05/03/2007

Beauty is the attraction

Area, small-town atmosphere inspire writer

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS

mdrahos@record-eagle.com

Special to the Record-Eagle
Longtime Traverse City-area summer visitor Anni Macht Gibson is making the permanent move to northern Lower Michigan.

TRAVERSE CITY — Anni Macht Gibson has only been coming to northern Michigan for 25 years, compared to the century or so that her husband's family has been putting down roots in the region.

But her adopted summer home — soon to become a more permanent residence with the departure of her second and last child to college — inspired many of the poems in her first collection of poetry, "Unfinished” ($16; Woven Word Press). Five years in the making, the book is due out May 25 and will be available locally at Horizon Books, where she'll sign copies in June or July.

Even before her daughter went to Interlochen Arts Camp, Macht Gibson, 54, said she was charmed by the beauty of the northern Michigan landscape and the Grand Traverse area — particularly around Neahtawanta Point on the Old Mission Peninsula, where she and husband Jeremy Gibson have a cottage.

"That's one of the places that I love to write,” said the poet, who also has a farm in Marion, near Cadillac. "I tend to come in January to write.”

Besides the snow, the trees and the water, she said she especially likes the people of the area and events like the National Cherry Festival and the Osceola County Fair.

"We love the small-town atmosphere of northern Michigan even though Traverse City is getting much more urban,” she said. "It's still a small town compared to Cincinnati.”

A marketing manager for Procter and Gamble for 24 years, Macht Gibson now is a free-lance writer and a faculty and board member of Women Writing for (a) Change. The Cincinnati-based writing school offers semester camps, summer and Saturday programs for women, girls and, occasionally, men.

She plans to open a Traverse City affiliate of the school this fall called Woman Writing Up North (www.womenwritingupnorth.com). The business would offer 10 to 12 writing retreats a year in the Grand Traverse region based on the "WWfaC” model, she said.

"Women have kind of been silenced in our society for a long time,” she said. "Women Writing for (a) Change is a movement. It's a feminist organization, but not a militant, burn-your-bra feminist organization.

"Rather, we are an organization dedicated to bringing forth the voices of women and ensuring that every woman's voice is valued. We offer a safe environment and process, one we think is a particularly good for making that happen.”

She said the retreats would be open to writers of all levels, including journalers, playwrights, essayists and poets. Besides attracting beginning or hopeful writers, she hopes to tap into existing writers groups such as Michigan Writers, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping writers hone their craft and publish their work.

"The process is a very gentle process in that there's not a lot of blue penciling,” she said. "The writer controls the feedback by asking for the kind of feedback she wants: general reaction — called "heart and gut” — or "craft” — the more nuts and bolts, digging into the right words and grammar. This control adds to the safety of the process.

"It's a very unintimidating format, so it's very good for beginning writers.”

Editor of her high school newspaper, Macht Gibson went on to earn her master's degree in education with a concentration in communications from Xavier University. After leaving her job at Procter and Gamble seven years ago to take care of her ailing parents, she began writing in earnest.

"I started expressing myself through writing during this difficult period in my life, then I started reading contemporary poetry by people like Jane Kenyon, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins and Donald Hall,” she said. "I realized my poetry was a little too angsty for the general public so I started emulating other poets and writing what I call observational poetry.”

Now she contributes to publications like Cincy Chic, an online lifestyle magazine for women in the Greater Cincinnati area, and the faith-based electronic magazine Ecumininet.

Her first writing retreats will take place Nov. 9-11 and Jan. 11-13 at the Augustine Center in Conway and Nov. 2-4 and Jan. 25-27 at the Neahtawanta Inn in Traverse City. Called "Simply Said” and "Pamper your Muse,” the retreats will feature time for writing and meditation, shared readings in both large and small group settings and guided writing prompts. The more deluxe Traverse City version also will include gourmet meals, a yoga session and the opportunity to have up to eight pages of written material edited.

The retreats could complement existing writers' retreats in the area such as Bear River Writers' Conference and Walloon Writers' Retreat, both at Camp Michigania on Walloon Lake, said Lake Ann poet and retired university professor Ann Bardens-McClellan.

"It seems like we have a lot of women writers up here,” said Bardens-McClellan, who also hosts a show called "Michigan Writers on the Air” on IPR News Radio. "I think if she scaled it down she'd be successful. I would welcome something like that.”