The Sacred Everyday Retreat
In a time of deep loss and confusion, how do we stay in touch with the sacred nature of our everyday lives? This five-week poetry retreat, held via Zoom webinar, meets every Friday, from 1-2:30pm Eastern Time (EACH SESSION WILL ALSO BE RECORDED AND SHARED). Each week, a new guest will share poetry and wisdom around the practice of meeting the ordinary with wonder on the page, helping us to stay in touch with our sorrow and joy at the same time. Guests for this retreat include: Jane Hirshfield, Mark Nepo, January Gill O'Neil, Carrie Newcomer, and Kimberly Blaeser. We will spend time after each interview writing from poems and prompts from the guests' work as well as from James' new book, THE SACRED EVERYDAY. We have a number of half-off scholarships available; please message for more info. To join, please visit:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1998353804022?aff=oddtdtcreator
Our Schedule:
Friday, October 16th 1-2:30pm ET: Jane Hirshfield
Friday, October 23rd 1-2:30pm ET: Kimberly Blaeser
Friday, October 30th 1-2:30pm ET: January Gill O'Neil
Friday, November 6th 1-2:30pm ET: Carrie Newcomer
Friday, November 13th 1-2:30pm ET: Mark Nepo
James Crews lives on forty rocky acres in Southern Vermont, on the unceded lands of the Abenaki people, with his husband Brad Peacock, with whom he co-edited Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness & Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community & Friends (Storey Publishing) winner of a Nautilus Awards gold medal. Crews is the author of several collections of poems, including The Sacred Everyday, Unlocking the Heart, Turning Toward Grief and Breathing Room. To sign up for free weekly poems and for more info, visit: jamescrews.net.
Jane Hirshfield is the author, most recently, of The Asking: New and Selected Poems (Knopf, 2023) and Ledger (Knopf, 2020). A former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, her work appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, and ten editions of The Best American Poetry. In 2019, she was elected into The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Kimberly Blaeser, past Wisconsin Poet Laureate and founding director of In-Na-Po, Indigenous Nations Poets, is the author of five poetry collections including Copper Yearning, Apprenticed to Justice, and Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance. She is also the author of a collection of short fiction, RED ANTS. An enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, Blaeser is an Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, a Professor Emerita at UW–Milwaukee, and an MFA faculty member at Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Additional information is available here: kblaeser.org.
January Gill O’Neil is a professor at Salem State University and the author of Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. Glitter Road won the 2024 Poetry by the Sea Best Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize in poetry from the Boston Authors Club. From 2012 to 2018, she served as executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts, and chairs the AWP Board of Directors (2022–2025). She also runs the Thursday Poets Reading Series at GALA Arts in Lynn, Massachusetts. https://www.januarygilloneil.com/
Carrie Newcomer is an internationally touring Emmy and Grammy acknowledged performer, songwriter, poet, activist and workshop facilitator with 21 nationally released albums including The Beautiful Not Yet and Murmurations. She has three books of poetry & essays and facilitates retreats on the topics of songwriting, spirituality, personal growth, hope and resiliency. She co-hosts The Growing Edge Podcast with Parker J. Palmer and authors one of Substack’s top ten music offerings, A Gathering of Spirits. www.carrienewcomer.com
As a poet, teacher, and storyteller, Mark Nepo has published thirty books, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2027, he is bringing out Our Time on Earth: New and Selected Poems 1977-2027 and his next book of spiritual nonfiction, The Path of True Experience: The Art and Practice of a Full Life. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Book of Awakening, which has helped to shape millions of lives across the globe.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1998353804022?aff=oddtdtcreator
