OLLI CONNECTS
Monthly Magazine

January 2025

**Welcome to OLLI Connects, OLLI-USF’s monthly magazine.**

If you’re looking for a mental compartment to place us in, think of us as the complement (not the evil twin!) of OLLILife. OLLILife appears in your IN box on the first of each month with the latest news from the OLLI-USF universe, while we arrive on the 15th, bringing the creative side of OLLI members: stories, poetry, memoirs, articles, commentary, reprints of some of our timeless features and other explorations of life. Plus, we’re a platform for you to share your own creative writing or analysis and engage via comments on the current issue. As some of you may know, OLLI Connects isn’t new. We’ve been around since 2018 as a weekly blog. With this, our first monthly issue, we’re launching a new format with new features for you to enjoy. As just one example, we have a political cartoonist. We’ll introduce you to him today, and you’ll see examples of his work in our future issues. Now, be our guest! Explore!

Featured Stories in the Current Issue

*Art Henrikson, An Introduction*, by Diane Henrikson Russell

*Thinking the Unthinkable: SCOTUS Guts the Rule of Law,* by Don Menzel, reprint

A valued aspect of OLLI Connects is reader feedback. Your input can foster a bond of friendship and common beliefs. We encourage you to use the comment section at the end of each story to share your thoughts on the stories and adventures you encounter here. For details click on the photo below with the caption comment guidelines. For details about content submissions, click on the photo below with the caption submission guidelines. If you wish to contact the editors about new story ideas, formatting issues or site navigation concerns, you can email us at connectsolli25@gmail.com. In the future, we hope to include a “Letters to the Editors” page to share your opinions and creative ideas. To sample past issues, click on the Home button at the top of the page and scroll down. Please enjoy, and we hope to hear from you soon!

Life Story Writing I — Ray Paltoo, Instructor. Four weekly meetings (1/22/2025-2/12/2025). Discovery Village at Tampa Palms. This course will allow you to learn more about a topic of great personal significance–you! You will listen to and read published and unpublished life stories; then you will begin work on writing your own, focusing on childhood, family history, relationships, children, work and personal sorrows and victories. Call 813-973-5848 to register.

Imaginative Writing — Marilyn Myerson, Instructor. Four weekly meetings. (1/30/2025-2/20/2025) Virtual Class. Nurture your inner playfulness, draw on spontaneity, and get even more creative! We may re-envision famous movie plots, eavesdrop on a wolf’s conversation from Little Red Riding Hood, or follow Alice down the rabbit hole. Bring a pen and be prepared to have fun. New and returning participants all welcome! Register here.

Writing Your Story! — Chantelle MacPhee, Instructor. Four weekly meetings (4/1/2025-4/22/2025) 10 am-noon. St. Leo University, Wellness Center. We all have stories inside us, waiting to be shared. But in our lives lie our greatest adventures, and yet we put off the telling because we fear it would be too difficult or we don’t know where to start. In this interactive workshop, Chantelle MacPhee, an English professor at St. Leo University, guides us to the best organization of the moments we wish to share. Bring pen and paper or a laptop computer, and let us write together. Register here.

Community of Readers and Writers — We meet via Zoom for discussion and special events and to share reading of current novels, nonfiction, short stories, memoirs, and essays. We offer feedback on your writing through group conversation with experienced readers and train newcomers in our supportive methods. Our private Facebook site is a resource of ideas for developing your storytelling and literary skills. Contact readersandwriters.too@gmail.com.