Writing Room Workshops

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United States
Ithaca, NY
Writing Room Workshops

I offer writing workshops, classes, individual consultations and editing. Since I was a child I have kept a pencil, pad, and flashlight next to my bed.

Among others, I designed and teach Writing through the Rough Spots, which uses writing to help create clarity about challenging situations. Sometimes I turn the light off only to turn it right back on again to scratch down another thought. I was so lucky that my high school English teachers, without exception, encouraged and inspired me. Creative writing classes, editing the literary magazine and

then the yearbook started me on a path paved with words. Majoring in German literature in college deepened my love. For the past 20 years I have led and participated in writing workshops, including leading numerous weeklong summer workshops at Star Island, NH. My background includes: a Masters Degree in Education, many years teaching early childhood education, special education, German, and teacher education. For 15 years I was the education director in a counseling center and for 17 years directed the Cayuga Community Role Players, an intergenerational, interactive theater troupe. I am enormously grateful to Louise Albert, author and teacher in White Plains, NY. She taught me how to read when I was 6 and decades later, when I was an adult, nourished my writing in her thoroughly remarkable classes. She has been a close friend, ongoing supporter, mentor and role model in many ways. Other writing workshops along the way, including those with Irene Zahava in Ithaca, were stimulating and helpful for me. Workshops in therapeutic writing added to my scope. Two file drawers contain scribbly spiral notebooks, clean worked-on stories, a few of them for children, some poems, journals of the first 8 or so years of both of my children’s lives, and a long memoir written over a year’s time. Many of these pieces helped to create clarity for me and I hope they have provided some insights for those who have read them as well. When I was on the Editorial Board of First Teacher, I wrote a dozen articles that drew on my teaching experiences with young children and my observations as a mother. An article I wrote for the Tufts Alumni Magazine reflected on my life as a student living abroad during the Vietnam War. (I later lived 7 more years in Germany). “Intergenerational Living,” published in Mothering, crystallized my experiences living as an adult in a bilingual, intergenerational family. In recent years I have been privileged to help several nursing home residents to write their life stories near the end of their lives. The May 2008 edition of Senior Circle, the newspaper for seniors in Tompkins County, features an interview Senior Focus: Ellen Schmidt – One Woman’s Journey to “What If”. The 2008 annual edition of the Cornell student publication Minds Matter contains Writing Through The Rough Spots. This article provides a closer look at how I have used writing to gain clarity in my own life and includes some tips for writers. I have become increasingly interested in the ‘midwifery’ of writing. The narratives of others intrigue me. We know so little of others until we hear the stories in their lives. And of course, anyone who has been a child and has lived life has stories to tell. We’re busy telling ourselves (dream) stories even when we are asleep. It’s exciting getting to know people by listening deeply and carefully to their writing voices. I am grateful to be able to stimulate and hearten others to discover and express themselves, sometimes breaking through a feeling of isolation, as they unfold their unique experiences and perceptions.

03/07/2025

Registration for Online Writing Room/Writing through the Rough Spots classes is open for May-June (6 weeks) and July-Aug. (5 weeks). For dates, times, more details:

07/07/2024

Registration for Fall Workshops will open later this month. Check my website for details. www.writingroomworkshops.com

06/06/2024

Spring Workshops are in full swing. Summer workshops are full. Writing Room Reunion & Reading invitations have been sent to all "alums". Looking forward to that time together! Info about fall classes will be available in the summer. Meanwhile, enjoy this season!

02/28/2024

The days are lengthening! Registration for Spring & Summer Writing Room classes will open FEB. 29. More info at http://www.writingroomworkshops.com/workshops

04/28/2023

I'm excited about sharing my work with you in the upcoming release of ARMED TO THE TEETH, my new collection of 50 poems! Want to order a signed copy directly from me now? https://antrimhousebooks.com/schmidt.htmlthe Want to read some sample poems? https://antrimhousebooks.com/schmidt.html Want to find out more about the book as well as various ways to order it? https://antrimhousebooks.com/schmidt.html

06/16/2022

All spring and summer classes are full. Fall Class Info: WritingRoomWorkshops.com/workshops

01/07/2022

"Creativity - like human life itself - begins in darkness." (Julia Cameron)
May creative goodness infect the world in the New Year!

Winter I and Winter II class series are all filled. Spring classes will begin in May, dates TBA

02/05/2021

All Winter Classes are full through the end of April. Please look for postings for spring and summer classes coming soon at www.writingroomworkshops.com

07/31/2020

Big Thank you to Ithaca Time's writer Karen Gadiel for her article:

Poems can be tiny journeys, a distillation of thought, reflection, experience. For long years, Ellen Hirning Schmidt, whose CV includes teaching, editing and coaching others in writing and self-expression, wrote

05/11/2020

The final proof is at the printers! Winner of the 2019 Helen Kay Poetry Chapbook Prize: "Oh, say did you know"
More Details and Order Info: https://eveningstreetpress.com/ellen-hirning-schmidt-2019.html

04/15/2020

Hi Writing Roomers,
All Spring Writing through the Rough Spots classes are online and filled. It's a new challenge for us all, but now into week 3, things are smoothing out and we're enjoying the connections, reading, writing, and sharing them each week. Summer class times/venue (most likely online also) will be posted on my website in the next weeks.
May kindness spread faster than sickness, truth faster than lies, love faster than greed.

Address

Www. Writingroomworkshops. Com
Ithaca, NY
14850

Website

http://www.writingroomworkshops.com/

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