Ana Marie Cox and Her Affirming Writers Workshop
Just a quick promo for her work.
Hey readers. Parker here.
Today, I just wanted to spend a bit of time promoting one of my friend’s projects.
Check out Ana Marie Cox’s writing workshop.
I was chatting the other day with my friend, the super-talented writer Ana Marie Cox, and in the course of our conversation, we got to talking about her tri-annual 11-week writing workshop, the Third Story Workshop. As I know that there are a lot of writers of all experience levels who read TPA, I wanted to use today’s newsletter as an opportunity to chat a bit about that.
Ana’s workshop is a bit different than a lot of others in that it’s rooted in trauma recovery. As she tells me, “Everybody’s recovering from something.” Here’s what she had to say:
On why it’s called the Third Story Workshop:
There's a fair amount of research about the importance of reworking one's narrative and trauma. A lot of trauma work is basically finding a new narrative for yourself. And that has been true for me. One way I like to describe that process is that there's the story the world tells you, the story you tell yourself, and then there's the story you tell the world. And that's your third story. And that's what I want to help people get to.
On the history and process:
The exact process came from teaching writing workshops at treatment centers, where we were. My friend and I started doing it more than eight years ago, and we started with specifically helping people tell addiction recovery stories and using a lot of the tools from 12-step programs, including in the workshop format, identifying in and not out, like when someone tells a story, you don't look for the differences; you look for the similarities, right? And then also to not dwell too much on the way that you were thinking or feeling and to think more concretely about what was happening.
I feel like in AA, there's a very concrete description of the way we tell our stories, which is what it was like, what happened, and what it's like today. Which is just a classic narrative, too. And so I kind of guide people through that.
On her “everybody’s recovering from something” philosophy and who this workshop is for:
This was the big insight I had last year when I decided to start teaching it: everybody's recovering from something. I've had people come through the workshop who are chronically ill. I've actually had a few people come through who recently got an autism diagnosis. People who are recovering from cancer, recovering from the loss of a loved one, and then a fair amount of chemical dependency recovery stores.
It’s for anyone who has a before and after. Like anyone who has a thing that's happened that has prompted a re-examination.
On what people will get out of the workshop:
At the end of eleven weeks, you’ll have a short personal essay between 2,000 and 3,000 words, or the backbone of a larger essay about your journey to who you are today.
What I hope for people is that it produces some kind of shift for them. And I have seen it; it's kind of corny, but I've seen it happen over and over and over again. I've seen people have insights about what they went through.
The next session begins on April 23rd, and it runs every Tuesday evening. For more information, check out her website. Use code TPAFRIEND to get 30% off.1
She’s also holding a free online writing party on Saturday, March 23rd. If you’ve got more questions about the full workshop, that’s a great place to get answers. You can register for that here.
What I’m reading:
“Four unpersuasive arguments against TikTok” (Max Read, 3/15/24)
“The burgeoning anti-trans surveillance state” (Jessica Kant, 3/4/24)
“Facebook’s Algorithm Is Boosting AI Spam That Links to AI-Generated, Ad-Laden Click Farms” (404 Media, Jason Koebler, 3/19/24)
“A year ago Russia jailed Evan Gershkovich for doing journalism. He’s still there.” (The Guardian, Margaret Sullivan, 3/18/24)
“A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration” (Media Matters for America, Sophie Lawton, Jacina Hollins-Borges, Jack Wheatley, John Knefel, 3/20/24)
“The Children Who Lost Limbs in Gaza” (The New Yorker, Eliza Griswold, 3/21/24)
I’m not getting a kickback or anything.
I've known AMC, a little, since we were both in high school.
She's still fan-damned-tastic, and she's always been insanely brilliant, scarily so at times.
You and her are both great writers, Parker. Plenty for all to learn from both of you.
I wrote a play commission a few years back working from material generated from this kind of workshop — the participants were all people who were transitioning out of prison and/or rehab centers. They produced the raw material anonymously, and I used that all as a jumping off point for my script. That "re-writing trauma narrative" idea here was absolutely true in that case, and really served as my guiding ideal for the project. The script was ultimately mine, but my purpose was to help them all in their helping processes — to give them opportunities to reshape the narratives of their lives, to hold up a mirror to their traumas in a way that reframed them and helped them grow. It was a pretty powerful experience!