Writer's Bloc presents: Safe Handling

Safe Handling – Unpacking Our Stories One Piece of Baggage at a Time

Writing personal stories, especially revolving around shame, pain, or trauma can be intimidating. Yet accessing these wounds can create awareness, begin necessary conversations, and even open us to healing. Often, we seek personal narratives to make sense of our stories, to assign meaning to what is not easily expressed. This workshop series offers practical and empowering exploration into the process of writing. Instructor Rebecca Evans, who has taught trauma writing to a wide variety of students in a range of settings, shares from her own experiences, navigating fear and vulnerability that often surface while unpacking difficult narratives on the page. Through compassionate and gentle exploration, students will learn to re-frame experiences into craft that feels true and meaningful.

This class is right for you if…

• You’ve tried to write something painful or difficult, but have been stuck or stalled.
• You want guidance on methods to help pen something challenging—whether an essay, a series of poems, or a full-length manuscript.
• You want to learn how to take great care of yourself so that you can access hard experiences and maintain a sense of emotional balance in the process.
• You seek a more empowering, even playful approach to your writing practice.

Instructor Bio: Memoirist, essayist, and poet Rebecca Evans’ Safe Handling, a collection-length poem, weaves family and heartbreak while navigating our challenging medical industry. Her memoir in verse, Tangled by Blood, bridges motherhood and betrayal, untangling wounds and restoring what it means to be a mother.

Evans’ poems and essays have appeared in Narratively, The Rumpus, Brevity, Hypertext Magazine, War, Literature & the Arts, The Limberlost Review, and more. She's earned two MFAs, one in creative nonfiction, the other in poetry, from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. She’s co-edited an anthology of poems, When There Are Nine, a tribute to the life and achievements of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Moon Tide Press, 2022), She teaches high school teens in the juvenile justice system through journaling and art projects and co-hosts Radio Boise’s “Writer to Writer” show. Rebecca is disabled, a military veteran, and shares space with four Newfoundlands and her sons. She does her best writing in a hidden alcove beneath her stairway.

This is a hybrid meeting. Email Irene at ibenvenuti@mld.org to receive meeting reminders or information to join us online.