Artist Roster

Stephen Terranova

Writer, Teaching Artist, and Creator of the Wayfinder Method™

Stephen Terranova is a Delaware-based writer, poet, performer, and teaching artist who creates participatory literary arts experiences centered on reflection, storytelling, personal transformation, and the search for meaning. He is the founder of Twenty Two Gates LLC and the creator of the Wayfinder Method™, a proprietary reflective-writing framework that incorporates guided journaling, poetry, personal narrative, conversation, and spoken expression.

Through Twenty Two Gates, Stephen develops adaptable literary arts programs for recovery communities, young people, older adults, educational settings, wellness organizations, conferences, and community events. His programs invite participants to examine identity, resilience, memory, belonging, purpose, and the stories through which they understand their lives.

Each experience combines accessible writing invitations with opportunities for creative exploration, meaningful conversation, and voluntary sharing. Participants may create poetry, letters, personal narratives, reflective essays, spoken-word pieces, and other original works drawn from their lived experiences. No previous writing experience is required. Stephen’s workshops are designed to make literary expression approachable while honoring the depth, complexity, and artistic value of each participant’s story.

Stephen maintains an ongoing partnership with Impact Life, where he facilitates monthly Writing for Wellness workshops and contributes to programming serving Delaware’s recovery community. His involvement with the Delaware Recovery Collective has expanded from workshop facilitation and event development to public speaking and live performance. At Collective events, he has presented original poetry and spoken-word pieces exploring addiction, recovery, spiritual hunger, masculinity, grief, transformation, and the human need for connection.

He has also developed and facilitated expressive-writing experiences for young people through The Warehouse in Wilmington. His presentations and workshops have reached audiences through the Delaware Writers Community, the DC Journal & Planner Convention, Delaware State University’s Higher Education Suicide Prevention Conference, and other literary, educational, wellness, and community-based programs throughout Delaware.

Stephen’s work with older adults uses memory, storytelling, mythology, and reflective writing to help participants preserve meaningful experiences and explore the larger narratives of their lives. These programs may culminate in the creation and voluntary presentation of original personal narratives, poetry, or performance pieces.

As an independent artist, Stephen writes fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, children’s literature, and performance work. His completed novel, The Absence of Light, follows a young man confronting addiction, grief, identity, and the possibility of transformation. He is also the author of Summer at Grandmom’s, a developing children’s book series inspired by the imagination, traditions, relationships, and memorable experiences that can shape a child’s time with a grandparent.

His evolving epic poem, Leaves from the Tree of Life, and his shorter performance works explore suffering, memory, recovery, spirituality, and humanity’s enduring search for meaning. Across genres and audiences, Stephen’s creative work examines how stories are inherited, remembered, reinterpreted, and carried forward.

Stephen believes every life contains the raw material of art. His work creates welcoming spaces where people can speak honestly, take creative risks, listen to one another, and discover that writing can transform private experience into insight, expression, and connection.

Stephen is a Certified Journal Therapy Coach and holds an MBA from Wilmington University and a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Marketing from Cornell University. His background in organizational leadership supports his ability to develop structured, outcome-oriented arts programming while preserving the openness, imagination, and personal discovery at the heart of the creative process.

The Wayfinder Method™ and its associated curricula, frameworks, exercises, and program materials are original works developed and owned by Twenty Two Gates LLC.

Stephen’s work with older adults uses memory, storytelling, mythology, and reflective writing to help participants preserve meaningful experiences and explore the larger narratives of their lives. These programs may culminate in the creation and voluntary presentation of original personal narratives, poetry, or performance pieces.