Memoirous

At AROHO Marilyn Robinson spoke about this. Of course I’m aware of today’s paranoia over borders, terrorists that have turned many people inside out to the point of demonizing the “other”, this was just the first time I’d seen it used as a verb, as in “othering” others. Basically the other is someone other than you. I know pretty broad. Yet it is only in the broadest language that one can describe something as all-encompassing as the universe outside of our self. Some people have attempted to mitigate this generalization by saying something like this: I’m not racist, I’m just not comfortable with a black president or what’s wrong with profiling—we need better border security. Well this is all fine except it is “othering”. A great example of this is in a book I referenced earlier this month: Wendy McClure’s The Wilder Years , where Wendy and her beau traveled to downstate Illinois to attend a weekend festival revolving around farm skills ie putting up tomatoes, canning peaches, making...

File this under the corruption of memory. Memoir. The whole time I was at AROHO I was trying to remember when I had visited my sister who worked at Ghost Ranch on college staff sometime in the early 1980s. I narrowed my memory down to Christmas. I know that much because we snowshoed back into Box Canyon and on Christmas Eve I hopped into the back of a pickup truck for a ride to Christ in the Desert ( http://www.christdesert.org/ ). I seem to remember the chapel being lit only by candles. After the service there was a reception where we ate homemade bread made by the brothers—and rang in Christmas Day as it was well after midnight when we left the monastery. I had those memories, but had lost track of others. I also held onto a singular memory of being introduced to a nice young man newly married and his wife. My sister said he was going to be a turkey farmer. Later after returning home she wrote me to say that the young man had been killed, from a fall, during a hike on a mesa at G...

The women I was with at AROHO were a group of sighers. At the nightly readings at the end of a poem or prose piece there would be an audible exhale, an um hum—as if in agreement with the author. A Room of Her Own Retreat was basically about synchroneity, similar to the other S word AROHO is famous for, serendipity. But upon reflection, I’ve come to think of this external noise as an acknowledgment of beauty, a way of saying you touched me, for one small moment we connected—before the little bell rang to alert the reader that they’d gone overtime. Time for the next woman, sigh, to stand up, and evoke an “oh.” Please consider applying to AROHO for their 2013 conference or atleast following AROHO online. They have several contests including the Orlando Prize as well as the Gift of Freedom Award http://www.aroomofherownfoundation.org/giftfreedom.php

At AROHO I met so so many cool women who were at all different points in their careers. One of the participating writers was Sandra Jean Ceas ( http://www.sandrajeanceas.com/ ). The whole point of her art work is not to make any money; she builds her installations only to dismantle them. Her intention is not to create archival work, but to create community. Her goal is to involve others, bring them together. That’s her art. One day as I was walking to the dining hall at Ghost Ranch http://www.ghostranch.org/ where the AROHO retreat was held, walking past the prayer labyrinth and a barbed-wire enclosure warning Burros Bite!, I paused for a second to dwell on Sandra Jean. For many of my readers you’ve noticed that at times I grumble about being poor, about free content, about publishing being a bit of a joke. No one is making money. Okay, maybe the celebrity authors. The world of publishing is becoming anachronistic. Someday a child will ask, Mommy what’s a book? Just like kids these ...

"Solitude, competitiveness and grief are the unavoidable lot of a writer only when there is no organization or network to which she can turn."—Toni Morrison What We Know: Powerful things happen when creative, dynamic AROHO women meet. The high desert of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch is a place of unique inspiration and energy. Taking time apart for oneself and one’s work fosters unique artistic transformation, fresh work, and startling insight. Sometimes writers get stuck. Sometimes we need a shake, a shove, a push. Sometimes just an encouraging word. What We Propose: Shake it up, together! Consider joining an honest discussion among craftmasters in a thriving literary community of eighty women. Everyone speaks. Everyone listens. The AROHO Retreat is designed not around the needs of students, but from the passions of peers. AROHO women are building this retreat with their enthusiasm and concerns, and you could be part of it all. At the 2011 AROHO Retreat w...