by Laurie Wagner | Jun 6, 2016 | Blog
As I write this I’m in the middle of a week-long writing retreat with my writing mentor for the last fourteen-years. We’re high up in the hills of Topanga Canyon…
by Laurie Wagner | Apr 27, 2015 | Blog
One of the things I’ve been lucky enough to do over here at 27 Powers is to bring gifted writers and teachers from all over the country to the house to teach. Over the years I’ve had writers such as Marie Howe, Ellen Bass, Tony Hoagland, Stephen Dunn, Deena Metzger, actress Ann Randolph, Dorianne Lux, Joe Millar and Philip Gerard. I bring them so that my community of writers can study with these remarkable people
by Laurie Wagner | Jan 11, 2015 | Blog
Dear Writers and Creative Friends, If I’m about anything, it’s helping writers to take the lead out and get some ink on the page. I’m a process person – I believe Mo is Bettah when it comes to writing – which is to say, let’s get a lot of words on the page so that eventually, good golly, a story will emerge. It’s kind of like that joke about walking into a room full of horse shit. There’s got to be a pony around here somewhere. That’s what I mean when I encourage people to write as poorly as possible. What I’m saying is, don’t sit there huffing and puffing over the right word or the right line. You’ll find both, but start writing. Perfection is very rarely going to come out of you like lightening the minute the pen hits the page. The beginning of your piece, that awesome lead, might spill out of you on the second page of your messy scrawl – but that’s what it took – if you’re lucky – two pages of messy crap to find the one thing you meant to say. I support that kind of murky goodness. That’s my practice and I would never ask you to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself. I know that if I’m just willing to keep the pen moving a story of some sort will emerge eventually. I might not even love it, by the way, but it doesn’t matter. Every piece I write makes me a better writer. I’m in it for the long haul. It takes patience and...
by Laurie Wagner | Dec 1, 2014 | Blog
Maya Stein is one of my very favorite writers in the whole world. She’s also one of my dearest friends – which shouldn’t preclude you from checking out this interview, but it might help you understand why I was able to ask her questions ranging from the see-through dress I saw her wearing once in the middle of the day, to the tumor the size of an egg that was lodged in her spine. I also talk to her about her fine, fine writing. Her weekly 10-Line-Tuesday poems are the medicine I take each week to help me locate what matters. Maya has a rare talent for naming things exactly as they are, and which allows me to understand my own life so much better. Here’s one of my favorites: scrapping the lawn It would be simpler, surely, to stay in tune with the neighbors, whose yards rest, placid, at the foot of each house with nary a dip in topography save a trio of bushes soldiering the front windows. And it’s true that what you’ve got planned is an upheaval you can’t predict, a loose cannon of horticultural proportions, since you’ve neither the education nor experience to guide you, exactly. But there are sacrifices for every choice that goes against the grain. You don’t slash and burn without cleaving from your own comfort. Even now, as the lawn lies partially scraped and scorned, you see you could turn back, patch the broken pieces, ignore the song of wildness and color calling you. Maybe the grass doesn’t need changing. But you do, and that knowing’s clear enough to wrap your novice hands on awkward tools to find the garden...
by Laurie Wagner | Dec 30, 2013 | Blog
The other day on a walk, my friend told me that all of the big parts of his life were in flux; housing, work, money, love. None of them felt firmly planted, nothing was certain. And yet with all that uncertainty, he felt really solid. Meditation, walks with his dog in nature, art – – these were the consistents in his life, the things that he could rest in and which sustained him when all about him swirled in change. I’ve been thinking about my friend as I take a look at the year ahead and the expectations that I have for myself. There’s a tendency for me to plan ahead, to already have 2014 envisioned and ready to roll out; new business ideas, new classes, exciting new projects. Big plans fueled by big ambition – that’s where I’m comfortable – when I’m sinking my teeth into things and making them happen. But try as I might, that’s not where I am right now. I’m breathing, that’s for certain, and there are some wonderful small projects I’m offering in the New Year, but I’m moving more slowly. The big ideas, the flashy offerings, they’re not crystalized yet – they’re still fuzzy, still being fleshed out. And some of them may never happen. If I sound relaxed about this it’s only because this is what’s been working me for weeks, so I’m getting used to being in this foggy place where I can’t see past my own feet. I have tried to catapult myself to a “better” place for sure. In the last three weeks I...
