My Writing Workshop entered its fifth year this morning, it was supposed to last for four weeks. It is a remarkable class, it has already published five or six books. Carol Gulley, a farmer and blogger and writer, is self publishing her book about four seasons in the life of a dairy farmer.  The poet and writer Jackie Thorne, center, is working on her second book of poems, Cheryl Gushee is writing about her work with the Dorset Community Playhouse in Dorset, Vt.

This class has a special chemistry and a tremendous amount of talent. We are exploring the new world of writing and publishing together, and I have never had a class with so much talent and such a powerful willingness to grow and learn.

I almost canceled the class this morning because I didn’t want to make anyone else sick, but it was time to meet and get moving again, there are so many gifted people in this group, they are on fire to share their work and support one another. I thank them for putting up with my coughing. It was worth it for me.

I realized a few years ago that you can’t teach people much in four weeks. That’s not time enough to establish real trust and connection. The class is at Pompanuck Farms, a beautiful backdrop for creativity,and the real power of the class are the bonds that connect each person to ever other.

This openness and support is magical, I learn much more than I teach, and I am mostly a traffic manager and coffee-bringer. We have a gifted retired school teacher named Caroline Ashton who has been writing beautiful things in her journal for years, I hope to persuade her to be the next book.

In our group, we don’t tell one another what we are doing wrong, but what we are doing right. I think this approach works. It is safe place, something that is  too rare for writing workshops.

Publishing has changed enormously, and new technology make is possible for people to bypass the commercial and sometimes insane world of conventional publishing, where marketing and corporate bureaucrats rule. I tell the class their stories are important, and they are finally beginning to believe me.