Workshops
You can view workshop details below.
All workshops are “pay what you can” ($35 suggested - but please do not let any financial barriers prevent you from registering! Simply fill out the “other” option).
All workshops are 90 minutes long.
To sign up for a workshop, please select a donation amount above. Once you hit ‘continue’, you will be prompted to select which workshops you are signing up for. $35 is recommended per workshop, but you can use the “other” field to pay what you can!
All About Publishing!
Friday, September 12th, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
Location: The Slow Down State (192 E. Main Street, Sisters OR 97759)
Facilitated by: Laura Stanfill
If you've ever wanted personal attention from a publisher, now's your chance! Bring your questions, your dilemmas, and your curiosity to this workshop with Laura Stanfill, the publisher of Forest Avenue Press and the author of Imagine a Door. What makes a query letter stand out? How do you decide to approach an agent instead of an editor or the other way around? What does the publishing process entail exactly and what is distribution?
This ask-me-anything session is your chance to get your burning questions answered by an award-winning publisher. Laura founded Forest Avenue Press in 2012, earned national distribution a few years later, and won a scholarship to attend the Yale Publishing Course in 2018. She also just sold her third book, The Neighborhood Dames, to Ooligan Press, for publication in fall 2026.
About The Facilitator
Once upon a time, Laura Stanfill lived in a New Jersey house filled with music boxes, street organs, and books. She grew up to become the publisher of Forest Avenue Press. Her work has appeared in Shondaland, The Rumpus, Catapult, The Vincent Brothers Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, and several print anthologies. She believes in indie bookstores and wishes on them like stars from her home in Portland, Oregon, where she resides with her family and Waffles the dog. Learn more at laurastanfill.com.
Gender Bender
Sunday, Sep 15th, 9:30am - 11:00am
Location: Toriizaka Art (222 W. Hood Ave, Sisters OR 97759)
Facilitated by: Chris/tina Vega (they/them)
A guided, generative writing workshop exploring gender, identity, and self-actualization. Participants can expect to spend time engaging with and releasing harmful narratives/stories they hold within their bodies, and writing new stories which make space for self-actualization. This workshop focuses on writing as a tool for increasing wellness.
About The Facilitator
Chris Vega (they/them) is the founder and publisher at Blue Cactus Press, where they make books that spark dialogue about liberation alongside authors, artists, and creative professionals from historically marginalized groups. Chris is also a two-spirit Chicana poet from the U.S./Mexico borderlands. Currently, they live on Puyallup and Nisqually land with their daughter, Catalina.
Spiritual Justice and cultivating action in our community
Saturday, September 13th, 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location: The Hub (291 E. Main Ave, Sisters OR 97759)
Facilitated by: R.G. Shore
How can we create a safe space within ourselves to do the healing work, so that we can create a space for social justice and spiritual activism in our communities? Join this important workshop led by R.G. Shore, the Award Winning Author of The Ocean Inside Me, named Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Books of 2024, and Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner in Personal Journey and Memoir, founder of Northwest Wisdom, a nonprofit here in the PNW, and Spiritual Counselor.
In our 90 minutes together, we’ll return to the basics of self-care and self-compassion, reconnecting with our creative Why. We’ll find the courage to lean into discomfort by identifying healthy and effective responses to fear and trying new approaches that keep us coming back to our writing practice. You’ll leave the session with a customized “emotional toolkit” – concrete strategies for building a sustainable writing life specific to the unique needs of your creative soul. Whether you’re looking to build a foundational writing routine or are ready to reexamine your current one, this workshop will stretch your idea of what creative self-care can look like and provide a supportive space to reinforce that we are not alone in these challenges.
The Writer's Emotional Toolkit: Building Resilience and Courage as a Creative
Sunday, September 14th 9:00am - 10:30am
Location: Pine Meadow Ranch (Address will be included in follow up email)
Facilitated by: Meredith Evridge & Caela McKeever
Being a writer often means being well-versed in the fear of rejection, battle against perfectionism, fluctuating self-esteem, and consuming isolation. Writing tests the emotional strength of even the most seasoned creatives, so how do we care for ourselves so we can show up and do our best work? In this workshop, we’ll share practices from our own creative experiences and guide participants through a three-part approach intended to center care, curiosity, and courage in your writing life so you can Just! Keep! Writing!
We are being called, now more than ever, to show up and be active voices in our communities, but we have to start with showing up for ourselves. How do we protect our energy? How do we stay involved? This workshop is an important conversation around nervous system regulation and healing through micro and macro lenses. We must be willing to see it in ourselves so that we can learn to see it in everything else
About the Facilitator
R.G. Shore is a Spiritual Teacher, Energy Healer, Spiritual Counselor and Founder of Northwest Wisdom. R.G. has a Masters in Education, and is a certified Reiki Master, and a certified spiritual director through SDI, and the Urban Spiritual Center in Portland, Oregon. He specializes in embodied Spiritual Counseling, Healing energy, visualization meditative techniques, and Reiki Healing, and helps many people with grounding themselves. He has a passion for working with marginalized communities, including people of color, people who have been incarcerated, or people dealing with religious trauma.