24PearlStreet Workshops and Events
What begins with “I have a story to tell” can soon feel unwieldy in terms of structuring a narrative, creating scenes, and adding factual depth. This class helps you create an action plan for getting your memoir written.
Week by week, we’ll discuss the key elements: where to begin and end, identifying core conflicts, developing characters, and incorporating research. We’ll look at craft essays and inspiring exemplars from successful memoirs. Participants will be encouraged to share new work, in response to prompts, and submit previously drafted work for line edits; in addition, our last week will focus on producing an annotated outline to ensure forward momentum. Get serious about your book with this fun, immersive workshop.
Biography
Sandra Beasley is the author of Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a disability memoir. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Virginia Quarterly Review, Creative Nonfiction, LitHub, and A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays. She is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Made to Explode, which won the Housatonic Book Award, and she edited Vinegar and Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance. Honors include the Munster Literature Centre’s John Montague Fellowship, an NEA fellowship, and six DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities fellowships.
