Tuesday, November 15, 2016
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters
758 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids MI 49503
FIVE RIVERS: ANNE-MARIE’S MEMOIR WRITING CLASS (ALSO VERY USEFUL FOR POETS!
Learn to use the Five Rivers of Life -- the five senses -- to tell your life stories: those intense memories, that narrative of love or war or birth or death that you've always wanted to tell but never quite figured out how to do.
Enjoy this clear and direct way to zero in on the essence of your memories, to bring to the surface meanings you didn't know were there, and to enter the world of your past with grace as well as practical strategies.
Over our time together, you will use the five senses to highlight and develop your life writing—whether it be prose or poetry, and you will learn a structure for controlling the development of your ideas. In addition, Anne-Marie will offer readings as models, and advice for continuing your work after workshop.
For all ages and walks of life, even one moment of life writing (memoir) is a rewarding project and a promising step toward legacy. Bring notebooks and pens, laptops if you have one (recommended but not required), and a brave and willing heart. You will have the opportunity to share.
Enjoy this clear and direct way to zero in on the essence of your memories, to bring to the surface meanings you didn't know were there, and to enter the world of your past with grace as well as practical strategies.
Over our time together, you will use the five senses to highlight and develop your life writing—whether it be prose or poetry, and you will learn a structure for controlling the development of your ideas. In addition, Anne-Marie will offer readings as models, and advice for continuing your work after workshop.
For all ages and walks of life, even one moment of life writing (memoir) is a rewarding project and a promising step toward legacy. Bring notebooks and pens, laptops if you have one (recommended but not required), and a brave and willing heart. You will have the opportunity to share.
Anne-Marie Oomen is author of the new memoir Love, Sex and 4-H, and also Pulling Down the Barn, House of Fields, (both Michigan Notable Books), and An American Map: Essays (Wayne State University Press); and a full-length collection of poetry, Uncoded Woman (Milkweed Editions). She is also represented in New Poems of the Third Coast: Contemporary Michigan Poetry, and edited Looking Over My Shoulder: Reflections on the Twentieth Century, an anthology of seniors' essays funded by the Michigan Humanities Council. She has written seven plays, including the award-winning Northern Belles (inspired by oral histories of women farmers), and most recently, Secrets of Luuce Talk Tavern, 2012 winner of the CTAM contest. She adapted the meditations of Gwen Frostic for Chaotic Harmony, a choreopoem. She is founding editor of Dunes Review, former president of Michigan Writers, Inc., serves as instructor at the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing at Pine Manor College, MA; Interlochen College of Creative Arts; and appears at conferences throughout the country. She and her husband, David Early, built their home near Empire, Michigan. www.anne-marieoomen.com
Event Type: Arts-Entertainment
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