This workshop is full. To be added to the waitlist, email Meghan at programs@mainewriters.org.
An IN-PERSON Memoir Workshop
ALL LEVELS
Unlike autobiography, memoir does not include every part of one’s life. A truly good memoir is more like a series of Polaroid snapshots, highlighting the key moments or a specific time period in a person’s life that deliver a thesis statement or answer a question.
In this class, attendees will engage in the skills essential to great memoir and literary writing—scene, characterization, dialogue, and point of view—to delve into the following questions: What does this life illustrate? What has the narrator learned from his or her life? What larger issues are being explored?
Attendees will also consider the balance between truth and subjectivity, and how to turn personal truth into universal truths and tell a unique story that creates empathy in the reader.
+ PLEASE NOTE This workshop will occur IN-PERSON at USM Portland. The week of the workshop, attendees will receive an email letting them know the exact location of the class.
Mira Ptacin is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Poor Your Soul (Soho Press 2016), chosen by Kirkus as one of the best memoirs of the year for 2017 and winner of the 2017 Maine Literary Award for Memoir and The In-Betweens, published in 2019 by Liveright-W.W. Norton. Her work has been published in New York Magazine, Guernica, Tin House, LitHub, NPR, Vice, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Poets & Writers, and more. Formerly an instructor at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Ptacin lives on Peaks Island with her family. VISIT miraMptacin.com
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact Meghan Sterling at programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-228-8263 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
$70 Members/$100 Nonmembers
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one full scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Email Meghan at programs@mainewriters.org to see if the scholarship is still available. Application Due by October 20th at 9:00 a.m.
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MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION