We all have stories. Personal essayists and memoirists turn those stories into powerful pieces that help others feel connected and think differently about how to see the world. Crafting a compelling essay or piece of memoir takes time and skill, but it’s time well spent; to make your story meaningful to others, you first have to figure out why it’s important to you.
In this workshop, essayist and author Debby Waldman will help you identify the nuggets of truth that can power your stories and the details that will hook readers. You will develop the skills needed to bring these together to craft inspiring pieces. Along with your fellow writers, you will emerge from this workshop with at least one moving essay or short piece of memoir, an understanding of where and how to submit it for publication — and the skills and motivation to keep on writing your stories.
Debby’s work has appeared on or in The New York Times, Wired, The Washington Post, NBC-Think, Parents, Tablet, Moment, The Bittman Project, The Forward, NextTribe, the Edmonton Journal, The Globe and Mail and more. A former newspaper reporter, she has an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University, and has taught at Cornell, Ithaca College, St. Lawrence University, and Grant MacEwan University. She has written seven books for children and co-written two books for parents of children with hearing loss.