Hi hi, Mari here! (Yes, I used to go by “Mary,” more on that in a moment…)

A while ago, my The Big One group and I were talking about the shame and discouragement we sometimes feel when the inspiration isn’t flowing.

Our fall writing workshop line-up launches today, and I’m indulging myself in my favorite lines from fall poems.

It seems like there are so many of them.

There’s “Fall Song” by Joy Harjo, with the line — “I need a song that will keep sky open in my mind.”

I mostly stay away from trends.

They usually pass before I catch up anyway, and I’d rather stay focused on what’s in my lane — you, writing, all this.

If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be emailing you about a “Digital Cottage Day,” I’d have walked right out of the room.

I was a workshop purist, clear in my ideas about how writing gatherings should look…

I used to be so confused by other people’s long-term relationship goals.

Everyone seemed to want spontaneity in a partner — I want someone who will make me laugh, someone who will surprise me, someone who will keep me on my toes.

Hello Bright Lights!

Asifa, Kim, and Mary here—we make up the BIPOC wing of Firefly…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about cusps.

Edges. Borders. Margins. That shimmering line where the familiar and the unfamiliar meet…

Do you ever feel like you don’t read enough?

A while back I innocently started a workshop by asking participants to share a book that changed them. It was so stressful.

Hello Sweet Peeps. We’re launching a new financial aid system at Firefly this week…

I was just reading over my notes from a course I took last fall with Nahanee Creative called, “Decolonial Mindset,” and saw that on the first day, our facilitator Ta7talíya said, “We’re all together in the unknown.”

Hi out there.

You know those people who walk into a room and seem to know how to talk to everyone?

Firefly turns 18 today.

If it were a person, it would be a legal adult, maybe thinking about career options and scanning Craigslist for apartments.

Hi’ya lovely.

Have you been finding writing hard lately?

Hi Lovely. It’s been 9 months since I wrote to you with my big, messy dream of opening a Firefly Writing Retreat Centre. At the time, I was reeling with the hope and overwhelm of it all, waking up at midnight worried about can openers.

Lately I’ve been thinking about this traffic circle in Holland.

Mark Nepo writes about it in his book, More Together Than Alone.

Dear Hearts,

This season, Kim and Mary dreamed up a new speculative fiction workshop for and by BIPOC (see the P.S. below for more on this term), called New Suns.

Hey Sweet One.

I remember a workshop, years ago, where at the start, every person shared that they were exhausted. One of us sighed and said, “There aren’t enough words for tired.”

At our Firefly retreat last weekend, we had a hilarious conversation over dinner about what this would look like if we were a pyramid scheme.

“Buy 5 Hello Writer Subscriptions and re-sell them to your friends, we believe in you!”