Finding Your Center: Building a Writing & Healing Practice for Yourself

The Community Library

As humans, we arrive at any given moment with a wide range of joys and traumas—as writers, this is no different. If we have been called to writing, this is because we know we have something important to say. But when we come from different backgrounds and different life experiences, what responsibility do we have to truth in our writing? What is the responsibility we have to ourselves and to each other? What harm do we create when we write from a place that is inauthentic to who we are—and in the reverse, what power do we embody when we write from our own truth? In this workshop, award-winning poet and Level II Reiki practitioner, Jo Blair Cipriano, will lead us in an afternoon of reconnecting to our authentic selves. We will study work by Solmaz Sharif, Taneum Bambrick, Nicole Sealey, Layli Long Soldier, and Luther Hughes among others, and will discuss why only they could’ve written the precise poems they did. We will use guided meditations, writing exercises, and open discussion as means to explore what are the poems that only we could write. This workshop will help you explore who you are at your core, and who your ...

Ketchum Remote Collective Workspace

The Community Library

Ketchum Remote Collective aims to bridge the intangible gap between the Wood River Valley’s physical community and the remote workplace for many of its residents. Come meet and spend part of your week working alongside other remote workers. Drop in Fridays between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. to The Community Library's Lecture Hall.

Free

Wood River Writers’ Focused Writing Group

The Community Library

Co-work with a community of writers the first Saturday of each month for focused writing and craft discussions and connect to other writers from the Wood River Valley and beyond! All writing abilities and ages welcome. Join us in the library's Idaho Room, or online via Zoom. No registration required. Visit www.comlib.org for the Zoom link and passcode. The Wood River Writers’ Groups are led by AJ Super, a local author with a trilogy of science fiction books published by a small traditional press. She is also a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Association (SFWA) member.

Free

Sun Valley Early Literacy Learning Summit

The Community Library

June 12-14, 2024, The Community Library invites Kindergarten through Grade 3 educators – who open the world of words to children – from around southern Idaho to come to Ketchum/Sun Valley for three days of lively conversation and learning with preeminent literacy scholars and colleagues. We’ll dig into reading research and discuss: how reading happens in the brain, the components of structured literacy, the impact of phonemic awareness on literacy, the principles of spelling, informed teaching strategies for multilingual language learners, informed teaching strategies for students with dyslexia, social-emotional learning, and more. There is no cost for the Early Literacy Summit. An honorarium of $200 will be provided to teachers based in Blaine County, and $500 will be provided to instructors traveling from outside of Blaine County, to help cover travel and associated expenses. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided each day. Continuing education credit will be provided through Northwest Nazarene University. Registration is limited to approximately 36 instructors. The application period opens on February 1 and closes on March 1, 2024. For more information, contact Jenny Emery Davidson, executive director at The Community Library: [email protected].

Free

Wood River Writers’ Critique Group

The Community Library

Work with a community of writers on the third Saturday of each month through critiques and craft discussions. Connect to other writers from the Wood River Valley and beyond! Read and critique pages from each participant and learn new aspects of the writing craft. All writing abilities and ages welcome! Join us in the library’s Idaho Room, or online via Zoom. Visit www.comlib.org for the Zoom link. Have no more than 500 words ready for critique. Instructions for the critiques will be provided on the day of. The Wood River Writers’ Groups are led by AJ Super, a local author with a trilogy of science fiction books published by a small traditional press. She is also a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Association (SFWA) member.

Free

Hemingway Distinguished Lecture: JOY HARJO

The Community Library

The annual Hemingway Distinguished Lecture is presented each July by The Community Library, honoring the month of Ernest Hemingway’s birth and death. The event celebrates the power of words and the creative spirit in a landscape that Hemingway loved. This year, The Community Library welcomes JOY HARJO, who in 2019 was appointed the 23rd United States Poet Laureate: the first Native American to hold the position and only the second person to serve three terms in the role. Harjo’s ten books of poetry include Weaving Sundown in a Scarlett Light, An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, and She Had Some Horses. She is also the author of two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, which invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road. She has edited several anthologies of Native American writing including When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through — A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, and Living Nations, Living Words, the companion anthology to her signature poet laureate project. Her many writing awards include the 2022 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 Jackson Prize from Poets ...

Free

Book Around the Block!

The Community Library

Join us for a summer open house at The Community Library, Gold Mine Thrift, Gold Mine Consign, and the Wood River Museum of History and Culture. We're going to "Book Around the Block" for literacy, history, shopping, community, food, and fun, with activities for all ages.

Free

Churchill and Ireland with Lee Pollock

The Community Library

The Misunderstood Relationship Between Britain's Greatest Statesman and the Emerald Isle, presented by acclaimed Churchill speaker and popular Community Library presenter Lee Pollock, Director and Senior Advisor to the Board of The International Churchill Society. Registration is recommended to save your seat. This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Image from the cover of Churchill and Ireland by Paul Bew, Oxford University Press (2016).

Free

Ernest Hemingway Seminar

The Community Library

The Community Library's 2024 Ernest Hemingway Seminar will be held September 5-7, with an opening reception and keynote lecture on Thursday evening beginning at 5:00 p.m., and with two days of lectures, panels, and films on Friday and Saturday from 10:00-6:00 p.m. each day. Our theme, speakers, and registration will be announced in Spring 2024.

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