The Memoir of Childhood: Memoir Workshop
Dates: 4 Thursdays, March 11 - April 1
Time: 6 - 8 pm
Instructor: Tommy Mouton
Ages: Adult
Genre: Memoir
Price: $245
We understand the sheer power of our respective childhood and adolescent memories. But how can we harness this power to propel a narrative as well as capture a reader’s attention?
In this four-week extensive workshop, we will delve into the basic psychology of memories and their stages, memory and imagination, image and feeling, “emotional truth versus factual truth,” character and voice, form and meaning—in an attempt to begin drafting (and/or revising) a memoir that is steeped in childhood/adolescent memories as its creative foundation.
Whether your childhood/adolescent memories are heartbreaking or ironically humorous, whether you are a seasoned writer or a novice, this workshop’s weekly writing exercises, formal and informal workshops, and readings (Bell Hooks, Annie Dillard, Natasha Trethewey, Jeannette Walls, Jesmyn Ward, among others) will leave you inspired and invigorated.
So, come and write (and share) your childhood/adolescent memories with us, their joys, failures, and mysteries.
Tommy Mouton is a Southern writer and a writing coach. His work appears in Auburn Avenue, Callaloo, and Reed. He is currently working on We the Pretty Elephants, a memoir.
A dynamic dramatic reader, Tommy has presented his work in venues hosted by KKUP 91.5 "Out of Our Minds" Poetry Radio, LitQuake, Sacramento Stories on Stage, Center for Literary Arts, Poetry Center San José, and a host of others.
A 2013-2014 John Steinbeck Fellow and a 2020 Tasajillo Resident, Tommy previously taught in San José State’s English major, and he currently lectures full-time at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas.