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.

WINTER/SPRING SESSION 2010

The First-Person Voice
Dates: Six weeks, Thursday evenings, March 11 - April 15
Time: 6-8PM
Location: First Person Offices, 1 South Broad Street, 17th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Led by August Tarrier (bio below)

Cost

General $250.00 First Person Arts Members $225.00

“A fiction writer has no reason to lie. A memoirist has an illusion to protect.”—John Dufresne

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

The workshop will help you to deepen your connection to your material, find ways to craft memorable and original prose, and plumb the depths of your experience in order to find your own voice. We’ll explore the elements of the first person voice to create personal essays and/or chapters of memoirs. Your creative spirit will be sparked via in-class writing exercises and discussions of classic personal essays. We’ll also be workshopping participants’ essays or memoir excerpts.

The workshop will provide you with the following tools:
How to deal with the vagaries of memory (e.g., what if I don’t remember exactly what happened or precisely what someone said?)
How to signal to readers that your story is “true”
How to heighten dramatic tension in your essay or memoir
How to use the elements of fiction (e.g., scene, character, dialogue, etc.) to craft nonfiction

Workshop Leader August Tarrier works as an editor and writing consultant, specializing in developing memoirs, novels and scholarly and academic projects. She has led writing workshops with community members, high school students, and Philadelphia secondary-school English teachers. August earned a Ph.D. in contemporary literature from Temple University and taught creative writing at Villanova University, Temple University, the University of Baltimore, and the Camden High School for the Creative Arts. She has won several national awards for her short stories, including the Zoetrope Prize, and is currently at work on a novel.