Each week, seven writers--all retired from professional careers--spend two hours together. The purpose of their gathering is to discuss what they wrote the previous week. For a number of years prior to 2020, the group met in their homes over coffee. The pandemic changed that. Members could not hug at Zoom meetings. Then in May, a white policeman pressed his knee to a Black man's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Other officers looked on with chilling nonchalance as he pleaded, "I can't breathe." A teenager captured it all on her cellphone, and the world exploded.

The process of putting down their thoughts about the cascading events of the year helped the group weather the challenges of 2020 and beyond. Inside Writing While Masked are personal pieces--writings of the moment, essays that reflect, and poems that express raw emotion. They include thoughts about what the authors experienced and learned, and what they want for the future. Most of all, they are words of hope.