Writer Shifts Paradigm of Mental Health

I've been accepted to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont this summer as a contributor in non-fiction/memoir!!



At this conference, not only do I get to develop craft element and workshop with award-winning authors such as Cheryl Strayed and Lia Purpura, but I also get to network and establish relationship with publishing contacts.
This online campaign is to raise funds to cover tuition, room and board, and travel to and from the conference.

Why am I going to a writing conference?


Because I am writing a memoir. In brief, I've been living with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder for nearly three decades. It's been a personal quest of mine to define, then undefine, then redefine myself in regards to those labels.


In doing so, I attended, and graduated from, naturopathic medical school (www.bastyr.edu). I also became a writer, performance poet, writing teacher, and social justice advocate.


I have the privilege of writing and speaking from a unique position of being on both sides of a controversial topic: the current paradigm of mental health in the United States. I am looking to highlight, through personal narrative, the ways in which we can collectively cultivate the mental health paradigm towards a focus on humanity and the many intersecting complexities it is to be a human nowadays.


Why do I need to raise funds to go to Bread Loaf?


I am a small-business owner in Seattle, WA, and a rebel at heart. My cash-only practice is not even three years old, and has only just begun to sustain itself. That is great! and does not leave much room for extras, especially not of this caliber.


Thanks so much for your support!

To check out Bread Loaf: http://www.middlebury.edu/blwc