Can Your Writing Become a Viable Spiritual Practice? A Writing Lab with David James Duncan
*This lab is sold out. If you are interested, you may join the waiting list here.*
You might also consider joining us for a 1-time lab with David James Duncan, To Find the Music of Your Heart, Find the Rhythms of Your Prose.
In this five-week writing lab, award-winning author David James Duncan will offer strategies for adding a contemplative dimension to your writing life, along with straight ahead literary strategies reinforced by generative writing exercises. In his words, “Most of my best nonfiction pieces were born of my nearly life-long attempt to treat creative writing as a daily spiritual practice, and in the scores of workshops I’ve taught I’ve found this practice can sometimes be taught. I’ve also been pleased to discover that even those to whom it couldn’t be taught underwent a radical change of perspective or expansion of consciousness, and enjoyed a workshop I said would, like all my workshops, be conducted like a spiritual retreat.” This is a live, participatory lab limited to 28 writers. Sessions will include time for generative writing and sharing in small groups.
Five Thursdays: February 6-March 6, 2025
10-11:30am Pacific Time
Live online
This is a live, participatory lab and it will not be recorded. A meeting link will be emailed a few days prior to the start of the lab. Cancellations must be made 7 days prior to the start of the lab and will be charged a $25 cancellation fee. Partial scholarships may be available; contact us to apply.
*This lab is sold out. If you are interested, you may join the waiting list here.*
You might also consider joining us for a 1-time lab with David James Duncan, To Find the Music of Your Heart, Find the Rhythms of Your Prose.
In this five-week writing lab, award-winning author David James Duncan will offer strategies for adding a contemplative dimension to your writing life, along with straight ahead literary strategies reinforced by generative writing exercises. In his words, “Most of my best nonfiction pieces were born of my nearly life-long attempt to treat creative writing as a daily spiritual practice, and in the scores of workshops I’ve taught I’ve found this practice can sometimes be taught. I’ve also been pleased to discover that even those to whom it couldn’t be taught underwent a radical change of perspective or expansion of consciousness, and enjoyed a workshop I said would, like all my workshops, be conducted like a spiritual retreat.” This is a live, participatory lab limited to 28 writers. Sessions will include time for generative writing and sharing in small groups.
Five Thursdays: February 6-March 6, 2025
10-11:30am Pacific Time
Live online
This is a live, participatory lab and it will not be recorded. A meeting link will be emailed a few days prior to the start of the lab. Cancellations must be made 7 days prior to the start of the lab and will be charged a $25 cancellation fee. Partial scholarships may be available; contact us to apply.
*This lab is sold out. If you are interested, you may join the waiting list here.*
You might also consider joining us for a 1-time lab with David James Duncan, To Find the Music of Your Heart, Find the Rhythms of Your Prose.
In this five-week writing lab, award-winning author David James Duncan will offer strategies for adding a contemplative dimension to your writing life, along with straight ahead literary strategies reinforced by generative writing exercises. In his words, “Most of my best nonfiction pieces were born of my nearly life-long attempt to treat creative writing as a daily spiritual practice, and in the scores of workshops I’ve taught I’ve found this practice can sometimes be taught. I’ve also been pleased to discover that even those to whom it couldn’t be taught underwent a radical change of perspective or expansion of consciousness, and enjoyed a workshop I said would, like all my workshops, be conducted like a spiritual retreat.” This is a live, participatory lab limited to 28 writers. Sessions will include time for generative writing and sharing in small groups.
Five Thursdays: February 6-March 6, 2025
10-11:30am Pacific Time
Live online
This is a live, participatory lab and it will not be recorded. A meeting link will be emailed a few days prior to the start of the lab. Cancellations must be made 7 days prior to the start of the lab and will be charged a $25 cancellation fee. Partial scholarships may be available; contact us to apply.
David James Duncan is the author of the classic novels The River Why and The Brothers K, the story collection River Teeth, the nonfiction collection and National Book Award finalist, My Story as Told by Water, the best-selling collection of “churchless sermons," God Laughs & Plays, and, this August 8th, the novel legendary editor Michael Pietsch “will immodestly call David’s magnum opus” and writer William deBuys calls “one of the greatest imaginative achievements I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading," Sun House. David’s work has won three Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, two Pushcart Prizes, a Lannan Fellowship, the Western States Book Award, inclusion in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Catholic Writing, two volumes of Best American Essays, five volumes of Best American Spiritual Writing, an honorary doctorate from University of Portland, the American Library Association's 2004 Award for the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom (with co-author Wendell Berry), and other honors. David lives on a charming little trout stream in Missoula, Montana, in accord with his late friend Jim Harrison’s advice to finish his life disguised as a creek.