This workshop is for writers and creatives of all backgrounds and levels of experience. While writing will be our main creative modality, no writing needs to be “good” — only self-expressive. Sharing is optional (though very much encouraged).

We invite anyone who seeks to process difficult emotions in the continuing wake of Hurricane Helene, and anyone feeling the effects of climate change on our Western NC ecosystems and in the world at large.

Together we will grieve alongside and with nature, and draw from experiences on the Glenn Creek Greenway to deepen our connection to nature and to create nature-inspired and informed artwork.

** This workshop will require walking short distances on paved surfaces and spending approximately 1 hour each week outdoors. You may bring camp chairs to sit on and anything else you need for comfort outside.

• Connect with nature

• Half of each class will be spent outside at Glenn’s Creek Greenway

• Process grief, loss, & joy through writing and creativity

• Forest bathing principals

• Art making & creative play

• Guided meditation and ritual

• Weekly writing assignments and supplemental reading

• Continued healing after Helene

• KATHERINE SAUL (SHE/HER)

Katherine's facilitation approach is rooted in her experience reading and writing with adolescents for nearly two decades, celebrating the power of the written and spoken word and the power of creativity to build confidence, integrity, and compassion both within the individual and among members of a community.

Katherine believes that everyone has a unique story that demands to be told and that the universe needs to hear. She believes that the power of creativity is in its dual nature as both an outward means for connection and understanding and an inward pathway for self discovery, authenticity, and growth.  Each creative act has the potential to heal the storyteller, and our stories have the potential to heal the world.  

When she isn't reading, writing, or dreaming up new ideas as an Inward & Artward Facilitator, you will find Katherine with her dogs in the water, on the trail, in the garden, or in the kitchen. 

• ALLI MARSHALL (SHE/HER)

Alli Marshall is a spoken-word artist, writer, multi-disciplinary creator, and a certified Inward & Artward facilitator. She’s deeply interested in creative practice and the connection to creative source, and much of her work seeks to encourage others toward creative purpose.

Alli is the author of the novel How to Talk to Rockstars along with numerous zines; the writer and performer of the one-woman stage shows The Oracle of Everything and Sweet Heart / Bitter Heart, plus the collaborative performances Flyer in a Dark Chamber and The Top Ten Super Powers of All Time; and she created the immersive art experience Speed Dating with Trees.

Alli received an MFA in poetry from Goddard College. She was named  “artist who pushed the boundaries of storytelling” at the 2021 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival and won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2016. She was a recipient of the Pentaculum invitational artist’s residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, a Regional Artist Project Grant through Asheville Area Arts Council, and a UNC Asheville Ramsey Library Community Author Award.