By ANDREW SPIESS
BG Independent News
In pursuit of honing the community’s imagination through paper, pen, and word processor, Lauren Veith established the Bowling Green Writers’ Workshop within the city’s esteemed local coffee shops.
BG’s one and only writers’ workshop took shape as 2021 shifted from summer to fall. This year, they will reach their five-year milestone of offering an amiable environment for aspiring poets, essayists, and storytellers.
Gathering most often in the BG Arts Council Art Space behind Coyote Beads on Wednesday evenings, the group has cultivated occasional and regular attendees, all of whom are eager to share and discuss each other’s creative writing.
“I started putting flyers up around BG because I’d been to the Toledo writers’ workshop, and while I enjoyed going up to that group, I wanted something a little closer to home, and it seemed a little ridiculous that BG didn’t have one,” recalled Veith about the workshop’s conception. “There are so many artists and writers in this town that I thought they’d be coming out of the woodwork. So, I put up some flyers, set up a Facebook group, and our first meeting was at Novel Blends.”
Veith—who holds a BA in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University—added that the group is always accepting new attendees and has become a welcoming, low-pressure social circle, even for those who consider themselves introverted. They’ve even designated an optional social hour before each weekly meeting.
“I definitely wanted to help build a sort of support system both for myself and for other writers in BG,” said Veith. “I feel like for workshops like this, you not only help each other improve, but your own writing gets better in the process, and we can always bounce ideas off of each other.”
Elena Sands, managing editor of the group’s literary journal, Squelch, saw Veith’s flyers and became an instant mainstay member when they were meeting at Grounds For Thought.
“We’ve had people fade into attendance and out, or maybe fade back in again,” said Sands. “But we all keep in touch on the (free, communication platform) Discord, too. So even if folks haven’t been to meetings lately, they’re all over the Discord.”
Concerning the significance of critical discourse—a major element in any workshop—Veith and Sands noted that commenting on the works of other artists can be advantageous for both the critic and the critiqued; the critic can better understand their values towards art, and the critiqued receives thoughtful feedback, which can help them improve as artists.
Veith and Sands mentioned the subjective nature of criticism, how the workshop helped them develop their diplomatic skills, and the equal value of positive and negative criticism. They don’t merely mark up another’s writing with a red pen.
“It’s a hard line to walk because you want to give someone constructive criticism, but you don’t want to [upset them],” Sands reflected. “Other workshops seemed like the purpose was to just rip people to shreds. Sometimes workshops have a reputation for being overly critical. I think our group is kinder. It’s nicer. We tend to do the compliment sandwich.”
“These are your strengths in the piece, but here are also your weaknesses,” Veith echoed. “And here might be a good way to emphasize and work towards your strengths. This is supposed to be a safe environment where you feel safe getting your work criticized, which, if you’ve been in a college workshop, can sometimes feel like you put your heart out in a piece and your fellow students are stepping on it.”
On a social level, their supportive perspectives extend into advocacy for LGBTQ+ writers. Furthermore, the group is open to content that might be considered controversial or taboo, yet they still hold their boundaries.
“I think the kind of folks who would maybe want to write things that were racist, misogynist, bigoted, xenophobic, any of that stuff, they just sit down with us for five minutes and realize they’re in the wrong place,” Sands said.
“I’ve only had to tell someone to respect another human being once. And then they never came back,” Veith disclosed.
They invite interested individuals to join the Bowling Green Writers’ Workshop at 6 p.m. every Wednesday. The Discord server is found at https://discord.gg/FZPc6ySmk.
