Creative, Supportive Women’s Writers’ Groups in Oakland

Led by Local Author Elizabeth Fishel
Welcome New Members This Fall

The Wednesday and Friday morning women’s writers’ workshops I’ve led in my Rockridge living room for many years are testimony to the power of writers’ groups as catalysts, support, sources of ideas, and inspiration for the literary life.

Part writing class, part support group, part literary salon, our writers’ community has morphed through marriages and divorces, motherhood and empty nests, career shifts, illness and recovery, transforming our “diamonds in the dustheap”–in Virginia Woolf’s famous phrase–into all varieties of first-person writing. Although we write first for pleasure and self-revelation, many are also getting published: essays, op-ed pieces, newspaper columns, and several memoirs. We’ve published two anthologies of our writing, Wednesday Writers and Something That Matters that raise money for Bay Area breast care centers.

My own books include Sisters and Reunion, and I’ve written widely for magazines including Oprah’s O, Vogue, Good Housekeeping and Family Circle. My many years of experience help provide guidance to group members in getting happily published.

Our meetings offer a welcome breather from the isolation of creative work and the computer screen’s stern stare. The group’s positive energy–and that weekly or biweekly deadline–do wonders for everyone’s productivity. Shared examples of fine writing help inspire original work, and topical quick-writes in class outwit the inner censor; later, the sloppy first drafts are polished until they’re ready to share with a wide audience.

For more information about the new sessions starting this fall, please visit our website, www.wednesdaywriters.com or email me aterfishel@gmail.com