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The Call Is Coming from Inside the House: A Personal Essay Workshop with Alysia Abbott

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Monday, May 6, 2024

Location:
Main Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge

Event image for The Call Is Coming from Inside the House: A Personal Essay Workshop with Alysia Abbott

Do you suspect the most urgent story you have to tell is your own but fear being self-indulgent or upsetting family members? How do you evoke the past in ways that will feel alive and meaningful to readers? In this an instructor-facilitated, peer-driven workshop we’ll explore the complexities of writing about family--the opportunities, the challenges, and the benefits.

Drawing on work by Grace Talusan, Justin Torres, Victoria Chang, Jonathan Letham, and others, we’ll investigate how different writers achieve the distance necessary to bring themselves and family members to life while also making meaning out of these stories. Then we’ll use a mix of generative exercises and on the spot feedback to write our own. The two-hour course meets once a week for three weeks and is designed both for those who are just beginning to write nonfiction and those who have drafts they want to deepen.

Note: This is a 3-week series. Please plan to attend all 3 sessions.

 

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