The Melrose Messenger

Local Writers Find Community at Follow Your Art Writers Studio

By Ellen Putnam

For the last five years, writers in Melrose have enjoyed a place to write and a community of fellow writers at the Writers Studio at Follow Your Art Community Studios (FYACS). Members of the Writers Studio include published authors and aspiring writers, and they represent a range of genres.

The Writers Studio has been part of Follow Your Art since FYACS was first organized as a nonprofit in 2019, explained Elizabeth Christopher, who volunteers as the Writers Studio’s coordinator. Christopher and her husband were among the original investors who made it possible for FYACS founder Kris Rodolico to buy the Big Yellow House and turn Rodolico's business, where she offered art classes for kids, into a nonprofit community art organization.

In the process of turning FYACS into a nonprofit, Rodolico held a number of community meetings to identify the roles that FYACS might be able to fill, and, said Christopher, “a bunch of people came out of the woodwork and asked, ‘What about a writers studio?’” And when they saw the second floor room in the Big Yellow House with a fireplace, bookshelves, and windows overlooking Main Street, it was a clear fit.

“I’m not sure how I became the person who started organizing the meetings,” recalled Christopher. She researched how other writers studios worked, including A Room to Write in Wakefield and The Writers’ Room of Boston. Chistopher put the word out on social media, and before the doors opened in the fall of 2019, the Writers Studio already had eleven members.

“We opened,” Christopher went on, “and then COVID happened.” The Writers Studio offered monthly online creative writing sessions during the pandemic, and allowed members into the space to work one at a time. And despite the interruption, the Writers Studio continued to grow, to its current membership of twenty-four.

Membership in the Writers Studio is open to anyone in the area who has an interest in writing and wants to be part of a writing community. Members have their own keys to access the Writers Studio, where they can work anytime between 7am and 10pm every day; they can use the Big Yellow House’s kitchen and even bring in their own food.

“But beyond that,” Christopher said, “what people really want is community. Members themselves decide what activities are. That’s what’s great about it: it becomes a safe space for people who are interested in the same things.”

Some of the activities offered to members of the Writers Studio include:

• Semiannual weekend writers’ retreats, where members discuss what they are working on, spend time working quietly, and then share an excerpt of their work if they choose to. Then the group enjoys dinner together at Rising Eagle.
• Quarterly meetups that are focused on a specific topic - the most recent was about publishing - and then provide a casual opportunity for members to catch up and share what they’re working on.

• Smaller groups, including the Thespians Club and the Story Club, where participants read a published play or short story, discuss the author’s craft, and then apply what they discussed to their own writing.
  • “It’s a place where writers can experiment,” Christopher said, “and talk with other people who are interested in the same genres. And it’s nice to not have to critique each others’ work, because not everyone is up for that. It’s safer to talk about a work of published fiction with a lens on craft, on the moves that the author is making that are evoking a response. That way, there’s no danger of hurting anyone’s feelings.”
• An accountability group.
  • “The biggest problem for writers is sticking to our plans,” explained Christopher. “Life gets in the way. When you’re at home alone and not with a community of writers, you’re going to get the laundry done and not work on your writing. If you have an accountability group to check in with weekly, that will hopefully keep you on track.”
• And a Slack group for the members, which allows for online conversations about different topics.

“We’re always looking for ways to have people connect,” explained Christopher. “We’re always trying different things and seeing what people are interested in.”

While the Writers Studio is a separate, close-knit group, they also benefit from being a part of the larger Follow Your Art community. Gallery Coordinator Sara Gravante organizes a yearly exhibition called “The Art of Words” where writers are paired up with artists to create complementary works. “Writers love prompts,” said Christopher, “and we love getting the artwork to inspire us to write. You never know who you’re going to be partnered with, and what prompt you're going to get - pottery, jewelry, sculpture, acrylic, abstract. It’s always fun.”

In addition to programming specifically for members of the Writers Studio, Follow Your Art also offers monthly creative writing sessions, which are focused on a specific topic, and are open to all community members. And several writers have hosted book launches in the living room of the Big Yellow House.

The Writers Studio also makes a point of reaching out to the wider community. Members of the Writers Studio collaborated with the Milano Center to lead writing workshops, which the Milano Center, said Christopher, “used as a springboard to start their own group, Just Write. We wrote up some weekly lessons for them, and since then, their group has been running on their own.”

The Writers Studio has also hosted meet-and-greets with other writing groups in the area, including Room to Write and the Malden Writers’ Collaborative. “I love the fact that, north of Boston, there’s this will to come together as writers and support each other,” Christopher reflected. “There’s never a sense of competition. There’s just a sense of sharing ideas and resources. It gives me a lot of hope. There’s a lot of growth potential in the future for writers in this community.”

Any members of the community who are interested in joining the Writers Studio can attend a Write-In, where they can try out the Writers Studio for free and meet other writers. The next Write-In will be on April 9th between 6:30 and 8:30 pm. Space will be limited. Visit the Writers Studio website to learn more.

The Melrose Messenger has published conversations with Writers Studio affiliates Sara Reish Desmond and Kip Wilson - and stay tuned for more!

Posted March 24th, 2025