Events - Event View

“The past comes to us in fragments finished off by imagination.”
Laura Kalpakian, MEMORY INTO MEMOIR,
University of New Mexico Press, 2021.

Take a Memory… and turn it into a Memoir
A workshop for seniors interested in preserving their personal stories

October 30th, 10 am to noon
Winthrop Public Library Community Room
Facilitator: Marian Exall, local writer of mysteries and historical fiction


In this two-hour workshop, we will explore the concept of memoir through our own stories. The aim is to give participants the tools to write these stories down in an engaging way. No previous writing experience or participation in the earlier “Memory into Memoir” workshop is necessary. We will focus on writing a scene, using the tools of description, voice, dialog, and narrative arc to show (not tell!) the significance of what happened.
Participants should decide in advance what scene they wish to write. A scene is an event at a specific time and place. There may be references to what came before and after (context) but the scene is a discrete episode/chapter in your story. We will discuss how to link scenes thematically into a complete story.

There will be an opportunity to share your work out loud with other participants, but sharing is purely voluntary. We will conclude the session with a discussion of how to continue the work we have started.

Bring pen and paper (or laptop/tablet, if you are more accustomed to writing on these).