A Full Day Workshop
Saturday, May 17th 2008
9:30 A.M. – 6:30 P.M.
Fee: $140 (Lunch included)

If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. -- From 'Keeping Quiet' -a prayer/poem for peace by Pablo Neruda

In an atmosphere of non-judgment, loving acceptance and deep respect for the human soul, we gather to write stories born of conflict, war and atrocity.  We go beneath the level of rhetoric and political agendas, to the personal experience, to "just telling the story."

Imagine what can happen when a writer whose direct ancestors dropped bombs on a certain population, writes together with someone who, as a child, was part of that population and the victim of that bombing.  What kind of substantial bridges can be formed when listening to each other's stories with compassion? Can such silent listening to "the other side," empower us as peacemakers and artists?

The process of writing this pain and trauma out of our bodies and souls can heal and transform us.  When that which has been hidden, forbidden and denied is brought out into the light of day in a safe, loving environment, it creates more space inside ourselves to breathe, and allows us to act more effectively.  Like my mentor, Deena Metzger says in her book "Writing for your Life", these are the "stories that must be told."

Turning wounds into literature, giving words to the indescribable, is an act of defiance, an act of self-preservation, and a journey toward personal and global healing and peace.

What participants in a 'Writing for Peace' workshop say:

Elisabeth Elwell, travel consultant, world surfer, writer: "In Elana’s 'Writing for Peace' workshop that I participated in, there were two Iranian writers who had been politically persecuted in their native land.  As a sheltered American, I was struck and humbled by their personal stories of imprisonment, their witnessing of executions, and their flight to freedom.  The workshop gave me insight into a world I would not have otherwise known."

Hadia Haaj, wholistic healer, USM grad: "In the 'Writing for Peace' workshop Elana created this tender environment in which I felt safe to write and share my grandmother's story for the first time: How she had been expelled from her home in Acca in the 1948 war between Israel and the Arab countries."