Presence

Gifts of air & light & time & space - from my island to yours

Dear fellow writer,

Thank you for reading Helen’s Word this year. It’s been an honor to visit your inbox every week!

Next week, I’m planning to take a break from Substack and focus on being fully present in my own life for a while, away from my computer screen. I hope that you can find the air & light & time & space to do the same.

My twice-weekly postings will resume in early January. Here are three new Substack series that I’m looking forward to in 2024:

• 30 days of Writing with Pleasure — Kick off the year with my “show up and write for 25 minutes a day” challenge. Opt in via your Settings page to receive daily writing prompts for writing with pleasure throughout the month of January. (Click here for instructions).

• 12 months of #AcWriMoments — Building on the #AcWriMomentum that we built up with our series of daily prompts in November, join me and the wonderful

  Margy Thomas
  for gentle, yet expansive, monthly writing prompts inviting you into moments of sacred communion with yourself and your scholarly work.

• Walk With Me — Follow the remarkable journey of Afghan writer

  Hussain Shah Rezaie
  from a refugee detention centre in Indonesia to a new life as a permanent resident of Aotearoa New Zealand. (Scroll down for a photo of me and Freddie picnicking with Hussain on beautiful Waiheke Island).

Wishing you good words and good cheer through the festive season and into the New Year!

It means so much to me to hear back from my readers. Please leave a comment, share this post with a friend, drop me a restack — or at least toss me a heart to warm my holidays.

Kia pai tō koutou rā (have a great day) – and keep on writing!

Helen

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Books on writing by Helen Sword

Writing with Pleasure
Princeton University Press, 2023

Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write
Harvard University Press, 2017

Stylish Academic Writing
Harvard University Press, 2012

The Writer’s Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose
University of Chicago Press, 2016