Each week, seven writers--all retired from professional careers--spend two hours together. The purpose of their gathering is to discuss what they wrote the previous week. For a number of years prior to 2020, the group met in their homes over coffee. The pandemic changed that. Members could not hug at Zoom meetings. Then in May, a white policeman pressed his knee to a Black man's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Other officers looked on with chilling nonchalance as he pleaded, "I can't breathe." A teenager captured it all on her cellphone, and the world exploded.The process of putting down their thoughts about the cascading events of the year helped the group weather the challenges of 2020 and beyond. Inside Writing While Masked are personal pieces--writings of the moment, essays that reflect, and poems that express raw emotion. They include thoughts about what the authors experienced and learned, and what they want for the future. Most of all, they are words of hope.
Table of Contents:
JAN 2020
In the BeginningFEB
New York: Before it Started
Scrabble in the Time of the Coronavirus
MARCH
Together Again in the Shadow of the Plague
Being Immortal Is an Illusion
Mindfulness
Pain Psalm
Letter to Virus-in-Chief
Vita Nuova
It Was COVID
Italian Misadventure
APR
Babies and Broccoli and Jack
Looking on the Bright Side
Bread in the Time of COVID
Thank You to Wordsmiths
Unexpected Cohabitation
MAY
Finding Joy in the Time of Virus
Mid-afternoon Malaise
Suspension of the Moment
To Mask or Not to Mask
Relentless
Is It Not Enough?
JUNE
Lament
I Cry!
Protests
Some Days
So Many Years Ago
Skyschool
Power of One
Freezing the Memories at Four Months
COVID Connection
JULY
How Do I Talk to My Sister?
Hospice House
COVID Date: March 126th, 2020
Speak!
A Schedule and a Garden
She Doesn't Want to
Endless Time
Animals in the Time of the Coronavirus
COVID-crazy
Sleepless in Seattle
AUG
Idea Clustering: Marriage
Holler!
Birthday Party: Short, Outside, Distanced
SEPT
Why Make a Plan?
Psilocybe Love Story
Words, Words, Words
Would Our Divide Narrow if We Just Talked--and Listened
More Cases of COVID
OCT
Calculated Risk is New Now
Midnight
Making 2020 Add Up
Awe Walks
Caution Exhaustion
Even More Cases of COVID-19
NOV
Land of Plenty--Plenty of Systems
Voter Fraud
Musings on a Solo Thanksgiving
Celebrating in COVID's Shadow
DEC
Breathe
Crisis in COVID-time
Kindness in Crisis
I Try To Be Grateful
Not Just Any Day
REFLECTIONS ON 2020
2021 POSTSCRIPT
Jan-June 2021
New Year
Your Ancestors are Looking for You
Eulogy to Democracy in Our Time
100,000 AND COUNTING
Stepping Out
Brand New Year
83-Year-Old Woman Who Lives Alone
Out of the Woods
So It Was Written
Pause, Reset, Forward
About the Author :
Mary Ann Gonzales has a long history of working with nonprofit social organizations, from the Seattle AIDS SUPPORT GROUP to the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Tyson Greer has undertaken a broad array of endeavors including directing documentaries, teaching screen writing at the University of Washington, and authoring a book on technology for Microsoft Press. She is now writing fiction.
Wanda Herndon has enjoyed a successful corporate career in marketing, retiring from Starbucks as senior vice president, Global Public Affairs, after which she founded W Communications.
Laura Celise Lippman is a retired medical doctor and administrator whose poems have appeared in Crosswinds, Poontoon Poetry, Mobius, The Journal of Social Change, and other publications.
Jane Spalding started out as a teacher, and then served as development director for several nonprofits, including Harborview Medical Center and Seattle University.
Suzanne Tedesko worked at KCTS/9, producing two national PBS documentaries, and has written Seattle guidebooks for Fodors and a screenplay.
Beth Weir was a professor of education at Meredith College in Raleigh for seventeen years and after moving to Seattle, the executive director of the Dunn Gardens.
