"For the Joy & The Sorrow: Writing the World," Starts Tomorrow!

Write with us for the next 12 weeks as we strive to see the world in all its brutal beauty, while aiming to get as close up to the world with our words as we can

To be with [Ross] Gay is to train your gaze to see the wonderful alongside the terrible; to attend to and meditate on what you love, even in the midst of difficult realities and as part of working for justice.”

~Krista Tippett

I was Krista Tippett’s daughter’s middle-school teacher, and I have a related small delight for you about the way time loops back on itself—how maybe there really is no past or future, it’s all now, in a strangely beautiful and mind-bending way.

I share this in anticipation of our Ross Gay-inspired writing intensive starting tomorrow, For the Joy & the Sorrow: Writing the World (remember to get hold of a copy of Gay’s The Book of Delights if you don’t already have one; the intensive is for paid members and you can upgrade here to participate).

Anyway, I taught Aly Tippett and the rest of our class to recite poems—that was traditional in our arts school—and in sixth-grade, I taught them Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day.” I remember our room that year—we were in the low…