The Grey Quill
Society
A WRITING GROUP AND CREATIVE OUTLET
The Grey Quill
Society
A WRITING GROUP AND CREATIVE OUTLET.
The Grey Quill Society gathers weekly on The Wasserman Campus for residents and volunteers who explore life’s journey as a close-knit writing group full of creativity and life experiences.
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Grey Quill started meeting in September of 2013 as a four-week memoir writing class, and now they’ve logged over 250 meetings with their commitment continuing via Zoom. For many participants, it’s the best two hours of their week. It all started with an MPTF resident of “indomitable charm and humor,” Richard ‘Duke’ Anderson, who sadly passed in 2020. The third volume of the Grey Quill Society Review is dedicated to Duke and his friend and fellow Quill author, Joel Rogosin, who passed on April 21st of the same year.
“What an honor to read this short story from our treasured elders—to share their voices and poignant narratives at a time when inclusivity is so important.”
– YVETTE NICOLE BROWN
“What an honor to read this short story from our treasured elders—to share their voices and poignant narratives at a time when inclusivity is so important.”
– YVETTE NICOLE BROWN
PUBLISHED
In 2016, the group chose to publish its first volume—to share its narratives with the rest of the MPTF community and the broader reading public. Each poem and story exists as a little capsule from the past, filled with sorrow and love, of times lost and epiphanies found. As Victoria Bullock describes, “It’s a wellness group. It’s therapy. It’s a creative outlet. It’s something we should all be doing—at all ages, all over the world.” And as she’s witnessed, “It is an act of courage to tell your story.” Best of all, it’s testament to the vibrant lives and love of its members and the importance of creativity in an aging life.
VOICES
The Grey Quill Society Review presents more than a record of all the wonderfully interesting and woefully goofy things these writers experienced. These stories celebrate the reality they faced and the fights they took on. Their willingness to be honest expands storytelling from simply recounting experience to expressing the experience’s meaning, elevating autobiography to memoir. The difference is important. Autobiography, a search for facts, chronicles the storms we pushed through. Memoir, a search for truth, contemplates the storms that pushed through us. One informs. One forms. One is our battle with the world. One is the battle with our selves. And while there is knowledge in the former, there is wisdom in the latter. And it is this wisdom that distinguishes the voice within each author’s unique articulation on matters of trust, consequence, fairness, affection, and loss, and teaches us the invisible beauty of words.
The Grey Quill Society Review is an anthology of fiction, poetry, memoir, essay, and artwork created by members of the Grey Quill Society writers’ workshop, and each anthology is dedicated to all the members of the motion picture and television community.
CELEBRITIES
For a few select fundraising activities, MPTF enlisted the support of Matthew McConaughey, Billy Porter, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jon Hamm, and Matt Bomer to read passages. They act as a poignant testament to the value of storytelling and the imperative to listen to the voices of the older people in our community. There are valuable hard-earned lessons to be learned.
