Closing Call
August 30, 2025

Closing Call - August 30

VIEW RECORDING - 31 mins (No highlights)

@0:12 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Okay, we are just having a little hangout.

@0:16 - Marilyn Terhune-Young

Yeah, it's a little bit early.

@0:20 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

It's actually not that early, it's just that I feel like people go to Zoom calls like right on the dot or like one minute after.

Hi, Jay. So good to see you at this special closing call. How are we feeling today? You can pop it in the chat if you want to let us know.

us how you're doing. Okay. And remember to hit everyone. I guess nobody wants to say anything. That's okay. Oh, yay.

Hi, Jay. Aww. Yeah. I'm so glad. I hope that doesn't mean like it really sucked and you just started excited that it's over.

@1:44 - Jay Noel

No, no. It was wonderful. I'm so glad.

@1:47 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

I'm so grateful. Like I was just saying to Marilyn, I think people on Zoom calls tend to like… Thank

And arrive right on the dot or like one to two minutes afterward, which is a funny, I don't know, I always showed up like half an hour early for classes in my graduate program for some reason.

I'm always deathly afraid of being late. Are either of you people who arrive at the airport right so you get there as they're boarding, or are you the type of person who gets there like two hours early, sitting at the airport?

Sitting at the gate. I'm very early and I'm early for parties, which is not popular. I am also… It's so early for parties, and you know what, it's not popular, but it's just like this fear of being late.

Hello, Alice. Hi, Edwin. Nice to see you.

@3:12 - Alice Ballantine Dykes

It's so good to see you all.

@3:14 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Hi, everybody.

@3:15 - Alice Ballantine Dykes

I'm Michelle-Marie.

@3:17 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

So I was just saying this is going to be very casual, but I wanted to have some kind of like closing ceremony of sorts.

@3:39 - Julia Barclay-Morton

Hello. Oops.

@3:42 - Alice Ballantine Dykes

I think I'm going to wait. camera shortly, but I'll be in the room. Okay.

@3:50 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

I am going to wait like two more minutes because I feel like people do show up in the two minutes after.

Hi, Rachel. Hello. Hi. Hi, Christine. See, I was right. Okay. Let's see. Lindsay, is the Fathom working?

@4:16 - Lyndsay Morris

Yes, your Fathom says it's recording and taking notes, and we also have a backup recording time.

@4:23 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Okay, good. Thank you.

@4:25 - Lyndsay Morris

Hi, Helen.

@4:27 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

So good to see you. Did I already say hi to Christine? Christina? Hi, Julie. Hi, Christine. Aw, it's so good to see all of you.

Hi, Lisa. I still remember your amazing first pass piece, Lisa. No, I'll wait one more minute, and then we can start.

Hi, Jen.

@4:56 - Jen Bryant

Hi.

@5:01 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Okay, Helen is muted, which means I will not harass you to answer my questions. Okay, no, there's still one more minute.

Oh, hey, hi, Claire. Okay, see, people are still popping in. This is a phenomenon. This is a phenomenon of Zoom falls that I will never understand.

Hi, Christina. The other Christina. Two Christinas. Hi, Julie. It's so good to see you all. What a great bunch.

You've all been a great bunch. All right, it's 11.02. Let's start. So this is not a, you know, anything intense or

This is just because I want to say a few things and have you all say a few things and then I want to share some information so that we're not just like all of a sudden you can't get access to anything anymore and you're like what's happening like oh no our cohort ended and we're just kind of like floating in space so this is to help prevent that.

So today we're going to um review what we received in the in the cohort we'll talk about how to connect with people after um tomorrow I will talk about how to continue um if you want to do like month to month so that you still have access to burst past craft lab all the new workshops that I teach every month um the pathway and the pathway and

We are looking for testimonials. It's hard to get testimonials. I know because everyone is very busy and I understand if you don't have time.

But if you do have time, testimonials are really helpful to help get the word out and to help find people who might be interested.

And of course, we also want to learn what we can do better. So I'll also share that as well so that you can let us know in feedback what we could do better.

Okay, here is my first question or my big question. What will you take away from this experience? And to answer that, I'm not going to make you talk if you don't to, but if you could raise your hand.

your digital hand. At least I'm pretty sure you can do that like this. And I will call on you.

Hi, Fran. Hi, Farzana. Has anyone raised their hand? Okay, here. Lisa, hi.

@8:19 - Lisa Ampleman

Hi. I started this summer with, in the cohort, it fell perfectly for me, time-wise, with a sense of a larger thing that I wanted to do in nonfiction, but a sense that I didn't know where to start and I didn't have the energy to do it.

And there was too much going on in life and chronic illness and et cetera. And I feel like the time we spent together and the materials you've put together empowered me to say, yes, I can do this.

You know, I'm not done yet. There's a long way to go. But I feel like I have the tools and you but have and I you.

can't what I that. feel not Thank I have a sense of community and I learned so much, like, even though I feel like I'm pretty knowledgeable in the field, there was so much that I didn't know.

And it's been invaluable. It's well worth everything I paid for.

@9:16 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Thank you. That's really sweet. That's really lovely. Julia, how about you? Hi.

@9:26 - Julia Barclay-Morton

Yeah, it's so funny. I had a goal that I totally didn't do. My goal was to, like, rewrite my whole memoir in the summer, which, you know, was completely unrealistic and didn't happen at all.

But what did happen, this is what came away. I did index it, as you know. I did start a sub stack, as you know, and a bunch of other things that have brought other things.

So, but the main, what I'm trying to get at, not very well right now, sorry, is that I came up with a much

more capacious schedule and idea of how to work and be and and finally finally realized by the end took the whole three months to realize like you know what you actually are disabled and you really can't do things the way you used to so the way I I had factored for that before was like whatever took me one day I can do it two days like and it's not like it's completely different and I and I need to come up and I'm coming up with a very different way but what's happened surprising to me is that what felt like a race to the finish is now feels much more like oh you know I can take the time I can find a way into it that's more delightful and less just trauma based if that makes any sense um so it's it's kind of existential what happened anything else but it's important so thank you I think you ended up doing a lot of things I mean starting a sub stack is like Thank

@11:00 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Like already the some like a goal of many people. But I do really appreciate what you said about having more of a sense of like I'm disabled and it will take me a different amount of time.

Like when you were saying like the one day two day thing made me laugh a little because I feel like like when I'm having a flare or even just on an ordinary day, the amount of time I think it will take is like it's like increased by a factor of like two or four or six like depending on what's going on in my life and I do think that taking time to work on a project like We'll drop it at four and then we'll come back and get our stuff.

@11:48 - Kristina (she/her)

We'll just need to be there.

@11:50 - Julia Barclay-Morton

I think Kristina is unmuted and stuff came. It's just not intended for us. Oh wait, which, which one was it?

was

@12:00 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Christina okay I'm gonna meet I just know because it was a greens the green square tell um anyway so I was just thinking like the cohort is three months there are very few things that can be completed in three months in terms of writing like you're not going to finish your book proposal in three months you're not going to finish your memoir in three months but what I hope um from your time here in the cohort and of course you can like keep going and extend it if you wish but um I it does make me really happy that what you were saying is um that you learned things that you can use to like take on more time you need more time you have the tools for what to do at that time so thank you And just quickly Thank

@13:00 - Julia Barclay-Morton

And then I'll stop the canopy. Things were great. Oh, I'm so glad I did. I did. make it through all those.

And I, you know, it was really helpful. There were little bits of gems of every single person had at least one gem.

And yeah, I love those.

@13:16 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

And I don't even know if I have favorites really, because some are, they're all just so great. And I'm planning on adding one soon.

Um, there is somebody who wants to. Um, well, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll the secret. Uh, we have scheduled, um, I think in December or January, uh, Ethan Nozowski, who is an editor at Grey Wolf Press.

So he's going to come and talk to us about, um, submitting or, you know, uh, what they're, what it is like to work with a small press, things like that.

Um, so hopefully hopefully about. Thank will be really great, and I'm excited to have him. Okay, Kristie.

@14:09 - Kristie

Kristie so I'll probably echo, of course, a bit of what other people said, but the really big thing for me, being new to chronic illness, you know, it's been about 19 months, nine of which I was waiting for a doctor to actually see me and take it seriously.

Kristie Kristie I am so grateful that that sense of isolation just faded away that, you know, someone other than my husband could recognize my reality.

And as we all know, friends drop off and just assume you're doing nothing. And it was really such a boost to see other people in similar situations carry through and the way that it's structured, you can be off camera, on camera, asynchronous, Kristie Just works for the situation that we're in.

And so that boost really carried me through so many other things. The canopies just lined up with the project I was doing.

I would say that my initial isolation kept me from submitting. So I started submitting. Then I started getting rejections.

And instead of falling apart, I just laugh every time I get one now. And I'm like, okay, you're not my people.

You don't get it. You don't get our reality. I'll find somebody who will. So a whole shift in alignment.

So am actually headed to a residency in France in a week. And I'm quite nervous about it just because of capacity and energy.

But on the other hand, I have laid out so many preemptive plans. What happens if? What happens if I can't read?

What happens if I can't write what I want to write? Here's what happens if I just need to sleep.

And I feel really fine about it. So I feel like It's just launched me into a different sphere of where I was at practically in terms of craft and also just in terms of my own attitude toward my limitations and capacities.

So it's been really, really great for me.

@16:16 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Thank you so much for sharing. Which residency is it? So this one is Atelier.

@16:24 - Kristie

It's in Chateau de Cérezay. He does one in Ireland and one in France. He kind of rotates back and forth.

@16:34 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

That's so fun. And also, I also did a residency in France. And I have to say, I was the first disabled person they'd had as in that residency, and they'd existed for a long time.

But so it was hard for me, actually, not to scare you off or anything. But I think it's good that you have all these contingency plans, because it can be hard to be.

in a different country and especially in a country that is not really known for their disability friendly setup like in often in these old chateaus and such there aren't like ramps there aren't elevators there aren't you know things that that make things easier but yes the good thing is it's an American director so he knows somewhat and then it's self-directed so I figured I would start with that because then you know I just take care of myself you know that's so great well good luck and have fun um thank you but does anybody else want to raise their hand okay well I want to say thank you to everyone who did share and thank you to everyone who's here even if you didn't share um I'm and

So happy that you were a part of this. Okay, so I want to talk about how you all can stay in touch.

We are going to close down the academy in September so that we could change some things and hopefully make it better.

But that means that at least for now, we will not be having any new students. So all of you can continue to use the Grove as it is.

Like I'm going to keep paying for it to keep to keep existing. And so if you want to be in touch with everyone, we still have the Grove.

ACTION ITEM: Share post in Grove community - WATCH

So I hope you I hope that you all enjoy it. And I would like the to get to hang out in the Grove a little bit and share a post as well um so oh this is what I just said yeah it um we'll be able to join month to month once we open again and there will be workshops um in the meantime uh this is uh just me asking for testimonials again which I already did um I'll be sending out an email after this closing call that will have a place where you can click and then just submit your testimonial if you want to um I'm feeling like this couch looks really comfy and being like distracted by this couch um anyway just wanted to say that um

Okay, yes. And then we also would love if you could give feedback. I know that this is not a perfect online writing school by any means.

It all comes from my brain, and my brain is extremely fallible. So yeah, if you have ideas for how things could be better, or if you had trouble with certain things, or if you have different ideas, please, please let us know.

So the email will also have a thing letting you know how to get best feedback. This was just a quote that came across my desk this morning, and I thought I might as well share it.

When it comes to creative work, limitations bring freedom. And I like to think of this not as like, you know, you can overcome your disability or whatever.

But rather like you can work within the shape, the unexpected shape of your life. Alice has asked, will you keep in touch when the Academy is back online?

Oh, yes. If you are subscribed to the Academy Bulletin, you will know when it comes back online. We'll do like a big announcement.

And yeah, I'll give you a special email to the both this cohort and also past cohorts to let you know how to do month to month.

So, but I'm happy to hear that you might be interested in month to month. Uh, so here's my little end, uh, slide.

I just want to say see you later. And this isn't goodbye. Um, I'm going to, like, like I said.

I'll pop into the Grove and I will be keeping in touch. Unfortunately, I did see someone ask if we would keep doing co-working.

We are not planning on continuing to do co-working, but if you want to plan co-working yourself in the Grove, which I know that Julia has been doing.

Okay. Yeah. That's what I was just saying. Yeah. Julia is offering so generous. to do it. And I know that that is, uh, like announced in the Grove.

So feel free to keep using that. Uh, and like I said, I have worked, I'll be having workshops month to month.

They won't be part of the Academy in terms of like, you won't get them all free. You will get the cell method one free, but the ones after that you would have to pay for.

Um, what else? And there would. there will be no craft lab and first pass while we're going behind the scenes.

Oh, you stop having access to the course content tomorrow because that's the end of August. Yeah, this was a three-month endeavor.

and so at that point, you won't have access to it anymore. Again, like we're going to have a month to month option and then you would be able to have access.

Then I'd like to invite more people to give guest lectures and I want to have more things in the pathway as well.

How do we sign up for the cell class? Oh, how cell class? You don't have to. If sign up, it's included in your cohort, in your summer cohort, but the ones after that will not be included in the summer cohort.

You can sign up, but you won't have to sign up, sorry. I'm just going to take all of the students who have ever been in the academy, including you, and just pop you in the population of people who are able to join the Selma Pits.

Yeah, you have access through tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day. Okay.

@24:44 - Julia Barclay-Morton

Esmé, I was just wondering, are there any scholarships from month to month, or is that just you have to pay kind of thing?

@24:50 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Eh... That's a good question. The scholarships thing is always so tough, because we have a I have to ask people if they'll donate scholarships.

And we were really lucky this time and got a fair number of scholarships. This is another reason that testimonials are great because then people can see like, oh, maybe donating like scholarships would be worth it because people are having a great experience.

So we will try our hardest to get scholarships. I think that it would be a good idea to have scholarships for month to month.

So, um, if, if we have people donate enough for some of both, that would be great. So fingers crossed.

I do know that a lot of the people who donated this time around are likely to donate again. Alice Wong has donated twice now, I think, um, of disability visibility.

ACTION ITEM: Send post-call email w/ testimonial & feedback links, Cell Method workshop info - WATCH

Alice is amazing as, uh, as some of you know. Um, think, um, um, And has been really generous. Okay, let's see.

Are there any more questions?

@26:10 - Lyndsay Morris

One question from Jen is where can we send our testimonials?

@26:14 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Oh, in the email I'm about to send you, I'm going to send it right after the closing call. It has a link to a Google form that you fill out and that will be how you submit the testimonials.

@26:31 - Lyndsay Morris

And Esmé talked about this, but do you prefer written testimonials with a picture? Do you prefer video testimonials?

@26:39 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Or that's a, that's a good question. Um, I, we currently have one video testimonial. Um, most of them are, are just like written and they are just written in the, uh, the Google form that I'm going to send the link to.

However, for that. We're if you would like If to send a video testimonial, feel free to just like put put like n slash a for all of the questions that have to do with the written testimonial.

And there's one question that asks you to submit a file. And then you can use that part of the form to submit a video.

Videos are great. We just don't have a lot of them.

@27:29 - Lyndsay Morris

Will there be recording for cell method? I will be caretaking that week and may not be able to join.

@27:36 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Yep, there will be a recording for cell method. It'll be the same as we normally have where you have the recording and the transcript and the chat log and the resources and all that stuff and notes.

What time is that workshop happening?

@27:54 - Lyndsay Morris

time is I think that one is that 11 am?

@27:58 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

Like this... This... Call, 11 a.m. Pacific and, you know, 2 o'clock Eastern Time. Okay.

@28:10 - Lyndsay Morris

But there will be a recording. And just to confirm, I can join you on the 20th for the cell method as part of my existing membership.

And we'll send us a link to join. Yes.

@28:21 - Esmé Weijun Wang (Esmé Weijun Wang • 汪蔚君)

And then after that, you'll be done. Uh, it's kind of like my little gift because, uh, it's technically not in this, uh, cohort, but, you know, it's nice, nice to give a little gift.