If you enjoyed the Memoir Writing Ink course and want to go a step further with your writing, here is a wonderful way to do that:
A 6-week Interactive Workshop
~ limited to 6 participants each ~
Sundays, 2-4 pm EST (Toronto/New York)
30 October - 4 December, 2022
These workshops are being facilitated by
Memoir Writing Ink’s associate editor, Laurie Gough
How it works:
These intimate workshops are a fabulous opportunity to refine your writing, hone your editorial skills, and receive extensive personal feedback on your work. This is also an excellent chance to prepare a piece of writing for submission to a competition or magazine.
Meetings are held weekly over Zoom and Laurie Gough will guide your 6-person group through a weekly 2-hour workshop. (To learn more about Laurie, please see below.)
Every week 3 participants will have the opportunity to present short (2000-word) pieces of work (which will have been circulated in advance) and receive individualised feedback on that piece of writing. Laurie will initiate the feedback and then moderate and oversee the discussion to ensure that all feedback is clarifying, enlightening, helpful and inspiring.
Therefore, everyone will have the opportunity of presenting her/his work and receiving feedback 3 times. This can be the same piece of writing (revised using the feedback from the previous session) or new work each time.
On the alternate weeks, when not presenting your own work, you can relax(!) and offer your reflections and observations to the writing being workshopped. You may well find that you learn as much, or more, from being on ‘this side of the table’ as you do when it is your turn to be ‘on’.
After the workshop, you may submit your story (max. 2000 words) to Laurie for a final appraisal and copy edit. This service is included in the cost of the workshop.
COST:
US$575 / CAD$675 / £455
To join the waiting/notification list for future workshops,
please fill out an application form.
The only prerequisite for this workshop is the completion (or near completion!) of the Memoir Writing Ink course, so all participants are well acquainted with the essentials of memoir and giving/receiving helpful feedback. Every effort will be made to curate a group of people with a similar level of writing ability and experience. To that end, you will be asked to submit a writing sample (max. 1000 words) as part of your application.
A few words about Laurie:
Laurie Gough is the author of three memoirs: Stolen Child: A Mother’s Journey to Rescue Her Son from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Kiss the Sunset Pig: An American Road Trip with Exotic Detours, and Kite Strings of the Southern Cross: A Woman’s Travel Odyssey, shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in the U.K., and silver medal winner of ForeWord Magazine’s Travel Book of the Year in the U.S.
Over twenty of her stories have been anthologized in literary travel books and she has been a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, and has written for The Guardian, Macleans magazine, The Walrus, The L.A. Times, USA Today, salon.com, The National Post, Canadian Geographic, Huffington Post, The Daily Express, Caribbean Travel + Life, among others. Laurie is also Memoir Writing Ink’s primary associate editor. She lives in Wakefield, Quebec, with her family. www.lauriegough.com
“My experience as one of 6 workshop students was life-changing. I gained insight into my own writing style through presenting my own pieces and listening to comments and suggestions from trusted readers. Not only did I form strong bonds with the other participants, but also learned specific ways to improve my memoir. My path is now clear and I have gained confidence as a writer. It was a terrific experience.”
“Laurie’s workshop was tremendously helpful! I really love working with her: she is professional, gives wonderful feedback, and she is making me a better writer. I am also continuing in a writing group with two of the other gals I met in the workshop. I would highly recommend this experience.”
“I am so thrilled to have been part of a graduate workshop. The fact that all of the participants are graduates of Memoir Writing Ink has meant that we are all similarly capable of and receptive to the particular style of feedback used in this course.
The format of this workshop was phenomenal. Each participant shared three pieces of writing for which we received amazingly helpful feedback. This also meant each of us had the opportunity to give feedback fifteen different times. Both giving and receiving feedback were amazing strong learning opportunities.
And one final point: Thanks to the supportive nature of all of the participants in this group, I have written three new chapters and have revisited all of my previously written chapters with an eye to edit in accordance with what I have learned through this course. Not only that, but I have made six new friends with whom I now feel completely comfortable sharing my writing and my life. ”
