Miriam's Well: Writing Workshop & Author Reading

This event is at the KELLOGG-HUBBARD LIBRARY, 135 Main Street

Come listen to Goddard College faculty member and former Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg read from her new novel, Miriam's Well: A Modern Day Exodus, about mythical Miriam's journey across America to find her people, purpose, and place. This lively reading leads into a writing workshop open to all.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

Writing the Tree of Life: Midrash and Personal Mythology To Re-Vision Our Lives

What can we learn about our own lives and legacies from seeing old stories with new eyes? Midrash is the Hebrew tradition of re-interpreting and re-visioning our guiding myths and messages to foster greater meaning, freedom, and authenticity.  We'll look at and write from new angles about guiding myths and narratives in our lives through innovative writing prompts, discussion, humor, and insights that lead you into poetry, fiction, songs. In the process, find new branches and blossoms into who you are, how you live, and how you can help your community re-vision their stories.

Free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by Bear Pond Books (which will sell books), Beth Jacob Synagogue and Kellogg-Hubbard Library.

About the Book

In this modern day retelling of the Exodus, Miriam wanders the political and spiritual desert of a changing America, torn between her roots as the Jewish daughter of a Black father and white mother, her yearning for home, and her brothers Aaron and Moses. Beginning in the middle of the 1965 New York City blackout, Miriam's family encounters a mysterious rabbi, who persuades the family to go to Israel, where the aftermath of the 6-Day War scatters Moses to western Kansas, Aaron to New York City, and Miriam all over America. An astonishing cook and singer, Miriam has a knack for showing up to feed and help people at landmark events, including People's Park during the Summer of Love, the Wounded Knee encampment in South Dakota, the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, the Oklahoma City terrorist attack, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. As she seeks the promised land, she shows her people, and eventually herself, how to turn the chaos and despair of our times into music, meals, and miracles.

The novel also includes over 35 pages of real recipes from the fictional cooking and baking Miriam does throughout the book. Cover painting by Anne Burkholder, artist and owner of Burkholder Gallery, Lincoln, NE.

About the Author

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of two dozen books, including, most recently Everyday Magic: A Field Guide to the Mundane and Miraculous (Meadowlark Press), and Following the Curve (Spartan Press), a collection of poetry. Her previous work includes The Divorce Girl, a novel; Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds and Found Each Other (University of Nebraska Press), The Sky Begins At Your Feet (Ice Cube Press), a memoir; and five poetry collections, including the award-winning Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word and Image (Ice Cube Press) with weather chaser/photographer Stephen Locke. Founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College where she teaches, Mirriam-Goldberg also leads writing workshops widely, particularly for people living with serious illness and their caregivers. With singer Kelley Hunt, she co-leads writing and singing retreats.