Thank you Mary Ann for the expertise, creativity and kindness you bring to each circle, You are a gifted and inspirational mentor, guide, and teacher. MJ Burrows, Saltair, British Columbia
2025 Women’s Writing Circle on Zoom
Devotion & Delight: Honouring Your Writing Practice
a five-morning (Pacific) women’s writing circle on Zoom
with Mary Ann Moore
Would you like to be supported and encouraged in your writing life?
To be seen and appreciated for your unique voice?
Are you ready to raise our energies together through the transformative nature of writing?
If so, I invite you to join the five-day “Devotion & Delight: Honouring Your Writing Practice” circle with other women who are working on an ongoing writing project.
The dates are Monday, November 10 to Friday, November 14 (five consecutive days), 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Pacific time on Zoom.
The “Devotion & Delight” circle will take place during the winter season of the year known as Samhain on the Celtic calendar. Samhain brings the gifts of restoration and renewal, a time for more reflective depths. That’s why I’ve proposed a November “Devotion & Delight” Circle especially as “holiday season” brings with it many distractions and pulls to become busier and more social. For some, that’s great. For others, it means routine is abandoned and things fall apart, especially our writing.
The November “Devotion & Delight” circle is a chance to honour your writing practice, for five mornings (Pacific) so you can stay connected to your story. The circle is kept small (six or eight) so every woman is seen and heard.
Especially during upheaval, unleashing creative life is sacred duty. My firsthand experience is that poetry saved my life. Stories showed me the way. Dreams gave deep counsel from spirit that ego alone is not capable of. Thus, I have come to not believe but know that the health of the soul depends on a functional creative life. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
It is a deeply communal act to make art from your own scandalously particular life, and to believe in the art other people can make from theirs. Leslie Jamison
The work of creating soulful gatherings for women has never been more essential for our times: an exploration of our inner worlds in intentional gatherings where every voice is valued and the inner journey is encouraged and celebrated.
How does it work? We’ll meet each day of the five days for an hour and a half. You’ll receive encouragement, writing and sharing time, and the momentum to continue working on your own. This time spent in a supportive writing community will nourish you as you continue to work on your own.
I started women’s writing circles in my living room in Toronto in 1997. I needed companions for the writing journey. I still feel that way now. I’ll be working along with you with some generative writing prompts to prime the pump so to speak and perhaps even give you ideas for your particular project.
Our daily topics will include:
Day 1 Callings Placed Before Us
Day 2 The Gifts of Imagination (Remembrance Day)
Day 3 Visitations of Beauty
Day 4 The Dark Guests
Day 5 Peaceful Sanctuary
Resources for your writing journey
For those who are new to the “Devotion & Delight” circle, I’ll send my handout, A Conversation with Fear, to help deal with any anxiety around this commitment. One of the ways we alleviate anxiety in the circle, is to create a ceremony which offers a container, something predictable in the realm of creativity which can take us into the unexpected.
I’ll send you my PDF workbook: Devotion & Delight: Honouring Your Writing Practice. The workbook offers encouragement for your writing practice to bring your stories into the light. It will help you see your stories are yours alone to say.
Devotion & Delight: Honouring Your Writing Practice
a women’s writing circle with Mary Ann Moore
Dates: Monday, November 10 to Friday, November 14 2025 (five consecutive days on Zoom)
Time: 10 am. To 11:30 a.m. Pacific time
Fee: $295 CDN
To pay by e-transfer, please send your payment to creativity@maryannmoore.ca.
For those outside Canada, PayPal is an option. I can send you an invoice.
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Comments from previous “Devotion & Delight” writers:
Thank you Mary Ann for the expertise, creativity and kindness you bring to each circle, You are a gifted and inspirational mentor, guide, and teacher.
MJ Burrows, Saltair, British Columbia
Thank you Mary Ann for offering this lovely writing circle and community. Also for the extensive resources. I have so enjoyed the depth and kindness of our conversations.
Gail Braverman, San Diego, California
I was very inspired by the other writers. I liked the topics for each session; each was inspiring. They called to something inside of me and the poem examples were great illustrations of the themes.
Vivian Marple, Calgary, Alberta
A lot of writers could use this [kind of support]. I liked the opening, breathing and turning in, and I just liked hearing from everyone there. Your tone [Mary Ann] is wonderful, holding and not pressuring.
Beth Jacobs, Evanston, Illinois
[The benefits of the circle included] sharing, camaraderie, working with other writers who work in different genres, hearing many different and unique responses to the writing exercises. I loved the resource materials!
Diana Hayes, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
Thank you for all you bring to our collective table Mary Ann.
Gisela Ruebsaat, Victoria, British Columbia
On Zoom wherever you are
Intent
- To provide a safe place for people to tell their stories.
- To find the still centre of ourselves and of the circle.
- To write what has heart and meaning for us.
- To realize our role as leaders in a circle of leaders.
- To remember the divine feminine and
embrace our female and male teachers. - To become a community of peers
slowing down to a natural rhythm
You [women of the circle from away] make it very easy to share my writing. The way we hold one another up, the level of encouragement, is very touching. It’s an honour to be part of this circle experience. – Tabitha, Ontario, Canada
. . . what a gift you have given us all with this writing circle. I imagine those who attended your live version wish it could continue, but please let them know that I for one look forward to these gifts in my inbox. – Josephine, Alberta, Canada
Benefits
- An exploration of your relationship to silence and stillness,
- A variety of writing prompts to get you started,
- Guidelines for your own journaling practice and various other forms,
- References for reading and inspiration,
- Support from a circle of women who are also writing,
- Witnesses to your creative journey,
- A creative boost and a reminder that your creativity
makes a healthy impact on your life and on the world.
“Writing was the healing place where I could collect the bits and pieces, where I could put them together again. It was the sanctuary, the safe place.” – bell hooks
The prompt to write regularly and your understanding of the mystery of nature, poetry and the English language makes your courses valuable to me! – Outi, Finland
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