*Free* Pop-Up Writing Workshop: Love & Intimacy (Feb 25)

$0.00

Cancer treatment can bring side effects that makes physical intimacy difficult or painful—along with an impact on body image and self-esteem. Fatigue, weight changes, loss of sensation, and a decreased libido can all reshape how we experience intimacy.

There’s also the feeling that your body has become medicalized—no longer fully your own. “Private parts” are no longer private, and certainly don’t feel particularly sexy.

Then there’s the emotional weight of a breast cancer diagnosis. For some of us, our relationships were just beginning when everything was forced into pause. The dynamic can shift abruptly from romantic partners to patient/caregiver.

And what about dating with a cancer history, or while living with metastatic breast cancer?

Join us for this month’s Pop-Up Writing Workshop to write alongside others navigating similar challenges and to explore writing as a tool for processing and moving through the emotional impacts on our love lives. Writing can be deeply healing—and, perhaps surprisingly, may even help ease physical pain, too.

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

Theme: Love & Intimacy
When: Wednesday, February 25th, 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 treatment can bring side effects that makes physical intimacy difficult or painful—along with an impact on body image and self-esteem. Fatigue, weight changes, loss of sensation, and a decreased libido can all reshape how we experience intimacy.

There’s also the feeling that your body has become medicalized—no longer fully your own. “Private parts” are no longer private, and certainly don’t feel particularly sexy.

Then there’s the emotional weight of a breast cancer diagnosis. For some of us, our relationships were just beginning when everything was forced into pause. The dynamic can shift abruptly from romantic partners to patient/caregiver.

And what about dating with a cancer history, or while living with metastatic breast cancer?

Join us for this month’s Pop-Up Writing Workshop to write alongside others navigating similar challenges and to explore writing as a tool for processing and moving through the emotional impacts on our love lives. Writing can be deeply healing—and, perhaps surprisingly, may even help ease physical pain, too.

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

Theme: Love & Intimacy
When: Wednesday, February 25th, 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

Writing Journal
Writing Journal
$10.00
Digital Issue: LOVE & INTIMACY
Digital Issue: LOVE & INTIMACY
$7.00 $15.00
Print Issue: FAMILY: GENETIC LEGACY, PARENTING & (IN)FERTILITY
Print Issue: FAMILY: GENETIC LEGACY, PARENTING & (IN)FERTILITY
$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 2019 and 2023 Love & Intimacy issues. Others can purchase print and digital issues here.