Writing as Healing Practice :: a panel discussion

writing as healing practice

I recently had the distinct pleasure of meeting Maggie McCarthy, Executive Director of the Central Texas Veterans Research Foundation when she attended the ITWOW womyn’s writing circle I facilitate.  We enjoyed a wonderfully inspiring circle and brief conversation afterwards during which I learned about her work with the Writer’s Garret providing healing writing sessions for Veterans, Cancer patients, and other communities.

I’m grateful for her invitation to join a panel discussion along side other writers on June 18, 2016 from 1-2:30pm at the West Waco Library & Geneology Center.  I shared with her about my therapeutic creative writing programs I facilitate with youth at Klaras Center for Families and at the TJJD facility near by.

The event is FREE and open to all!

Here is a sampling of info about the other writers I will be joining on the panel:

Leila Levinson has led writing workshops for veterans and their spouses in Austin over the last three years. The daughter of a World War II veteran, she teaches writing and a literature of the Holocaust course at St. Edward’s University in Austin. Her book, Gated Grief. was a finalist for the 2013 Texas Nonfiction Book Award and won the 2011 President’s Award from the Military Writers Society. Her website, www.veteranschildren.com, is a resource and forum for adult children of veterans.

Jack Woodville London is an acclaimed author, historian, and trial attorney. Honored as Author of the Year, MWSA 2011-2012, and winner, Indie Excellence Award, 2013, he is the author of the award-winning French Letters fiction series. His non-fiction book on the craft of writing, A Novel Approach, was published in 2014. Jack shares his love of writing with presentations and lectures at writing conferences throughout the United States and abroad. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Alice, and Junebug the writing cat. To learn more, visit www.jwlbooks.com.

Ruth Pennebaker has written adult fiction (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough, 2011) as well as three highly acclaimed young-adult novels, Don’t Think Twice, Conditions of Love, and Both Sides Now. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, Texas Monthly, The Dallas Morning News, Parents, Redbook, McCall’s,Cooking Light, and other nationwide publications. Her most recent work is a collaboration with artist/cartoonist Marian Henley on Pucker Up! The Subversive Woman’s Guide to Aging with Wit, Wine, Drama, Humor, Perspective,and the Occasional Good Cry. Ruth and her mad-scientist husband live in downtown Austin. Find her online at www.ruthpennebaker.com.

This event is made possible by support from the Texas Commission on the Arts!

texas commission on the arts