"Remember When: Generative Memoir Workshop" Series Offered at the Midwest Writing Center

 Applications are currently being accepted for Midwest Writing Center's fifth Fall Writing Workshop Rachel Yoder, graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and former Iowa Arts Fellow, will lead participants through the workshop. This is Rachel's workshop description:

"Have you been meaning to write down stories from your life but haven't yet gotten around to it? Now's your chance in a 6-class course designed to cultivate your memories along with your creative writing capabilities. With the help of memoirist Abigail Thomas' book Thinking About Memoir, we'll experiment with an assortment of prompts to remember and write vivid, fully-realized scenes from all eras of your life. Each class will consist of in-class exercises, sharing, and short readings by published authors, while assignments in between sessions will involve longer passages from published work and revision of in-class writing. All participants will have the chance to share their work as well as give and receive feedback aimed at inspiring further writing."

Cost to attend will be $200 for MWC members and $215 for non-members, which includes a novel. This is quite a bargain considering that a comparable workshop at the Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa would cost significantly more (weekend workshops $280, week-long $560—the MWC workshop meets six times over three months), and a conventional class through the University would cost significantly more than that per credit hour. While there may not credit hours at the end of this workshop, the dividends will pay off in the participants' writing. The workshop will use Abigail Thomas' book Thinking About Memoir as a reference, the cost of which is included in the workshop fee.

Class size is limited. Applications must be received by August 28th and include answers to the questions listed on MWC's website via the link at www.midwestwritngcenter.org as well as a writing sample. Students will be notified of their acceptance by August 30th. All sessions will be held at MWC on the 3rd floor of Bucktown Center for the Arts at 225 E. 2nd Street in Downtown Davenport. For more information, call 563-324-1410 or email mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org.

Rachel Yoder edits draft: the journal of process which features first and final drafts of short stories, essays, and poems in addition to author interviews about the creative process. She earned an MFA in Fiction from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Iowa, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. Her writing has been shortlisted in Best American Short Stories and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and she received the 2012 Missouri Review Editors' Prize in Fiction. Her work has also been anthologized in Writing That Risks (Red Bridge Press) and YOU: An Anthology of Essays Devoted to the Second Person (Welcome Table Press) and published, most notably, in The New York Times, The Paris Review Daily, and The Sun Magazine. She's taught an array of creative writing classes focusing on both fiction and nonfiction to an array of students ranging from women in rehab to Midwestern retirees. She currently lives in Iowa City.

Rachel Yoder

Series; this year's focus will be on memoir and nonfiction. The series will be held from 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on September 5 and 19, October 3 and 16, and November 7 and 21.

 Support for this program generously provided by the Riverboat Development Authority

Christiana Louisa Langenberg leads Creative Nonfiction workshop and serves as keynote speaker at conference

Christiana Louisa Langenberg, multi-published author, will be leading a Creative Nonfiction workshop and serve as the keynote speaker for the Author Luncheon at this year's David R. Collins Writers' Conference.

The workshop entitled "Creative Nonfiction: Using Story-telling Techniques to Reveal Truths" will discuss a sampling of memoir, reflective writing, personal opinion, food-writing, travel writing, lyric essay, comedic essay and others to see how literary techniques can be used to maximize effect. Elements of craft such as concrete sensory detail, dialogue, scene vs. summary, setting, prose, rhythm, etc. will be highlighted. Participants will also have the opportunity to write two short essays in response to prompts and receive written feedback. The Author Luncheon will be held on Thursday, June 28th at the Rogalski Center on the St. Ambrose campus. The topic of Christiana's keynote presentation is "Between Word Greed and Abandonment: Learning to Love the Process."

Christiana is the author of the bilingual collection of stories, Half of What I Know. Her second story collection, Here is What You'll Do, was a finalist in the 2010 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is the recipient of the Drunken Boat Panliterary Award for Fiction and the Chelsea Award for Short Fiction and a multiple Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her stories have been awarded by/published in Glimmer Train, Dogwood, New South, Lumina, Storyglossia, Drunken Boat, So To Speak, Literary Salt, Carve, Chelsea, Green Mountains Review, American Literary Review, and elsewhere.

The 2013 David R. Collins Writer's Conference will be held June 27th through 29th at New Hall at St. Ambrose University located at 518 W. Locust Street in Davenport, Iowa. The conference also features three day writing workshops on a variety of topics including novels, creative non-fiction, reading as writers, speculative fiction, freelancing, poetry, and literary collage; critique sessions; luncheons; and free events. Discounts are offered for MWC member and early bird (before June 15^th) registrants. Click here for more details. The conference is made possible by our generous sponsors: Modern Woodman of America, St. Ambrose University English Department, Illinois Arts Council, and Genesis Health Systems.

Writing Your Family History and Memoir Workshop with Joyce Godwin Grubbs coming May 18

When: Saturday, May 18, 1-3 p.m.
Where: 3rd Floor Conference Room, Bucktown Center for the Arts, 225 E. 2nd St., Davenport

"We must continue throughout our lives to do what we conceive to be good” ~Black Hawk

 Workshop Description:  It is no longer enough ‘to continue to do what we conceive to be good’, but rather we must preserve it. It is in the process of writing memoirs we make that possible. In this two hour workshop we will move our works beyond preserving the past in memoirs. We will explore how to forge our genealogical findings and formatted materials into a state of readiness for publication. We will also embrace the basics of 21st century memoir variations which are emerging. Ours will be a comprehensive exploration of the resources available to us, as well as ways to be published in print and online. We will examine the ways to avoid the “pitfalls and snake oil sales” that would ensnare us. Indeed the full 120 minutes of our time will demonstrate that it is possible to motivate the novice, move the “writer’s block” to fruition, and show you which publishing route is best for your memoirs should you choose to formalize your formatted work.

Door prizes and light refreshments will be available. Workshop is $10 for members of MWC or RICIGS and $15 for all others

Make check payable to Midwest Writing Center, and send to MWC, 225 E. 2nd St., Suite 303, Davenport, IA 52801.  You may also call 563-324-1410 to register with a credit card or via PayPal. Office hours are Wed-Fri 11-6 and Sat 11-4.

About Joyce Godwin Grubbs:  Joyce Godwin Grubbs, author of the Greyhound Lady Walking series (twelve suspense novels of creative-fiction, taking real cases and fictionalizing them to protect identities.) She also has extensive experience writing memoirs personally and professionally. She has written memoir books as both a paid ghost writer and co-author, and does individual stories as part of her Legacy Stories Personalized, private services online.

Follow her on Twitter

@GrassrootAuthor