350 Words You Can't Say
Plus a zine so you can keep the list handy.
On May Day friends in Tallahassee marched to keep language. I heard about the protest from my writer friend Susan Cerulean, who posted photos to Facebook.
“First they came for our words…” reads the placard of an advocate for free speech.
I knew the Trump Administration is attempting to ban words, ideas, and theories from federal agencies and documents, but the ban (and I’m not sure this is a true ban) wasn’t on my radar as an urgency. I thank the Tallahassee activists for bringing it to my attention.
According to PEN America, over 350 words are now discouraged, if not outright banned. It has published a List of Banned Words on its website.
“How can we have intelligent or difficult conversations if we can’t even use the words, the most basic unit of meaning?” said Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms managing director of U.S. Free Expression Programs. “We’re now living in a country where the government has decided that a sweeping array of everyday terms will now be erased and forbidden in government agencies, websites, or even scientific research proposals. These prohibitions on language are utterly chilling, and will impede efforts to research real world problems and advance human knowledge.”
—PEN America, “Federal Government’s Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship”
Join the Protest
Words in bold in this newsletter are among words scrubbed from federal websites and documents. Please study the list of banned words and use them liberally.
Forbidding federal use of words like gay, lesbian, women, Native American, indigenous, and black is a violence against equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Make a Zine of Banned Words
With help from Canva I’ve made you a tiny foldable book—commonly called a zine—of these words.
I wasn’t able to get all 350+ words into the zine, so feel free to hand-write words you want to add.
Directions are below if you’ve never made one.
How to Assemble Your Book of Banned Words
Print the zine on a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper.
Fold on all lines to crease the paper. You are making a book with 8 small pages.
Fold the sheet in half, short end to short end, and cut with scissors from the midpoint, only the width of one page. The pdf below shows a dotted line where you make the cut, or you can do a quick search to get clear on this.
Fold and flatten the book with the cover on the opening side.
On the sheet above, pages go as follows: 6—5—4—3 on the top; Back Cover—Front Cover—1—2 on the bottom.
A Request
Would you forward this newsletter to 3 people who might enjoy making, keeping, and thinking about a zine of banned words?
Organize a Banned Words Walk
As Susan encourage in her Facebook post, “You can do this too! Hold a banned words walk!”
In the Comments
What banned word would you choose to carry as your placard?
Personal News & Miscellaneous Below
Work With Me on Your Memoir This Summer
My guess is that you have a lot of stories. You have some very good ones. Life is like that. It tends to give us some truly great stories.
And you’d like to get yours down on paper.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Sometimes fear of hurting someone keeps you from starting. Sometimes the stories aren’t easy to think about. Sometimes writing feels like work when it should be fun. Sometimes it’s hard to sustain.
If that’s you, then a class might help you.
I invite you to join me for a Summer of Memoir. Work on your memoir this summer.
Starting in June I’ll be teaching a memoir course for writers of all levels, no experience needed.
We’ll meet for 12 weeks June to August Live via Zoom on Wednesdays from 11-12 Eastern US/Canada Time for one hour only, with additional quiet co-working sessions.
We’ll cover—
Find the Story
What to Leave Out
Make Your Writing Come Alive
Pinpoint Your Theme & Mission
Outline It
Truth & Ethics: Nobody Gets Hurt
Honesty & Vulnerability—Protect Yourself
Research & Interview
Navigate the Emotional Impact
Place & Setting
Revise Revise Revise
How to Use AI
Get Published
Find Your Readers
Your investment is—
$300
an hour in session each week
plus at least 1 additional hour at your desk
a receipt to file with taxes if you have writing income
a sincere desire to get your stories down on paper
You can save $70—
Paid subscribers of The Rhizosphere receive a coupon code good for $100 off the memoir course. A paid subscription is $30, which means you have $70 to spend on ice-cream cones this summer! If you need the code, let me know.
I Have 8 Craft & Current Bundles Left
I created a Special Edition of my manual for magical writing—100 copies that I used for the Kickstarter launch. Lucky for me, the British printer sent a few extra copies, and I have created bundles with them.
The bundle contains the Special Edition ($44), plus a spiral-bound Companion Workbook designed for you to do the exercises ($15) and a copy of the Audio Book ($13). I am adding a copy of the paperback Craft & Current ($20), which you can use as a gift.
The Special Edition is signed and numbered. It is clothbound in blue, with a blue placeholder ribbon and the book title embossed in gold foil on the front cover.
Cost of this Bundle is $50, which includes shipping. That’s a $100 value ($92 in books plus $8 shipping) for $50.
These numbers are still available:
#104
#105
#106
#108
#109
#110
#112
#113
Numbers will be available first come first served. Let me know when you order.
My Own Writing
I’m still working on the place book. Trackless Wild subscribers to the Journey in Place course from 2024 get a free copy, and if you aren’t in that cohort, preorders are up on my website. I’m getting close to sending that manuscript to the printer. After that I’ll focus on the DNA anthology, whether we have enough essays to make a go of this or not. If you have written a DNA story, there’s time to send it to me.
Journaling Sessions Done for the Summer
We finished Journaling the Garden last Sunday evening with a bonus session. That was a spectacular course. I received a ton of gratitude and positive feedback about it. Folks created some truly amazing work, and I plan to feature some of it soon. If you were in that group, thanks for being there and making it such a wonderful experience. The next series of these Nature Journaling sessions won’t start until the fall. I post workshops, courses, and other opportunities at the bottom of The Rhizosphere—where you are right now.
Next Week
In a workshop recently a person asked me how to be a more creative person. I have some thoughts on that coming up next week. The Rhizosphere comes out on Tuesdays except in times of hell and high water.
Happiness to You
I hope you’re having a wonderful spring and are looking forward to a summer filled with lakes, rivers, trails, wildflowers, melons, sunflowers, beaches, beach-reading, and grill-outs.
I’d love to hear how your writing is going.
Fabulous. It is time to act up. I have a plan I will reveal at a later time. It will be fun.
Thank you Janisse! Not only am I sharing this with friends, I'm putting it on my Author facebook page and adding a link in my Substack that drops Thursday afternoon. Persist!