Meet our Artists
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Morgan Grayce Willow | Literary
Morgan Grayce Willow | Literary
Morgan Grayce Willow has expressed her passion for poetry and writing as a Teaching Artist at The Loft Literary Center, SASE The Write Place, and other community venues, as well as at Minneapolis College. She has taught many classes in poetry, essay, memoir, and – a favorite – the use of journals and notebooks in generating and developing manuscripts for publication.
Morgan is a veteran of the COMPAS Literary Post Program, a pre-internet writing program for elder writers from all over the state of Minnesota. Serving as a Mail Order Editor, she responded to drafts of poems, memoirs, and stories participants had mailed in, coaching each writer as they developed their manuscripts. In 1988, Morgan had the distinct pleasure of editing the COMPAS anthology by Literary Post writers entitled Cellar Doors and Hollyhocks.
In her own work, Morgan has published poetry collections and chapbooks with titles such as Dodge & Scramble, Between, Silk, Oddly Enough. Her essays and memoirs include the title piece in Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers and the Pushcart Prize nominated “(Un)Document(ing)” which appeared in Water~Stone Review in 2019. Morgan also has a keen interest in book arts and completed the Minnesota Center for Book Arts core certificate where she exhibited her artist’s book Collage for Mina Loy in 2016.
Morgan believe language is magical. As a teaching artist, she aims to unlock that magic for participants in my residencies and workshops. She does this by providing a sequence of writing activities that invite them to engage in and enjoy their own creative relationship with language. Whether they choose to write poetry, memoir, or story, with guidance, well-selected prompts, and supportive feedback, each participant discovers a gift for writing they didn’t know they had.
Morgan brings to her residencies and workshops experience in accommodating participants who have a variety of learning styles and accessibility needs. For a time, she was a sign language interpreter. Through SASE The Write Place, she led workshops for and mentored Deaf and hard-of-hearing writers and published Crossing that Bridge: A Guide to Making Literary Events Accessible to Deaf & Hard-of-hearing Audiences.
Learn more about Morgan in her September 2021 Artist Spotlight Interview.
“Morgan taught a class I attended through Eagan Community Education, Telling Your Story. This was available for people over 50 wishing to leave a legacy story for their family and friends. She is a warm and welcoming teacher. She made sure that each person had time to speak and read their stories if they wanted to. There was never any pressure. Each lesson was communicated clearly and was easy to do. We had a lot of fun too. I look forward to taking another class from Morgan in the future.”
“Morgan Grayce Willow provided a safe, encouraging environment for our Telling Our Stories program. The participants bonded through their writing in a powerful way and continued to meet after the class ended. Morgan’s gentle nature and supportive teaching provided the students with tools to record important and emotional times of their lives.”
Sample Programs: Customizable To Site’s Needs
Residencies
Writing Your Stories: Personal Memoir
In this memoir residency participants learn to capture stories from their lives and write them to suit the audience they want to share them with, whether that is family or a wider range of readers. Through lots of writing prompts – some of them visual (though no artistic talent is needed) – and exercises, participants practice the principles of good memoir writing, including description, dialogue, telling with strong verbs, revealing with vivid images, and so on. Supportive feedback from both peers and the teaching artist helps participants build confidence in their writing skills.
Poetry Practice
This residency is a hands-on introductory journey into the practice of poetry. Through guided readings of a wide variety of poems and lots of writing exercises, participants gain fresh insights into how poems are made and experience writing their own poems in a supportive environment. Participants will come away from the residency with a clearer sense of how to read poems and whose poems they like. They will also feel more confidence about expressing themselves in their own poems.
Journal Writing for Life and Creativity
Keeping a journal can be as simple as writing down the date and making a note about the day’s weather. It can also be a kind of laboratory for a writer’s frequent practice of writing. In this residency, participants learn the techniques and strategies writers who keep journals or notebooks have used for centuries to explore their subjects and develop skill in their craft. Through a wide variety of exercises – some visual (no artistic skill needed) – participants try out journal writing techniques they can use in their lives and in their writing.
Workshop
Personal Memoir, Poetry or Journal Writing
Single-session workshops are designed from the same general topics as residencies and planned, in consultation with site staff, to have a very specific focus.
