Workshop: Memoir
This workshop is full. Please email Gibson at gibson@mainewriters.org to be added to the waiting list.
Right That Story!
Memoir Writing with Suzanne Strempek Shea
No matter how much we’ve lived the topic of our personal essay or memoir, or how deeply we’ve researched pieces we’re writing about others, staying mindful of the balance of elements is crucial to creating the richest story possible. But what if you struggle with writing description, or dialogue, or emotion, or backstory - or take your pick of what makes a story tick powerfully? This workshop will help nonfiction writers identify what’s making their stories list to either side, and why that imbalance is happening, something your instructor had to bear in mind daily in her initial career as a newspaper reporter, and deals with daily in her book and freelance projects. It also will include a workshop of pre-submitted writing that might be lacking vital elements of story, and also will fit in time to generate new work that might “right” your piece for steady sailing onward. Expect handouts, book suggestions and homework.
SUBMIT
After registering, participants in the memoir workshop are asked to submit the following materials:
A list of three story elements you’re confident about writing, and a few words about why they come easier or more naturally to you.
A list of three story elements you need to incorporate, write more of, or even stop avoiding completely, and a few words about the whys of any of those.
A piece of writing where you can clearly see a possible space for an element your story might be missing. This should be 750 words maximum (a complete piece or excerpt – your choice). Two or three single-spaced lines describing the project it’s from, or where the excerpt stands in a story, will be helpful.
Please submit these materials by no later than 9:00 a.m. on May 4. Please email the manuscripts as attachments to gibson@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “SHEA BLACK FLY MSS.” *Word files are preferred, but you may also send a PDF.
Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of eleven works of fiction and nonfiction including memoirs on cancer, religion, and bookselling. A former newspaper reporter in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, she’s freelanced for publications including Yankee, Down East, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Irish Times, and ESPN the Magazine. She founded the MFA program in creative nonfiction at Bay Path University and directs its writing seminar in Ireland. Suzanne was a longtime faculty member at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program, and has taught in MFA programs at Emerson College and the University of South Florida.