Upwellers brings a complete, professionally led creative-writing experience to your community, combining original workshop material, imaginative exercises, and a welcoming environment.
Each workshop begins with a brief discussion about an aspect of creative writing, followed by a guided meditation that helps participants leave the day's distractions behind and open themselves to observation and curiosity.
Participants are then given uninterrupted time to write. They might explore a memory, invent a character, or return to a story they've been developing over several weeks.
Afterward, participants have the opportunity to share their work in small groups. The emphasis is on listening and appreciation, creating an atmosphere of encouragement and discovery.
No previous writing experience is necessary, and sharing is always optional.
“The safe space and soothing environment that Kurt creates gives my brain permission to write whatever comes without fear of judgment.”
— Upwellers Workshop Participant
We can shape a writing program around your organization's people, interests, and schedule.
Live, facilitated sessions give participants regular time to write, reflect, and connect.
A continuing series allows a group to build confidence, explore new approaches, and return to longer pieces.
Workshops can be adapted to the setting and needs of veterans, older adults, employees, and community groups.
Writing begins as a private act, but sharing it can bring people closer together.
In small groups, participants have the chance to read what they've written and hear what others noticed, remembered, or imagined. The emphasis is on appreciation rather than critique.
Over time, familiar voices become part of the weekly experience. People arrive with different stories and discover unexpected points of connection.
Sharing is always an invitation, never a requirement.
Writing gives us an opportunity to slow down, pay attention, and explore what might otherwise go unnoticed.
A remembered conversation, a detail from the morning, a place we haven't thought about in years—each can become a starting point for discovery.
In our workshops, the writing itself is only part of the experience. Participants also make room for curiosity, imagination, and reflection. They encounter other perspectives, find unexpected connections, and sometimes surprise themselves with what appears on the page.
These are experiences that can enrich everyday life, whether or not someone considers themselves a writer.
Tell us a little about your organization and the people you serve. We'll start with a conversation about what might work for your community.
There's no need to have a format or schedule figured out yet.
YOUR WORKSHOP LEADER
Kurt Pitzer is an author, journalist, and creative writing instructor with extensive experience leading workshops in academic, veterans, and community settings. He has taught Advanced Creative Nonfiction and The Narrative Voice through Harvard University's online extension since 2017, overseen dozens of graduate theses and capstone projects, and led nine consecutive cycles of creative writing workshops for veterans through the VA Whole Health program at the Asheville VA Medical Center.
He holds an MFA in fiction from NYU's Creative Writing Program and is the winner of the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize for documentary journalism. He has also consulted for multinational companies including Lego, Oticon, and Ecco on communications strategy and creative development.
SELECTED STUDIES & REVIEWS
Explore findings from related fields. These studies examine different activities and outcomes; they are not direct evaluations of Upwellers workshops.
Older adults learning demanding new skills, such as photography or quilting, showed improvements in episodic memory relative to comparison activities. This was not a study of writing workshops.
Read the study or review ↗A four-week theater program was associated with gains in selected cognitive and psychological measures compared with a no-treatment group. The activity was theater, not writing.
Read the study or review ↗Across 146 randomized studies, written or spoken disclosure about personally meaningful experiences had a small average positive effect; outcomes varied by context and method.
Read the study or review ↗This earlier synthesis found benefits across several health measures in healthy participants, while also reporting short-term increases in distress.
Read the study or review ↗A synthesis of 148 studies involving more than 300,000 people found a strong association between social relationships and survival. It does not test writing workshops or show that a workshop changes mortality risk.
Read the study or review ↗This broad scoping review drew on more than 3,000 studies across many art forms and study designs. It identifies promising applications while underscoring how varied the evidence is.
Read the study or review ↗In a cohort of older English adults, attending cultural events was associated with mortality outcomes. This observational study measured attendance, not creative-writing participation; it cannot establish causation.
Read the study or review ↗This review describes how people construct evolving life stories and how features of those stories relate to adaptation and well-being. It does not establish that writing a story produces those outcomes.
Read the study or review ↗The authors discuss narrative organization as a possible mechanism in expressive-writing research. This is a conceptual synthesis, not a test of an Upwellers-style group workshop.
Read the study or review ↗Evidence note: Research on expressive disclosure, arts participation, learning, and social relationships cannot be treated as proof that a creative-writing workshop prevents illness, extends life, or produces a particular health outcome.
Whether you serve older adults, veterans, employees, or another community, we'd be glad to explore what a writing program could look like for your group.
Message Kurt →