Blog
Meet the Teaching Artist: Caretaking and Creative Practice with Sarah McColl
by Writing Workshops Staff
A month ago
What if the chaos of caretaking could fuel creativity instead of stifling it? Sarah McColl, celebrated author of Joy Enough and the voice behind the acclaimed newsletter Lost Art, is here to rewrite the narrative around parenting and artistic practice. In her upcoming seminar, Caretaking and Creative Practice, McColl takes aim at the antiquated notion that art and caregiving are incompatible, offering instead a radical reimagining of creativity as deeply intertwined with the rhythms of daily life.
Drawing from her own experiences and the wisdom of legends like Toni Morrison and Grace Paley, McColl creates a space where ambivalence, loss, and even unwashed dishes become fertile ground for artistic growth. Through thoughtful presentations, rich discussions, and inventive writing exercises, participants will uncover the surprising ways in which life’s messiest moments can become the heart of their creative work.
Whether you're a parent navigating nap schedules or simply juggling life’s demands, this seminar offers practical strategies and soulful inspiration to transform obstacles into opportunities. As McColl reminds us, creativity doesn’t require quiet—it thrives in the noise of a full life. Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and, most of all, seen.
Hi Sarah McColl, please introduce yourself to our audience.
I'm the author of the memoir, Joy Enough. I also write LOST ART, a monthly newsletter about the creative work of (mostly) dead women and a 2023 finalist for the Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant. I always have a towering stack of books on my bedside, which currently includes Brian Doyle, Christian Wiman, Ursula Le Guin, Hilma Wolitzer, a book called You Have the Right to Remain Fat, and a YA novel called The Firekeeper's Daughter. My favorite book as a child was Miss Rumphius, and I'm currently reading James and the Giant Peach to my child for the second time by request. I think being a writer isn't just something you do, it's a way of being in the world.
What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice? Have you noticed a need to focus on this element of craft?
When I was pregnant, I was very preoccupied with finishing the book I was working on before the baby's due date. I had been conditioned to think of art and motherhood as conflicting interests, and I was at a loss to imagine how my life would encompass both. I didn't finish the book before the baby arrived. But to my surprise, I've found there's lots about being a mother that is well-suited to the writing life. Is it easy? No. But the experience has given me direct access to meaningful material and had loads to teach me about presence, attention, and surrender. I'm eager to help writers find new ways of thinking about their work within the constraints of parenthood.
Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part about this class you've dreamed up?
There will be times when I talk, times when those in class talk. We'll read a little and discuss what we read. And there will be periods of collective silence when we write together, as well as time to share.
What was your first literary crush?
Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. The irreverence, the playfulness, and the formal inventiveness all opened my eyes to literary strategies I hadn't known were possible.
What are you currently reading?
I just finished Alice Munro's The Lives of Girls and Women for a book club, which led to a great discussion.
How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
I don't so much *choose* what I'm working on as I become obsessed with something that I need to write about, that I need to think through in the way only writing allows me to do. I usually finish what I start, or else the material gets recycled into a new form.
Where do you find inspiration?
Inspiration for me is all about the extraordinary stuff of everyday life. I love the Jane Cooper poem, “Ordinary Detail”: “I am trying to write a poem that will alert me to my real life, / a poem written in the natural speech of the breakfast table.” If a writer is, as Henry James wrote, someone upon whom nothing is lost, then I find much of the writing I love, and much of what I’m drawn to write, pays rigorous attention to the details of the world as it is, beautiful and cruel: a blue and white bowl full of oranges, a gnarled tree, a woman crying at a bus stop. In that sense, I think inspiration comes to me in images and in feeling, and the interplay between the two. The daily work of paying attention, of being someone upon whom nothing is lost, is a practice we carry off the page and into our lives.
What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Read your work aloud. It can reveal tics, awkward phrasings, wooden dialogue. I always find something reading aloud that can be cut that I had not noticed reading "in my head.”
What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
Writing Down the Bones. I love Natalie Goldberg's clarity and practicality. I also love the ways she relates the practice of Zen Buddhism to writing. Sitting down, for one, is often the hardest part.
Bonus question: What’s your teaching vibe?
My teaching vibe is warm, supportive, collaborative, and enthusiastic, with plenty of humor.
Learn more about working with Sarah McColl:
Here is Sarah's upcoming seminar, Caretaking and Creative Practice. You can sign up now to avoid the waitlist!
Sarah McColl is the author of the memoir JOY ENOUGH. Since January 2021, she has published LOST ART, a monthly newsletter about the creative work of (mostly) dead women and a 2023 finalist for the Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant. Her essays have appeared in the Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and StoryQuarterly, and her work has been supported with fellowship awards from Millay Arts, Ucross, Vermont Studio Center, and MacDowell. She lives in small town Northern California.
