Still Here: Writing Through Trauma, Loss and the Queer Experience with Rick Shaw

Some stories live inside us for years, waiting for the right room, the right permission, the right
moment to finally breathe. This is that room. Still Here is a 75-minute creative writing workshop
designed for anyone who has walked through something hard and come out the other side still
standing, still searching, still becoming. Through free verse poetry and realistic fiction, we will write toward the experiences that shaped us, the childhood memories we carry, the losses that hollowed us out and rebuilt us, and the joy, identity, and wholeness waiting on the other side. 
 

Rick Shaw is a queer writer, educator, and storyteller based in Boulder, Colorado. His work explores caregiving, grief, identity, and the quiet resilience it takes to keep going. He is the author of Dreaming in Dementia, a collection of poems and stories written during the years he spent caring for his mother through early onset dementia. An international teacher of sixteen years and a traveler to over 60 countries, Rick holds an MA from the University of Colorado. He directs youth theater, leads wellness hikes, and writes about grief, identity, healing, and the journey of moving through trauma.