Writing and caregiving often exist in tension—and in conversation—with one another. Whether planned or unexpected, short-term or lifelong, caregiving shapes how writers live, work, and create. For writers who also serve as caregivers, the challenge of sustaining a creative practice alongside the responsibilities of caring for children, elders, or loved ones with disabilities is both deeply personal and profoundly universal.
Millay House Rockland will offer the upcoming panel, Writing While Caregiving: Challenges & Strategies, which will bring together a diverse group of writer-caregivers to share experiences, strategies, and insights from the intersection of caregiving and creativity. The event will be led by the poet Jeneva Stone, who will guide a discussion of the following:
How do writer-caregivers keep the flame of their creative lives fed?
How do they successfully bank the embers when the inevitable disruptions rumble through?
How should they respond when, inevitably, someone questions the ethics of writing about the lives so intimately bound up with their own?
Jeneva will be joined by fiction writers Sharon Gelman, Brian Trapp, and Grace Spulak, poets Sandra Beasley and Melissa McKinstry, and memoirist Faith S. Holsaert. Each panelist will offer firsthand perspectives on how caregiving has shaped their art and share selections of their own work. The conversation will conclude with an open Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to engage directly with the speakers. Attendees will also receive a resource handout curated by Jeneva, offering practical support for writers managing caregiving responsibilities.
This event invites writers, caregivers, and community members to explore how caregiving reshapes the creative process and how writing, in turn, can illuminate the caregiving experience.
NOTE: This event is FREE, but you need to register in order to receive the Zoom link to the panel discussion.
The Caregiving Writers Panel
Jeneva Stone (she/her) is a poet, essayist and advocate. She’s the author of Monster (Phoenicia Publishing, 2016), and her work has appeared widely in literary journals. Jeneva has received fellowships from MacDowell, Millay Arts and VCCA. She and her son Rob advocate for disability rights, health care, and rare disease. Learn more at jenevastone.com.
Sandra Beasley is the author of Made to Explode; Count the Waves; I Was the Jukebox; Theories of Falling; and Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a disability memoir. She also edited Vinegar and Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance. She lives in Washington, D.C. Learn more at sandrabeasley.com.
Sharon Gelman writes and edits fiction and nonfiction. She created the award-winning audiobook Nelson Mandela‘s Favorite African Folktales, and, most recently, her pieces have been featured in The Lascaux Review and Streetlights. Gelman, who earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College, is working on her first novel, which is taking approximately forever.
Brian Trapp is Director of Disability Studies at the University of Oregon, where he also teaches creative writing. He is the author of Range of Motion (Acre Books, 2025). His work has been published in the Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Longreads, Brevity, and elsewhere. Learn more at briantrappwriter.com.
Melissa McKinstry hosts poetry and jazz evenings and curates a community Poet Tree in San Diego. Her poetry appears in Beloit, Adroit, Best New Poets and was selected for the New Ohio Review and Pushcart Prizes. She holds an MFA from Pacific University and was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland. Learn more at melissamckinstry.com.
Faith S. Holsaert began her work for social and racial justice as a student in the 1950s. Her memoir Ma Lineal, a Memoir of Race, Activism, and Queer Family (Wayne State UP, 2024) features her life as the mother of a beloved adult daughter with a mental health disorder in the context of Holsaert’s activism. Learn more at snccdigital.org/people/faith-holsaert.
Grace Spulak is a writer and attorney based in New Mexico. She is the author of the novel Magdalena Is Brighter Than You Think (April 2026), winner of the 2025 Autumn House Press Rising Writer Prize. Her work was awarded Witness Magazine’s 2021 Literary Award in Fiction and has appeared widely in literary journals. Learn more at gracespulak.com.