About Joan

When I write I want to connect with something - a mislaid memory, a character's voice, the way the air feels on any given morning. I always hope that if I follow such a thread I will touch some deep and vital part of myself, or gain access to worlds beyond my ordinary experience.

When I teach I help others make connections, to happen upon the unexpected. It is at this level -  writing not what we know but what wants to be discovered - that real creative and transformative work gets done. I delight in helping others find those portals through which they meet their stories and themselves.

My writing method has its roots in the Metcalf-Simon Practice of Proprioceptive Writing for which I received teacher certification in 1991. Since then I have developed my own ways of working with writers. My teaching style reflects my deep interest in nature, imagination and dream - the transpersonal realms of creative experience.

In addition to my work at Fifth House Lodge, I have taught over the years at Maine College of Art, Maine Writers' and Publishers' Alliance, Spring Hill, and the Universities of Southern Maine, New Hampshire and New England.

I came to Fifth House Lodge in 1999 to create a haven for writers to work in a retreat setting. Most who spend time writing here discover that the natural world is a powerful presence that informs their work.

I look forward to writing with you. 

Joan