This case study calls attention to a fundamental question for adult educators: to what degree can the pursuit of typical programmatic goals in adult education accommodate and build on students' literate lives and personal interests in writing? The author examines historical and current imperatives underlying literacy education and reasons for the apparent disconnection between instructors' and administrators' perceptions of learner-centered curricula and their actual practices of instruction and programming. The author proposes a conceptual framework for an expressive writing project based on the understanding of literacy development as processes of orientation. (Contains 1 figure.)