Excerpt from the Pike County Courier article “Inaugural Writing Institute Comes to Town” by Marilyn Rosenthal:
Four attendees in the group with a variety of different backgrounds, different genres, and different stages in their writing were Michael Montoya (who is writing a memoir about his gender transition while teaching in a prison system); Isabel Voegele (who came from Switzerland and is writing a murder mystery about a London auction house art heist); Kit Kleinow (who is writing a dystopian novel about a 16-year-old fighting for their sanity in a threatening world); and Nikhil Hutheesing (a journalist who is writing an historical novel about his grandmother, Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, the youngest sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India).
Often in writing workshops, the leader just talks about themselves, even reading from their own work as examples of the “right” way to write. Or, in many cases they intimidate attendees as they read from their work and turn them off completely. Sometimes it can get pretty vicious. Morais is very aware of this and works to set the tone for people to be respectful of one another.
“Some workshops destroy more writers than they make,” he said.
“The vibe and tone that Richard sets is just magical,” Montoya said. “He makes us feel safe.”
“Richard knows my novel better than me. He is so kind and always presents the positive first,” Voegele said.
“Richard built a level of confidence in me that I didn’t think was possible,” Kleinow added.
Hutheesing pointed out that Morais always gives constructive criticism. “He’ll say, ‘This is what you do really well. This is what you need to work on.’”