The Kitchen Session: A Writing Workshop for Women and Girls, Saturday, December 10th

Join award-winning poet and Indiana University Provost Professor Catherine Bowman for a creative writing class for women and girls ages 13 and older at the Salem City Hall.

In this generative workshop we will write together and explore memories of our kitchens, past and present. We will write into and out of the kitchens of our mothers and grandmothers, the secret kitchen, the forbidden kitchen, the immigrant kitchen, the symbolic kitchen, the conjuring kitchen, the dream kitchen, and the working kitchen. We will explore and reconsider the standard images of the woman in the kitchen. We will reflect on the kitchens of the women in in our families as a place for joy and power. Through a series of guided writing prompts we will explore food and cooking, what we consume and what consumes us, and that sacred and profane space of mystery and desire—the kitchen.

The class is free and all levels of writers are welcome, from beginners to the more experienced. You will have the chance to work with short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Snacks will be provided.


Dusty will be presenting a writing session during this event! 

This workshop is offered in partnership with the IU Department of English, IU Arts & Humanities Council, and Salem City Hall.

Register at IU Center for Rural Engagement


Awareness Washington County Paint Party Benefit, Thursday, December 8th

This is a family friendly event (about ages 10 & up)! Winter or Christmas Cottage on 11x14 stretched canvas.


Paint & Sips or Family Friendly Paint Parties available by appointment. Please contact us via the Austy's website, Facebook @Austys, or at austysbooks@gmail.com to set up your private party!


On hold until the spring when Beck's Mill reopens! Dusty also holds monthly Paint Parties benefiting Beck's Grist Mill in Salem. The parties are held in a shaded, open air dining room just above the Mill.

503 East Hackberry Street, Salem, Indiana 47167