The words will be there waiting whenever you are ready.
-Neema Avashia from Untelling Summer 2025
What a joy to be in Neema Avashia’s writing workshops. She is a master teacher, someone who lights up the room so that you suddenly see all sorts of things you never noticed before. The ink flows, as does the laughter. Like me, she teaches middle school, so mad respect right there. No one knows how to ride the waves like a middle school teacher on top of their game. I’ve been in her section at the Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman and I’ve also taken her online monthly generative writing classes that help keep the lights on for me. I received encouragement and affirmation from her when I needed it most. The way she speaks of ‘my book’ as if it were inevitable gives me courage and heartens me. Such kindness. She returns to Hindman this summer to teach creative nonfiction and I am already wishing on every star that I will get to be in her class again.
Her writing is brave and true. Her memoir Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place has received well deserved awards and praise. On her website you can find links to her many essays and opinion pieces that shine light into dark places.
And here’s where you can register for her monthly generative writing sessions. I just did. They start up in January! You can register just for a single session or sign up for all of them and get a very reasonable price indeed. https://hindman.org/events/generatetogetherjanuary26/
A sparkly blue Diamine Ink.
My Advent Tree this year is dedicated to my writer friends and teachers. I am so grateful for all the light you shine in the darkness.
An Apology: I am behind on my Advent tree posts, the last week of school before the holiday break has pretty much done me in, but I aim to catch up in the next few days.
This week has been spent back at school, a week of preparation for the teachers. Faculty meetings, room prep, brainstorming, catching up with colleagues. All the gears are beginning to turn, meshing with each other, cranking up to launch another school year. We all have things we plan to teach.
Two more horrific mass shootings within 24 hours of each other. The work of young white men who believe they know who deserves to die, who feel they have the right to destroy the lives of The Other. One of their imagined enemies was a school girl who just finished the eighth grade. She didn’t flee when the shooting started, she tried to help her grandmother who uses a cane. Who taught that young man such hatred?
Teaching is a sacred endeavor. What is taught is not nearly as important as who is teaching. Someone who really sees each student. Someone who respects them and believes the absolute best about them. Someone who loves them. That is who I strive to be.
Our head of school began our first faculty meeting by addressing the shootings. She stated that on our journey together we will focus more than ever on taking care of each other, all of us- students, parents, faculty, staff. We take care of each other because The Other is our family. And this is why I am deeply grateful to be part of my school, because it is more than just talk. It is what we do. We teach love.
Designed by senior Caroline Kessler for last year’s Pride Day.
The Fox at Dawn 