March Letter from the Editor

By Debi Archibald

Here in Colorado Springs, we have been dealing with a somewhat abnormal stretch of gray days and accumulating snow and so my letter to you was beginning to formulate itself around the themes of cabin fever, isolation, and the effects on the writer of winter.

And then I saw Still Alice. While the overarching subject is Alzheimer's, Alice's background as a brilliant linguist shines the light on language acquisition, human communication and the devastating loss of the ability to master words. These concepts have continued to stay with me with much more intensely than any other aspect of the film.  I have always found the mechanics of language to be fascinating and as I began to define myself less as a linguist and more as a writer, that fascination migrated to the way we can take something as concrete as words and create entire worlds, populations, lives.

www.creativitypost.com

And so it strikes me that those of us who are able and desire to string together curves and lines into letters and letters into words, words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs have a sacred trust. Language is an oft taken-for-granted miracle and as writers we are privileged to participate in its progression and elevation.

Philosophizing aside, your opportunity to interact with a talented group of fellow writers who value language as much as you do is less than two months away. At Conference in April you can rub elbows (literally - some of the classrooms are, shall we say, cozy) with people who choose to transform words on the page into more types of creative realities and storylines than you can begin to imagine. The cost goes up in less than two weeks, so click on over to the "Conference" tab and find all the details on registration.

And keep being part of the mystery of language.