¡hastings! Issue #3: P&L Sprints

It’s a long way from Portland, OR to Lotusland, BC. And still further to Chicago IL or Strandhill, Co. Sligo.

Something terrible helped bring us all together over the last few years. Something terrible, that at times looked like the ending of everything, helped create a new community that couldn’t have existed before. Like new shoots rising from the wildfire, the P&L Writing Sprints Group has gathered writers from around the world, centering on our new ‘homeland’ of NE Portland. 

And how is that writers who may not even have met each other can build community? By showing up and spending time together, day after day, honing our craft and pounding out our poems, stories and novels. By sharing challenges, by being there for one another in spirit if not in person. Sometimes as little as sharing a smile, a friendly face peeping out from a window on a computer screen to bring cheer to a far-off living room or office. 

In this third edition of ¡HASTINGS! we find ourselves breaking free from earthly constraints, meditating on a windswept shore and experiencing lightning floor-sex somewhere in Manitoba. We awake to watch a red-haired thief riding off on our beloved bicycle, then arrive in Africa to explore whether a woman can last without a man longer than a man can last without a woman. 

It’s a mixed bag, for sure. Is it possible the writers of stories can be any less mixed than the words they produce? 

It’s hard to know. 

But it’s certainly possible that’s one more thing helping us sustain our little community. The knowledge that we are stronger together, that our diversity is part of our joy of togetherness.