nights of writing time, workshops, and individual craft-focused coaching. My annual Island Time writing retreat will take place on Waiheke Island in Aotearoa New Zealand from Jan 26 - Feb 1, 2025 — that’s high summer in the Southern Hemisphere, perfect weather for writing outside on a shaded deck with a view of the island’s most beautiful beach. This all-inclusive retreat features daily small-group workshops and coaching, as well as plenty of focused writing time.
SPECIAL OFFER (ends July 1): To encourage early enrollments, we’re offering a 20% discount off all Island Time 2025 bookings confirmed and paid in full by July 1, 2024. Click here to learn more.
WriteSPACE Writers Writing
I’m always excited to hear about new publications by WriteSPACE members!
Angelica Ribeiro is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston whose ebullient new book, How to Create Happiness at Work: Seven Evidence-Based Strategies to Enjoy Your Day, shows how cultivating happiness at work can make us “more productive, more creative, more optimistic, and better problem solvers, as well as better prepared to face challenges and manage stress.” Angelica sent me a copy of the book along with the following note:
Today, I want to thank you especially for the Live Writing Studio. The community of writers you have gathered has positively impacted me as a person and my writing. My new book is proof of that impact. That is why I included you in the acknowledgment of my book. Thank you again for all you do!
Vanessa Jaiteh is a Senior Research Scientist in the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Her evocative research poem SALT recently appeared in Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy and the Arts. Vanessa describes the poem’s genesis:
Few places I've been lucky enough to visit hold as much poetry as Ghana. In the fall of 2022, I wrote a poem about my fieldwork on fisher safety and working conditions in Ghana's fisheries. The exercise was part of the first Creativity Catalyst, a course I warmly recommend to any academic whose joy for writing has suffered under the constraints of scientific writing. SALT just got published, and I hope that seeing it here will encourage you to consider creative forms of engaging with, and disseminating, your work.
Congratulations, Angelica and Vanessa!
Do you have writing-related news, events, or resources to share? Send me a brief description (50 words max), a hyperlink, and a high-quality image.
Kia pai tō koutou rā (have a great day) – and keep on writing!
Helen
Write more, right now! Join me and fellow writers from 30+ countries in the WriteSPACE, the ultimate membership site for scholarly and professional writers who aim to lift their writing game. To try free for 30 days, click here and enter the discount code SNEAKPEEK.
Books on writing by Helen Sword
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