Voices of Wisdom FREE Writing Classes for Seniors 55 +
In person and online free Zoom writing sessions serve tri-county Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Amador residents, aged 50 and older. Please contact Linda Toren, Director of Voices of Wisdom, at lintoren@gmail.com to get on the email list and for an invitation to the weekly Zoom sessions. Check with us at manzanitawp@gmail.com for updates of VOW schedules.
Every Tuesday from 1-3 pm at the Volunteer Center in San Andreas – 325 Lewis Avenue, San Andreas. Located below San Andreas Elementary.
Voices of Wisdom is a free writing program for seniors 50-plus that is a continuing series of weekly writing classes open to all levels, and for those with no formal writing background, or experienced writers seeking a writing community.
Contact Manzanita Writers Press at manzanitawp@gmail.com for more information about our writing programs and activities.
Participants enjoy a 2-hour class each week designed to stimulate memories and to write these stories and moments down in an artistic and professional manner, eligible for publication and further exploration by the writer. Trained writers and teachers lead the sessions and assist writers in drafting and polishing writing.
Classes are free and open to the public, but you must contact us by email to sign up. All levels welcome, and beginners are encouraged to sign up! Go to manzanitawp@gmail.com or email the director, Linda Toren, at lintoren@gmail.com
Call 209-728-6117 for questions.
Writing exercises and tasks, instruction with models of good writing, and creative avenues of expression are important to the process. Collaboration and sharing of individual writing is nurtured and valued at these sessions. Participants enjoy the social aspects of writing and sharing with friends that they make in the classes, and cohesive writing friends and colleagues are formed. Many of the participants have been with the program since its inception and continue to attend and participate in the gatherings.
Writing coaches and editors guide the editing of writing toward a culminating anthology of edited and Drop us a line at manzanitawp@gmail.com or give a call. You won’t want to miss it.
Linda Toren is the director. Writing Coaches are Linda Toren & Monika Rose, and we invite writing coaches to contact us if they have an interest in teaching monthly courses.
We have a great group of returning participants who are seasoned and working on their own writing projects for family, friends, and the community to enjoy reading. New Voices of Wisdom participants are joining every week. Now is your chance to meet new people, exchange great stories and memories of living in our generation, and writing down your stories and impressions.
We have a private, members-only, online writing platform called Manzanita Writers Press NING, and our sessions are conducted via Zoom. Email us if you would like us an invitation to the online community.
manzanitawp@gmail.com
This is a convivial and friendly group that has formed a community of writers and friends from all walks of life and levels of writing over the last five years, most of them not having written down or published their stories before. They have written publishable accounts and essays published in three community volumes of Voices of Wisdom, with supporting grants for publishing all three volumes provided by the Calaveras Community Foundation.
A generous California Humanities grant funded our 2019 classes. calhum.org
The Volume 4 anthology, Voices of the Grove, will be released in 2024.
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Write stories, memoir, essays, poetry, and more that reflect your memories and stories buried in those deep recesses, the nooks and crannies of times past.
Speaking of time, which is increasing in speed as we get older, it’s Time to bring those memories to the surface, not only for friends and family to enjoy, but for historic documentation. Only you can describe what it has been like to live in your world.
Calaveras stories, childhood and growing up stories, life happens stories, inspiration and events that remind us we are all a part of the human fabric– these are stories evoking a flood of other people’s memories that can be opened with one key, unlocking it all.
FREE program. Bring a laptop, notebook, or other writing materials. Contact manzapress.com for calendar information, times and locations.
Sponsors:
Signal Service – Angels Camp, CA
Archival Information follows:
IN 2019, and again in 2022, this program was made possible with support from California Humanities, a partner of the nonprofit National Endowment of Humanities — visit calhum.org
Voices of Wisdom
Voices is a free writing program for seniors that is a continuing series of weekly writing classes at Manzanita Arts Emporium in Calaveras County, sponsored by Manzanita Writer Press, and serving the Mother Lode. Since August, 2017, the series has continued to provide delight and satisfaction for writing seniors.
It’s free and open to the public, but you must contact the sponsor to sign up as classes fill up fast. Go to manzanitawp@gmail.com or call 209-728-6117 to sign up. The Manzanita Writers Press Ning is an online opportunity to share writing and participate in the program with lessons and communications available to a closed group of members by invitation only. These members are Voices of Wisdom writers who have their own private group space to share, or they can choose to share with professional writers in an equally safe space, getting some wonderful encouragement and feedback. Sign up by emailing Monika and letting her know to send you an evite by email.
At Voices sessions, participants enjoy a 2-hour class each week designed to stimulate memories and to write these stories and moments down in an artistic and professional manner, eligible for publication and further exploration by the writer. Trained writers and teachers lead the sessions and assist writers in drafting and polishing writing.
Writing exercises and tasks, instruction with models of good writing, and creative avenues of expression are important to the process. Collaboration and sharing of individual writing is nurtured and valued at these sessions. Participants enjoy the social aspects of writing and sharing with friends that they make in the classes, and cohesive writing friends and colleagues are formed. Many of the participants have been with the program since its inception and continue to attend and participate in the gatherings.
Writing coaches and editors guide the editing process toward a culminating anthology of edited and polished essays and stories, released in September 2019.
Publication of the 2019 and next year’s 2020 anthology is possible by a generous grant from the Calaveras Community Foundation who have supported the seniors in their endeavors since the program’s inception. Manzanita staff are very grateful and appreciative of their help.
Thanks also goes to Signal Service for their ongoing sponsor sustenance of our facility so that these programs for the public can continue.
