An In-Person Creative Nonfiction Workshop
Saturday, June 29th | 12:30-4 pm
In Courtney Zoffness’ essay “The Only Thing We Have to Fear,” her five-year-old son’s sudden anxiety about getting to school on time brings back her own forgotten childhood anxieties, forcing a new reckoning with her roles as both daughter and mother. In Hilton Als’ “Tristes Tropiques,” it’s the resurgence of a memory of his former best friend—whom he had an unrequited crush on—that spurs his deeper reflections on love, sex, race, and gender identity. For Sheila Heti, it’s the broad and freewheeling question, How Should a Person Be? that launches and guides her forward. And, for Amy Leach, it’s following a moth’s flight through the parking lot of a grocery store.
There are countless topics to explore when we're drawing from our own lives, but it’s often that initial spark that comes from a vital scene, memory, or question that is key to unlocking the organizing theme(s) that can sustain and contain a powerful personal narrative. Oral storytelling is a practice that can help us tap into and locate these (often unexpected) hot spots and themes in our lives. In this workshop, you’ll be guided through a series of creative written and storytelling prompts that can help you launch and deepen your understanding of the stories you are most driven to tell.
Whether you’re an old hand at writing personal essays and memoir or have never written in these genres before, this workshop offers ample room to experiment, brainstorm, and play. You’ll leave the workshop with a handful of potential essay or longer-form memoir topics to explore further as well as some tools to help you take the next steps.
Onnesha Roychoudhuri is a journalist, essayist, and storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Kenyon Review, n+1, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Boston Review, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, The Nation, The American Prospect, Salon, and Mother Jones. She has read and performed on stages for The Moth, Tedx, Lincoln Center, and more. Onnesha is the author of The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships at Hedgebrook, Blue Mountain Center, and the Center for Fiction. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English - Creative Writing at Colby College. For more, visit https://www.onnesha.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 programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-228-8263 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
$70 Members/$115 Nonmembers
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. Email programs@mainewriters.org to see if the scholarship is still available. Application Due by June 15 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