Mount Airy: Published Writer Contributing to Growing Literary Community

Minter Krotzer decided she wanted to teach others how to do what she did: write.

So just months after her move to Mount Airy in 2007, Krotzer, the Big Blue Marble Bookstore’s writer-in-residence, began teaching.

“I always wanted to teach,” Krotzer said. “I finally had the opportunity to do it.”

In fall 2007, Krotzer began teaching in collaboration with Mount Airy Learning Tree, a local non-profit organization offering a variety of classes through community businesses, schools, and other institutions. By 2008, she had taken up residence with Big Blue Marble, where she kicked off her Writers and the Process author’s series of classes in 2009.

Krotzer said that the past four years’ classes have all been well-attended, with students as diverse as the class foci: fiction, poetry and memoirs.

“I can only think of a few times there have only been two or three people,” she said. “I try to focus on a variety of styles and topics, so there’s always something interesting to someone.”

Krotzer also hosts a number of readings and workshops at Big Blue Marble. She explained her hope of engaging aspiring and accomplished writers alike to create a “real literary community” in and around Mount Airy.

“I’ve seen lives changed through these classes and the writing they help produce. That’s the importance of a community right there,” Krotzer said.

As she shifts her focus toward her most recent writing endeavor, The Voyage Across the Room, Krotzer said she will be offering fewer classes after the conclusion of the current Writers and the Process series. The project is a memoir of her husband Hal Sirowitz’s experiences with early-onset Parkinson’s disease.

“I’ll still be doing events,” Krotzer promised. “I’m just going to be taking a step or two back.”

Erica David, the store’s events coordinator, said she hopes Minter’s work at Big Blue Marble will continue.

“We’d love to continue to host the series,” she said. “Minter’s events are always thoughtful, informative and well attended. It’s a testament to the hard work that she’s done building a network of writers in the community and to her generosity as a writing teacher.”

Krotzer’s current Writers and the Process series runs through mid-June. The course schedule is available on her website’s events page as well as Big Blue Marble Bookstore’s website. All classes are at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Big Blue Marble bookstore is located at 551 Carpenter Lane.