their words

These aren't just testimonials about writing.
They're stories about coming home to yourself.

Deidre Hill Butler, PhD

Professor & Chair
Sociology Department
Union College

Healing the Writing Wound Alumna

“I didn’t realize how much I needed a space like this until I was in it.

Healing the Writing Wound gave me permission—permission to be silent, permission not to perform, permission to just be. And that was powerful for me, because I’ve been socialized to always say something, always show up in a certain way. But in this space, I was already seen. I didn’t have to prove anything.

Something shifted in me over these 12 weeks. I started sharing my work again—work that had been sitting for years. I started submitting. I still get that little voice sometimes, like, ‘who’s going to support this?’—but I did it anyway. And that’s new for me.

What surprised me most was the community. Intergenerational, real, honest. I came in used to being the one with the knowledge, but I found myself learning so much from everyone else. We listened to each other. We held space for each other. There was no judgment—just care.

And honestly, it brought me back to myself. I’m an artist at heart, and somewhere along the way, the academy kind of stomped that out. But this space reminded me—no, that part of me is still here. It’s still alive. Now I’m working on my book again. I’m starting a podcast. I’m creating.

This wasn’t just about writing. It was about healing. It was about being in a space where you can actually bloom.

And in the climate we’re in right now? Spaces like this aren’t extra. They’re necessary.”

"My relationship to writing before HTWW
felt fragmented-it was too painful to even think about. I gained the confidence to center myself in my writing through the radical love and support of this circle."

"I'm excavating ideas about my writing and work ethic that were never truly mine to begin with. The reflections are helping me claim what's actually mine, honor the limits I'm mavigating, and release the rest."

"l appreciate the spaciousness to talk about what's hard with writing without solving it or making a plan."

"For those of us suffering from resistance exhaustion, this is a breath of fresh air."

"This is a space to take time with yourself and to consider developing a spacious and loving way of engaging with writing."

"After HTWW, I now stop and pay attention to what I'm feeling and try to name it, think about it. let myself feel without judgement and continue to write. It has made writing feel more connected to who I am."

This work is for scholars who want something deeper
than accountability.

Pamela (Iyabo) Twyman Hoff, PhD

Professor, University of Illinois Springfield

Healing the Writing Wound Alumna

"Before Healing the Writing Wound, I was writing consistently—but I no longer felt connected to my own voice. I knew how to produce scholarly work, but my writing had begun to feel like a performance, shaped more by academic expectations than by who I was. It was technically strong, but spiritually distant.

Healing the Writing Wound helped me realize that my writing process wasn't broken—it was simply different. I stopped seeing my nonlinear, intuitive way of writing as a flaw and began to recognize it as an essential part of how I make meaning. I reconnected with my voice through greater compassion, reflection, and trust in my own process.

What made the experience extraordinary was the community. Together, we created a space that refused the isolation and performance so common in academia. We met one another with honesty, grace, and deep care. Through conversation, stories, music, poetry, and reflection, healing became something we experienced—not just something we talked about.

If your writing feels disconnected from who you are—if you're producing but no longer feel present in your own work—Healing the Writing Wound offers something rare: a space to return to yourself. I didn't leave with a new writing process. I left having reclaimed the one that had always been mine."

TTT