I grew up traveling between my parents' city apartment in Manhattan and their country house, a two-hour drive upstate. As a very tiny child, I was aware of the transformative magic of that weekly Friday-night journey: leaving the glare and crowds of the city behind as the car whirred smoothly along into a delicious velvety darkness punctuated at times by glittering stars and a glowing orange moon.
As my parents sang folk songs to keep themselves awake, I slipped into a relaxed liminal state, lulled by our travel between worlds, where ordinary life was suspended and anything could happen. It was magical.
In preparing for my upcoming online workshop on writing transformational travel stories, it's become clear to me that every single travel experience I've had has partaken of this magic.
We learn, grow and change every time we step out of our routines and expand our boundaries past what we already know. We are not the same person we were before the journey began.
It's been fun and interesting to think back over my lifetime of travel, from childhood trips to the ocean in Cape Cod, Maine and Nova Scotia; to a memorable trip exploring the Rocky Mountains from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Banff and Calgary; to a three-week bike trip through Vermont and New Hampshire; and trips as a young adult to California, Paris and Mexico.
Each of these experiences left their mark on me, especially the 6 months I spent in Paris as a graduate student, working on my French at the Alliance Francaise, where I met the man who would become my husband and the father of our sons—a story with a full arc that I shared in my memoir, What I Forgot...and Why I Remembered.
There's a reason that so many stories—from myths, legends and fairytales to The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings—use the journey as a narrative structure. We humans have been traveling since Neolithic times, and we know instinctively that travel stories are not only entertaining, they're also full of knowledge and sometimes even wisdom.
In my upcoming travel writing classes, we’ll be exploring how some our greatest adventures can take on new life as we move them out of our memories onto the page and share their transformative power with others. It's yet another way to make the world better with our writing!
I hope you'll join me for three Friday morning sessions from 9 - 10:30 am, starting Feb. 2, hosted by Il Chiostro. Just $120 for all three sessions, and recordings will be provided if you can’t make it live.
This will be a warm-up for the weeklong writing retreat I'll be leading May 25 - June 1 in Tuscany with Il Chiostro—find out more here.
Whether writing online or in person, we stir up magic when we share our creative journeys in good company! Do come along!
Yours from the road,
Jennifer
Come write with me! Upcoming opportunities….
In addition to the travel writing series, I’ve got several more online and in-person workshops coming up!
Exploring the Many Faces of Love
Chockfull of writing prompts and craft guidance, this class will help you create heartwarming stories about love (in all its many guises).
Four Mondays, February 5, 12, 26, & March 4, 6 - 8 pm Eastern.
Hosted by the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia; $169 for WFNS members, $234 for non-members (includes membership).
Click here for full details and registration.
Speak Your Truth! Leadership, Writing & Public Speaking for Social and Environmental Justice
Four Fridays in March starting March 1, 12-1:30 pm Eastern.
Hosted by Bioneers Learning; $349 includes discount pass to the 35th Annual Bioneers Conference in Berkeley CA!
Find out more from the short video below; full registration details available here.
Join me for a Californian writing retreat by the sea!
With my lifelong friend Audrey Kalman, I’ll be leading a three-day Birth Your Truest Story Writing & Hiking Retreat in northern California, March 25 - 28, 2024—and YOU are invited!
We’ll stay together at a cozy retreat center, sharing meals, writing sessions and hot tubs, interspersed with invigorating hikes on the nearby beach and up in the hills along the coast.
This will be the perfect idyll to get your creative juices flowing in good company!
Check out all the details here and if you’d like to come along, don’t delay—space is limited and will go fast!
Come with me to Tuscany next spring!
I’ll be leading another fabulous Il Chiostro writing workshop May 25 - June 1, 2024 at the luxurious Borgo San Fedele, a meticulously restored monastery set in exquisite gardens amid a classic Tuscan landscape of olive groves and vineyards.
Our days will unfold in a perfect balance of guided writing and productive sharing; excursions guided by our Il Chiostro hosts to nearby picturesque medieval towns; coming home to San Fedele to relax by the pools and gardens, eat delicious meals and visit with new friends; and taking time for your own contemplative writing and thinking.
You’ll come away from this magical sojourn simultaneously enlivened and relaxed, with a deeper understanding of your purpose in writing memoir, along with many pages of new writing providing a plethora of potential doorways into the story of your life.
More information (and beautiful photos) here.
Ready to book? Click here.
Come Riding & Writing with me in Iceland next June!
Come along with me for an all-inclusive week of RIDING and WRITING in the spectacular Icelandic countryside, in the height of the bright summer season, June 10 – 16, 2024.
Every day we’ll ride out on sturdy, sweet Icelandic horses through the expansive rolling vistas of western Iceland, led by our experienced guides from Hestaland. Once you’ve experienced the exhilaration of the fast, smooth tolt, a gait unique to Icelandic horses, you may not want to go back to the trot!
We’ll eat delicious meals together at the beautiful Hestaland Guesthouse and participate in thoughtful, open-hearted guided writing sessions.
There will also be plenty of time for sharing and discussing your writing projects and visiting the nearby hot spring spa at Krauma.
Learn more about costs and accommodations on the application form.
Whether you’ve been to Iceland many times, or this will be your first experience there, this trip is sure to be transformative!
More information (and beautiful photos) here. Email me with any questions!