Current Series Catalogue

Finding the Writer Within
A Reading the Arts Series

Everyone has a story to tell. If you like to journal or write letters, or have ever wanted to write your own autobiography, this series is for you. We’ll read five different memoirs, set in different places and at different time periods and explore how their authors went about turning their lives into literature. Then we’ll look at how you can do the same.

Sessions will include tips on how to use letters and journals to write memoir, explorations of the importance of evoking place and time in memoir writing, and writing exercises.

Eudora Welty, One Writer’s Beginnings
Examine how Welty’s descriptions of small-town life are made interesting and how to apply some of the same techniques she uses to describe your own childhood.

Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club
How can we get at the truths in our families, especially if the people who know them don’t want to share? Is it possible to tell our stories from the perspective of ourselves as children? Karr’s book shows us how to do both.

Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life
What if you weren’t a loveable character as a child– would anyone want to read your memoir? Explore how Tobias Wolff honestly exposes his own failings but ultimately creates a sympathetic and reliable narrator.

Bebe Moore Campbell, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad
This is the story of a young African American girl growing up in a divided family and a divided nation at the cusp of the Civil Rights movement. Examine how to use larger political events for context in personal narrative.

Lisa Roney, Sweet Invisible Body
The author of this memoir describes growing up with diabetes and the ways it did – and did not – set her apart. Discover what it is about your own experience that sets you apart and how you can use this to tell your story.

Request this series online.