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Get Memoir-Writing Tips At Greenwich Library Workshop

GREENWICH, Conn. – Memoir-writing is a special form of art, and this fall Greenwich Library will help would-be memoirists get started.

Photo Credit: File

Previous sessions of "Crafting Life Stories," led by Joan Motyka, led by a former editor at The New York Times, have proven so popular with patrons that the library is offering this workshop for a fourth time. Motyka has led memoir-writing workshops in Westchester and New York City since 2007. 

The group will meet from 1-3 p.m. for five consecutive Wednesdays beginning Sept. 30.

Required registration begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9. Call Michele Martin at 203-625-6533 to register with your Greenwich or Perrot Library card number or by using the library’s online calendar/registration system.

The program is designed to help people discover and tell the stories only they can tell -- and to do so in a supportive environment that encourages even beginning writers, according to a press release.

With a background in journalism and fiction, Motyka will offer journalistic tools and literary techniques to help people explore the significance of people, places and events in their lives. Using readings, prompts and writing assignments, she helps students draw stories from memory, organize them into a narrative and polish them through revision.

The class will consist of a series of distinct sessions, in which students will read and discuss passages from books of memoir and occasionally from poetry or fiction that illustrate that week’s topic. Topics include how to look at yourself as a narrator of stories, how to capture the richness of place, how to plumb your intersection with history, and how to understand the role of other people in your stories. There also will be a discussion of dialogue, as well as tips on research, interviewing, and revision.

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