Ritualwell

Lifting the Threads: Writing Past and Present
2026-02-24 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-03 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Tuesday, Feb 17 & 24 and March 3, 2026
12-1:30 p.m.
$154

As storytellers, how do we balance our present lived experience with the past that shapes it? In Jewish tradition, memory and narrative carry profound weight—from the retelling of ancestral journeys in the Torah to the intimate stories passed through our families. In this 3-week workshop, we’ll explore strategies for seamlessly integrating backstory, experimenting with time shifts to deepen meaning rather than interrupt narrative flow. Through readings, discussion, and writing prompts, we will move fluidly between temporal layers—the “forward momentum” of the lived story and the “backwards glance” demanded by memory.

By the end of the workshop, you will produce a short memoir piece that demonstrates fluid interplay between present and past—using backstory as a source of resonance, not digression, and honoring the threads of memory that connect us to our histories and communities.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Megan Vered writes about family, friendship, and the dazzle of daily life. Megan lives in Marin County, where she facilitates local, international, and Jewish-themed writing groups. Her essays and interviews have appeared in HuffPost, Kveller, The Jewish Writing Project, High Country News, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Writer’s Chronicle, among others. Megan holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and chairs the board of Heyday Books. Learn more about her work at www.meganvered.com

Sarah and Hagar: Uncovering Feminine Strength and Wisdom
2026-03-03 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-10 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-17 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-24 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesdays, March 3, 10, 17 and 24, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. EST
$180

The story of Sarah and Hagar is often told as a tale of rivalry and cruelty—but a closer look reveals a far richer story, hinting at a complex, powerful, and spiritually resonant relationship between two extraordinary women.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the story through text study, discussion, and writing prompts, uncovering new possibilities for understanding female relationships, motherhood, and feminine archetypes. Together, we’ll re-examine these matriarchs to discover strength, wisdom, and inspiration for our own lives.

Led by Tzivia Gover, author and professional dreamworker, this session draws on years of deep engagement with the story of Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham through poetry, translation, and spiritual inquiry. Tzivia will guide participants to uncover hidden treasures in the text—and to make new discoveries of their own.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Tzivia Gover is the author of ‘Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing‘, and other books about dreams, writing, and everyday joy. She is the creator of ‘The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined’ an online poetry project. The founder of 350 Dreamers, an online international community dreaming for global healing in this time of climate crisis, Tzivia is a board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams and a past Director at the Institute for Dream Studies. Tzivia is a Certified Dreamwork Professional and a Certified Proprioceptive Writing Instructor. She has her MFA in writing from Columbia University, and has taught in college and community settings domestically and abroad. Learn more at www.thirdhousemoon.com and https://tziviagover.substack.com.

Creative Containers: Writing With Poetic Forms
2026-04-16 12:30 - 13:30
April 16, 23 & 30 and May 7, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. ET
$180

Creative containers — ranging from sonnets and sonnenizios, to pantoums and triolets — can offer structure while also inviting depth, complexity, and even surprise into your writing! In this series, poet and author Susan Comninos will guide participants through the rich possibilities of using poetic forms as tools for cohesion and focus, as well as exploration, expression, and musicality. Taking as our springboards poems by Jewish voices or on Jewish themes (including work by Rochelle Nameroff, Jaqueline Osherow, Emma Lazarus and Robert Morgan), we’ll play with prompts and shared writing time to help you develop your own poetic voice within the shape of a received form.
In each session we’ll:

Learn techniques of specific forms and how they shape content and create tone;
Read and discuss examples that illuminate craft and purpose;
Practice generative prompts tailored to the form of the day; and
Share work in a supportive environment with thoughtful feedback.

This workshop is open to writers of all levels — from beginners curious about form to experienced writers looking to stretch their practice!
This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Susan Comninos is the author of a recent book of poems, “Out of Nowhere” (SFA Press/Texas A&M, 2022). Her individual poems have appeared in the Harvard Review Online, Rattle, The Common, Prairie Schooner and North American Review, among others. She’s taught writing to undergraduates at Siena College, The College of St. Rose, and SUNY Albany, as well as adults in the community. At present, she serves as poetry editor of Judith magazine and is at work on a second collection of poems, “Wild Joy of Receiving.” The title poem, published by The Baltimore Review, is forthcoming this spring in the anthology “The Color Wheel” (Terrapin Books, 2026).

Writing Memoir from Photos
2026-05-04 13:00 - 14:30
Mondays, May 4, 11 & 18, 2026
1-2:30 p.m.
$154

Photographs are powerful vessels of memory—small artifacts that live in albums, frames, and on our phones, holding moments of joy, longing, love, and loss.
In this three-week memoir writing workshop, led by Lisa Grunberger, we will explore how photos can serve as meaningful starting points for writing about the past. Together, we’ll consider how images invite stories forward, helping us approach both cherished memories and more difficult ones with care.
Alongside our own writing, we will engage with reflections on photography from writers such as Susan Sontag and John Berger. Through guided prompts and gentle exercises, participants will use personal photographs to generate new creative work, including short “micro-memoirs” that can stand alone or grow into longer pieces.
Each session will include time for sharing, discussion, and supportive feedback. Working with photos can be a tender, accessible way to honor our experiences and deepen the stories we carry.
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Poetry Pushcart nominee and Temple University English Professor Lisa Grunberger is a first-generation American writer. Her award-winning poetry book For the Future of Girls is a lyrical reflection on life as a woman, a mother, and a daughter of Holocaust survivors. It was nominated for an Eric Hoffer Independent Press award. She’s the author of Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss and the Lotus Position (Harper Collins); Her poems appear in Breaking the Glass: A Contemporary Jewish Poetry Anthology (The Laurel Review, 2023). A widely published writer, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The Southern Review, The Paterson Literary Review, Mudfish, Bridges, Of the Book Press, The Jewish Literary Journal, and Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture and Heritage (ELJ Editions), Crab Orchard Review, Mom Egg Review, The Baffler. She’s been translated into Slovenian, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish.

ALMOST PREGNANT, her play about infertility and motherhood, is published by Next Stage Press; Her play, Alexa Talks to Rebecca won the Audience Choice Award at the Squeaky Bicycle Theatre. She’s working on a memoir called Me and My Makers: A Memoir of Adoption, Genes and Love.
