Have you already started writing a memoir? Are you looking for just the right readers to help you take your work to the next level? This workshop is for anyone ready for rigorous, supportive group feedback.
The first two weeks will be spent honing your editorial skills, laying the ground rules for giving and receiving useful feedback. We will talk about how editors work and examine excerpts from published memoirs, giving you a chance to identify key components of memoir writing.
The instructor will also share some of her own rough drafts to demonstrate how professional writers learn to refine and deepen their drafts. The final weeks will be devoted to workshopping your manuscripts (up to 6,000 words) which are due the first week of class. Each manuscript will receive 50 minutes of classroom discussion.
In addition to your peers’ feedback, you will come away from the class with a detailed feedback letter from your instructor and a plan for taking your work to the next level. Enrollment is limited to 8 people.
Monica Wesolowska is the author of the memoir Holding Silvan: A Brief Life (named a “Best Book of the
Year” by The Boston Globe and Library Journal) as well as two children’s picture books, Leo + Lea (winner of an SCBWI Crystal Kite Award) and Elbert in the Air.
Monica's essays and short stories have been published in a wide variety of venues, including in the Modern Love column of The New York Times. For over two decades, she’s taught creative writing around the
Bay Area and worked with clients as an independent editor.