UNPACKING OUR PAST – WRITING WORKSHOP WITH MARILYN JOHNSTON

Wednesday, August 19, 2026 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Unpacking our past —

How to tidy up.

How to let go of all that’s too heavy to carry.

This is a creative writing workshop, in keeping with the current SAA art exhibit, “Kept: What We Ask of the Past”.

The workshop is designed for all of us who want to let go, who want to acknowledge what we’ve inherited from our past, who are wondering who will want to take it on. It’s about families and memories and the objects we are no longer able hold onto (whether literally or metaphorically) and are wondering who will.

We will use “props” from the exhibit, prompts to get started, plus an array of techniques on how we can look at a piece of visual art in new and inventive ways.

This workshop can jump-start any writing project, no matter your writing genre. Perhaps you’re considering a memoir, a biography, a play, a series of poems, a speculative fiction, historical, graphic novel, or a book of original songs.

We’ll write a lot in this 90-minute session, so bring your favorite journal and pens, and join us on August 19, from 6:00-7:30 PM, at Bush Barn.

It will be great to see you there.

$20/person or $14 for SAA Members

About Marilyn Johnston
Facilitator for this class will be Marilyn Johnston. Marilyn has been involved for many years in the SAA’s Artist in the Schools program and a writing coach in SAA’s summer camp offerings. She is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for Writers and winner of the Donna J. Stone National Literary Award for Poetry. Author of Red Dust Rising and Before Igniting, Marilyn has led multiple creative writing workshops at writing festivals and conferences here in the US and in Spain.