A 5-Week Memoir Workshop
Wednesdays: July 2-30, 6-9 PM
In this moment on the planet, every person’s story is connected with the story of the larger world. Whether your work connects to science, social justice, generational legacy, or the community, as human beings we are more than ever entwined in a spiderweb of meaning and consequences. Whether we begin from the body, the family, the neighborhood, the ecosystem, or the marginalized group, every invitation to story is also an invitation to explore that spiderweb. In a world experiencing dramatic change and collapse our old, imagined separations between a single human life and the world collapse. When we write those connections, we come us closer to healing ourselves and the world entire.
During this course, we’ll be immersed together in the work of writing the spiderweb, through the relationships between our stories and the stories of the wider world. We’ll work together to make work about being human in the world in all its glories and fears. We’ll put those observations into context through the science, politics, ecologies, and cultures that surround them. Writers should come away with a deep sense of many ways to connect the self, our vulnerability, and how we are all bound up together through our writing. Classes will include selected readings and response, the chance to share works in progress, craft conversations, and targeted generative exercises.
$275 Members/$475 Nonmembers
Eiren Caffall is an author and musician based in Chicago. Her writing on loss and nature, oceans and extinction has appeared in Orion, The Writer’s Digest, Guernica, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, and the anthology Elementals: Volume IV: Fire (The Center for Humans and Nature, 2024). She has received a 2023 Whiting Award in Creative Nonfiction, a Social Justice News Nexus fellowship, and residencies at the Banff Centre, Millay Colony, MacDowell Colony (waitlisted), Hedgebrook, and Ragdale. She is the author of the memoir The Mourner’s Bestiary (Row House Publishing, 2024) and the novel All the Water in the World (St. Martin’s Press, 2025).
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 April 30 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