My work as a writer includes readings & performance, leading ZAP workshops, and speaking/discussion with community, campus and literary groups. Together, we make the necessary connections between literature and our lives. We do this with stories and poems and essays, and we do it in libraries, bookstores, cafes, classrooms and living rooms. We do this while sitting together in circles and bunches and rows — listening and talking, laughing and thinking.


...... some topics and themes for presentation/discussion

Reading/Performance/Talking about writing as craft, art and work
   - may focus on Judith's publications (see WRITING page) and/or work in progress

Poetry & Politics/Art & Action: Making Art with Conscious Politics
   - may include fabric artist and anti-militarism activist Gwyn Kirk

Reading/Performance/Discussion of poems from 4th Period English
   - may include performances by students and community members and/or talking with organizers and filmmakers of the PAPERS project

JANE:  Abortion Counseling Service of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union
   - may include showing of documentary Jane: An Abortion Service and talk by filmmaker

Grace Paley, Writer and Activist – Her Life and Work
   - may include Gwyn Kirk, Grace’s colleague in anti-militarism work (see page for Grace Paley's Life Stories)


.... for more topics and themes:

.... for info about ZAP Workshops:


...... some audience and workshop responses

As someone trying to make the sometimes frightening leap from nonfiction to fiction, I found Judith Arcana’s ZAP workshop incredibly helpful. A low-pressure environment coupled with high-intensity “outside the box” writing exercises forced me to create in ways I’d never experienced before. Judith’s guidance was gentle but persistent, and my work has definitely taken a good turn since I participated in the workshop. — Keith Rosson, Avow zine/Give Me Back columnist

Judith Arcana was an extraordinary presence in her visit to our campus – her effect on our students was electrifying. As a speaker and performer of her writing, she’s a source of energy.
— Marian Rodriguez, JD, former Director, Law and Diversity Program, Western Washington University

Judith has the capacity to bring together the baby boomers of the 1960s and the generation of the 21st century. She reaches us all.
— Stacie E. Geller, PhD. Director, National Center of Excellence in Women's Health; Associate Professor/Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Director, Center for Research on Women & Gender, University of Illinois at Chicago

Judith Arcana's visit to our campus was magical ... providing our students with the opportunity to meet an important American poet and feminist activist, and to work with her on their semester long project .... Arcana is a treasure!
— Dr. Alison Bailey, Director, Women's Studies Program; Associate Professor of Philosophy, Illinois State University




...... some funding strategies for event organizers and planners

Many groups create coalitions for event funding; at colleges these may include a women's center, programs in women’s studies, gender studies and queer studies, departments of English, Creative Writing, Philosophy, History, Sociology, Political Science, Biology and others + Law Students & Medical Students for Reproductive Justice and Choice, Progressive Students Alliance, Student Activities Boards and Student Governments, and more.

Community groups collaborate similarly – in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, the YWCA, the Women’s Health and Education Fund of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Cambridge Women’s Commission worked with Boston University’s women’s studies program to create/sponsor an event.

Other school groups have created dynamic collaborations with community groups; in Ohio, Oberlin College Students United for Reproductive Freedom joined Cleveland State University’s Poetry Center, Student Women’s Association, Women’s Comprehensive Center and President’s Advisory Committee on the Role and Status of Women plus Preterm, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and the Freedom of Choice Cleveland Coalition – to create a cluster of events in their region.

Women's funds and foundations, literary organizations, local Humanities Councils, NNAF and NARAL chapters, medical centers, clinics and others can work this way.


I’ve worked with students, faculty and staff at many schools .....

University of Oregon; Green College/University of British Columbia; Roosevelt University; Claremont Colleges; Boston University; Brown University; Cleveland State University; Oberlin College; Lewis University; Loyola University/Chicago; Simmons College; Oregon Health Sciences University; Lane Community College; Illinois State University; University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth; Portland Community College; University of Illinois/Chicago; University of Southern California; Eastern Oregon University; Northwestern University; Portland State University; Mills College; University of Redlands; Lewis&Clark College; Western Washington University; Hampshire College; Birkbeck College/University of London; York University/Toronto

..... and many community organizations and groups as well.

The annual Silverton Poetry Festival in Oregon & many other literary reading series in the US and Canada + the YWCA and Cambridge Women’s Commission; Las Manos Gallery; Center for New Words; Write Around Portland; Women’s Health and Education Fund of Southeastern Massachusetts; Las Tablas Gallery & Latinas Organizing for Reproductive Equality; National Network of Abortion Funds; Planned Parenthood; National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League; Network for Reproductive Options; Lovejoy SurgiCenter; Jane Fund of Central Massachusetts; Cleveland’s Pre-Term; Freedom of Choice Cleveland Coalition; Illinois Reproductive Justice Fund; Backline and the Abortion Conversation Project