The Writer in the World

03/26/2025

, Aimee has started pulling posts from the archival blog The Writer in the World, a site for the writing community pre-2020. Her first on is up on its own page on her substack , and it's a timeless musing on sustaining literary community by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. Aimee is encouraging conversation and connection on the substack, and open to great guest posts. Check out this and more on aimeeliu.substack.com.

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto on being a Writer in the World!

03/22/2025

Hi writers! We hope this update finds you well in your lives and creative spaces. Here's the news: We are taking the Writer in the World website out of archival mode. There is too much great information and community there to leave it in the ethers. We will be migrating the most evergreen pieces (and there are many) to a new page on Aimee Liu's MFA Lore. Click the link below to find her on Substack. Her plan is to begin weaving the enduring past with the vibrant present. So if you would like to be a part of this, find out more below and let her know. (And especially if you have a piece on the website that you are willing to give permission for her to republish, please reach out to her. you can do all of this through her substack: https://aimeeliu.substack.com.)

The Writer in the World meets MFA Lore!

05/19/2023

Aimee Liu is gathering writers for a retreat in a most fantastic place! Check it out!

04/04/2023

The Two Trees FREE mini-retreat will feature a reading with Rachel Pollack's Shining Tribe tarot, among other goodies for enchanting your writing and inspiring new ideas. Open to the public. Click through to take a look.

Do you want to generate new poems? Do you want to explore and experiment? Do you want to be given ideas, prompts, and deadlines? Join Elena and the Two Trees Writers Collaborative in this poetry intensive to start off 2022.

03/13/2023

From Reiko:

Dearest Rachel Pollack, Friend and mentor, my gratitude and my love. I would not be who I am today without you. I pulled a card from the Shining Tribe last night for you, from the art deck you gave me, still wrapped in your silk scarf. The Speaker of Trees is brilliance, vibrant in her knowing and being, radiating joy and ideas and creations. There is so much more to this card, but the part that breaks my heart now is the poem you created for the card:

I am the speaker.
I know all the voices,
The wife of the sun,
The child of the snake.
I leave nothing out.

You gave everything with us. You left nothing out. I am so grateful. Be peaceful, held in love. See you on the other side.

04/04/2022

If you are looking to play, dream, dance and writer with writers, you have one week left to apply!

This is not just another writing retreat – it’s time for deep creative play.   Join award-winning authors Rahna Reiko Rizzuto and Sherri L. Smith in the mountains of California and…

03/14/2022

As always, some questions and challenges that we hope will speak to you! (Plus, you can still join us live and in person in April!)

Maybe a red velvet cloak cannot shelter your world. Perhaps we cannot stop the wolves every time. But we can let the precious things in our life know they are valued. We can try to carry as much of…

03/04/2022

Now more than ever, what is the role of a writer in the world?

I went to bed last night thinking the world might be ending, with visions of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Fukushima in my head. When I woke up, most of us are still here. Which begs the question: what do we do with this life we still have? Sherri L. Smith and I are hosting a writers’ retreat in California in April and it’s been hard to find the right time to spread the word about this opportunity for rejuvenation and rebirth because…Omicron, so much upheaval, and now an anciently-vicious war. But the truth is, we cannot wait for safety to emerge, because we are never fully safe; we cannot wait for quiet and peace, because change is all that life is. So what do we do with ourselves, with our voices, with the precious gifts we have been given in times that feel almost rhapsodic? How do we effect change, or just keep breathing through it?

Consider The Grove. April 25-29th. There are only a few spots left. https://twotreeswriters.com/product/the-grove-2022/

Stay safe, everyone. And thanks for the miracle that you are.

Love, Reiko

02/25/2022

Four of Goddard's former faculty* are working together at the Two Trees Writers' Collaborative offering workshops, retreats, coaching and inspiration. Rahna Reiko Rizzuto has been doing some tarot writing prompts on their blog, and today she offers some writing inspiration (much like the blog posts on the old Writer in the World site). You might want to check them out at twotreeswriters.com - there's a retreat being offered in the end of April too.

*Bhanu, Elena Georgiou, Sherri L. Smith and Rahna Reiko Rizzuto

Some thoughts on freeing your writing voice by writing over the old, worn out story.

02/05/2022

Goddard alum Cara Hoffman, who is offering a Port Townsend workshop on "A Brief History of Talking Animals," is offering a 20-percent discount on her new short story collection, "Ruins." Learn more about Cara here: http://carahoffman.net/

Save 20% on new radical fiction by Cara Hoffman! 128 Pages – ISBN 9781629639291 / 9781629639314 RUIN By Cara Hoffman Hardcover: $25.95 $20.76 Paperback: $14.95 $11.96 e-Book: $8.95 $7.16 Save 20% w