Creative Writing Courses Inspire Centre County Seniors

Aaronsburg resident Abby Minor holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing and writes poetry. In 2012, she designed and initiated a creative writing class for residents of the Salem Hill Haven Assisted Living Facility near Spring Mills. 

She worked as a volunteer at first, but in 2015 she received funding from a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts for her course, which focused on poetry writing. The 12-person Salem Hill group met once a week for 12 weeks in the spring and fall. Their poems were published in a 46-page booklet Minor sells at craft fairs and other venues.

Minor said most of the poems are collaborations, with contributions coming from several members. During the sessions, participants’ ideas are written on a whiteboard, then edited down to produce the final versions.

“It’s kind of a blend between storytelling and writing poetry,” said Minor.

Minor has recently expanded her writing program to four Centre County sites, with classes meeting twice a week in the Bellefonte Senior Center and other groups meeting at Centre Crest and the Penns Valley Senior Center in Madisonburg, as well as at Salem Hill Haven.

One of the Centre Crest classes is held for patients in the dementia ward.

“For that class, the goal is to lift people’s moods, and also to show that people who have memory loss can still be creative,” said Minor. “The things that we wrote collaborating in that class were some of the most interesting poems that have been written in the classes I’ve taught because they were really tapped into the subconscious.”

Minor said she often uses photographs to stimulate conversation and to generate ideas from the participants for the poems.

“My goal is to serve many different people whose voices are ‘underheard’ in Centre County,” said Minor.

Minor noted that booklets containing poetry from all the course sites are available for sale at the Green Drake Art Gallery in Millheim.

For more information, contact Minor at (814) 441-4507 or abbyminor@gmail.com.