The Writers Bridge | More Than a Writer: How Other Roles Inform Our Craft
March 31 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
You’re more than words on a page. How does your life inform your writing?
Three authors, three lives.
Outside of our writing pursuits, we all have other roles: as parents, job-holders, athletes, volunteers, activists, etc. Writers often lament that these demands compete with our practice, but how can they improve our craft? But how can we balance the lives that surround our writing with the work we create–and more than that, how can our “regular” lives feed, complement, and support our creative process?
Blair Glaser, Jocelyn Jane Cox and Jaque Gorelick will share the surprising ways their extra obligations (and passions!) provide inspiration, content, and transferable skills, and of course, how they handle all the multitasking. Get practical advice and strategies to get words on the page, not just in spite of your other roles but because of them.
Join us TUESDAY March 31st at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!
Our special guests:
Blair Glaser is a recovering psychotherapist, executive leadership and career coach. Her essays have appeared in Longreads, Shondaland, Oldster, Quartz, HuffPost, Inside Higher Ed, and others, as well as in literary magazines such as Brevity, Scoop, Rain Taxi, and The Mantlepiece. She is the author of This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near-cult Experience (Heliotrope, 2026).
Jocelyn Jane Cox was a competitive figure skater who became a national-level coach, balancing this role with her writing for over 25 years. She is the author of Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice (Vine Leaves, 9/25). She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, The Offing, and the Colorado Review, among others.
Jacque Gorelick is an elementary school teacher turned writer who spent years helping students turn ideas into stories. Her essays about motherhood, health, education, and estrangement appear in The New York Times, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Pithead Chapel, X-R-A-Y, and The Kenyon Review. Map of a Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Finding the Way Home (Vine Leaves Press 2026) is her debut.
Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guests for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about publishing, platform, and always following your mission.
FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.
Enjoy past recorded sessions here
Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS
Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.
Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com
