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Here some resources used by our MIU MFA in Creative Writing students on the healing power of writing:

William Stafford's "A Way of Writing"

"Writing Exercises Scientifically Proven to Redirect Your Life." (Fastcompany)

"Science Shows Writers Have a Serious Advantage Over the Rest of Us" (Arts Mic)

"The Elephant in My Living Room" (The Writer Unboxed)

"Writing Your Way to Happiness." (NY Times)

"To Poets of Color Whose Work Has Been Called 'Healing': It Is Not Your Job to Fix White People." by Shayla Lawson (LitHub)

"Why Talk Therapy is on the Wane and Writing Workshops are on the Rise" (New York Times).

"Bringing My Daughter Back from the Brink with Poems." by Betsy MacWhinney (New York Times).

"This is Your Brain on Writing" (New York Times)

"Why We Should Read Literature" (Time)

Saved by a Poem by Kim Rosen

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Before we begin, a note on self-care:

if any writing prompt or sharing pushes you to relive unpleasant aspects of your history, grief, trauma, pain, or loss, whether you know what your feelings relate to or not, we have a few pointers for you that may help you work with your own creativity and process while regaining your voice and power as a human being.

As we said, listen to yourself with the prompts today. If you ned to turn off your camera, walk around a bit, get some air, do some stretches or yoga, cry, pet a furry family member, snack, or doodle, it's all OK. You are in charge of your own self-care and we encourage you to listen to yourself first and foremost.

We also want to give you a few SELF-CARE PROMPTS to bolster your strength and help you reframe your trauma narratives:

1. Talisman Exercise: Write down 10 things that help you cope when you are stressed from foods you like to eat, friends you like to call (add their number), walks in nature, time with pets, your favorite tea, a bath, a bike ride, or anything else that helps you calm down. Make your list simple but specific and hang it in a prominent place so you can see it and have it as a crutch when you need it!

2. Take a walk in nature or in a place that is soothing and beautiful to you. Try to be mindful of the moment.

3. Do some stretches or yoga exercises, breathing exercises, or any other movement-related activities that help you once you get stuck. This will help you re-embody and connect to yourself if you feel dissociated.

4. If you feel stumped, doodle, write "I don't know what to write" or "I feel scared" or pull out a coloring book and do some coloring instead. That can be very soothing and integrating.

5. Have alternate writing projects that you can turn to when you feel stuck or triggered: something humorous or happy, something empowering, something light, something expansive. The shift from difficult subject matter to light subject matter can help you integrate and get back to your center during your writing process.

6. Have an alternate writing project about yourself as a superhero/heroine who has powers. you wish you'd had at the time of abuse. Imagine yourself so empowered, you can avert all problems for yourself and others. You can also reframe your story and rewrite the ending - or maybe your life has already rewritten your ending because you have done a lot of healing since you were living through abuse. Again, humor, strength, empowerment, and reframing can be powerful tools to reclaim your voice and self!

7. Work in images and don't feel you have to do more than record things your senses picked up at the time, or metaphors that stick. You can be cryptic! That is fully OK. Saying the unsayable is hard work.

8. Come at the subject slant and work from the periphery toward the center, only writing about what you are ready to write about. One day you'll be able to tell the whole story. Don't ever pressure yourself! Go at your own comfortable pace.

9. Don't compare your trauma to anyone else's! Trauma is not logical and many factors (external and internal) determine the impact of trauma. Statistically, the symptoms of many types of abuse are similar if not the same - whether we are talking sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, combat trauma, war trauma, refugee trauma, or more. We refer you to the resource text at the end of this hand-out if you want to learn more. Your feelings are valid, and please remember: you were never responsible for the abuse someone else inflicted upon you!

10. Practice self-care during your entire writing process: walks, exercises, good nutrition, rest, naps, fun activities, baths, and anything else that helps you nurture yourself back to full strength over time.

11. Recognize when you are simply not ready to tell a story, then back off and let it be. Maybe jot down some notes for later. A time will come when you are ready. When you are ready to tell a difficult story it can be painful, but it's also empowering and helps you get your voice back! It can even be triumphant.

12. Start with the images, metaphors, and memories that you feel ready to tell, that you remember, that you can handle telling. If you feel overwhelmed and get stuck during the process, you may be in a trigger mode (fight, flight, freeze, fawn). That is a time to stop and do something else: take a walk, do yoga, organize or use your frontal lobe to pull out of your amygdala trauma trigger responses, make something with your hands, do repeated simple tasks that are grounding and embodying, call a friend, make tea, have a bath, write about something light and happy or something empowering, or do things that make you happy.

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As a disclaimer: Jennifer and Nynke are not therapists and are not qualified to diagnose or treat or support the trauma that comes from domestic violence. However, they are skilled, empathic, and trauma-informed facilitators who are willing to share their own stories with domestic violence and the difference creative process, writing, and craft have had on their own healing.

The process of the creative writing generative workshop on a topic such as domestic violence has both benefits and risks.  Risks may include experiencing (uncomfortable) levels of feeling, for example vulnerability, grief, distress, anger, etc. It can also mean triggering on a prompt or someone else's sharing of their work, which can lock you back into fight or flight or freeze or fawn mode, symptoms of PTSD and CPTSD (Complex PTSD) You can find out more about CPTSD here. You can read about trauma triggers and symptoms here.

A brief synopsis: The difference between PTSD and CPTSD is that CPTSD is the result of long-term domestic violence or trauma that is sustained over time. "Trauma triggers can be anything that reminds you of a past trauma — which might include a certain smell, a particular song or sound, or a piece of clothing. Triggers are unique to the individual. Trauma is known to have a long lasting and repetitive effect on our minds." - Psych Central

The first thing to remember is this: Don't compare your trauma to anyone else's. Your feelings are valid, and please remember: you were never responsible for the abuse someone else inflicted upon you! It was not your fault.

Please know that writing about trauma and sharing in a group are also known to lead to a significant reduction in feelings of distress, better relationships, and resolutions of specific problems. It can make you feel connected, relieve shame, and help you find community with people who understand what you have experienced. Just be careful with yourself, engage in self-care, and know that there are no guarantees about what will happen. You don't have to push into the most vulnerable places. Do what feels comfortable and don't steer full-on into your most sore stress-points, unless you are fully ready to do so. We can talk about these mechanics in the group.

We welcome you to turn your camera off if that helps you be present or if it gives you space to safely cry or feel things without being observed. You don't have to be "on" in this session. You can tune out if a prompt is too confrontational or substitute an adjusted version of the prompt. Please start with self-care. Tune into what you need and listen to yourself. In the next post we give some suggestions for self-care that may help you.

Thank you for joining us today!

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Above and here you can find our upcoming offerings in Eventbrite! We have partial and full scholarships for every session for those who register early. If you really want to attend and can't afford the fee, contact us at soulboneliterary@gmail.com.

For those of you in attendance tonight, you may also have the coupon code for the next session, "Writing the Wound," so you can get 10 dollars off the admission price. The coupon code for this event is: HEALING.

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Soul Bone℠ Literary Center Offerings, Summer 2023

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Soul Bone℠ intersects writing with creative process, spirituality, social justice, and healing in tiny, winged courses that lift the spirit. Connect with us at soulboneliterary@gmail.com.

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Listen to Nynke's poems "The Chronology of Each Dying Moment" and "New" in the session. You can also click on the link above to read "New."

Prompt:

What advice would you give yourself or anyone to console the wounded soul, the wounded heart, the wounded self? Write as if you were talking to your best friend, but address this piece to yourself in the imperative voice with directives, like in "New." Can be a poem or hybrid piece. Write your heart out! Be specific and unexpected. Give small, specific directives that tie in with images. What does your soul want you to know and do that will help bring consolation? How does your soul want you to take care of yourself right now?

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Stay inside. Watch how life
starts in secret places. Blossoms lather
in sudsy layers on the bare,
rubbed-raw knuckles and fingers
of the cherry trees. The flycatcher
outside your window sings or clip or whee. Do a tea ceremony
using a clay pot and cylindrical cups.
Savor each sip. Make squash soup
with ginger and be sure to eat it
warm. Feel how it slides into
your belly, dripping light
like the sun. Hear the robin bang
its head against your attic window
thinking its own reflection
is enemy or mate? Don't
do that. Stop. Start with meta-
cognition: this is you.
Not the busyness. The doing.
But listening. Silence. Being.
First preen your feathers,
turning your head this
way and that, admiring
your own reflection. Then fly
into the yard of yourself
and bathe in the stone birdbath,
splashing rainbow drops of water.
Be like the heron: meditate
all day doing your quiet
thing. Or be like the wren: tidy
your home. Clean up messes,
remove layers of dust, and watch
how motes float in ballgowns
of light on the windowsills.
Move your furniture to different
corners, sliding it on rugs.
Create change, but also take into
your hands all things you own
and remember what each
means to your heart. Kiss
the objects your mother
or father used before you,
the curtains your grandmother
crocheted, the cabinets
your great-grandfather carved.
Take family dishes with gold trim
from your shelves and eat
from them instead of saving
them for special days. Read,
make lists of your favorite
words ( testudinate, petrichor, phloem).
Write poems. Remember
being a child, how every little
moment was instantly holy: fetching
a shuttle cock from the top
of the shed, baking banana bread,
making a drawing for a sick friend.
Remember how much the small
things meant, like growing
sprouts on cotton balls on a chipped
porcelain plate, then eating them
on a cheese sandwich. Pull out
your binoculars. Watch
the Eastern Phoebe spread its tail
over the pond above the slightest waves.
Wake up like spring, like fish
underwater: natural, alone, unafraid.
Tell yourself a new and different
story. Glide for miles like the marsh hawk,
barely flapping your wings. Become
a poem. Laugh the chant of chimes
touched by the hands of the wind.
Then cut out some paper birds
and glue them to your see-through
windows for the next robin
who tries to fly into glass.
Listen to the Barred Owls softly
hooting the night back to light.

Published in Pandemic Puzzle Pieces: A Pandemic Poetry Anthology from Blue Light Press, edited and compiled by Diane Frank and Prartho Sereno, 2021

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Stay inside. Watch how life starts in secret places. Blossoms lather in sudsy layers on the bare, rubbed-raw knuckles and fingers of the cherry trees. The flycatcher outside your window sings whit or clip or whee .

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Listen to Jennifer's poems "This Is What Makes Us Worlds" and "Sometimes in a Moment of Déjà Vu" read in the session.

Prompt:

Write a poem of transformation in which the speaker’s sense of embodiment changes. What is experienced outside of the body that cannot be experienced inside it?

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This is a prompt in relation to Jennifer's two poems "Today I was Alone" and "Every Morning I Walk Through a Field" read in the session.

Prompt:

Write a poem of loneliness in which being alone is reclaimed as a source of power.

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Listen to Nynke's poems "The Morphology of Compassion & Indifference" 1 and 2 in the session. The first one is found here and the second one here. Art by Sonja Rosing and Ananda Kesler.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

over and over announcing

your place in the family of things.

——from "The Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

Prompt:

Nature is both compassionate and cruel and indifferent. Write about it. What do you find healing? What do you imagine is the language of compassion and healing? Look at life from a wider lens than your own perspective and self, step back, and describe how cruelty and compassion, care and indifference, can coexist in bigger patterns - even if that does not make sense to the human perspective. Use little stories from the news, quotes you read that spoke to you, and perhaps some science in this prompt. How can you hold life's compassion and indifference at the same time? And what is it that announces your place in the family of things?

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Gusts of wind rough up the white hibiscus on the lawn.
Petals tear. The sky looks sad enough to rain.

Leaves rustle requiems for flimsy bird bones,
and under a sleeping pigeon's wing huddles a sliver of silence.

Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo: There is peace
even in a storm. The heart of man, like the sea, hides storms, tides, and pearls.

*

Why does the sea beat itself senseless on rock? Eternity drips
like a leaky faucet. God and little blossom trees bravely try

to manufacture beauty-whether fine art or
cheap mimicry. But look at van Gogh, Pound, Plath:

passion is dangerous business and can induce lunacy.
Akira Kurosawa said: In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

Shadow soils the air's gown. Is there no soap
strong enough to wash out darkness? The moon,

like an Afghan woman, wraps up in thin blue veils.
If the sun covered her face like that, it would always be night.

*

Prayers burn deep inside the throat like votives.
Identity is a peg on which we hang our time.

Plumber Juan Ruiz was arrested in Spain for charging
to keep the devil out of people's sinks and drains.

Souls bend easily like coat hangers. Dreams are pollen,
their weight nearly imagined. People collect love

like lint, then throw love out, even if it sticks.
Bodies can't stop playing dress-up with dust.

*

Is there a language untouched by hate?
Who hears the apology of the rain,

the pizzicato of spider feet playing cobweb harps
up in heaven near the ceiling?

Who notices that grasshoppers pray summer sacred
or that pebbles are soft like a child's wrist?

*

The sun's lips kiss the earth goodbye so fervently they bleed.
The moon rises, a dispassionate saint.

Chinese poet Li Po, journeying by boat, tried to kiss
the moon's perfect reflection, fell overboard, and drowned.

Unflinchingly, the lepidopterist sticks pins through butterflies.
Clouds keep mounting each other, procreating like rabbits.

Dwell on the beauty of life, said Marcus Aurelius. Watch
the stars and see yourself running with them.

But though stars sparkle with glory, they are dead
and don't know anyone's story.

Paradox operates on the same finely crafted hinges
as books or butterfly wings, opening inside out.

-Published in Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of World Peace (Glass Lyre Press)

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The Morphology of Compassion & Indifference - Nynke Passi

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Prayers burn deep inside the throat like votives. Identity is a peg on which we hang our time.

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Recommended Books:

Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health & Eases Emotional Pain
by James W. Pennebaker, PhD, & Joshua M. Smyth, PhD

Expressive Writing: Words that Heal
by James W. Pennebaker

Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from trauma & emotional upheaval
by James W. Pennebaker

Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives
by Louise DeSalvo

The Artist’s Way
by Julia Cameron

Your Brain on Art
by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Trauma & Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
by Judith Lewis Herman

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma - the Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experience
by Peter A. Levine & Ann Frederick

Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body
by Peter A. Levine

I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Writers of Child Sexual Abuse
Edited by Ellen Bass

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Edited by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

The Courage to Heal Workbook: A Guide for Women & Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
by Laura Davis

The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

by Bessel van der Kolk. M.D.

The Rescued Soul: The Writing Journey for the Healing of Incest and Family Betrayal

by Christina Enevoldsen

Saved by a Poem
by Kim Rosen

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving
by Pete Walker

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Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet. Her work has been featured in Poetry, Denver Quarterly, American Poetry Review, Poem-a-Day, Lambda Literary, PEN America, The Offing, and elsewhere. Her full-length collection THERE SHOULD BE FLOWERS was published by Civil Coping Mechanisms in 2016. She also is the author of  I’m Alive / It Hurts / I Love It (Big Lucks 2019). She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and is a full-time faculty in MIU's MFA in Creative Writing.

Nynke Salverda Passi is the director of MIU's MFA program and co-chair of the English dept. She is also the founder and director of the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center and Festival. She was born and raised in the Netherlands. Her work has been published in CALYX, Gulf Coast, Poetry Breakfast, Life & Legends, and more. Her poetry has been anthologized in Pandemic Puzzle Pieces and River of Earth & Sky (Blue Light Press), Carrying the Branch (Glass Lyre Press), and Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic (River Paw Press). Together with Rustin Larson and Christine Schrum, she edited the poetry collection Leaves by Night, Flowers by Day.

Testimonials

"Every single event [of the Soul Bone Literary Festival] influenced my thinking about my own work. Right out of the gate with Nynke and Jennifer. Holy mother of all things beautiful! I was never so excited and proud to have these two women as my mentors and teachers. I remember after I heard each of them read their poems, I thought 'I hit the jack pot of professionalism!' Immediately, they opened the door of vulnerability for all the students and participants. After that, I felt there was no holding back the flood gates that wished to pour from me."

- Jennifer Sheena

"You two made a fabulous team! Your master workshops on Writing the Wound and Writing toward Healing inspired me to create my own poem concerning a traumatic incident. I had trouble writing about it, but this time, with your positivity and support, I came up with something. I think what really did the trick was y’all saying that all of us have different traumas and it’s ok to feel how we feel. I am so grateful for your supportive space and your grace. You both have an incredible creative energy that is phenomenal to be around (even on Zoom)."

- Jennifer Grant

"Two talented writers who have that rare ability to inspire others to write often and well.."

- Jim Turner

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The Soul Ajar: Writing, Creativity & Healing

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The Soul Ajar: Writing, Creativity & Healing

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“The wounds are the places where light enters.” ~Rumi

In this generative prompt circle and reading, poets and writers Joshua Jennifer Espinoza and Nynke Passi explore the intimate relationships between writing, creativity, and healing. Theyl share from her own work, give prompts, and offer pointers and tools to help you tackle difficult subject matter in a manner that is not retraumatizing and that helps you work with triggers during the writing process. If you learn to work with your body's signals, pace yourself, take time for self-care, seek professional support, and ground your body, you can claim back your voice and reframe your life's narratives. In this way, the process of writing is empowering, redeeming, and transformational, at times even triumphant.

About Soul Bone™ Literary Center

Soul Bone™ intersects writing with creative process, spirituality, social justice, and healing in tiny, winged courses that lift the spirit.

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Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Event images - spring res 2023

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Here is the Soul Bone℠ website.

Here you can find the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center's full summer schedule of upcoming workshops, generative circles, and events.

You can contact us via email: soulboneliterary@gmail.com

Here we will notify you of the upcoming MIU MFA Residency, a literary festival with free events offered via Zoom and open to the public. Our Fall '23 residency will run from Aug. 21 - Sept. 4 and will be an MFA Showcase residency with master classes, panels, and readings by alumni and English dept. faculty, plus a few special guests. Nynke founded and directs both the MIU MFA in Creative Writing and the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center and Festival, so there is overlap between events. In our Soul Bone℠ spaces, you'll often find some of our MFA students and alumni, who are always welcome to join! You will love hearing their amazing work. Soul Bone℠ exists as a creative, diverse community for poets and writers of all skill levels and in all phases of their careers. Our aim is safe space, connection, healing, and transformation.

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Bonus Prompt 1:

Write about a relationship you have with some aspect of nature: an animal, place, plant, tree, or anything else you can think of. Describe this element of nature in sensory detail. Describe the bond and closeness, why it matters. Is there a story about the healing that happened when you encountered this animal, were in this place, spent time with this plant or tree? Can be anything, no right or wrong.

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Bonus Prompt 2:

Being in the moment and present to what is going on around you in a sensory way is very healing and grounding. Write about a time that perhaps nothing much happened, but you perceived keenly what was around you. Or go outside, sit in your yard, take a walk, and describe what you see.

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Writers imagine the unimaginable, know the unknowable, and say the unsayable. The Soul Bone℠ Literary Festival is offering a few workshops, master classes, and readings as part of MIU's MFA Showcase Residency. Banner art lezertjes/readers: Jitske Wadman.

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MIU MFA Showcase (in conjunction with Soul Bone Literary Festival Fall '23)

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MIU MFA Showcase (in conjunction with Soul Bone Literary Festival Fall '23)

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Join us for our free online MIU MFA Showcase and Fall '23 Residency's readings, master classes, and workshops.