Writing from Deep Gladness to the World’s Deep Hunger
As I move to the close of my second decade of teaching creative writing, I’m experiencing a dramatic shift in my philosophy. Writing has always been for me a means of personal discovery; I came to understand and claim my identity as a bisexual Christian when writing Swinging on the Garden Gate, and then melded my spiritual direction training with writing coaching to support others in profound personal healing and exploration through writing. I’m a firm believer in the power of privacy at the start of a writing project. If a writer’s heart isn’t on the line, what that writer writes hasn’t much chance of mattering. Because I’m well-trained as a feminist, I know the personal is political. So I’ve always trusted that deeply private explorations play a powerful role in public discourse. By reconciling my sexual identity with my faith, in my heart and in Swinging, I believe that,…