In this all-levels workshop with award-winning writer and editor Melisse Gelula, we'll explore using personal source materials—an old letter, a family photo, medical records, a voicemail, etc.,—as a tool of discovery to help deepen and structure your writing. Together we’ll look at examples of how source material functions in the gorgeous memoirs of Natasha Trethewey and Suzanne Scanlon. Then we'll identify our own objects of personal resonance, and tap into sense memories to draft short scenes around them. Attendees will receive ideas and motivation for continuing their draft at home. If time allows, some attendees may have the opportunity to share their new work.
Please bring a pen and notebook. You do not need to bring any objects to class—we will be working from memory.
Ages 18 and up. No formal writing experience necessary
Date
Jun 22, 2024, 9:45am to 11:00am
Featuring
Melisse Gelula
Melisse Gelula is the founder of Memoiring, a book club and writing community that hosts notable authors each month for live Q+As, and the co-founder of award-winning media company Well+Good (successfully acquired in 2018). Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and Good Morning America, as well as Electric Literature and Grand Journal. Melisse has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is an advisor to the Deep Water Literary Festival. She was recently awarded a NYSCA/Arts For Sullivan Literary Grant for her memoir in progress about being raised by a child psychologist who begins to hear voices. She lives in the Western Catskills and works with writers one-on-one and in groups. You can follow Melisse at memoiring.substack.com and on Instagram @Memoir_ing.
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