This year, Rachel Baker and
Mary Catherine Harper provided
bookmark memontos for the
retreat, one from Rachel's
3-D printer (on the right) and
three from MC's eco-printing
process(on the left).
Photos below by Dawn Burns and Becky Miller.
"SwampFire always surprises me. It always reminds me that thinkingand talking about writing makes me love words more and more.Happy to have gathered with writers and artists again." Becky Miller
"It was brilliant to be here again. I almost forgot the thrill of
writing till I came by. Thank you for the great time." Jenni Repka
"It was wonderful to reconnect with this community—
I missed my friends and this creative space. I always end SwampFire
feeling creatively rejuvenated, and it's especially appreciated after
a pandemic year." Rachel Baker
"SwampFire gatherings always energize me. But this year's workshop
has done more than invigorate. It reminds me of creativity's power to
sustain us in difficult times. Thank you, Fellow Participants, for
sharing your wonderful creative spirits." Mary Catherine Harper
Besides hours of intense writing and discussion with others,
SwampFire participants wandered freely on the 4Corners Gallery
grounds and enjoyed the beauty of the adjacent wheat field.
Steve Smith, who opens his workshop every year to the SwampFire
participants, also takes time to provide valuable feedback to writers
from the perspective of a potter and visual artist.
"Magic lives in this space when we gather. We hardly know it when
we are travelling but when we arrive, when we gather, we are filled
up with and cradled within magic. When we leave we carry it with
us out into the world.
SwampFire sustains me the whole year long and sometimes for
two or three years, including through the year the world was in
pause. I'm grateful to be alive and gathered with others, to have the
space and time to create, the opportunity to support and be
supported, the gift of sharing stories both written and lived.
SwampFire is a site of transformation, a thin place in my world
reminding me who I am and opening new ways for me to be.
Grateful.
Ready for what lies ahead."
Dawn Burns
SwampFire supports the work of artists and writers through retreats