North Country Community Mental Health (NCCMH), in partnership with the Petoskey District Library, is sponsoring a writer’s workshop, Write It! The workshop will be held on April 23 and 24 from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Carnegie Building (451 E. Mitchell St., Petoskey).
The workshop will be held in honor of “May is Mental Health Month” to provide an avenue for personal expression and showcase the voices of people living with mental illness.
Participants will take a close look at examples of writing in diverse genres, and generate their own micro-essays, short stories, and poems, from exercises designed to use a variety of personal experience as a springboard to diverse kinds of literary creative expression.
Priority will be given to anyone 18 or older with a history of mental illness living in North Country’s six-county service area.
At the author’s discretion, finished pieces will be displayed at the Petoskey District Library for the month of May and may also be included in a chapbook.
The class will be facilitated by David Hornibrook, the author of Night Manual (Wayne State University Press, 2019), and winner of the Moveen Prize in Poetry. His work has also been recipient of a Pushcart Prize and has been featured in The Windsor Review, Juked, Third Coast, PANK and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writer’s Program and is the Community Services Coordinator at NCCMH.
Hornibrook said, “Everyone is creative, but not everyone has had the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative abilities and many are not even aware of their own creativity. This workshop is designed to be fun but also to explore the inherent power of language and every human voice. I look forward to the discussion and sharing of ideas and am thankful for the partnership with the library for graciously offering not only a space for us to gather, but also to display our finished pieces and center the voices of people living with mental illness
Jodi Haven of the Petoskey Area Library said, “Our partnership with North Country Community Mental Health aims to illuminate the diverse voices within our community, providing a platform for personal stories and fostering understanding and connection.”
