First Person Arts believes that everyone has a story worth telling, and that sharing our stories empowers and connects us with each other. To that end, First Person Adult Education Courses offer focused writing classes on the memoir with leading writers.

Spring/Summer 2010

Storytelling Workshop: TELL IT!
Type: 4-week class
Dates/times: Thursday evenings, 6:30-9:30PM, August 19-September 9
(also includes tickets to September 13 StorySlam)
Led by: Katonya Mosley

Description: In this storytelling workshop, you will learn the essential elements that lead to a successful live performance of your own personal stories. We’ll focus on finding and developing your own style of storytelling, as well as capturing an audience with rich details that linger and unfold, and on being an authentic presence that they remember and enjoy. Tuition includes a ticket to the First Person StorySlam on September 13, on the theme “It’s in the Mail.” All workshop participants will be automatically entered into the pool of names from which storytellers are chosen at the FPA Story Slam that night – and this course will give you the confidence and storytelling tools to make your performance a success.

Click here for more information or to register for this class today!

Fall 2010

The First Person Voice
Type: Six Week Class
Dates/times: Thursdays, September 16 – October 21 6:30-8:30PM
Led by: August Tarrier
Description: “A fiction writer has no reason to lie. A memoirist has an illusion to protect.”—John Dufresne

We’ll be spending some time plumbing the depths of that illusion, bringing ourselves round to the conventions of the personal essay and of memoir. What techniques do writers use to tell “true” stories? What are the fundamental tenets of constructing an authentic self on the page?

Over the course of the workshop, we’ll be exploring “Found Objects” and “Replying to Visions” in order to create personal essays and/or memoirs. Expect that your creative spirit will be sparked via plenty of in-class writing exercises and discussion of some classic personal essays.

Click here for more information or to register for this class today!

Roll Your Sleeves Up: The Art of Revision
Type: Two-day workshop
Dates/times: Saturday and Sunday, October 2-3, 10am-2PM each day
Led by: Lise Funderburg
Description: Revision is typically considered the geekiest of creative writing undertakings–the last to be picked for the team or asked for a dance. Wasn’t it enough, many writers wonder, to make the Herculean leap from blank page to first draft? The truth is, revision is its own art and can be a wildly beneficial part of the creative process…if you allow it to be. In this workshop, we’ll focus on crappy or not-quite-there drafts of a personal essay, and through targeted exercises, assignments, readings, and workshops, move it closer to completion and publication-ready.

Click here for more information or to register for this class today!