45:15 Online: A Communal Writing Experience

Saturday, 4:00 pm EST - 6:00 pm EST January 22, 2022

Online via Zoom

Approaching creative projects with a clear and focused mind can be a challenge. Revive your motivation to write at 45:15, a free community writing event held online via Zoom!

Led by co-host Katie Yee, one of our 2021 Emerging Writer Fellows, participants will write silently for 2 hours—in 45 minutes intervals followed by a 15 minute break—working on current or new material. A writing prompt will not be provided. Virginia Chang, a certified Jivamukti yoga teacher, will guide participants in mindful movement and meditation. While writing, the body is still and the mind focused. We will awaken the body and relax the mind using a combination of yoga, breathwork, and meditation. No mat required, just a willingness to participate and listen. This mindful experience should leave you feeling calm yet energized.

45:15 is inspired by Ellen Sussman’s “unit system” for a disciplined and generative writing practice detailed in her Poets & Writers essay, “A Writer’s Daily Habit: Four Steps to Higher Productivity.” She argues that by taking periodic breaks from your writing or thinking about your writing, you are allowing your subconscious to keep creating. When you sit down again, you’ll feel more energized and ready to kick out another forty-five minutes of concentrated writing.

Featuring

Katie Yee

Katie Yee

Katie Yee is a writer from Brooklyn and the Book Marks Associate Editor at Literary Hub. She holds a BA from Bennington College and has been awarded a Kundiman Mentorship Lab Fellowship. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Epiphany, No Tokens, and elsewhere. You can find her on Twitter at @prepartynap.
Virginia Chang

Virginia Chang

Virginia Chang, Ph.D., is a certified Jivamukti yoga teacher and life-long practitioner who incorporates meditation and breathwork into her approach that brings a mindfulness and peace to her work. A Certified End-of-Life Doula and founder of Till The Last, she currently works with the dying and their loved ones to approach end of life in a positive, meaningful, and affirming way. When relaxing, she can be found reading, playing the harp, or exercising. She loves books and is a volunteer reader for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and Emerging Writer Fellowships.