Testimonials
Working with Katharine was a wonderful experience. She is a special teacher because she teaches in great balance. She is disciplined and focused, yet, at the same time, she gives us freedom to grow. She is a profound listener. She shares her knowledge and wisdom with us in a way that's warm and welcoming. She guides us to find our own ways. I left the retreat with a clearer mind and useful tools and most importantly, the confidence that when things start to spin out of control, I can always come back to my practice. I would highly recommend you work with Katharine.
Katharine facilitates her classes with passion and generosity, finding the delicate balance between offering expertise while encouraging self-discovery, experimentation, and new awareness of forms, techniques, wonderfully endless possibilities.
I started the small stories class at the beginning of the pandemic. throughout the classes during the pandemic, personal and professional hardships arose, and even through the terrible shooting in Boulder that just happened, the class has been a container to share. I’ve felt safe to write and read deeply personal material, rants about the world, humor…. and all the other writers in the class have inspired me, blown my mind and made we want to try and imitate their style sometimes! Amazingly beautiful work. I never felt like I needed to pretend that something wasn’t happening internally or externally. It’s not only a safe space, it’s a brave space and I’m grateful for Katharine and her stewardship.
As a writing guide working with Katharine has been a cornucopia of delights, many of which I did not see coming. It has sneakily brought the best kind of discipline to my writing. I have not only dropped into some uncharted territory, but I have felt safe to do so in the confines and comradery of incredible people and with her at the helm. And as if that weren’t enough, Katharine (in addition to her palpably gigantic heart) is funny as can be! She cracks me up constantly. If you want a spiritual experience through your writing, an ever so loving kick in the pants to do the work, a group of peers that inspire and contain, and a whopping good time, these classes are for you.
Typically, I write about the same topics for cathartic release, but prompted writing supplemented by incredibly interesting readings helps me grow outside of self-imposed restrictions. Being able to grow in such a safe space, which is the atmosphere both Katharine and my newly found friends always create, allows for a lot more transference and trust in the skill sets I develop as both a writer and a reader. As a teacher of academic writing, also, I find that participating in places where writing can breathe and bend and expand is crucial to my ability to help my students break genre barriers, allowing for more permeable and pliable forms of communication across disciplines and subjectivities.
On the evening of the first session, I was not sure what to expect because it was my first time putting my writing out into the world before strangers. Yes, Katharine was a stranger too. I was a hum of anxious vulnerability. But the group of women quickly made me feel comfortable and safe. Since then, we have laughed and cried, filled in blanks, read when others couldn’t, shared in joy, reflected together… all via Zoom! Every class I leave in complete awe. Katharine’s thoughtful planning never ceases to amaze me. The equal parts wisdom, heart, and hilarity among the one-time-strangers within this class has been so moving. Through sharing our creative endeavors, I have found more than a writing group. These women have become treasured friends who I look forward to spending time with each week.
Katharine chooses poems that provoke and galvanize to discuss and inspire; she’s a thoughtful, brilliant curator. The class also provides a community of like- minded language lovers, who in a zoom salon atmosphere, can together discuss what feels most alive in the poems we analyze. The feedback, suggestions, support and encouragement that Katharine gives to each submitted poem feels as if one’s most private self was being lovingly witnessed.