A Memoir & Personal Essay Workshop
Writing about difficult life circumstances—such as illness, death, trauma, abuse, family dysfunction, displacement, and more—can help a writer understand them in a more profound way. The process of re-entering those memories, taking them apart, and then putting them back together again on the writer’s own terms, can transform them into something deeply meaningful for both writer and reader.
This workshop will provide a compassionate and supportive space for participants to engage in reading and writing exercises that begin peeling back the layers of their experiences and helping them uncover the powerful stories they have to tell. Participants will discuss the challenges of confronting the vulnerability, fear, and pain that inevitably accompany the journey to bring hard stories to the page and learn strategies for taking care of themselves in the process.
Each attendee will also have the opportunity to submit a short excerpt from a memoir-in-progress or narrative essay in-progress and receive constructive feedback on its possibilities from the class. Advance readings will be provided.
+ SUBMIT After registering, participants are asked to submit an excerpt from an unpublished memoir-in-progress or narrative essay of up to 1000 words by no later than 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 9. Please take the deadline and word limit seriously as MWPA likely cannot accept late submissions and excess words will be cut. Note that these manuscripts will be distributed in advance via email to the other workshop participants and instructor for constructive feedback. Please email the manuscript to hannah@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “BROOKS WORKSHOP MSS.” Please use standard formatting (1” margins, double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman) and submit Word docs (ideally) or PDFs only.
Melanie Brooks is the author of Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (February 2017, Beacon Press). She teaches at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, Merrimack College in Andover, Massachusetts, and Nashua Community College in New Hampshire. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Bustle, The Manifest-Station, Hippocampus, the Huffington Post, Modern Loss, Solstice Literary Magazine, the Recollectors, the Stonecoast Review and Word Riot. She received the Michael Steinberg Prize for Creative Nonfiction in Solstice Literary Magazine’s annual contest. Melanie received her master of fine arts in creative nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program. Her almost-completed memoir explores the lasting impact of living with the ten-year secret of her father’s HIV disease before his death in 1995. Her writing is the vehicle through which she’s learning to understand that impact. Melanie lives in Nashua, New Hampshire with her husband, two children, and yellow Lab.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via PayPal. 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.
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact Hannah Perry at hannah@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.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer two full scholarships to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due on April 6 at 9:00 a.m.
MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions.