S264. The Power of Perspective: Teaching Memoir and Creating Community Among Older Writers

Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3
Saturday, March 1, 2014
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

 

Many of the tens of millions of older Baby Boomers in this country yearn for quality creative writing instruction. In Boston, Grub Street has created a program to teach memoir to retirees and has published four anthologies of their work. In this panel, instructors and administrators will discuss how the program evolved, its teaching and workshop philosophy, and how it handles the publishing process, so that other communities can reach this vital but underserved population.


Participants

Moderator:

Michelle Seaton teaches narrative nonfiction at Grub Street and created the curriculum for the Memoir Project, which offers memoir classes to elderly writers in Boston and has produced four anthologies to date. She is the co-author of The Way of Boys and the Cardiac Recovery Handbook.

Judah Leblang is a writer and storyteller in Boston. His memoir pieces and essays have aired on NPR stations across the U.S. Author of an episodic memoir, Finding My Place: One Man's Journey from Cleveland to Boston and Beyond, he is a columnist for Bay Windows, Boston's gay newspaper.

Kerrie Kemperman has coached senior adults through the Memoir Project since 2006. She co-edited the first three anthologies and taught the follow-up workshop in 2010. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Agni, Brevity, and Swankwriting's 83 Words Project, and she designs books for Black Widow Press.

Kathryn Kay is the author of the novel, The Gilder, published in 2012. She founded the Nantucket Writers Studio where she teaches creative writing workshops for women and was instrumental in bringing the Memoir Project to the island.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center