You should write the story of you. Everybody tells you so. Or maybe it’s just that voice in your head, telling you what you already know: You have a meaningful story to tell and it’s high time you got it on the page. But with a lifetime of memories, including those important events, how do you corral the moments that should be shared? How do you find just the right anecdotes to shed just the right insight into your memoir or personal story?
This seven-week workshop will help you discover them. You will write in class to a series of connected prompts designed to elicit meaningful anecdotes crucial to telling the story of you. You don’t have to worry about structure or grammar or form. The goal is to find the gold nuggets, which you can later craft, revise and polish for personal essays, micro memoir, or book-length memoir writing. This workshop will help you find and strengthen your voice on the page.
Instructor Carol Leonetti Dannhauser has edited and taught memoir and non-fiction writing for more than 20 years. Her students’ works have received critical and commercial acclaim, including bestseller status, Pushcart prize nominations, Modern Love columns, and “Best Reads” awards in a host of categories.
Carol is a writer, journalist and editor whose work appears in print, online and on television. She has is the author of four non-fiction books; has been nominated for three Emmys; and has a closet full of awards for her magazine, television and newspaper work, as well as her flash fiction, flash memoir and photography.
Carol holds two bachelors’ degrees from the University of Connecticut and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. She was selected as a Master Teaching Artist (Writing) by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. In 2016 she co-founded the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio.
This workshop can be taken in-person at the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio in Fairfield, CT, or on Zoom.