Memoir-writing is a special form of art, and this September and October Greenwich Library will help local memoirists get started. Previous sessions of Crafting Life Stories, led by former New York Times editor Joan Motyka, have proven so popular with patrons that the library is offering both, advanced and beginner classes once again.
The beginner class will meet from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on five consecutive Thursdays beginning Sept. 22 in the Library Meeting Room. Required registration began Sept. 6.
The advanced class is for those who have previously taken the memoir-writing workshop with Joan Motyka. The class will meet every other Wednesday for five weeks from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Meeting Room, on Oct. 5 and 19, Nov. 2 and 16, and Dec. 7. (The class will not meet on Nov. 30.) Required registration began Sept. 12.
Both workshops are designed to help people discover and tell the stories only they can tell – and to do so in a supportive environment that encourages even beginning writers. With a background in journalism and fiction, instructor Joan Motyka will offer journalistic tools and literary techniques to help people explore the significance of people, places and events in their lives. Using readings, prompts and writing assignments, she helps students draw stories from memory, organize them into a narrative and polish them through revision.
The class will consist of a series of distinct two-hour sessions in which students will read and discuss passages from published memoir and occasionally from poetry or fiction that illustrate that week’s topic. Topics include how to look at yourself as a narrator of stories, how to capture the richness of place, how to plumb your intersection with history, and how to understand the role of other people in your stories. There will also be a discussion of dialogue as well as tips on research, interviewing, and revision.
Please contact Michele Martin at 203-625-6533 or at mmartin@greenwichlibrary.org to register with your Greenwich or Perrot Library card number, or by using the library’s online calendar/registration system at greenwichlibrary.org. Preference is given to Greenwich and Perrot Library cardholders. All others will be placed on the wait list in order of registration.
