The Brave Writer Staff is taking time to be with family over the holiday! There won’t be any email correspondence from us between now and the 26th.
Have a wonderful end of the year celebration with your family!
Archive for the ‘Brave Writer Team’ Category
Writing Coach Interview: Kate Foran
Continuing our series of interviews with our writing instructors, here’s the latest installment: an interview with Kate Foran!
Kate Foran has a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Mount Holyoke College. Since then, her interest has been in exploring the spiritual roots of social change work and figuring out how to live out her commitment to racial and economic justice. She currently sits on the board of Two Coyotes Wilderness School where her older daughter is getting ready to graduate from a Wild Seed to a Black Fox in their homeschool program. In addition to teaching with Brave Writer, Kate’s funky job history includes freelance writing projects, living in an intentional community on an organic farm, gardening at a 250-acre park, museum education, historical interpretation, running programs for urban youth, and nonprofit communications.
What kind of a writer were you in high school?
I was a prolific journaler and an aspiring poet.
You’re a new addition to the crayon box. What color would you be and why?
A deep purple. Porphyrogene. It means “born to the purple,” as in “of royal blood.” But I like to take it literally.
Writing Coach Interview: Sarah Holden
Continuing our series of interviews with our marvelous writing instructors, here’s the latest installment: an interview with Sarah Holden!
Sarah had a magical childhood in Vermont, the fairy dust of which still informs much of her life. Now she lives in a home full of books with a view of the Rocky Mountains. She spent a year at Smith College and then transferred to The Juilliard School where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Oboe Performance. While in New York, she took poetry classes at Columbia and wrote and wrote and wrote amidst all the practicing and performing. She has been teaching in one form or another since she can remember: playing “school” as a child, private oboe lessons, Parent and Child music and art classes, elementary and middle schools in inner-NYC, classes to help public school teachers add the arts to their classrooms, Meet-the-Instrument assemblies, a decade of homeschooling her own children, homeschool co-op classes, and now online for Brave Writer.
What kind of a writer were you in high school?
I’ve always loved words. They feel like magic to me and I’ve enjoyed them from a place of reading, writing, and informal debating for as long as I can remember. Writing is a creative and emotional outlet in my life. I started journaling avidly at age 8 (yes, I still have those journals…and, no, you may not peek at them until I’m in my grave). I am very grateful that words and writing have always allowed me to process the good and bad parts of my days. I find that my thoughts are more free and forthcoming when I write them down and that the act of writing gives my oft-cluttered mind a means of organization. Of note, writing was especially helpful in the turbulent teen years when I felt lots of angst and overwhelm. When my mom and I had tense moments, I poured out my anger and confusion to her in letters. I’m sure these were difficult to read, but the act of writing those feelings down and getting them out of me was cathartic and lightening. I think they were helpful to my mom in finding a way to understand where I was coming from, too.
