We recently connected with Susan Weidener and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Susan, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I left journalism at fifty-six. My career at a major national newspaper had been rewarding, but what to do next? Writing and teaching were my only professional skills.
One day, I scrolled through the internet after typing the words “women’s writing retreat.” A retreat in a small town outside Lexington, Kentucky, caught my attention. It mentioned memoir writing. For years, I wrote other people’s stories, interviewing them, asking probing questions, learning to wait, and listening until they truly opened up to me. But what about my own story? There was one I needed to tell…the story of what happens when cancer brings your marriage to a man you deeply loved to a crashing end. And so, I drove from Pennsylvania to Kentucky.
On warm July nights with the elongated windows open in the retreat house, women sat in a circle and shared the stories they had longed to tell. The intimacy of the encounter, coupled with the creative writing aspects of this experience, drew me in. There was a certain fearlessness to it, too. The courage of not apologizing for feelings and finding confidence in your voice. Later that night, several of us took a dip in the pool. A woman I had just met asked me why I had come to the retreat. We shared stories and drank wine. I told her about the terrible death of my husband and the toll cancer had taken on our marriage. Would you do it again if you knew what was going to happen?” she asked. Without hesitation, I said, “Yes, I would, again in a heartbeat.” She smiled as the moonlight cast its glow over the swimming pool. “That’s it,” she declared. “That’s the title of your memoir.” I had found my purpose.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
In 2009, I started the Women’s Writing Circle in a bookshop in suburban Philadelphia. When you start a writing group, you need expertise as a writer because you hope to teach others how to get better at their craft. You also become attuned to the trust they place in you to write and read aloud their stories and even publish them. The group offers members a safe space to share work, receive constructive feedback, gain publishing experience, and build confidence in their writing abilities.
I remain committed to providing writers with opportunities to connect and meet in person, either through our monthly meetings or writing workshops. The group benefits our members by providing a supportive atmosphere that develops skills, enhances and deepens their writing, and forms lasting connections with fellow writers. For some, this is their first foray into memoir writing, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Saturday mornings when we meet are a luxury because we take the time away from the demands of the world and devote the time to our creative lives. This is so important to me, to foster my own creativity and, at the same time, establish connections with others and encourage them to honor their creative lives.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Over the years, I wrote a blog, Along the Writer’s Way. It offers reflections on writing and my own life. A blog leads to connections with other groups and other writers, including opportunities like this to network and reach a broader audience.
The three qualities are confidence, working hard to improve your craft, and being open to criticism and editing. And redefining, if necessary, what “success” means. If you sell only two books that week, it’s still a success. If only four women come to your writing group, don’t worry, because next month, twelve or more will show up.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
That’s easy. Writing and traveling. I’ve traveled the world for the last fifteen years. Traveling became the jumpstart for both my memoirs and my two novels. As St. Augustine said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” I feel most alive when I see new places, experience new cultures, and then write about them. In our current Women’s Writing Circle anthology, all three of my short stories are set in special places that I have been fortunate enough to visit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.susangweidener.com
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