Oct 19-21, 2007
Personal narratives, including memoirs, autobiographical fiction, and essays, are nothing less than the archives of our inner lives: our effort to find meaning, to explain the past to another generation, to keep memory alive. This workshop offers an opportunity to study the elements of the art of writing personal narrative, putting these techniques to use through a series of guided meditations and specially created exercises. We will share our work in non-judgmental, small groups designed to support each other’s individual skills and, for those who choose, with the larger group.
The retreat is intended for experienced writers as well as those just beginning, and its goal is to help us overcome the barriers that keep us from sharing our stories with others. We’ll concentrate on the crafts of creating gripping beginnings and developing characters. We’ll learn narrative strategies for organizing the vast amounts of experience of our lives as well as the skills necessary to keep writing at home. Our work together will enable us to return to our on-going projects with greater confidence and a renewed perspective
Marge Piercy is the author of 17 collections of poetry including The Crooked Inheritance, What are Big Girls Made Of?, The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme, and Colors Passing Through Us. Her 17th novel, Sex Wars, concerns the turbulent period after the Civil War and is centered on historical characters like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Victoria Woodhull. Her memoir is Sleeping with Cats, and a CD of her political poetry, Louder: We Can’t Hear You Yet, is out from Leapfrog Press. Her work has been translated into 16 languages.
Ira Wood is a natural teacher who is not shy about sharing his own tough times as a writer. He got 29 rejections and had three different agents before he sold his first novel himself to an independent press. The Kitchen Man garnered stunning reviews, a movie option, and a screenplay deal with Universal. He also wrote Going Public. With Marge Piercy he wrote the novel Storm Tide and So You Want to Write, an award-winning book about writing fiction and memoirs. Since 1996, he has been the editor-in-chief of Leapfrog Press, one of America’s premiere boutique publishers, which the Boston Globe calls “the pulse of what’s hot in the publishing world.”