*Free* Pop-Up Writing Workshop: Worth (Jan 21)

$0.00

Cancer changes the math of our lives. Jobs are paused or lost. Savings evaporate. The cost of simply staying alive rises in ways few people talk about. Many of us have faced the quiet panic of financial toxicity, the career detours we didn’t choose. Beneath it all lives a deeper question: what is my worth now?

Join us for this month’s free Pop-Up Writing Workshop as we contemplate the true cost of cancer—financial, emotional, spiritual—and use writing as a tool for making sense of life after cancer.

This will be a space to reflect and write alongside others who are also searching for their own definition of worth after a breast cancer diagnosis.

You don’t need to write well. You just need to show up honestly.

Theme: Worth
What: Using writing prompts to process work, finances, identity, and purpose after cancer changes how we measure productivity—and ourselves.
When: Wednesday, January 21st, at 12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST
Where/How: Live via Zoom
Cost: FREE

This workshop is for you if:

  • You’ve been diagnosed with any stage of breast cancer in your 20s, 30s, or 40s

  • You want to write but need a little structure and support

What to expect:

  • Hosted by April Stearns, Editor-in-Chief of Wildfire Journal and founder of the Wildfire Writing Community

  • 90 minutes of guided writing using prompts such as:

    • What was most at stake when my diagnosis came...

    • “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” What does it mean to be transformed by loss, rather than only devastated by it?

    • The story of an unexpected transformation—something I never thought would change me, but did.

  • Optional sharing

  • No writing experience needed

What past workshop participants have said:

“As we all learn in the throes of cancer, cancer isn't always about cancer. The Wildfire writing workshops are great to nudge open the door to deeper thought, connection, and community.” — Kat Aguilar

“This workshop opened me up again! It's been too long since I've explored my feelings and really thought deeply about my experiences. I feel grateful to have found Wildfire. It is like a partner in my cancer.” — Julie Gauvin

Cancer changes the math of our lives. Jobs are paused or lost. Savings evaporate. The cost of simply staying alive rises in ways few people talk about. Many of us have faced the quiet panic of financial toxicity, the career detours we didn’t choose. Beneath it all lives a deeper question: what is my worth now?

Join us for this month’s free Pop-Up Writing Workshop as we contemplate the true cost of cancer—financial, emotional, spiritual—and use writing as a tool for making sense of life after cancer.

This will be a space to reflect and write alongside others who are also searching for their own definition of worth after a breast cancer diagnosis.

You don’t need to write well. You just need to show up honestly.

Theme: Worth
What: Using writing prompts to process work, finances, identity, and purpose after cancer changes how we measure productivity—and ourselves.
When: Wednesday, January 21st, at 12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST
Where/How: Live via Zoom
Cost: FREE

This workshop is for you if:

  • You’ve been diagnosed with any stage of breast cancer in your 20s, 30s, or 40s

  • You want to write but need a little structure and support

What to expect:

  • Hosted by April Stearns, Editor-in-Chief of Wildfire Journal and founder of the Wildfire Writing Community

  • 90 minutes of guided writing using prompts such as:

    • What was most at stake when my diagnosis came...

    • “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” What does it mean to be transformed by loss, rather than only devastated by it?

    • The story of an unexpected transformation—something I never thought would change me, but did.

  • Optional sharing

  • No writing experience needed

What past workshop participants have said:

“As we all learn in the throes of cancer, cancer isn't always about cancer. The Wildfire writing workshops are great to nudge open the door to deeper thought, connection, and community.” — Kat Aguilar

“This workshop opened me up again! It's been too long since I've explored my feelings and really thought deeply about my experiences. I feel grateful to have found Wildfire. It is like a partner in my cancer.” — Julie Gauvin

Print Issue: MONEY & CANCER
Print Issue: MONEY & CANCER
$19.00 $31.00
Writing Journal
Writing Journal
$10.00
Print Issue: WORK & CAREER
Print Issue: WORK & CAREER
$31.00

No writing experience necessary, this workshop is for all levels of writers and non-writers who want an environment in which to practice and commune with others. We will discuss tricks and tips for accessing and writing personal stories, particularly related to traumatic and difficult life events, such as a predisposition to cancer, as well as practice writing via prompts. Participants will also have the opportunity to share their writing if they so desire. There will be no critics, only listening. No pressure to share.

April Johnson Stearns, Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, WILDFIRE Journal. April is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Wildfire Journal & Writing Community. A lifelong writer who landed her first memoir-based magazine cover story at just 16, April worked for her college newspaper (“City on the Hill” at the University of California at Santa Cruz) and then went on to work for her local newspaper (The Sentinel, Santa Cruz, CA) following graduation. Before long, she was lured to other writing jobs “over the hill” from Santa Cruz in Silicon Valley during the tech boom of the early 2000s.

However, in 2012, in the midst of this career, April was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer at age 35. Four years later, while struggling to “go back to normal” and find others in similar circumstances, April launched WILDFIRE Journal & Writing Community as a way for younger people to tell and read breast cancer stories.

Since 2016, April has guided hundreds of writers through the Wildfire writing workshops and published over 50 issues of Wildfire Journal.

April believes strongly that helping others tell their stories has the dramatic effect of turning a traumatic cancer experience into an empowering one. April lives with her husband and young daughter in Santa Cruz. Although she loves town life, she also likes to get away from all the hustle and bustle whenever she can to hike in the woods, but writing memoir remains April’s purest escape.

Related Wildfire Magazine issues: Subscribers can find all our previous Wildfire Journal issues in the digital archives, including the 2024 Work & Career and 2022 Money & Cancer issues. Others can purchase print and digital issues here.

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