Stories Like Friends: Character-Based Writing

Join New York Times bestselling author Betsy Cornwell and Crystal Kite Award-winning author and illustrator Lisa Anchin for a workshop on creating unforgettable character-based stories. We'll look in particular at retellings of fairy tales and other classic stories, and how to breathe life and freshness into characters we might think we already know. The workshop will include accessible writing exercises and time to develop and share your own work.

In-Person and Online: Mindful Writing – Finding Our Authentic Voice
 
with Tracy Cochran
 
Fridays, September 12th – October 10th, 2025 | 4:00pm – 5:30pm ET | Sign up for any or all sessions
 
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
 

“If you’re invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet,” teaches Pema Chodron. Yet the Buddha found a way to be grounded and clear in this ever-changing world—and he offered us his path.

Combining mindfulness meditation with mindful writing, we will discover how in the Buddha’s own time following the “right” steps meant living in alignment with our authentic nature.

Each week we will begin with a guided meditation to ground in a state of relaxed presence. Next, we will practice writing mindfully together. Each week teacher Tracy Cochran will provide fresh prompts aimed at helping you remember your own deepest experience—moments of connection and joy and wisdom. We will create a safe space together so that we can listen deeply to our authentic selves. Some may wish to share what they write but there will be no pressure to do so.

https://www.nyimc.org/event/mindful-writing-2025-10-10/

Join us to learn more about Betsy's new publication Ring of Salt: A Memoir of Finding Hope and Home on the Wild Coast of Ireland.

Betsy Cornwell is a New York Times bestselling author of six novels and founder of The Old Knitting Factory, an arts residency and retreat space for single parents in Connemara. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame and a BA from Smith College, and currently teaches at the University of Galway. She serves as a mentor for the Irish Writers Centre and was the first recipient of their Blue Mountains (Australia) Residency in 2023.

Her debut memoir, Ring of Salt, was published by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (USA) and Renegade/Hachette (Ireland/UK) in 2025. She received the Markievicz Award in 2024 for her work on this project. Betsy has over a decade of experience as a writing mentor, and she helps both aspiring and professional authors at every stage of drafting, revision, and publication.

We hope you will join us for this compelling in-conversation event with Betsy. Registration is required, and address will be provided upon registration.

Join us for a reading, discussion and book signing for Betsy Cornwell's "Ring of Salt," an inspiring and lyrical memoir about a writer and mother who flees an abusive marriage and must learn to reclaim the story of her life through a search for home on Ireland’s wild, western coast.

"Ring of Salt" combines a powerful and relatable narrative of survivorship and healing with lush writing about the windswept landscapes and rich mythology of rural Ireland to craft a real-world fairy tale about the ordinary, but no less life-changing, forms of magic we can all access: vulnerability, community, and the power of telling your own story.

Join Smith alumna authors Betsy Cornwell and Emily Everett in conversation, with book sales benefitting the local domestic abuse nonprofit Safe Passage.

The Irish Cultural Center invites you to an evening with New York Times bestselling author Betsy Cornwell, on Tuesday, October 7. Join us as she shares readings and stories from debut memoir, Ring of Salt, followed by a Q&A.

All are welcome to attend this free event – whether you’re a Patron, a Book Club member or simply a fan of great literature.

• Doors open at 5 pm, with apps provided and the Trinity Pub bar open for purchase (please note there will be no restaurant food service)

• Author talk with Q&A takes place from 6–7 pm

About the Author

Betsy Cornwell is a New York Times bestselling author of six novels and founder of The Old Knitting Factory, an arts residency and retreat space for single parents in Connemara. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame and a BA from Smith College, and currently teaches at the University of Galway. She serves as a mentor for the Irish Writers Centre and was the first recipient of their Blue Mountains (Australia) Residency in 2023.

Her debut memoir, Ring of Salt, is forthcoming from Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (USA) and Renegade/Hachette (Ireland/UK) in 2025 (forthcoming on September 30). She received the Markievicz Award in 2024 for her work on this project.

Praise for Ring of Salt

“A beautiful story of resilience, hope, and hard-earned triumph, written in sentences as incandescent as the Irish coastline. Readers will cheer for Betsy Cornwell!” — Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author

“Beautiful and deeply moving . . . Cornwell explores what it takes to start over with honesty, humor, and courage. A must-read.” — J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author

“Emotional, spellbinding, inspirational, Ring of Salt is a tour-de-force of a book.” — Sam Blake, #1 Irish Times bestselling author

Join NYT bestseller and founder of The Old Knitting Factory, Betsy Cornwell, at Baltimore Community Midwives for a reading and Q&A in celebration of her debut memoir Ring of Salt. Betsy will speak about survivorship, writing queer retellings of fairy tales and classic novels, and the power of community in supporting single parents.

After moving to Ireland to finish her first young adult novel, novelist Betsy Cornwell fell in love, both with the country itself and a handsome horse trainer. On her baby's first birthday, she flees an abusive marriage and, on a single-digit bank account balance, barely gets by with writing gigs and the support of both an online community of Smith College alumnae and a domestic abuse service in Galway. As she navigates the constraints of being a homeless single mother in a foreign country, she dreams of one day being able to provide a home for her son – a home where she could also offer artist retreats for other single mothers, with childcare included. When she starts writing online about her dream of buying a home no one can take away from her, a global network of women, most of them strangers, step in and slowly help her achieve an unlikely dream: crowdfunding a rent-to-own offer on a 1906 knitting factory in rural Ireland, originally meant as a school to teach textile skills to unmarried women as a means of self-sufficiency, and transforming it into a safe home for herself and her son and a residency space for other single moms, cultivating community by offering free, childcare-inclusive retreat space to make art.
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Maid meets Under the Tuscan Sun in this inspiring memoir as Cornwell combines a powerful and relatable narrative of survivorship and healing with lush writing about the windswept landscapes and rich mythology of rural Ireland to craft a real-world fairy tale about the ordinary, but no less life-changing, forms of magic we can all access: vulnerability, community, and the power of telling your own story.
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A limited number of books will be available on site, or can be pre-ordered at a 15% discount from your favorite local bookstore via Bookshop.org with code Betsy15.Before your copy arrives, get a flavor for the story in Betsy's NYT Modern Love essay.

Join NYT bestselling author Betsy Cornwell as she discusses her inspiring, lyrical new memoir Ring of Salt with The Other Significant Others author Rhaina Cohen, in a conversation about finding community and building a life with friendship at its heart.

Their talk will be accompanied by tea and treats and followed by a Q&A.

Tickets are free but registration is required.