Memoir Festival |
Writing From Life |
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How much can I, should I, tell?
Professional and beginning writers alike wrestle with this question when they sit down to write their memoirs, be they magazine pieces or book-length manuscripts. Omega has gathered a distinguished group of expert guides—Abigail Thomas, Nick Flynn, Malachy McCourt, Laura Shaine Cunningham, Fred Poole, Marta Szabo, Martha Frankel and others—to address this dilemma, and to help us establish a clear path on the search for the story of our life, our most valuable material as writers.
The program is based on the format of the celebrated Woodstock Memoir Festival. In writing workshops with Cunningham and the codirectors of the Authentic Writing Workshops, Poole and Szabo, we write on the spot and are invited to read our work aloud for constructive feedback, helping us plunge ever deeper into our story and ourself. This profound journey takes us from a story in our mind, where logic can prevail, to paper, where art can take over.
We also learn from the pros how to get our memoirs to agents and publishers. McCourt moderates as panelist Susan Richards shares her inspiring publishing story; Flynn tackles head-on the questions of how much to say about a very imperfect parent in his memoir about himself and his homeless father; independent bookstore owner Barry Samuels gives insights from a bookseller’s perspective; Alison Granucci explains the role of a literary speakers' agent; Szabo demystifies Internet publishing; and Poole guides us on the endeavor of independent publishing.
The festival also includes a Saturday evening keynote address, reading, and question-and-answer session with Thomas, as well as optional morning meditation and small group writing workshops with Poole and Szabo.
Faculty
Abigail Thomas is author of the critically acclaimed memoir, A Three Dog Life, and Thinking About Memoir. She teaches at the New School in New York City.
abigailthomas.net
Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of many books, including her popular memoir, Sleeping Arrangements, teaches memoir writing.
laurashainecunningham.com
Fred Poole, author of Authentic Writing: A Memoir on Creating Memoir is a codirector of the Authentic Writing Workshops, which Poole founded in 1993.
AuthenticWriting.com
Marta Szabo, most recently author of The Guru Looked Good, a personal and controversial rendition of her years in a popular, and in retrospect problematic, international yogic movement, has been a writer, editor, and teacher all her life. She codirects the Authentic Writing Workshops.
AuthenticWriting.com
Panelists
Malachy McCourt, an actor, singer, and raconteur, is as moving and entertaining in real life as he is in his many books, including his best-selling and critically acclaimed memoir, A Monk Swimming.
Nick Flynn is the author of Another Night in Suck City, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award.
nickflynn.org
Martha Frankel has interviewed actors, writers, directors, musicians, gods, and supposed monsters. Her work has appeared in magazines as diverse as The New Yorker, Movieline, Cosmopolitan, Vogue Nippon, and the original Details.
marthafrankel.com
Barry Samuels has been operating the popular independent bookstore, the Golden Notebook in Woodstock, New York, for more than 25 years.
goldennotebook.com
Alison Granucci founded Blue Flower Arts, LLC in 2005, and now represents many of the most distinguished and acclaimed poets, writers, and speakers of our time for readings, lectures, conferences, residencies, and special events.
blueflowerarts.com
Susan Richards has published two recent and successful memoirs, Chosen by a Horse and Chosen Forever.
susan-richards.com
Schedule
Friday
8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
How much can I, should I, tell?
Panel discussion and question-and-answer session with Abigail Thomas, Nick Flynn, Malachy McCourt, Laura Shaine Cunningham, and Fred Poole. Moderated by Marta Szabo.
Saturday
7:00 a.m.–8:00 a.m.
Optional meditation and experiential writing led by Marta Szabo.
9:00 a.m.–Noon.
Writing workshop with directors of the Authentic Writing Workshops, Fred Poole and Marta Szabo.
2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Writing workshop with Laura Shaine Cunningham.
8:00–10:00 p.m.
Keynote address, reading, and question-and-answer session with Abigail Thomas.
Sunday
7:00 a.m.–8:00 a.m.
Optional meditation and experiential writing led by Marta Szabo.
9:00 a.m.–Noon
How do I put my work out there?
Panel discussion and question-and-answer session. Susan Richards shares her inspiring book publishing story. Barry Samuels talks about books from the bookseller’s standpoint. Marta Szabo demystifies Internet publishing. Fred Poole explores independent publishing. And, Alison Granucci discusses the role of a literary speakers' agent in the book publishing process. Moderated by Malachy McCourt. |
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