During the second half of my four-year journey as a student at the University of Colorado Boulder (the half during which I decided to major in creative writing), I joined a creative writing group with other students. The group is called the Amuse Creative Writing Club, and during my time there, it met almost every week throughout each semester.
Every week, writers would bring in whatever they wanted to workshop. They brought poetry, essays, short stories, or anything else they wanted to work on. Workshopping the writers who wanted feedback on their work took up most of the time in each two-hour session. Whatever time remained would be spent actually writing. We wrote stories based on a prompt we came up with then and there.
It felt bittersweet to leave once I graduated, but just before I received my diploma, I learned of another group I could join to fill the void.
I heard from my mother about The Ned Writers Group, which was meeting weekly at the Nederland Community Library. In mid-April, I contacted Jeannie Leigh, the primary organizer and planner for the group, and asked if I could join once I had graduated. She enthusiastically welcomed me, and I believe my first meeting occurred on May 13, 2024.
Through this group, I’ve been lucky enough to meet other writers in the Peak to Peak area who love putting their words to paper and sharing their stories with others. Being one of the newest members, though, I had no idea how far back the group’s history stretched.
Enter Serene Karplus, who served as the director of Nederland Area Seniors (NAS) from 2007 to 2019. She’s been part of the group since the beginning – in fact, NAS originally brought the group to life. I had no idea about this history until after our managing editor, Barbara Hardt, proposed this article, at which point I offered to write it as a new member.
In response to this proposal, Karplus found files from the group’s inception that laid down plans for what the members would focus on. It is in large part thanks to those documents and her perspective (as well as others I’ve emphasized in this piece) that I can bring this much detail here.
From June to August 2009, the group started as the Lifestory Writing Group, a workshop led by Rita and Blair Justice. The Justices were Texas residents who summered in Colorado, and both had been writing for a long time. Blair had already published various books, some by himself (including 1999’s Visits with Violet: How to Be Happy for 100 Years) and some with Rita. The Justices wanted to bring the NAS a similar writing workshop to those in their home state. Partially because of their interest in the concept and partially because the Justices offered the workshop free of charge, the seniors graciously accepted the offer.
Karplus recalls a dozen people signing up for the first workshop. It lasted eight sessions over the summer and emphasized a safe, confidential environment where writers could exchange ideas and apply new techniques and skills. The stories usually revolved around a common prompt and centered around the writer’s lives. While the group has always welcomed all ages, the initial workshop primarily attracted seniors due to its schedule and focus on past reflections.
At the workshop’s conclusion, everyone enjoyed the experience so much and connected so deeply to each other that they voluntarily decided to keep the group going. The group has morphed multiple times since then, from meetings twice a month after lunch hour, where writing focused on a particular topic about their lives, to spinning off a second group for improving specific writing skills, to eventually meshing the two groups together.
The current group meets at a consistent time in a public place (the Nederland Community Library) so that everyone knows they are welcome. The focus switches every other session between working on personal skills, and bringing in stories based on a particular prompt, fictional or not. Every week, a different person is encouraged to suggest the next week’s project, meaning that even though Leigh has a constant role in organization and communication, the leadership rotates weekly.
Whether the story is prepared in advance or written during the sessions, there is often time for everyone to share their stories and perspectives with other writers. The group is still confidential, so everything shared stays in the group.
Karplus has always been connected to the group, even though her active participation has lessened since retirement. She has always enjoyed writing, occasionally penning magazine articles while living in Illinois. However, she says that once joining the NAS in January 2007, she could start writing more. By that February, she had cemented her routine of writing a weekly column for The Mountain-Ear called “Senior Scene,” keeping up with it for over twelve years.
Through the group, she found even more time to write and explore her ideas and experiences through words. She feels that with what everyone has shared in their writing, the group has developed a closeness as friends, despite the changes in membership over the years.
Karplus loves meeting new people in the group and emphasizes that the leadership format considers everyone’s desires for the group’s direction. She encourages everyone, whether in the group or not, to just keep writing because of how helpful it is for individual expression.
Since then, many members have come and gone, including Betsy Buck, who remembers the initial workshop in 2009. She recalls the meetings shifting from the Nederland Community Church to the Nederland Community Center. During these meetings, while there was much laughter, everyone took sharing stories seriously, listening to every word.
For some months, a student from Naropa University taught the group techniques for poetic writing, and after years of the group going strong, even something like the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop it completely: the group shared their stories through email.
Before joining the group, Buck had always kept her writing in private journals, but as she continued writing in the group, she became more confident in her voice and found it easier to express herself in a way that sounded right to her.
Ultimately, despite having to leave, she is grateful for all she learned through the group. Her writing development even gave her the courage to compile the book All This For A Little Gold: The Diary of Henry Hawley, a Young Miner, a book of historical journal entries from a young Wisconsin miner during his time in Central City in 1860 and 1861.
Of course, the group is still strong and always accepts new people. Gerald “Ray” Phillips and his wife Donna Phillips joined earlier in 2024. Ray had already been involved in various poetry readings across the Peak to Peak area and worked on a novel in his own time. The idea of delving into different creative avenues than his usual ones attracted him. He also wanted to have scheduled times to finish his writing, which he had avoided since finishing his novel draft.
Donna, meanwhile, is primarily an artist but has helped edit Ray’s novel to make it more concise. She joined the group with Ray because she wanted to join him in his activities. During a poetry reading she shared with Ray, Ward poet Mike Parker encouraged her to write because of her attendance frequency, and she’s enjoyed the activity ever since.
She engages in the group because she can quickly connect with others on a less superficial level through the subjects they write about, and ultimately, she prefers the more personal subjects over typical small talk.
Someone else joined around the same time as I did. After graduating from Boston University with a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary liberal arts, intending to become a teacher, Crystal Lordan decided to focus more on pursuing writing. She’s always written, including semi-professionally for a publishing company during college, and has always enjoyed it. She joined the writers’ group because she wanted to get back into writing frequently.
Much like Donna, she has loved connecting to people more deeply because of what everybody shares in each meeting. She wanted to focus on a particular kind of social outlet, and ultimately, she found that social outlet in this group and through their sharing of stories.
Many other writers and community members have been involved over the years: Alberta Montgomery, Dick Deubel, Violet Aandres, Marilyn Fagerstrom, Lynda Dawson, Gary Ennor, Jeannette Smith, Lucy Stroock, Jim Elder, Linnea Grovom, and Claudia Kutscher are just a handful of those who have been involved in the group. Stroock and Kutscher are still involved today, and other members I’ve met include Sandy Chamberlain, Vicky McCulloch, and David Copeland.
With Leigh now in charge of organizing, it’s clear that she’s always enjoyed the group. Initially, she started incorporating her life stories into fiction after sharing many of her memories. She loves writing for the joy of it, and while she has no current plans to publish, she says that since characters sometimes overlap in the chapters she’s collected, it’s always possible.
And then there’s me. I grew up in a completely different generation than everybody else currently attending, and at first, I worried I wouldn’t quite fit in. However, after a couple of meetings, those worries disappeared completely. Every member has been easy to connect with and I have found it fascinating to listen to their different perspectives.
Each member has also seemed to appreciate my perspective, having grown up entirely in the 21st century in a world completely tied to technology. When I contribute something to the group, it is consistently met with eager ears. Being a part of the group has allowed me to meet some truly amazing people and hear beautiful perspectives from those who have lived here for decades. It has also allowed me to continue sharing my stories and write more frequently. With the group open to everyone, who knows who else might step in to join and share their perspective?
If you’re interested in being the next person to join the Ned Writers Group, then email Jeannie Leigh at mjeanleigh@netscape.net for more information. The group currently meets every Monday at the Nederland Community Library, 200 Highway 72 N in Nederland, between 1 and 3 p.m.
