Writing the Spiritual Life: A Workshop for Religious Leaders with Lauren Winner

Lauren Winner

In this workshop, we’ll have two aims – to explore the ways writing is already part of our life of spiritual practice (even if we don’t always recognize it as such), and to grow in our writerly craft. Unlike many writing workshops, our focus will not be on group discussion of work you have already written. Rather, this will be a generative workshop, in which we’ll do a good bit of new writing each day. (But never fear – there will be some traditional “workshopping.” Your fellow participants will read and discuss at least one piece you write while in Massachusetts.)

This workshop, then, will include both beginners and advanced writers – it aims to meet you if you are stuck in your writing life; if you want to grow beyond genres that are familiar to you (whether that be the sermon, the report, or the memoir); if you have always wanted to write but are not even sure what that desire means; if you are at the end of writing a book and not sure what comes next; if you want a week of creative stimulation that will nourish your writing life  and your spiritual life into the winter and spring.

And, beginning October 25,  participants will receive in their email one writing exercise per week. Participants won’t be required to do these prompts, and they won’t submit them to the workshop, but they may help you get into a creative and writerly frame of mind as the workshop approaches.

This workshop will be hosted at the Warren Conference Center in Ashland, MA. The workshop is limited to 12 participants.

It’s hard for me not to gush. Lauren is punctual, strong, witty, commanding, and powerful. The writing exercises were lively and creative, like little literary firestarters; her instruction on the structure and architecture of a book tied seamlessly with her instruction about words, sentences, and voice. This seems like a first-rate MFA-level seminar from a generous, masterful instructor.

—participant in “Revision, Christian Spirituality, and the Writing Life: A Week with Lauren Winner,” Summer 2017

Application Process:

Please note: Participants will not be expected to submit writing before the workshop, but there will be a good bit of reading to do beforehand.  

The application deadline for this workshop has now passed.