Reserve your space for Memoir Terroir by March 11 by visiting the ticketing page and paying the registration fee through our online store.
Workshop Dates: Saturday March 25 & Sunday March 26, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Workshop Price: $135 total. $125 registration fee + $10 for printed class materials in a binder, to be paid in person (cash or check) the first day of the workshop.
Skill Level: Open to all writers at any stage of memoir development
Location: Washburn Cultural Center, 3rd Floor. 1 E Bayfield St. Washburn, WI, 54891
Memoir Terroir encourages a return to innocence, a child-like curiosity toward your lived experiences. Terroir, a French word, means the taste or flavor imparted to a wine grown in a specific soil, topography and climate. This class invites participants to taste the unique flavors of their remembered stories, choosing only the richest, most full-bodied, and character-building ones for their memoir. Participants will learn how to constellate these selections in such a way as to enhance story flavor – and appeal to a wider audience – without altering the truth. Pop the cork on this important mission to share your one precious life with someone other than your dog, although they make pretty great listeners. Get brave and learn to write with more integrity, originality, readability, and engagement.
“One can acquire in memory the strength and courage that is not available in the present. The integrity of human presence needs and depends on the balance of time: the fecundity of the past in conversation with the possibility of the future.”
John O’Donohue, Four Elements
Some Topics covered:
Moving from the private to the public realm
Building a bridge between the two sides of your brain: left (logical/calculating), right (visual/intuitive)
Re-training your inner critic to be more supportive & less stern
Discovering your authentic voice
Instilling practices to support your writing life
Learning to write like a songwriter: concise, rhythmic & lyrical.
Invigorating your work with powerful image-making words, like fizz, tang, zest, zip, etc.
Activities planned:
Guided visualizations to enhance creativity & writing flow
Multiple free-write sessions to encourage spontaneity
Physical exercises to encourage body flow during long writing jags
Ways to constellate & organize your memoir
Practice distilling a stream-of-consciousness piece down to its essence – something smooth, that goes down easy, and leaves a quintessential pinot grigio flavor in the reader’s mouth.
Some tricks to keep your memoir pages flowing post-workshop
Bring to class: A notebook, pencils, pens, highlighter, and a ruler for in class writing, plus lunch for each day; at least two physical objects that represent powerful memories in your life –could be anything: photos, something from nature, a piece of jewelry –your choice. Writers with a preference for typing over hand-writing are welcome to bring electronic devices. Outlets and Wifi will be made available.
Reserving your space in the workshop:
You may reserve a space by visiting the ticketing page and paying the registration fee through our online store.
The deadline to register for this workshop is March 11th.
If you prefer to pay in person you may visit the Washburn Cultural Center during open hours. Visit www.washburnculturalcenter.com to see current hours.
We reserve the right to cancel the workshop if there are fewer than five registrants. In the case of a cancellation, refunds will be issued.
Please direct inquiries to the instructor: hopemcleod3@gmail.com or (715)-730-0235.
HOPE MCLEOD is a free-lance writer who lives along the south shore of Lake Superior. She’s a songwriter, poet, and award-winning journalist. Currently she’s crafting two books: a novel and a memoir, while continuing to ply her journalism trade. She’s published two books: The Place We Begin (poetry) & Have I Got a Story for You (a collection of her best newspaper stories). From 2012-2018 she worked as a staff writer for the Bayfield County Journal and Ashland Daily Press, penning over 750 feature stories. She also has two music recordings: Time to Dream (1990) and Frozen in Time (1998), with some of these songs featured in three PBS documentary films, and two in museum installations. She’s a contributing writer to: 5ForWomen, Wisconsin Trails, Home Education, Verse Wisconsin, American Craft Magazine, Nieman Storyboard, & Wisconsin People & Ideas.
Books to inspire memoirists:
Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, Dani Shapiro, a great writing guide. She’s also a fabulous serial memoirist. Here’s a few of her titles:
Slow Motion
Devotion
Inheritance
Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, Amy Tan
100 Names for Love: A Memoir, Diane Ackerman
Telling True Stories: A Non-fiction Writer’s Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. More for journalists, but helpful for memoirists needing to do research & conduct interviews. Great info on power-editing.
Writing Life Stories: How to Make Memories into Memoirs, Ideas into Essays, and Life into Literature, Bill Roorbach, a full course in itself!!!
Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers, Gabriele Lusser Rico
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr, if you like sass and Texas-style humor.
The Solace of Open Spaces, Gretel Ehrlich, first written as journal entries then turned into a riveting memoir
