The Autumn Society uses the Amherst Writers & Artists method as its writing practice. AWA was founded by Pat Schneider, who developed the method working with writers in low-income housing projects in Chicopee, Massachusetts. It is now used by writing groups around the world, including our parent organization, Straw Dog Writers Guild. Your Autumn Society facilitator is AWA-certified.
What it is
AWA is a workshop method built on a simple premise: every person is a writer, and every writer deserves a safe environment to experiment, learn, and develop craft. The facilitator offers a prompt — not an assignment — and everyone writes for a set period of time, including the facilitator. You read your work aloud if you choose to. The group responds with what works in the piece. No criticism is offered on first-draft work. What you write is confidential and stays in the room.
- The method rests on six essential practices:
- the workshop is non-hierarchical,
- confidentiality is maintained,
- the group listens for what works rather than what’s wrong,
- no criticism is directed at first-draft work,
- craft is taught through exercises that invite experimentation,
- and the facilitator writes and reads alongside everyone else.
What a session looks like
A typical AWA session runs between ninety minutes and two hours. The facilitator opens with a prompt — sometimes a line from a poem, an image, a question, or a short reading. The prompt is an invitation, not a directive. You can follow it or ignore it entirely.
- Everyone writes for a timed period, usually fifteen to twenty minutes. The facilitator writes too. When the timer ends, the facilitator invites each person to read their work aloud. Reading is always optional — you can pass.
- After each reading, the group responds with what they noticed: a phrase that stuck, an image that worked, a turn that surprised them. Responses are directed at the writing, not the writer — the group treats everything as fiction, regardless of how autobiographical it may be.
- There is no critique, no suggestions, no “what if you tried.” That comes later, only when a writer brings revised work in manuscript form and asks for it.
If you’ve been in a writing workshop that tore your work apart, this is the opposite of that. AWA protects your voice while it’s forming. The method treats new writing as what it is — first-draft material that needs room to breathe before it needs editing. You write, you hear your own work out loud, you hear what landed for other people. That cycle, repeated over time, builds both confidence and craft without one coming at the expense of the other.
For more on the AWA method, visit amherstwriters.org.
Codex / Amherst Writers & Artists