Introduction

A great Idaho writer, Susan Rowe, once gave me a jingle bell and asked me to clutch it tightly in my hand. Then she asked me to ring it. Since my hand-meat was all squished up against the bell, the sound that came out was muffl ed and fl at, like a ball of foil rattling in a closed trash can. Then she asked me to open up my hand. Just a little bit. Not so much that the ball would fall out, but enough to introduce some space. I made my hand a play pen the bell could vibe inside. I gave it a shake. Reader, the bell rang with the ting, ting ting! of every holiday shop door you’ve ever entered. The bell is what writing and making art is like. When we apply too much force, our work comes out fl at and muffl ed. Sometimes the condition of feeling squeezed comes from school, where we have a lot to do in not much time. Or we are squeezed by our own brain that makes shouty demands when an invitation would feel more, well, fun. The Cabin exists because writers and artists need space to breathe. We need somewhere sot , full of time and space for play. Summer writing camps feel like an open, gentle holding where writers and artists have access to the time and inspiration they need to create newly-born stories, poems, comics, paintings, sculptures, and whatever else we hear inside, asking to be made. The writing and artworks in these pages ring out with bright questions that animate our dreamed-of, wished-for worlds. I hope you fi nd some sot time to enjoy them. Keep writing, keep writing!

– Laura Roghaar, Teaching-Writer