Blubber_Jump-start Your Memoir

New Bedford Blubber Writers Workshop

Jump-start Your Memoir

Laura Vaughan is a freelance writer, playwright, and author of two novels and a children’s book, which she also illustrated. Her novels Rabbits and Moons and Betting on Paradise are both examples of a fictional memoir. The children’s book, Andy Ant, What Could Possibly be on the Other Side to See? was put on as a play by the Children’s Circle Nursery School in Dartmouth, MA. It was also chosen by the Massachusetts Workers Union for their book of the year in 2002. For twenty one years, Vaughan was a high school teacher. She first taught history, then went on to teach English. As an English teacher, she taught a course on memoir writing. She discovered that even the most stubborn, disinterested students who disliked academics and especially writing, enjoyed putting pen to paper about their lives. “Everybody has a book in them, and that book is about who they are and the experiences that created them.” She has also been a newspaper reporter, an assistant editor for Adventure Magazine, associate producer for Interlock Media Associates (video documentaries) and has written and continues to write articles for magazines. Recently, The Cultural Park performed one of her plays at the Whaling Museum.

This workshop is designed to get you started on your memoir. Through a series of targeted writing exercises and review of excerpts from published memoirs, we will explore the terrain of memoir writing: mining for material, constructing settings, finding emotional stakes and turning points, and looking for connecting threads to identify your overarching theme. We will discuss the process of memoir and review the strengths and weaknesses of the work we produce in class, in an informal in-class workshop format— a supporter and safe place.

Workshop: 2.5 hours • 15 minute break

Cost: Free

Class Size: 10 People

Instructor: Laura Vaughan

What to bring: Laptop, Notebook, Pen or Pencil

Where: Co-Creative Center • 137 Union Street • New Bedford, MA 02740

When: New Class coming soon