COMMUNITY
Nancy Slonim Aronie
as Muse
By Abby Remer
Nancy Slonim Aronie is everything you want in an inspirational teacher and writer.
Warm, immensely supportive, straight shooting, and hilariously funny are just a few adjectives that come to mind whether you get to know Aronie through her three books or participate in any of her workshops.
Aronie’s heart-centered approach to writing was perhaps instilled by the encouragement she received at the age of 7. “There was a rule in my house that we weren’t allowed to buy Hallmark cards. I had to make a birthday card for my mommy, and I wrote a poem: ‘Happy birthday to mom, to mom from Margie, and Nancy, and Tom and Tom.’ Margie’s my sister, and there is no Tom. My mother took the card and said, ‘Honey, this is adorable, but who’s Tom?’ I think I rolled my eyes and said, ‘It rhymes with mom.’ She could have nipped the little writer in the bud, but instead she said, ‘Oh,’ as if, ‘What’s wrong with me?‘”
Aronie recalls other early validations. In fourth grade, her math teacher passed out blank paper and asked students to write something about themselves. “The next day, she only read mine, and I had written: “I am very, very tall. All my friends are very small. Whenever you look, I always show. Gee, I wish my friends would grow.”
Aronie’s English teachers throughout were also encouraging, including her high school journalism teacher, who would regularly run Aronie’s pieces in the school newspaper. “Writing came easily, so I didn’t honor it. I thought, if it came easily, it wasn’t worth anything.”
Aronie spent her initial career teaching high school and college English. Simultaneously, with a desire to be on the stage, she wrote material to perform while also still submitting articles to magazines. But her life took a turn in 1986, at the age of 45. She submitted an enormously funny story about how she befriended an obscene phone caller to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” which they aired that very night. “It changed my life because it gave me credibility. It just flung open every door. I secured jobs and writing assignments as a result.” Over the years, she wrote approximately 50 two-minute commentaries for the show. “It taught me how to edit because it could only be 750 words.”
Another pivotal moment on her journey occurred when Aronie talked her way into a job at Lear’s in 1995, a monthly magazine “For the woman who wasn’t born yesterday,” which she lost by the end of the week. Although humiliated, Aronie’s editor friend urged her to write about the experience. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever written. That’s where I got the phrase, ‘Put the blood on the page.’”
That raw honesty has permeated all Aronie’s writing. Each piece resonates, whether it brings you to tears or makes you laugh aloud–and sometimes in the same work. She has been teaching others how to write from the heart since 1977 in her transformative workshops. She developed her approach after a horrifying experience in a writing group where members thrived on tearing each other’s work apart. Later, when she started up her own workshop, the same thing happened, and people were mean to each other. Initially, she was going to abandon the idea of teaching, but a voice from deep within prompted Aronie to change direction. At the next workshop, she told the group, “What I’ve learned is that creativity requires safety. You will be safe here. I have one rule: when you’re finished, we will tell you what we loved.
I always make a joke, ‘I don’t teach writing, I teach gushing.’”
Building this safe space leaves breathing room for students to blossom, and stories about trauma and secrets tumble out, which Aronie believes is essential. “I tell people right in the beginning: it’s festering, right in your pancreas, in your liver, in your heart. Get it on the page!”
What keeps Aronie helping others find their voice all these years, whether it’s at her Chilmark Writing Workshop or other locales off the Island? “Watching the transformation. Seeing people fall in love with their own voices and not trying to impress others with their writing style or be impressed with how intelligent or well informed they are. Instead, they get real and vulnerable. And it’s such a thrill to watch people fall in love with one another. There’s no competition. The writing gets better and better as they feel safer and safer.”
She continues, “The love that comes pouring into my heart, it’s so easy to give it out. It’s abundant.”
For more information about Nancy Slonim Aronie and her workshops, visit: