We put together these articles, videos, worksheets, and more to help you be the best workshop leader you can be. If you’re interested in sharing something you have created with your fellow affiliates, please get in touch with us. We would love to add it to these offerings.

AWA also has a friendly guide, the 7 Steps to Success, that can help you navigate to the resources that are most relevant to you.

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    Training Materials

    Manual

    We’ve made a digital, searchable version of our training manual. You can download that PDF by clicking this link.

     

    Upholding the Integrity of the Method outlines the 5 Essential Affirmations and 6 Essential Practices along with the why behind each. View the guide here

    Tell Me Something I Can’t Forget

    This powerful film about Pat Schneider’s work with the women from Chicopee, MA is now available to view on archive.org. You can revisit it here.

    Where Your Authority Comes From

    Many people asked for a copy of the history we share at the end of the training. So, here it is for your reference and encouragement!

    Introduction to AWA Affiliation

    When you complete your training, we review the benefits of your affiliation and tell you how you can make the most of your membership. Here’s a PDF guide that covers similar topics, structured into a week-long email series we sent in January 2021.

    Retreat Recordings

    If you attended or signed up for AWA’s online retreat in 2020, you have access to recordings from the event. If you didn’t attend, you can now purchase access to them.

    Taking AWA Online

    While we’re unable to safely gather in-person, we still want to write together. In March and April of 2020, AWA offered a special post-certificate training about leading AWA groups online.

    If you’re interested in learning more, we’ve shared a recording and transcript, from each of the two similar sessions, for your reference.

    Logos

    This logo quickly tells people you are an AWA affiliate. We invite you to use it in all advertising to support your work as a leader. We have versions you can easily download in red, teal, and blue.

    If you’d like a different color, a transparent background, or to link the image back to amherstwriters.org, we can help. Please reach out to Sue Reynolds at sue@amherstwriters.org.

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        Prompts

           

            • Collections of Emergency Prompts, compiled by our community and provided to all affiliates in 2018, 2019, and 2020

            • An ongoing thread of prompt discussion and suggestions in our affiliate forum

          Diversity and Inclusion

             

            Data Collection: How AWA Is Healing Work

               

                • Pre-workshop and post-worshop evaluation forms (coming soon)

              Press about the AWA Method

                 

                  • “The Writing Workshop that Runs Itself” by Ben Dolnick in LitHub

                  • “Writing for Myself and With Others: My Experience With the AWA Method” by Brad Buchanan in Poets & Writers

                  • “Turning the Writing Workshop Model on its Head,” by Sue Reynolds, originally shared in the Substack newsletter of the Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast. If you’re not a subscriber, you can read the article here without running into the paywall.

                  • “Writers Space Fosters Creativity in Jacksonville” by Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune

                  • “Writing workshops across Pioneer Valley help women set their inner voices free” by Max Marcus in the Greenfield Recorder

                  • “Suzanne Rancourt’s Authentic Voice: One Writer’s GPS to Wholeness” in the Poets & Writers blog