Sept. 6, 2022

Back in 2019, then-postdoctoral scholars and Center affiliates Dara James and Tara Bautista hosted ASU’s first Mindful Writing Groups.

The intent behind these online sessions was to provide support and motivation in the writing process for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career faculty.

Writing can be daunting and stressful – especially for those at the beginning of their scholarly journey. Recognizing this, Bautista and James created a space in which scholars could come together weekly to share writing goals, write, and reflect mindfully on the process.

While Bautista and James have since moved on from ASU (to faculty positions at Northern Arizona University and the University of South Alabama, respectively), they continue coordinating the groups. Currently, five facilitators run groups that meet online across time zones and even continents.

Each 120-minute Zoom session begins with a short facilitated mindfulness activity and each participant sharing a writing and mindfulness goal for the session. Participants then work in silence on their projects before reconvening as a group to debrief on and support one another in their progress before the session ends with another short mindfulness practice.

This fall, groups meet from August 29 through December 9 on the following days and times:

• Mondays 10 am - 12 pm Eastern (1 - 3 pm AZ)
• Tuesdays 2:15 - 4:15 pm (5:15 - 7:15 AZ)
• Wednesdays 11 am - 1 pm (2 - 4 pm AZ)
• Wednesdays 9 - 11 pm (midnight - 2 am AZ)
•  Fridays 1:30 - 3:30 pm (4:30 - 6:30 pm AZ)

Groups are free of charge to attend, but interested writers need to register in order to gain access to Zoom links, a Facebook group and Slack group. In addition to regularly-scheduled meetings, registered participants also have the ability to join periodic ‘pop-up’ sessions.

For more information or to join a group, contact Dr. Dara James at [email protected].