CREATIVE WRITING CLASSES IN OAXACA
with Donna Hanelin & Guest Teachers
July 6 – July 16, 2010
donna@creativewritingclasses.us 559-840-3527 usa
Welcome to Creative Writing in Oaxaca, now in its 13th year,
and with a new shape!
We began in 1997 with a one-week residential retreat during
Days of the Dead. Almost two years ago, I moved to Oaxaca
city from California and am now excited to be able to offer day
writing courses here this summer. I am also very happy and
honored to be joined by Armando Ruiz (Private Books) and
Gabrielle Pullen (Inside your Characters) and with their help,
to present new and intriguing ideas concerning the creative of
Creative Writing.
Classes take place in the central historical district of Oaxaca city, a lovely, walkable fifteen blocks.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy visiting Oaxaca at your own pace. Buses, taxis and guides are plentiful.
There are many wonderful places to stay here, very reasonable, and a variety of excellent restaurants
serving both traditional Oaxacan and nuevo cuisine. Summer weather at 5,000 feet is nonhumid,
temperate, generally 80s during the day, 60s at night, with an occasional rain that keeps
Oaxaca green and flowering.
For beginners and experienced writers alike, Creative Writing in Oaxaca is designed to deepen,
support, refine, and inspire your writing. The general flow of Creative Writing in Oaxaca begins in
the world of personal writing in one’s own handmade journal and ends in the public world of
group critique and presentation (optional). To allow time and space to address individual needs
and interests, each class is limited to eight people, with priority going to attendees of the whole
course. All classes are in English. Please note (Fees) that the following classes can be attended as
a full ten-day course or individually. For full course, please plan to arrive by July 5.
Private Books, Personal Poetry
with Armando Ruiz and Donna Hanelin
July 6 & 7
Take a vacation from cyber-space, activate your hands, recycle
your paper other than in the bin! We’ll go to the Ishuakara Studio
of Armando Ruiz and learn to make books, then fill the
books with our own poetry. Even if you do not consider yourself
a poet, I recommend this class for anyone wanting to develop
their writing of description, sensation and emotion for either personal
or public perusal. Also recommended for the pure pleasure
of holding and using what you yourself have made by hand.
Armando Ruiz, super-supportive teacher and exceptional artist,
was born in Mexico City in 1970. His family is from the mountains
north of Oaxaca and his art has been influenced by the
indigenous culture of this area, as well as contemporary urban life. He and his wife, Xochitl Rivera,
have had the honor of having painted the entire interior of San Ildefonso Villa Alta and
the Chapel of the Assumption in Ixtlán de Juarez. I, Donna, am having the honor and pleasure
of working with Armando on a book of poetry, due out this Spring.
Inside Your Characters
with Gabrielle Pullen and Donna Hanelin
July 8 & 9
Would you like to know how it feels—to be someone else? A useful skill for any writer! Inside Your
Characters will expand your relationship to your own physical-emotional self and in so doing, allow
insight into your written characters. We’ll experience the Feldenkrais method, Awareness through
Movement. This method gives you the opportunity to becomeÜaware of how you move, and of how
even the slightest movements reflect your state of mind. By simply moving in ways you rarely do,
you may evoke different states of mind. We’ll translate these new feelings into words, and finally,
into characters who have a life of their own. All movements are easy-to-understand, non-stressful,
often done lying on the floor or seated, comfortably clothed—you will be moving quietly, slowly and
easefully, with each movement guided. Subsequent writing practices will help you to create a new
cast of characters and/or deepen your relationship to the ones already alive in your stories.
Gabrielle Pullen, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, is an educator in the fields of human
and equine form, function, biomechanics and experience. Feldenkrais is her medium, as paint is
to the artist, a tool for shaping a new reality. She has an ongoing Feldenkrais practice and classes
in northern California. I, Donna, have worked with Gabrielle for the past few years and she has
helped me enormously with fine tuning of the body-mind and welcome relief from pain. We are
both excited to try this new Feldenkrais approach to
writing, a personal invention. If you would like more
specific information about your own movement patterns
and potential, Gabrielle will be available for
private consultation during Creative Writing in Oaxaca.
For questions about the Feldenkrais Method,
please email: gabrielle.pullen@gmail.com
The Parallel World of Story
with Donna Hanelin
July 11 through July 16
Drifting alongside our visible daily needs, plans and actions, is a parallel world—in this world exist
the remarkable stories we tell about what is visible. Each of us has our own relationship to whatseems-
to-be and each has an imagination that is capable of reshaping the visible. To put it simply,
we all have stories to tell! And we can and do tell our stories in a
wide variety of ways. In Parallel World, we’ll play with the multiplicity
inherent in the imagination as we write new stories and/or
develop those already in the works. Writers of all levels of fictional
and/or autobiographical stories are welcome.
There are two optional parts to Parallel World, if taken as an individual
class:
July 13— Shape Shifters, a half-day on the use of prepositions and
conjunctions—a creatively technical time to play with sentence
structure
July 16—Group Feedback, a day to present new writing from the Oaxaca course and/or work-inprocess
for helpful and clear critique
I have been teaching Creative Writing for twenty years in northern California and bringing writers
to Oaxaca since 1997. I am fascinated by the art of teaching and more truly, the art of learning.
We each learn in our own time and our own way. I strive to keep my classes focused and relaxed
with room for individual interests and inquiries. The beauty in being a writer is that all of life is
our material and no matter what we learn or where we learn it, we can incorporate this new life
into our new art. Even our difficulties and tragedies, which we might like to erase, have a high
place in art, a refined and encouraging place. I hope you are enjoying your writing life!
Fee for Full Course $625 USD (or mex peso equivalent)
For early registration only, by may 1, 2010
Includes all classes, 6 hours@day, july 5 arrival-gathering,
& final fiesta
(July 10 is a free day for touring and consultations, as is July 13, after 2 pm.)
Fees for individual classes
Private Books, Personal Poetry $160 USD
Inside Your Characters $185 USD
The Parallel World $375 USD
(If you do not wish to attend Shape Shifters and/or Group Feedback, subtract $25 for each class.)
For Late Registration, after May 1, Add 15% to above Fees.
Private Consultation: The schedule allows time for private consultation with Donna during the
Course and After. Please Inquire. You can also work with Donna in cyberspace through written and
spoken word, any time.
Feel free to phone or email with questions or concerns.
Registration by phone or email
559-840-3527usa number skype: donnapoem
donna@creativewritingclasses.us
www.creativewritingclasses.us
“Lonely Planet” has named Oaxaca one of the top ten regions to visit in 2010!
Taking 2,500 years of indigenous history, adding a splash of Spanish colonialism mixed with contemporary
progressive politics and art, and presto!, you’ve got Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s most cultured
and colorful states. The capital, Oaxaca City, is a postcard-pretty charmer, with a tree-shaded
town square surrounded by colonial churches and outdoor cafes, and cobblestone streets lined
with craft markets and galleries….We’ve always known at Lonely Planet that Oaxaca is special
with its green mountain vistas, tradition-rich indigenous enclaves, vibrant handicrafts, festivals
and contemporary art…
See you soon!!