How Workshops, Community and Curiosity Shaped My Writing Life   For any readers wanting to get into the business of poetry: I didn’t set out with a grand plan to become a poet. In fact, my journey began quite simply—with a decision to attend a face-to-face poetry workshop. I wrote a poem instead of a short story for class one time and a member, Dani, suggested I try poetry instead.   I still remember that afternoon at City Lit: the circle of chairs, the quiet shuffling of not

Ms. and Smith College Program for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality Present — Writing for the Popular Press: A Workshop for Feminist Scholars and Grassroots Leaders, on campus at Smith College, July 13-15, 2026. Application deadline: March 16, 2026. Workshop leaders include Ms. scholars, writers and editors: Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Arizona State University Carrie N. Baker, Smith College Loretta Ross, Smith College Janell Hobson, University at Albany Stacy Keltner, Kennesaw S

Born in 1921, the young Gimbutas travelled across Lithuania collecting traditional songs and folklore, which became the basis for her in-depth studies in linguistics, archeology, and ethnology. She even created a new science and research area of her own called “archeomythology” (1), (4).   At home and abroad, she turned into one of the most prominent and outstanding–but also co ntroversial–female researchers of the 20th century in the Western world. World War II forced her fa