About Us
Write Around Portland uses creative writing to help people heal.
In a world where outlets for relief are limited, we offer programs that create spaces to help people process and hear other people’s stories. With us, writing becomes a path to expression, celebration, belonging, and healing.
Our Mission
Write Around Portland changes lives through the power of writing.
We believe:
- Everyone can be a writer and benefit from and contribute to their community through the literary arts.
- Writing is a powerful tool for individual and societal change, self-expression, healing, and the realization of the dignity of one’s self and others.
- Writing and sharing stories helps us access our common humanity and connects individuals and groups who may be separated by age, race, income level, gender, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, health status, education level, and the geographic and social boundaries of neighborhoods.
- In any life, especially one lived in poverty or isolation, there is a vital need for art, community, and joy.
Agency Program
We go to places where people already live or receive services, making creative writing more accessible. Through hearing stories from their own community, participants find validation and build stronger connections with others.
Humans are innate storytellers. We do not teach storytelling or creative writing. Rather, we offer it as an artistic modality, a lifelong tool for expression and healing. We use a research-backed expressive writing modality within group settings that include sharing and mutual support of one another.
We don’t claim to give anyone a voice; participants remain the authors of their own stories.
Since 1999, our agency program has partnered with homeless service centers, affordable housing buildings, hospitals, addiction treatment centers, schools, retirement centers, and many other nonprofits throughout the Portland Metro area. We include journals, pens, refreshments, childcare (“guided playtime”), transit tickets, and other services and accommodations to ensure that everyone has access to writing in community — and the sense of creativity and security that comes with it.
Resonate: A BIPOC Writing Circle
Resonate is an affinity writing space designed for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to be more fully themselves without explanation. It is open to writers at any level who identify as BIPOC. You do not need to live in Portland to participate.
Ticketed Programming
We offer single session, multi-session, workplace, and retreat-style formats for writers of all levels. Our program emphasizes generative writing and does not include critique (other than positive feedback) or manuscript review.
Our History
Write Around Portland was founded in 1999 by Liza Halley and Ben Moorad. Watch the video to learn more about their inspiration.
Testimonials
“The only problem with Write Around Portland is knowing how good it is, how necessary it is, and how unfortunate it is that it doesn’t exist in every city and town in the country.”
Dave Eggers
“Write Around Portland is an organization that makes me proud to be a Portlander.”
Ursula K. LeGuin
“We are surrounded by poems not written, by songs felt but not heard, by those few saving words we lack courage to say. Write Around Portland helps bring forth the most important literature of our time: the unwritten.”
Kim Stafford
Our Financials
We employ a bookkeeping firm and hire an external CPA to conduct an annual financial review. Learn more below: