ARD SU / NEXTGENRADIO
MOMENTS
OF
TRUTH
Poet reclaims her voice after years of discouragement
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Christine Wilson:
My mother tongue is actually poetry. I’m a poet through and through.
I’m Christine Wilson, executive director at Women Writing for (a) Change. We’re an organization that helps women and other diversity groups find their voice and improve their writing in spaces that are equitable.
I’ve been a director at other nonprofit organizations. I’ve done writing and communications work everywhere. I had learned to get really comfortable to speak in other people’s voices, or like the company speak.
The hardest part, personally, was I felt all the things that women in the workforce experience, which is people taking credit for my work, people interrupting me, jockeying for who has the loudest voice.
One place I worked, we wanted to keep it sort of chipper. And you know what? I am not always modern and chipper. Sometimes I’m angry, and there wasn’t space in that writing for me to express my own feelings. That led to a really tough time for me and feeling like I was kind of losing myself.
I was writing a lot less poetry, even though, when I was in college, it was something I pursued heavily. The work field had quieted that intuitive voice in me.
In college, I won an award for poet— in the English department for poetry. And yet, it was after that, in a senior thesis poetry class, that I had a teacher that I would say was incredibly critical. He just, in every way, shut me down. I took kind of a hiatus from writing after that for quite a while. I felt really beat up as a writer.
I had heard about Women Writing for (a) Change when I was in college, and I thought, I’m going to check that place out. I’m going to make that my writing community. And then I started working. I got married, I had kids, and I didn’t. I wish I would have so much sooner, because the way I feel cared for through this place would have been really helpful through all of those things.
[Sound of Chime]
The way that we do classes is we all sit in a circle. Because we sit in a circle, it means every person is equal.
[Sound of Chime]
One of our practices at Women Writing is the facilitator chimes between each person who reads in the circle.
[Sound of Chime]
When it did become time for me to read out loud in that circle for the very first time, something I myself had written, um, man, I was, like, alright, I’m gonna do this, but I’m gonna cry. And I didn’t, I didn’t cry.
There’s a difference between reading your words and inhabiting your words. And I had a moment of inhabiting my own words. And when these women that I was just getting to know reflected back to me my own words, it meant that what I had said, had moved them in some way, and I was able to get out of my own head of judgment of my words and move into hearing what they heard. And I felt like it was a moment of accepting my voice, accepting myself.
I think when you find your safe space and you find your own freedom, you can extend that to other people. You can’t free others if you can’t free yourself [laughter].
Christine Wilson, executive director of Women Writing for (a) Change sits underneath a painting donated by a former student of the program. “When women are constantly in the world feeling their voice being oppressed, they start to quiet. And I would say in this place, we are strengthening that voice, and then it ripples and echoes out into the community,” Wilson says.
LILIA SANTERAMO / NEXTGENRADIO
When Christine Wilson was in college, she wanted to be part of a writing community that spoke to her values. As a writer who was also taking courses in women’s studies, Wilson says that the non-profit writing group Women Writing for (a) Change enticed her. Though she didn’t get involved with the group at the time, Wilson started to join other writing spaces at school and surprised herself by winning an award from the English department for a collection of poems.
“My mother tongue is poetry,” Wilson said.
The following semester, Wilson took a senior thesis poetry workshop with a highly regarded professor. She says her experience in that class damaged her confidence despite the recognition she had just received for her work.
“He just in every way shut me down,” Wilson recalled. “He was so hard on me. I took a hiatus from writing after that for quite a while.”
After college, Wilson spent her early career doing communications work at various non-profits. She wrote daily emails, designed style guides, and helped others hone their writing. She found this work, however, to be deeply unfulfilling.
“One place I worked, it was very much about very short sentences,” Wilson said. “Modern and chipper was the tone. And you know what? I am not always modern and chipper. Sometimes I’m angry, and there wasn’t space in that writing for me to express my own feelings.”
Additionally, Wilson says she experienced discrimination in the workplace. In doing work where her perspective was suppressed both creatively and as a woman, Wilson remembers feeling lost and afraid to be vulnerable.
In 2014, Wilson decided to make a change. After years of doing communications work and supporting her family, she would finally join another writing community. She revisited the idea of the writing circle at Women Writing for (a) Change, the group she had been intrigued by in college.
“I just had it come to my mind like, ‘oh, that’s right, I always said I was going to be a part of a writer’s community that didn’t have to do with work, and I know one of those,’” Wilson said. “So I went on the website very nervously. I signed up for a class, which is really scary. You don’t know what you’re walking into.”
Wilson, executive director of the non-profit Women Writing for (a) Change sits within an arrangement of chairs the group uses for writing circles. The chairs in the space are set up to emphasize equality in the sharing space, Wilson says.
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My mother tongue is poetry.
Wilson holds a talking stone that’s held when it’s someone’s turn to share their story. “Everybody gets the same amount of time to speak,” Wilson says.
LILIA SANTERAMO / NEXTGENRADIO
In the writing circle, Wilson became acquainted with a starkly different culture than that of her place of work. The organization’s commitment to not just making space for women, but everyone, and its commitment to equity was striking. Women sat in circles — a symbol of equality — where everyone was invited to share their work and receive feedback that they asked for. They also used talking stones so that everyone had their chance to speak and be heard. The women involved at the organization forefronted values such as respect, consent, hospitality, equity and joy.
Wilson says that when she shared a poem in the writing circle for the first time, she was very nervous. She felt scared to read to a group of just a few women despite years of public speaking, and it was reflected in her delivery.
“I was talking so fast, and it’s because I just wanted to get it over with,” Wilson said.
A woman reached out to her and reminded her to slow down. Wilson says that moment helped her stay grounded while she delivered the poem and helped her to inhabit her own words in a way she hadn’t for a long time. Then, the other women in the circle shared lines they had written down while they listened.
“When these women that I was just getting to know reflected back to me my own words, it meant that what I had said moved them in some way,” Wilson said. “I was able to get out of my own head, of judgment of my words, and move into hearing what they heard. I felt like it was a moment of accepting my voice, accepting myself.”
Christine Wilson types on her laptop in a room in the Women Writing for (a) Change Building on Monday, July 14, 2025. “Creativity is abundant and endless. I found that here in community, I couldn’t have found that alone in my room,” Wilson says.
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Poet Christine Wilson smiles in front of a quilt hung on the wall near the writing circle.
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Wilson says that moment of self acceptance has benefited her poetry tremendously.
“Since then, I am an avid writer,” Wilson continued. “I mean, I would use the word prolific. I don’t stop when it comes to poetry.”
Though she started as a student, Wilson soon chose to work for Women Writing for (a) Change in a professional capacity. She began facilitating writing classes in 2017, and in 2024 assumed the role of executive director, though that looks different at Women Writing for (a) Change compared to her other jobs. Wilson still attends and facilitates classes alongside her professional work for the organization, taking emotional risks and choosing to be open in all aspects.
“I write ‘From the Director’ every month,” Wilson said, “and I take some brave risks even when I write that, because I want to do it as the leader. I want to model that I’m staying vulnerable so other people will know it’s safe to do the same.”
I was able to get out of my own head, of judgment of my words, and move into hearing what they heard. I felt like it was a moment of accepting my voice, accepting myself.
(LEFT) Wilson, a local poet, flips through her portfolio to find “The Lotus Flower.” Wilson says she wrote the poem early on as a student at Women Writing for (a) Change.
LILIA SANTERAMO / NEXTGENRADIO
Women Writing for (a) Change is based in the Village of Silverton. The quote on the mural on the side of the building was selected in collaboration with the organization and the Silverton community to represent common values.
LILIA SANTERAMO / NEXTGENRADIO