A Symposium on the Art of Memoir

“An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details” – Roald Dahl

Master Classes.

Sixty- and ninety-minute master classes in the art of memoir will be offered on Saturday,March 31, by featured writers at Giving Voice to symposium attendees who register in person at the symposium registration table by Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.  Classes are free of charge but limited to 12 participants each.  Instructors, locations, times, and brief descriptions of the classes are as follows.

At the Hartford Public Library, 10 – 11:30 a.m.:

BRET LOTT will conduct a master class in creative nonfiction that will focus on published examples as well as participant submissions.  Please bring 1-3 page double-spaced manuscripts that you would like considered for workshop to the registration desk at the symposium.  Read Bret Lott’s essay on creative nonfiction here [link to follow].

At Mather Hall, Trinity College, 10-11:30 a.m.:

DEBORAH DIGGES will lead a memoir-writing exercise; bring pen and paper.

KAREN MCELMURRAY
In "The Final Taboo: Writing About Joy," participants will discuss the shift from discussing loss to finding joy in memories and memoir, with examples from Mary Karr and Greg Bottoms as well as an exercise and workshop by participants.

JOSIP NOVAKOVICH
The class will focus on plotting autobiographical essays. While an essay needn't follow an arc similar to that of a story, it benefits from clearly outlined conflicts, protagonists and antagonists, pros and cons, thesis and antithesis, and unpredictability. The essay shouldn't be fixed in advance as a sermon with a point (unless there's an urgent message but then it's a pamphlet and that's fine); the outcome and the conclusions shouldn't be foregone. We'll do a few exercises in class and we'll discuss.

LEILA PHILIP
Leila Philip will conduct a master class titled Pulling in the Real: A Workshop on Research Methods for Writers of Memoir. In this workshop, Philip will go over practical tips on how to gather and use facts in the writing of memoir with a focus on how to conduct research in such places as town halls, archives, public offices and other nooks and crannies in order to enlarge personal stories, particularly those involving family history and lore. She will then turn to the question of how to creatively weave this material with imaginative writing in order to produce vivid and compelling narratives.

This class will combine a look at published examples with participant work. If you would like the workshop to consider your writing and/ or book or essay project, please bring a 1-3 page double-spaced excerpt from a work-in-progress or a few paragraphs describing your project to the registration desk at the Symposium.

At the Goodwin Branch, Hartford Public Library, 1:30 – 3 p.m.:

MARY-ANN TIRONE SMITH will lead a writing exercise based on “a tiny insignificant memory which, for some reason, the participant remembers as if it happened yesterday.”  Participants will share memories, write descriptive passages, and learn the difference between memory details and the narrative embellishment that turns those details into successful memoir.

Don’t forget readings by A. Manette Ansay and Bret Lott at noon in the Mather Center, Trinity College!