Dormir Soñando -Creative Writing Dream Workshop

Today I facilitated the Creative Writing Dreams workshop for The Writer’s Salon. It was great fun. This was the second workshop. I want to thank Angy, Dominican Writer’s and Writer’s Salon for the invitation and all of the members of the groups who attended. It is a joy to share the work I love.

Of course, the issue of writing came up. When is your next book? Novel… really.

I thought of my writer’s beginnings, and how much I love writing stories. I was a self-taught writer. No MFA, I had to finish my Ph.D. at NYU School of Social Work. I was a trauma therapist. No room for MFA, so I went to the library and decided to re-read the greats and those perceived to be not so great, and I read everything about writing. When I finished the dissertation in 1995, I decided I should start engaging with other people who write stories. I could not find them.

At the time, my writing was not a career. I had a career. I was a trauma therapist. For me writing was healing. My writing was about self – Love. It would take years to finally merge career and love into one Love, but that would take some time. This present moment. I am so lucky to teach a course at the university on Expressive Arts Therapy and I am able to teach about creative writing, bibliotherapy, Poetry Therapy, and expressive modalities. I am so lucky. Going back I think of the first creative writing class I took.

It was 1995, a writing workshop at NYU, and the professor gave me great feedback. She inspired me. Join a writer’s group, she said and so I did. I joined a group in Tuckahoe where I met my close friend Sue Tyrel. A great writer. After a few years of the Emily Hanlon Writer’s group where I wrote most of my stories, I decided I wanted to be in a BIPOC writer’s group. I joined Fredrick Douglas on 98th Street and met my close friend, Nelly Rosario. My friendship with her opened new doors to incredible poets and writers. I joined a Dominican Writer’s group, La Tertulia, held by Daisy Cocco Di Fellip, now President of Hostos College, there I was in a deeper joy as I met the most amazing women, and all of them continue to be good friends.

Once I had about twenty stories, it was the women and men I met when I wrote who inspired me to put them together and publish them all. So, I decided to see if I could get published. I knew my odds. I did not want to write a novel. I had not published very much anywhere. I had no MFA and I had no agent. One day, I read a book, Yo Soy La Avon Lady, by Lorraine Lopez, at the end of her book, there was a mission statement by the publishing company, an independent press, Curbstone Press. I knew I would get published there, but first, I had to win the Marmol Prize.

After two losses, I read an article in Poets and Writers, the author wrote a piece on how to make a group of short stories into an interrelated collection of stories very much like a novel, so I tried to do what the author stated, and I submitted again and I won the Marmol Prize for first Latina fiction in 2007 for My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories. I was traveling around promoting the book, and then my editor died, and then my husband was diagnosed with Cancer and my world stood still. I never stopped writing, my husband would sit me down and say, “Nothing should stop you from writing” and as he became weaker, he would ask me to sit near him and just write, no talking., just write he would say and I did.

When he was gone, I grieved for what seemed to be endless nights. I changed jobs, but my new job required that I just focus on it. Teaching. No one wanted a Dominican professor writing such sensual stories unless I was a professor at an MFA program. If I had been writing social work stories, that would have been different, but I have always wanted to write what my soul wants me to write and not what others think I should be writing about. Then, an opportunity came to teach an elective on Expressive Arts Therapy. I was so happy that my friend and faculty Dr. Feldman had asked me. But what is Expressive Arts?

Expressive arts is a form of therapy and creative practice that integrates various art modalities, such as visual arts, movement, music, writing, and drama, to facilitate emotional expression and personal exploration, I had been doing this with children and teens throughout my therapy career. I could teach the course. It emphasizes the process of creating art rather than focusing solely on the final product. The Process, not the Product. It encourages individuals to tap into their inner thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Through engaging in the expressive arts, individuals can gain insight, promote healing, and foster personal growth and self-discovery. I was in total heaven. Here I could merge what I love, social work, therapy, arts, and writing, and in doing so, everything I do, is scholarship. How lucky am I?

It took some time to get there, but I made a full professor in 2020 and I continued to write. I started to send my stories out for publication, in spurts. As I said to the group, do not confuse not publishing a novel with not writing. I also love writing short stories. I also like to express myself in the form of visual art and bookmaking, and not only creative writing.

I can say that love writing of all kinds, writing stories, creating collage art, book art, and photography.

Can I merge all of that?