Workshops

"After not having written for twenty-five years, I was lucky to find Ellen Bass, who encouraged and affirmed my beginning efforts. Had it not been for her, I do not think I would have gone on, and if I had gone on, the way would have been tortuous. I particularly was helped by Ellen's approach to the poem as being a process of life."
    -Phyllis Koestenbaum — author of eight volumes of poetry and anthologized in The Best Ameican Poetry

"Ellen's writing workshop renewed my faith in my writing self, and in writing groups in general. Ellen's kindness and wisdom, both as a facilitator of process for a diverse group of writers, and one-on-one in private sessions renewed my confidence in myself and my work. I will always be grateful."
    -Felicia Ward — Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and winner of the Nimrod Award for Fiction

"Having taken three of her weekend writing workshops, I remain impressed at the subtle, indeed alchemical, way Ellen Bass quickly engenders a safe supportive space in which a wide range of participants create and share increasingly profound and personal, sometimes painful and frequently humorous, work. Inspired and encouraged by the group, I am amazed at the depths to which I am able to dive, and then can carry the magical experience back to my home writing practice."
    - Jim Van Buskirk — author of four books, including Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and Celluloid San Francisco: A Film Lover's Guide to San Francisco Movie Locations.

"I want to once again thank you for your inspiration, support and nudging. You are a marvelous teacher and model for the creative process, the work it takes and the results it yields in product and personal gratification. I am recognizing the poet in myself, finding the reorganization of my way of seeing the world and my experiences in it so stimulating at times and so right in the way it soothes me at other times. Beyond thank you."
    - Nancy K. Brown — memoir and poetry, Santa Cruz

"Thank you for being a person with whom the effort to speak up is always worthwhile; thank you for the generosity of your wisdom, which is both profound and practical; and thank you for constantly articulating your faith in my writing, which has helped me up over and over... It's about 10:30 now, way past my bed-time. I just printed out an outline of the book's skeleton. I am thoroughly enchanted by the adventure of organization! My metaphor for it is this: having some 'narrative structure' is like finally sheltering myself in a cabin, after trying to stay warm for years huddling beneath a pile of sticks..."
     - Kathryn Kefauver — novelist, San Francisco

"These workshops have given my work a safe place to go before going out into the world, a sort of half-way house for wayward writing. Attending them is a reminder to me that no effort is (or needs to be) truly solitary."
    -Danusha Lameris— poet, Santa Cruz

"Ellen, I love your clarity and your ability to concretize the vagueness of anything I or others write. Your insights take me to places that I haven't been before; helping me to see the larger possibilities. Writing can be a bumpy ride, but because you are such a fine teacher, you make it smoother."
     - Shalom Victor — novelist, Santa Cruz

"Before I venture off on my own, leaving behind the safety of the group, I want to take a moment to thank you. For years I have wanted to acknowledge that part of me that longs to write, but I have always managed to give every other part of my life priority. With the help of your class I have rediscovered just how much I love writing and what an important part of me the writing side can be. I thank you for that. Your positive feedback, your gentle suggestions, and most of all, your willingness to honor the writer in all of us--these have helped me ease into the writing life. My real triumph? For the first time, I actually wrote to the end of a journal! I suspect that will be the first of many."
    - Ellen Newberry — Santa Cruz

"A writer's workshop (or retreat) facilitated by Ellen Bass is a rare and inspiring opportunity. I learned so much, about writing and about myself, that the experience is still resonant and meaningful long after the fact."
    - Susan Pritzker