Pen Parentis

✨ Meet award-winning author Amy Shearn at the Pen Parentis December Literary Salon! AMY SHEARN is the award-winning author of the novels Dear Edna Sloane, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here, as well as the forthcoming Animal Instinct (Putnam, 2025). She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, the Yale Writers' Workshop, and Writing Co-Lab, an experimental cooperative she helped found. Amy's work has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota and lives in Brooklyn with her two children. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com or @amyshearn. 📅 Tuesday, December 10 | 7–8 PM EST 📍 Online 🔗 Don’t miss her reading and discussion! Register now! penparentis.eventbrite.com #AmyShearn #PenParentis #LiterarySalon #CreativeWriting

🍷 Discover the art of storytelling with Michelle Wildgen at the Pen Parentis December Literary Salon! MICHELLE WILDGEN is the author of the novels Wine People (August 2023, Zibby Books), You’re Not You, But Not For Long, and Bread and Butter, and the editor of the food writing anthology Food & Booze. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review and “Modern Love” column, Oprah Magazine, Poets & Writers, Real Simple online, Best American Food Writing, Best New American Voices, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, and other anthologies and journals. A former executive editor with the award-winning literary journal Tin House, she is a freelance editor and creative writing teacher in Madison, Wis. Since 2013, she and novelist Susanna Daniel have run the Madison Writers’ Studio, offering a variety of creative writing workshops and classes. 📅 Tuesday, December 10 | 7–8 PM EST 📍 Online 🔗 Don’t miss this engaging discussion—register now! penparentis.eventbrite.com #MichelleWildgen #PenParentis #WritersCommunity #LiterarySalon

🌊 Celebrate creativity with poet and storyteller Rena Priest at the Pen Parentis December Literary Salon! RENA PRIEST is an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021–2023) and was named the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, Nia Tero, and the Vadon Foundation. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues, received an American Book Award. Her second collection, Sublime Subliminal, was published as the finalist for the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Her most recent book, Northwest Know-How: Beaches, includes poems, retellings of legends, and fun descriptions of 29 of the most beloved beaches in the Pacific Northwest. Priest’s nonfiction has appeared in High Country News, YES! Magazine, Seattle Met, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. 📅 Tuesday, December 10 | 7–8 PM EST 📍 Online 🔗 Join Rena for a night of inspiration—register now! penparentis.eventbrite.com #RenaPriest #PenParentis #PoetryCommunity #CreativeBalance

🎙️ What fuels creativity when life gets busy? 🎙️ This Tuesday, December 10, join us for a cozy evening at the Pen Parentis December Literary Salon! 🌟 Featuring award-winning authors Amy Shearn, Michelle Wildgen, and Rena Priest, we’ll dive into how they balance the demands of parenting with their creative practice. 📚 What to expect: ✨ Captivating short readings 💬 An intimate, audience-driven discussion 🎄 Warm holiday vibes 📅 When: 7–8 PM EST 📍 Where: Online Bring your questions, your curiosity, and your love for great stories. Don’t miss this inspiring literary tradition! 🔗 Sign up now! penparentis.eventbrite.com #PenParentis #HolidaySalon #CreativeBalance #AuthorsLife #WritersCommunity

✨ This Giving Tuesday, let’s champion creativity! ✨ Parent writers often juggle caregiving, work, and life, leaving little time for their creative passions. At Pen Parentis, we provide the community, resources, and encouragement they need to keep writing their stories. 🎁 Your support fuels their voices. Help us empower parent writers to stay on track and share their unique perspectives with the world. 💛 Donate today: https://lnkd.in/ewKjmcFg #GivingTuesday #PenParents #ParentWriters #SupportCreativity

✨ This Giving Tuesday, let’s champion creativity! ✨ Parent writers often juggle caregiving, work, and life, leaving little time for their creative passions. At Pen Parentis, we provide the community, resources, and encouragement they need to keep writing their stories. 🎁 Your support fuels their voices. Help us empower parent writers to stay on track and share their unique perspectives with the world. 💛 Donate today: https://lnkd.in/ewKjmcFg #GivingTuesday #PenParents #ParentWriters #SupportCreativity

Pleasure to share this news of a bookstore we love and an author we admire. #readatPenParentis #parentingdonewrite

Pen Parentis November Literary Salon: The Politics of Parenthood featured authors: Cari Luna, Stephen O'Connor, Jennifer Case and Jessica Pearce Rotondi And Taylor Hobbs introducing the 2025 Writing Fellow, HELEN SPENCER Moderators: Christina Chiu & M. M. De Voe PEN PARENTIS LITERARY SALONS FEATURE SHORT READINGS BY WRITERS WHO ARE ALSO PARENTS FOLLOWED BY MODERATED, AUDIENCE-DRIVEN DISCUSSION SURROUNDING A CURATED THEME. Follow us to keep up with our themes and a new set of authors who are also parents -- livecast every month during the school year on the second Tuesday at 7pm Eastern Time.

Join us tonight at 7pm ET to hear our 2024 fellow, Helen Spencer, read her award-winning story, Mixing Bowls, at the Politics of Parenthood salon! ✨ Helen will be joined by acclaimed authors Cari Luna, Stephen O’Connor, Jennifer Case, and Jessica Pearce Rotondi for an evening of powerful storytelling and conversation on parenthood and identity: penparentis.eventbrite.com ABOUT HELEN SPENCER Helen Spencer's family cultivated in her a love for reading and writing at a very young age. An introvert at heart who is often lost inside her own head, she has long cherished the opportunity to process experiences and exercise her imagination through writing. Her formal education is in science, music and public health, and she currently works full time in a leadership role in the corporate sector. She is the mother of a beautifully spirited toddler and is fumbling through first-time parenthood with all of its joys and frustrations. As a new parent, writing has afforded her the opportunity to explore new dimensions of who she is and her evolving perspective on the world and the people in it. “Mixing Bowls” will be her first publication. The piece is about summoning the courage to reset and the importance of reconnecting with who you are when life knocks you off course. Helen is deeply grateful to have earned this opportunity and to have the support from the Pen Parentis community to continue to grow as a writer.

Are you ready to hear from Jennie Case? She'll be joining us TOMORROW at 7pm ET for our Politics of Parenthood Salon. Make sure to RSVP: penparentis.eventbrite.com JENNIFER CASE's work has appeared in journals such as Orion, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and Michigan Quarterly Review. She is the recipient of a Bread Loaf Bakeless Scholarship and Stone Canoe‘s 2014 Allen and Nirelle Galson Prize in Fiction. She is the author of two books: We Are Animals: On the Nature and Politics of Motherhood and Sawbill: A Search for Place. Jennifer earned a master’s degree in poetry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Ph.D. in creative writing from Binghamton University. She teaches creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas, serves as an assistant nonfiction editor at Terrain.org, and is the supervising editor of Arkana. She lives in central Arkansas with her family.