How A Student’s Hostility Helped Me Become A Better Writing Workshop Facilitator

By Laura Gaddis

When Greg came into the writing workshop that I run at my local community arts center, I was excited to have a new face. For the past two years, I had filled a niche in Oxford, Ohio where the writers exist but are hiding like ants deep down in their mounds. To coax them out of their holes, I worked hard to recruit students. Some sessions I have five or six students. I’ve also had two or three (where most weeks only one shows up). But this particular spring session was fille...