Join An 8-Week Writing Workshop

person typing at computer

Interested in some structured, creative writing in a group of other young adults facing cancer as patients, survivors, or caregivers?  Look no further than the next 8-week session of our online, Unspoken Ink: Young Adult Cancer Creative Writing Workshop!

The online workshop is designed to take you on a journey through your cancer diagnosis and into your survivorship with a small group of your young adult cancer patient/survivor peers. Each 8-week Writing Workshop consists of a weekly writing night attended via online video chat. We will get to know one another in an intimate, 18 person setting and address issues that transport us from initial diagnosis into the new normal and survivorship.

The next 8-week session will start on Thursday, May 21st, and will meet each Thursday at 3:30 pm PT / 5:30 pm CT / 6:30 pm ET for 2 hours via video chat through Thursday, July 9th.

Learn more and sign up here!

Your Task Is Not To Seek For Love…

rumi quote unspoken ink prompt

Am I unlovable?
Am I too different?
Am I too extra?
I wanted to start in my own rom-com and have someone fall head over heels for me.
Am I letting past hurts keep the wall up?
Am I not allowing myself to trust?
Am I too scared to be vulnerable?
Why is needing someone wrong? Why is wanting to feel needed so wrong?
Am I too set in my ways?
Am I too tainted to wear white?
Am I too hard to please?
I want that connection. I want to feel like I’ve come home.
Am I too sensitive?
Am I too zany?
Am I too clever?
Why is finding someone who can naturally banter and laugh so difficult? Is that saying in order to find love, you must love yourself first really true? Isn’t it more about timing and creating opportunities?
There is a heaviness to me that wasn’t there in the past. I now see that I will never be attracted to average or simple. I can’t connect with someone who hasn’t been through something earth shattering.
Am I asking too much?
Am I wanting too much?
Am I too much?

by Megan-Claire Chase

Megan-Claire Chase is a three-year breast cancer survivor in Atlanta, GA. She is a marketing project manager by day. In her spare time, she writes a blog called Life On The Cancer Train and is a published cancer blogger for Lacuna Loft, IHadCancer.com, CancerBro, Humor Beats Cancer, GRYT Health, WILDFIRE Magazine and Rethink Breast Cancer just to name a few. One of her biggest achievements in 2019 was co-presenting an abstract on AYA perspectives on fertility preservation conversations with healthcare providers at the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) conference in Atlanta. She also has cat named Nathan Edgar who is her pride and joy.

How would you respond to the writing prompt, Companion?

—

This writing comes directly from one of our participants in our Unspoken Ink Creative Writing Group for young adult cancer survivors.  The participants met for 2 hours each week, for 8 weeks during our Spring 2019 session.  This writing has not been edited since its original creation, showing the wonderfully raw and powerful prose coming from the courageous writing group participants each week.  If you’d like to sign up for future sessions, please email info@lacunaloft.org or sign up on our interest form.

Be My Companion

companion poem

We know all about you.
Your reputation precedes you.
You’re a destroyer of the good and bad.
You cause permanent damage to the body.
You wrap us in poison and dip us in pain.
You stomp hard on any strength that desperately tries to hold on.
You kill cancer but wreak so much havoc along the way.
You’re not the partner we choose.
Your tango is too complicated.
We don’t want to remember these twirls and drags across the floor.
Leave us be.
Unfortunately, your sounds linger.
They echo in every room.
Your music makes beads of sweat pour down the face.
Hearts beat faster.
Pulse runs rapid.
No, take your moves to another dance company.
Your technique is barbaric.
It’s not welcomed.
There is no comfort in you.
Take your final bow chemo.
Your time in the spotlight has come to an end.

by Megan-Claire Chase

Megan-Claire Chase is a three-year breast cancer survivor in Atlanta, GA. She is a marketing project manager by day. In her spare time, she writes a blog called Life On The Cancer Train and is a published cancer blogger for Lacuna Loft, IHadCancer.com, CancerBro, Humor Beats Cancer, GRYT Health, WILDFIRE Magazine and Rethink Breast Cancer just to name a few. One of her biggest achievements in 2019 was co-presenting an abstract on AYA perspectives on fertility preservation conversations with healthcare providers at the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) conference in Atlanta. She also has cat named Nathan Edgar who is her pride and joy.

How would you respond to the writing prompt, Companion?

—

This writing comes directly from one of our participants in our Unspoken Ink Creative Writing Group for young adult cancer survivors.  The participants met for 2 hours each week, for 8 weeks during our Spring 2019 session.  This writing has not been edited since its original creation, showing the wonderfully raw and powerful prose coming from the courageous writing group participants each week.  If you’d like to sign up for future sessions, please email info@lacunaloft.org or sign up on our interest form.

Summer Session of the Unspoken Ink Creative Writing Workshop!

online writing workshop

Our online, Unspoken Ink: Creative Writing Workshop is designed to take you on a journey through your cancer diagnosis and into your survivorship with a small group of your young adult cancer survivor peers. Each 8-week Writing Workshop consists of a weekly writing night attended via online video chat. We will get to know one another in an intimate, 18 person setting and address issues that transport us from initial diagnosis into the new normal and survivorship.

Update: The Summer Session is now full.  Please fill out the interest form below to be notified when registration opens for our next session!

Where: Online video chat. We’ll send you more information about joining after you register. Please have a microphone headset and a webcam.

Who: Young adult cancer survivors and caregivers.

When: The writing group meets for 2 hours each week, for a period of 8 weeks. A commitment to attend each week is important to group continuity and in creating a safe space. Please be on time.

How does it work:

  • This workshop uses the Amherst Writing and Artists (AWA) Method.  The facilitator provides a writing prompt and you can use that prompt in any way you’d like to create a story over a set amount of time. Once we’ve finished our writing (yes, the facilitator writes too!), everyone is given the opportunity to read their writing out loud. Though sharing is optional, hearing your own story and hearing someone else’s teaches us about our experiences and our stories. Once the piece is read, we reflect on the writing – what did we like, what stood out, what did we remember. Everything is considered fiction so we do not respond to the writer as a support group may, but keep the focus on the writing.
  • Sometimes the prompts are about cancer, sometimes indirectly related to cancer, and sometimes not about cancer at all. Above all, the writing program emphasizes that we are more than a diagnosis.
  • Following each weekly session, you may decide to submit your writing to Mallory (mallory@lacunaloft.org) for publication on LacunaLoft.org in their Young Adult Voices program section. This is not mandatory!