Writing our past for the future: Odyssey Indigo to offer memoir- and grief-writing workshops

Initial workshops to be held in St. Marys and Woodstock

St. Marys poet, writer and editor Kate Orland Bere will offer a four-week memoir and legacy writing workshop at Riverwalk Commons beginning March 24.

By Galen Simmons

For anyone who has ever thought, “I should really write that down someday,” St. Marys writer, poet and editor Kate Orland Bere is thinking someday might just be this spring.

Orland Bere’s business, Odyssey Indigo Communications & Consulting, is launching a four-week memoir/legacy writing workshop at Riverwalk Commons in St. Marys on Tuesday, March 24. Various ongoing writing workshops will be offered on a rotating 4-week plan in the sun-filled Riverwalk Commons space on Tuesday mornings. Others from the community may come to Riverwalk at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays, after the workshop finishes each week, for just $10 cash, and stay until 2 p.m. to write.

The following Monday, on March 30, Orland Bere will offer an inaugural Grief Writing workshop at Terra Nova Nordic Spa, just north of Woodstock. On the final Monday morning of each month, she will also be offering rotating writing workshops there. The Grief Writing workshop is focused on healing: grief exploration for the purpose of integrating grief into one’s life and moving through grief from where we stand. The workshop is intended to assist with healing through writing exercises, meditation, poems, stories and music.

A developmental and substantive editor who works closely with clients on their life stories, Orland Bere says the memoir and legacy workshop in St. Marys offers those who have a critical story to tell a dynamic forum to explore their projects.

“Not everyone is going to take on writing a full memoir,” she said. “However, one can write a unique legacy story about their family or business to leave for the generations to follow. For business, their captured narrative carries the potential for exceptional promotion. A well-rendered memoir or story can provide invaluable ballast and deep meaning for those who will follow us. In that writing process, I am a seasoned guide offering workshop participants a roadmap to their story’s success.”

The workshop is designed as an extended brainstorming session for anyone who has an idea for a memoir, has already started one, or wants to craft a legacy piece. Over four Tuesday mornings, participants will be guided in exploring their narrative and how to shape their experiences into a significant story.

Orland Bere says this work can be challenging yet deeply rewarding.

“It’s the engagement that matters. If people become deeply engaged with their ideas and life experience, incredible projects are born. In a group setting, ideas can explode into something vital. Join us!” she said.

“Writing your memoir or story becomes a meaningful journey. Sometimes it’s about reclaiming parts of ourselves we imagined we had lost; sometimes we just need to write our truth. The workshop provides a dynamic environment to explore where the deepest meaning lies in a particular story, and how best to effectively convey that meaning to readers. As a professional writer and editor, as a poet, I offer my writing expertise and guidance in that essential creative process.”

Beginning March 24, the four-Tuesdays workshop series at Riverwalk Commons will run from 9-11 a.m., and the workshop fee of $150 includes access to the space until 2 p.m. one all four Tuesdays. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. Participants can bring a lunch or pay for a catered wrap, join an open discussion over lunch, and, if desired, sit down with Kate for an included project consultation. On April 21, the next four-week session will begin, a poetry workshop to celebrate National Poetry Month.

With Odyssey Indigo as her brand, Orland Bere has developed a full slate of additional workshops she plans to roll out over time at Riverwalk, at Terra Nova Nordic Spa and elsewhere. Topics range from grief writing, poetry, and short fiction to creative retirement planning and career transitions (both under the banner Gratefully Rewired), brainstorming an art-based business, helping young people to choose a career foundation, and a humanist feminist series entitled SisterThink (Orland Bere writes a column on Substack entitled “SisterTHINK”).

Orland Bere is a trained and experienced career-development professional, offering consulting in both areas. She also has 10 years of post-secondary writing education at McGill University, the University of Toronto, Duke University and the Humber School of Writing.

To register or to learn more about upcoming workshops at Riverwalk Commons and/or Terra Nova Nordic Spa & Café, email Kate at odysseyindigoccc@gmail.com with “Odyssey Indigo Writing Workshop registration” in the subject line. To see upcoming workshop schedules at both locations or elsewhere, visit the Odyssey Indigo website at www.odysseyindigo.com under the “About/Workshops” tab.