Get your groove back via Cassie Premo Steele

It happens to all of us, whether we’re artists or artisans (two decidedly different classifications) or amateurs. Sometimes we just get stale. We can’t find our groove. The juices aren’t flowing. We freeze up. For those of us who build with words, we call it writers’ block — and it is the scariest, most frustrating sensation in the world.

Other times we’re plodding along just fine. Cranking it out. Meeting our deadlines. Getting the job done. And our work is fine. Just fine. Nothing special, nothing innovative, nothing earth-shattering. It’s fine.

If you’re a writer and you ever find yourself in either of these two situations, it’s important to keep your head about you. Your world probably isn’t coming to an end. But you may, in fact, need something of a tune up. Luckily there’s someone in town who has perfected the art of stimulating creativity — poet, author, academician, and creativity coach, Cassie Premo Steele.

Jasper has had the pleasure of both attending Cassie’s creativity workshops and hosting them, so we’re taking this opportunity to spread the word that another series of workshops will be taking place soon. It’s nice to take a moment now and then and just tend to one’s creative core. It’s sort of like tidying up your desk — it needs to be done anyway and, in all likelihood, it’ll help you work better. Jasper recommends it.

Several of us from a Women Writing Naturally Fall Workshop a few years ago -- that's Cassie in the foreground

We’re bold-faced copying and pasting info about Cassie’s upcoming creative writing class below, as well as one of her lovely poems below that. If you decide to sign up for one of her classes, please tell her Jasper sent you, and let us know how it worked out. We’d really like to know.

Another group of us from a Women Writing Naturally Winter Workshop

Here’s the spiel in Cassie’s own words —

In October, I will be offering a lunchtime Creative Writing Class on Tuesdays from 12:00-1:00 at The Co-Creating Studio in the Forest Acres area of Columbia.

We will cover the fundamentals of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, and the primary focus will be to help you generate new material and stretch yourself to write with greater emotional depth and clarity. Also covered will be the fundamentals of revision and how to… submit your writing for publication.

The cost is $100 per month to be paid at the first class of the month or $30/ per class.

Class size will be limited so everyone can get individual attention, and spaces are already filling, so if you are interested, feel free to email me at cassiepremosteele@gmail.com or call or text 803 420 1400.

All best wishes,
Cassie Premo Steele

For those who don’t know me, I am the author of eight books, a Pushcart nominated poet, and a writing & creativity coach with two decades of university and community teaching experience. You can visit my website at www.cassiepremosteele.com for more.

 

And here’s one of Jasper’s favorite Cassie poems —

 

Sometimes at night I dream I am pregnant again*


Sometimes at night I dream I am pregnant again but with a book,

not a baby, and my stomach extends not roundly but with four

corners, sharp edges and the fear of splinters, cuts and wood.

 

When I wait in the rain before dawn for the rest of the world

to awaken, I imagine the eggs still within me are pearls.

What I hold is a jewel of beginning again, something softer

 

than scarves and more precious than music playing in the dark.

Sometimes I rise and go to the window and make myself take

a look.  The baby is there, and the book, looking down from the moon.

 

They sing me a lullaby.  Their words say there is always enough time,

enough space, more than enough room.  I fall back asleep in this world, dreaming of what is

beginning in me to the sound of this tune.

 

(*A certain member of Jasper’s clan has been dreaming lately that she, too, is pregnant, though she is far too old for another child. We’re wondering if the dreams will subside after Jasper debuts in print form on Thursday night?)

 

 

 

About Jasper

What Jasper Said is the blogging arm of Jasper – The Word on Columbia Arts, a new written-word oriented arts magazine that serves artists and arts lovers in the Columbia, SC area and its environs in four ways: Via Print Media – Jasper is a bi-monthly magazine, releasing in print six times per year in September, November, January, March, May & July, on the 15th of each month. Jasper covers the latest in theatre and dance, visual arts, literary arts, music, and film as well as arts events and happenings; Via Website – Jasper is an interactive website complete with a visual arts gallery, messages from Jasper, an arts events calendar that is updated several times daily, bite-sized stories on arts events, guest editorials, local music, dance & theatre videos, community surveys, and more; Via Blog – What Jasper Said -- you're reading this now -- is a daily blog featuring a rotating schedule of bloggers from the Jasper staff as well as guest bloggers from throughout the arts community; Via Twitter – Jasper Advises is a method of updating the arts community on arts events, as they happen, with more than a half dozen active tweeters who live, work, and play inside the arts community everyday ~ Jasper Advises keeps the arts community abreast of what not to miss, what is happening when it is happening, and where to be to experience it first hand.
This entry was posted in Cassie Premo Steele, Jasper Magazine, Writers' Block, Writing and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *