Greetings from the land of Enchantment
A look behind the scenes at Turning Points, New Mexico
Hello and greetings from New Mexico!
I’m offline this week teaching my annual writing workshop, Turning Points, but I wanted to give you an idea of what we’re up to and introduce you to the nine incredible writers selected to join us this year.
I founded Turning Points in 2022 after becoming disenchanted with the ways in which traditional writing workshops both silence and befuddle participants. At Turning Points, we start with the writer instead of the writing. Months are spent establishing “No Fly Zones” for each writer—a list of things our participants know they need help with (and thus are open to feedback on), and a separate category of elements the writer is proud of or excited by that they don’t want feedback on so we ensure the energy of our week together is both helpful and welcome.
I conduct personal calls with each participant over the summer to better understand their relationship not only to their projects but to the act of writing, then customize a workshop tailored to their most urgent needs. This is a solutions-centered workshop: while we’re there to get to know each other and enjoy the stunning skies of New Mexico, we aim to make huge strides in our work and break through the challenges that have been causing us friction.
Our chef, Daniel Garcia, was the executive chef at the world-renowned Los Poblanos resort in Albuquerque and his partner Melanie Avgerakis (head bartender at Los Poblanos) is our sommelier. The retreat takes place on a sprawling cattle ranch and for miles around, the setting sun and the lowing of the cattle are the only thing that we’ll be streaming.
In addition to the location and the food, what really makes this retreat special are the people we attract. While Turning Points is an application-based program, we choose people who need guidance and crave community: our writers aren’t selected because of what they’ve already accomplished, they are chosen for what they haven’t accomplished yet. We also look for symmetry between our nine writers—we want our group to function as a unit of support and encouragement for every person with us.
Without further ado, please meet the nine writers who are with me in New Mexico. Some of them are on Substack! (Just not this week ;)
Turning Points 2024 - Writers
Participant Bios
Kendall Moriarty (she/her) is an East Coaster at heart but lives in the Bay Area after traveling the world as a student and Peace Corps Volunteer. She grew up as an only child with books as some of her best friends and aspirations of writing a book of her own one day. While her career has most recently been in executive talent acquisition, she’s a tireless advocate in global maternal health, passionately using her voice, words, and time to spread awareness about this issue. She received a BA in International Relations and a Masters in Public Health with an emphasis on Global Maternal Health and is working on a memoir centered on birth trauma and maternal health with a travel angle chronicling her return to her body and herself. A huge believer that community is necessary in all endeavors, Kendall is looking forward to gathering with this dedicated group of women where she can prioritize her work and voice. Follow her on Instagram @kendalllmoriarty
Alyssa Burgart (she/they) is a national leader in pediatric anesthesiology and bioethics and an award-winning advocate for reproductive justice. In the Stanford School of Medicine, Alyssa is a highly sought-after live story-telling coach and a go-to resource regarding the ethical considerations (risks, benefits, and alternatives!) in writing about patients. As the digital media editor at Bioethics Today, she has published extensively on ethical issues and also writes a newsletter, “Poppies + Propofol” on Substack. While at Turning Points, she will be making progress on her nonfiction/memoir hybrid, a deeply personal exploration of her transition from growing up with an ableist perspective to becoming a passionate disability advocate. She plans to interweave her experiences with the history of ableism in medicine, hoping this work will inspire other healthcare workers to examine the impact of disability bias on patients. The Land of Enchantment’s big open skies and poor cell phone reception will greatly help.
Elizabeth Austin’s (she/her) writing has appeared in Thrillist, Reactor Mag, Write or Die, Business Insider, and others. Elizabeth holds an M.F.A. from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her two children and their many animals. At Turning Points, she’ll be working on a memoir about the highs and lows of solo-parenting during her daughter’s leukemia treatment. She writes a weekly newsletter exploring her family’s post-cancer years and the journey to book publication at Elizabeth Austin.
The soothing atmosphere at Monte Prieto where we hold Turning Points each year. (Applications for our 2025 program will open in April.)
Suzanne LaFetra Collier’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Creative Nonfiction, The Sun Magazine, Brevity, Smokelong Quarterly, Lunch Ticket, Juxtaprose, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Christian Science Monitor, and in fifteen anthologies. She has also written for radio and children’s magazines. With her filmmaker husband she directed the award-winning documentary film, FREE: The Power of Performance which aired on PBS in 2018. In 2022 she received an MFA from Goddard where she was the recipient of the college’s Engaged Artist Award. In 2023 she was a BookEnds Fellow at Stonybrook University. She has been awarded residencies at Dorland Mountain Arts, South Porch Artists, and Wellstone-in-the-redwoods. She lives in Berkeley, California and is at work on a satirical novel about late capitalism. You can follow along with her on Substack at Suzanne LaFetra Collier
Danielle “Dani” Macedo (she/her) was born in Austin, Texas and raised in Recife, Brazil. She holds a BS and an MS from Texas A&M University and her work has been published in The Rio Review. Though she wrote and read a lot as a young person, immersion in STEM fields pulled her away from creative writing, but this year, as stories keep circling back to her, she’s answering the call to return to words, giving herself space and time to let creativity flow and embrace ways to improve her craft. She’s working on two projects this year: a dystopian story set in the near future where academic freedom has completely eroded and researchers have to do their jobs clandestinely and a futuristic and magical retelling of the Portuguese royal family’s escape and subsequent exile to colonial Brazil during Napoleon’s invasion. Dani lives in Austin where she works in environmental compliance.
Melissa Desa (she/her) is a second generation Indian American psychiatrist and writer. She began her career as faculty at the University of Rochester Medical Center, splitting time between the emergency room and Strong Ties Community Support Program. Most recently she spent seven years treating incarcerated individuals in the New York state prison system. Outside of medicine she’s a classically trained violinist and pianist, Rubik’s cube enthusiast, and chess player. She abides by the growth mindset that anything can be learned with persistence and effort. In 2020 she completed a two-year novel writing certificate through Stanford Continuing Studies. There she began her first novel about a medical student who has a psychotic break. While revising that novel, she’s working on new projects, including a novel-in-progress about an Indian American family fractured by dark secrets. After years of isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic and the boom of Zoom, she looks forward to retreating in real life with the 2024 Turning Point group of exemplary writers.
Staci Greason’s (she/her) literary achievements include award-winning television pilots and screenplays. Her well-reviewed novel, All the Girls in Town, was published by TouchPoint Press (July 26, 2022). Her short stories and essays have been published in Brevity, Slate, Lunch Ticket, AFLW, The Same, and the Huff Post. In her past life, she played the late Isabella Toscano Black on “Days of Our Lives.” Staci lives in Southern California with her smart sexy husband and two adorable dogs.
Our penultimate writer is the award-winning teacher, writer and equity coach Tanya Friedman. A resident of Brooklyn, Tanya focuses on how the development of racial literacy can support teachers to enact anti-racism in the classroom. Her work in this realm has been recognized by the Disney Learning Partnership, the 826 Valencia Prize, the Annenberg Foundation and other organizations. Tanya’s creative writing has been published in numerous magazines and literary journals, and while at Turning Points, she’ll continue work on a nonfiction project about her journey from being (in her words) a person who started out “brimming with hope and cluelessness” to the nationally-recognized teaching expert she is today. Follow her on Instagram @tanya.reading.onthetrain
Our final writer is Elizabeth Dillon, an English professor at Northeastern University whose academic work focuses on the 18th-century Atlantic world: the literature and history of 18th-century America, British colonialism, the Caribbean, histories of slavery and settler colonialism. After publishing two academic monographs, Elizabeth is changing course with a trade book about the history of sugar—from the plantations of the Caribbean to the epidemic of metabolic and autoimmune diseases that now strain our healthcare system. Entitled “Sweetness and Ruin: The Story of Sugar in a Land of Milk and Honey,” the book is under contract with Dutton and includes Elizabeth’s personal story of being diagnosed with diabetes as an adult. After teaching at the university level for decades and writing and publishing a great deal in the academic vein, Elizabeth is excited to change course with a more personal and accessible style of writing. You can follow Elizabeth on Instagram @elizabethmdillon
Let’s give these writers follows, subscribes, and a hearty round of applause! To stay in the loop about Turning Points and our application period, follow us on social media.
Thank you for reading about our 2024 participants and enjoy the rest of your week.
xo
Courtney
Wow! These resumes are SO impressive.
What an inspiring group of writers and people!