Hardening our hearts might be a temporary survival option, and yet, surviving the endlessly painful news of a world in ongoing crisis somehow requires us to soften, and open. At least temporarily--maybe at least for time enough to read a short story.

A 2022 collection of 9 stories by new author Talia Lakshmi Kolluri cracks open hearts by bringing us the world from perspectives we haven't heard--a donkey caught in an airstrike, for example. Having just re-read that opening piece, my admiration for Kolluri's artistic choices continues to grow. My bruised heart too, swells past those brittle boundaries that keep it small, even though those walls were thrown up for protection. My heart grows toward remembering. Kolluri's writing asks us for another effort, another experiment in bringing the world's many boundaried separations a little closer to connection, and wholeness.

Whoa--hold the abstractions already! Returning to the details (cuz that's where the sacred is): This coming Sunday morning (August 4, 2024), from 9-12, join me and fellow writers in the tent on the lawn at Jackson Hole's The Center for the Arts, for an exploration of a variety of ways contemporary authors remind us that humans are only one kind of animal among so many, each with capacities and curiosities and cares that can add a necessary richness to today's literature. With a number of fine examples--like Kolluri's--in our ears, and resonating in our animal bodies, we'll then experiment together with doing this ourselves.

If you've turned mostly to nonfiction or poetry to face the crises of the day, let this workshop open your options to different ways, and different readers. If your fiction has landed mostly within human highways, come feel the difference of broader inclusion. Let's hear each other's new words, and let that music play us all toward a kinder, more connected future.