Dr John Evans

The following is an announcement Dr. John Evans is making about a book he is putting together.

My passion for and my personal experience with writing and healing convinced me to establish a conference that would attract people who see therapeutic value in writing memoirs, essays, fiction, poetry and drama. I wished to provide a lively resource for these like-minded people who write and for those working in the healthcare and counseling professions who wish to include writing as part of their practice. The culmination of my conviction that writing can be good for those who write is the Wellness & Writing Connections Conference series, this newsletter and a forthcoming book length collection of essays to be published Fall 2009 by Idyll Arbor, Inc.

This collection offers a representative sampling of keynote address speakers, presenters, and workshop leaders from the 2007 and 2008 conferences. The essay writers come from many parts of the United States and from many professions, including therapists, psychologists, counselors, nurses, poets, novelists, teachers, and researchers. All of the contributors write from the personal conviction that writing has served them and others in healthful ways they wish to share with you.

The essays are divided into four parts. The first part of the collection includes Pennebaker's and L'Abate's keynote addresses and McCulliss's essay about the theory and practice of poetry therapy. The second part of the collection includes essays about the uses of specific writing genres, from poetry to the braided essay, from workshop writing to writing in an academic setting. The third part of the collection includes essays that describe writing-to-heal workshops and programs. To conclude the collection is a bibliography of recent scholarly activity that I hope you will find useful in your further study.

Introducing Keynote Speaker for 2009 Conference

Today I learned that Julie Davey will be the keynote speaker for the 2009 Wellness & Writing Connections Conference. I could not be more thrilled. At least year's conference, I had the honor to particpate in her workshop and, later, the two of us were paired off during another workshop where we shared our sacred space. I still recall the chills I experienced when she told me about her husband, the love she expressed is an inspiration.

I had been sharing my responses to the writing exercises in her book, Writing for Wellness. Life, however, got in my way and I stopped typing out my responses. Now I have more reason to return to those exercises and share my responses with all of you. In the meantime, I hope everyone will seek out a copy of the book for themselves and, if you do, please share with me what you write, if you are so inclined.

Also, consider subscribing to the Wellness & Writing Connections newsletter. You can do so easily by following this link. Look to the upper right hand corner and simply input your email.