Carolyn Brigit Flynn
Carolyn Brigit Flynn
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Essay "Walking In Space" in Catamaran Literary Reader, Spring 2021 issue.
Poetry and an essay in Second Wind: Words and Art of Hope and Resilience, edited by Kate Aver Avraham and Melody Culver, November 2020.
Creative non-fiction and poetry in 2020 trilogy, Pandemic Corona, Death: Deep Reflections, and Sacred Earth: Dreaming the Future, edited by Pamela Eakins, Ph.D., published May, August and November 2020.
Essay "Safe Houses: Giving Refuge" in Kosmos: Journal for Global Transformation, Spring 2020 issue.
BOOKS
FROM WHITE CLOUD PRESS
April 2019
Edited by Carolyn Brigit Flynn
SACRED STONE, SACRED WATER reveals the soul of Ireland through the eyes of fourteen women writers and artists who accompanied Carolyn on a writing retreat and tour of Ireland in September 2016. In poems, essays, photographs and artwork, they captured their experience of the exquisite Irish landscape, transformative sacred sites, and the welcoming spirit of the Irish people.
Their journey included the Equinox sunrise at the 5,000-year-old passage mound at Loughcrew, world-famous Newgrange, and stunning monastic sites in the Boyne Valley; the spectacular Beara Peninsula, including Healy Pass, the Hag of Beara; and the holy wells of Ireland's goddess/saint Brigit, the Solas Bhride Center, the site of Brigit's monastery in Kildare, and much more.
COMMUNION
In Praise of the Sacred Earth
Poems by Carolyn Brigit Flynn
"The earth and its lives are grateful, I am sure, for a voice that so passionately takes their side."
— Jane Hirshfield
author, The Beauty
"These daring, luminous poems move from one moment into the dynamic of eternity."
—Deena Metzger
author of A Rain of Night Birds
SISTERS SINGING
Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs, Poetry & Sacred Stories by Women
Edited by Carolyn Brigit Flynn
"I plan to keep Sisters Singing in arm’s reach for at least the next year."
– Maya Angelou, author of
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
"This magical book is a well of blessings."
—Joanna Macy, author of
World As Lover, World as Self
The Light of Ordinary Days
VIDEO: Carolyn reads from her memoir-in-progress, The Light of Ordinary Days.
In 2013, exactly a century after her grandparents emigrated from Ireland to start a new life in America, Carolyn traveled to her ancestral homeland in the wake of a tragedy that had, for a time, broken her body and soul. The Light of Ordinary Days is the story of her journey across modern-day Ireland, but it is also an excavation of the silences and long-held family wounds haunting her family tree, set alongside her own spiritual and personal journey as a young lesbian finding her way in an Irish-Catholic world. It a story of the epic successes and deep spirit of the Irish people, historically and today, including Carolyn's family ancestors who left their name in the Irish landscape. She writes of their long centuries of colonization, culminating in the Great Famine of 1845-1850 endured by her great-great-grandparents. At its root, this is a story of healing--personal, familial, generational--and the tale of the gifted, lyrical island people from whom she comes.
BIO
Carolyn Brigit Flynn is a poet, author and writing teacher dedicated to language as a path to renewed life, soul and spirit.
She is the author of the poetry collection Communion, and the editor of three literary anthologies, most recently Sacred Stone, Sacred Water, with writing and art from her 2016 writing retreat in Ireland.
As a popular teacher in Santa Cruz, California, her creative writing groups provide a powerful container for writers to generate new work from the depth of the soul, and to edit and complete their writing for a broad audience.
Carolyn lives near the ocean in California with her wife, the poet Jean Mahoney.
TEACHING
Carolyn has taught creative writing classes, writing groups and retreats and writing intensives called Writing to Feed the Soul for more than twenty years. The focus of her work is the innovative generation of new writing, as well as insightful editing and the development of new and ongoing writing projects.
Writers often find that a new voice emerges, and that their work goes deeper. In her writing classes, Carolyn brings people together in a unique atmosphere of witness: deep listening, insightful feedback, and an eye to the continued unfolding of the writer and the truest spirit of her work. She teaches in Santa Cruz, CA and in Ireland.
Writing Retreats and Tours in Ireland
NEXT IRELANDTOUR AND RETREAT upcoming in 2023 or 2024
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LANDSCAPE OF SOUL AND STORY
Many years ago Carolyn discovered a profound affiliation with the ancient places of Ireland.
She periodically brings groups of writers and artists to journey into the soul and spirit of Ireland through writing, art and storytelling.
CONTACT
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