An 8-Week Memoir Writing Workshop
Mondays: March 3 - April 21, 6-9 PM
Every writer of memoir faces it: the moment when the narrator must confront their own truth and question the precision of their memory vis a vis the scrim of time. Do places exist accurately in our memory, or can they only ever be revisited through a diffuse filter that changes everything from light to sound to grief? What can we trust to be accurate about place, and which version is the truth? Can we write about place and experience while honoring both our current point of view and our memory, not to mention the memory of others? If we are told that we’ve gotten it wrong, do we lose ownership of the story as we recall it? Does it go up in flames of unreliability? Do we always have to have permission to write from our memories if they conflict with someone else’s?
In this 8 week workshop, Elissa Altman will lead students on a journey of personal narrative inquiry: Are truth and fact the same thing? How mutable is the reliability of memory when it comes to place and experience? How far must we go in narrative to prove that our recollections are accurate versus those whose memories of the same experience differ? Who owns the truth?
Each week, through readings and generative exercises, students will be asked to unpack issues of place, memory, time, and point of view. We will read short pieces by writers whose work exists at the intersection of time and place, including Robert Macfarlane, Mark Doty, Virginia Woolf, Joy Harjo, Alex Chee, Ocean Vuong, and others.
$410 Members/$545 Nonmembers
Elissa Altman's latest book is Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create (Godine Books), an examination of the role that permission and story ownership play in the creative process. She is the award-winning author of the memoirs Motherland, Treyf, and Poor Man's Feast, and the bestselling essay substack of the same name. She has been a finalist for the Pushcart Prize, Lambda Literary Award, Connecticut Book Award, Maine Literary Award, and the Frank McCourt Memoir Prize, and her work has appeared in publications including Orion, The Bitter Southerner, On Being, O: The Oprah Magazine, LitHub, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and the Washington Post, where her column, "Feeding My Mother," ran for a year. Altman writes and speaks widely on the intersection of permission, storytelling, and creativity, and has appeared live on the TEDx stage and at the Public Theater in New York. She teaches the craft of memoir at Fine Arts Work Center, Maine Writers & Publishers, Kripalu, Truro Center for the Arts, Rutgers Community Writing Workshop, and beyond, and lives in New England with her wife, book designer Susan Turner.
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 programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-200-7180 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.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due by October 22nd at 9:00 a.m.
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