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sure to visit the
Letter from Joyce Archives
Look for the February 2004 release of The Usual Rules in paperback!
Writing
in New Hampshire, my British Columbia Road Trip, news of the
2009 Lake Atitlan Writing Workshops… And my son the Marine….(!)
August
10, 2008
Dear Friends,
I’m sending this to you from my home state of New Hampshire -- the place where I was born and lived most of the first forty years of my life. Though I moved to California twelve years ago -- after hosting one of the biggest yard sales that may ever have hit the town of Keene, New Hampshire -- I still found myself identifying with the granite state, the place with Live Free or Die on the license plates. As beautiful as Marin County is, I’ve never known a better place to spend a summer day than where I started out in life. And now I’m here.
Summer at The MacDowell Colony
I’m here thanks to a residency at the MacDowell Artists’ Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire that started nine days ago. For the next seven weeks my home is a little cabin a mile down a dirt road where cars hardly ever come by, with no neighbors in sight, just trees and deer and some of the best mushroom gathering spots I’ve ever seen (though I’m not taking my chances).
I get up at five-thirty most mornings, walk to the main house where the other residents here gather for breakfast -- writers like me, poets, artists, composers and filmmakers -- and then retreat to my cottage until late afternoon, when I get to take a long swim in a pond where I am likely to hear a loon’s call and, yesterday, spotted an eagle overhead as I made my way across the water. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be in this place, where I am fed and housed and -- equally important and maybe more so -- where the pursuit of work like mine is assigned a kind of value that one sometimes grows to doubt, out in the world of the marketplace. Maybe because of this, I’m working happily and well, and expect to have a new book finished very soon. And to have launched into another.
And a road trip...
Another nice thing about landing here at MacDowell has been the opportunity to stay put for a while, after a lot of moving around. Before coming here, I spent ten days in British Columbia -- a trip that came out of a magazine assignment for National Geographic Traveller that had me engaged in a deeply inspiring but not exactly easy quest, to follow the trail of my father, Max Maynard, a painter, through the many remote spots on Vancouver Island where he spent his young years (also the last years of his life) painting and sketching. This took me on a road trip, sketchbook and drawing pencils in my backpack, and up the side of a few mountains and many miles of hiking trails, and on an inner journey too, meditating for all the hours I spent driving -- days, in fact -- on the complicated story of my family, and my father’s rich, haunting legacy to me. When he died, twenty-seven years ago, I was living here in New Hampshire, had just given birth to my second child, with very little money, a difficult marriage, and a complicated mix of love and regret, where my dad was concerned. Anyone who grew up as I did in an alcholic family will understand, I think.
So I hadn’t seen much of my father during those last years of his life, spent on the West Coast, and I wasn’t with him when he died. That fact weighed on me for all these years since his death -- living, as I do, surrounded with his paintings. On every wall of my house, his artwork is hanging. Some are landscapes of New Hampshire. Some, British Columbia. So this past month, I went to discover them for myself.
Some of the trails I hiked last month in B.C. brought me to spots I knew from paintings and sketches my dad made as early as 1934. Others, though they might not have matched up with the exact spot of art works painted by my father, evoked him powerfully, most of all when I found myself settling onto some rocky outcropping and taking out my drawing pencil, with memories of the many Saturday mornings I spent as a child, sketching with him. All in all, it was a very moving journey.
And... News of the next Lake Atitlan Writing Workshops
Rewind some more: I spent the early part of July, and part of June, at my house on Lake Atitlan, in Guatemala, where once again I hosted a writing workshop. This time I was joined by Craig Holden and my dear friend, Ann Hood -- also Ann’s husband Lorne, and their wonderful four year old daughter, Annabelle. (Ann's deeply moving book about surviving the death of her daughter, Grace, came out this spring. It’s called Comfort. You might thnk this story would be too painful to read, but Ann has managed to tell this story in a way that is redemptive and hopeful, not only for people who have lost a child.)
Ann, Craig and I were also joined by twenty-seven writers from all over the U.S. and Canada, aged 27 to 84 -- some fiction writers, some working on memoir, as well as a number of partners, spouses and even one couple’s three years old -- a great group as seems always to be the case with people who are up for the adventure of working on writing in Guatemala. Once again, we had a terrific seven days together at the lake, filled with writing breakthroughs and discoveries, good food, great swimming, friendship and a lot of fun -- finishing up the week with a party at my house with dancing and a midnight sauna and swim. It was hard saying goodbye the next morning, as it always is. I take great joy from the knowledge that the men and women who worked with us now will be reaching for a different level of work than what they may have been creating, before. It’s a great thing to witness that kind of growth and be a part of it.
But already, plans are under way for next winter’s workshops, and so, for those of you who have written to ask about dates, and may need to start making plans, I want to let you know more about that.
With five Lake Atitlan Writing Workshops behind me now -- and a list of alumni that includes close to a hundred students -- I’ve learned a lot about the process of bringing American travelers to this place I love so much, and making the richest, most inspiring week for everyone. Partly because of the workshop’s growth and success, and the caliber of writing instructors I’m able to enlist to join me at the lake, I’ve decided to host a workshop, this March, not in the town of San Marcos, the place where my house is situated, but in another town on the shore of Lake Atitlan, Santiago. I made this choice because it allows us to house the entire group in two very beautiful hotels, close together, rather than the many smaller places I’d been using previously, with most meals held in the beautiful Posada Santiago dining room and workshop sessions hosted under the palapas around the grounds, overlooking the lake and volcano and pool. You can check our new sites out online, by going to Posada Santiago and Hotel Bambu.
The Santiago-based workshop will include two back-to-back sessions, March 15-22 and March 22-29. I’m happy to report that Ann Hood and I had such a great time working together -- and with our students -- that Ann will be returning to teach with me for two sessions, in March. Joining us for one of the weeks will be another wonderful writer (and a highly experienced teacher), Mindy Lewis and (I am pretty sure) my old friend -- and a wonderful teacher of fiction -- the novelist Robert Bausch.
As many of you may
remember, I’d originally announced the dates of February 8-15, 2009
for the workshop. I will be hosting a smaller group that week -- a memoir
master class in San Marcos, with no more than twelve students. This group
will be geared to writers who’ve been pursuing their work for a while,
where the March group -- though also appropriate for experienced writers
-- is open to all levels of writers.
So, just to summarize:
- Memoir/Fiction
with Joyce in the village of San Marcos, February 8-15
- Memoir/Fiction with Joyce, Ann Hood, Mindy Lewis and Bob Bausch, in the town of Santiago Atitlan, March 15-22 and March 22-29
We recommend that you fly in at least a day early, and spend the night in the beautiful colonial city of Antigua -- an easy half hour taxi ride from the airport. For those who sign up for a workshop, we’ll send out information about that.
The exact cost of
the workshop week is still being worked out, but I’m doing everything
I can to make the week as affordable as possible, without compromising
on the delicious fresh food, great service and most important, quality
of instruction we have provided in the past. Right now, I am anticipating
that the pricetag for the week -- with nearly all meals, transportation
from the Guatemala City airport or Antigua to your hotel, and as many
workshops daily as you choose to fit in -- from one to four of them --
will run around $2000-$2400 depending on your room selection. It is also
possible to attend with a non-participating partner or spouse, by the
way.
(Cost of airfare is not included in the tuition, and will vary of course, depending on where you come from, but past students have found airfares to Guatemala City ranging from $400 to $700 round trip. It’s worth shopping around for the best fares.)
In the weeks ahead, I’ll be able to provide much more information about the workshops. I wanted you to have this now, just so you can mark these dates down and -- I hope -- that those of you who’ve been thinking about joining me at Lake Atitlan one of these years will take the plunge and do it. By all means look at the testimonials from past students and slide show on my website.
If you’d like
the much more detailed information packet about what to expect at the
workshop, just send me an email.
You’ll hear back from me within a few days. Once you’ve read
that, if you still have questions, I’m happy to answer them, or put
you in touch with my wonderful right-hand-woman, Dita Zakova, who takes
care of hotels, meals, transportation, and the thousand other details
that go into making this such an extraordinary week (or two). We’ll
be asking for a deposit to secure your place, with housing priority given
to the first sign-ups. I strongly recommend signing up early for the best
choice in bungalow rooms.
A little family pride...
Finally, I cannot resist telling you that for the next few weeks my younger son, Willy, can be seen as an actor on the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, based on a book of the same name by Evan Wright. He plays one of an elite Marine special forces division in Iraq -- a character (based on a real Marine) known as Q-Tip. Because I’m staying in a place with no television, I’m sorry to say I have only been able to watch one episode of the seven part series so far, but I hear that on Episode Three, Will performs a rap song that he wrote and (chip off the old block?) does some sketching.
There you have it. I’ll be getting back to my work now -- a memoir first, and then back to my novel. I'll look forward to hearing from those of you who are thinking about joining me at Lake Atitlan next winter. And as always, I like to hear what’s on your mind.
With friendship,
RECOMMEND JOYCEMAYNARD.COM TO A FRIEND
