*Taken from Writing Alone and With Others by Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers and Artists
For many years Jan has led in-person writing workshops in Sacramento on Friday nights, Saturday and Monday mornings. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March 2020, Jan also hosts small online writing groups through Zoom. To inquire about space availability in the in-person groups, contact her at janishaag@gmail.com.
One of the silver linings to the current quarantine is that many online AWA writing groups/workshops have sprung up around the world. Writers don’t have to be in the same town or region participate in AWA workshops. You can find a list of workshop leaders and the groups they host at amherstwriters.org.
Jan was introduced to the Amherst Writers & Artists method in 2004 when she began participating in Sutterwriters, part of the Literature, Arts and Medicine Program (LAMP) created by Dr. Lawrence Spann for Sutter Health in Sacramento. With Dr. Spann, she co-edited an anthology of Sutterwriters’ work, Blood on the Page, in 2006.
She has worked with Pat Schneider, the creator of the AWA, in workshop settings and as the editor of AWA Press, which publishes books and oversees publication of an annual literary journal, Peregrine. Jan is the author of a book of poetry, “Companion Spirit.”
Jan also designed the curriculum for a creative writing class at Sacramento City College using the AWA method called “Writing as a Healing Art.” She teaches the class annually in the spring in Davis, sharing the AWA method with hundreds of students, some of whom still write with her in her private writing groups.
For more information about AWA training and workshops, visit amherstwriters.org.
Güd wrtr 