THE LEARNING CURVE Spring 2012 VISUAL ART & WRITING WORKSHOPS

Writing Your Life Story: Beyond the First Draft

“My mind is full of so many pictures — with each one I could build a different room, each room could lead me to a memory…”  – Mira Bartók - from The Memory Palace
Tristine Rainer, in Your Life as Story, writes: “…from the specificity of the scene, your most unexpected revelations come.”  This is true! Therefore, participants will practice concrete skills for writing memoir. In this six week series, writers will learn new tools for “writing toward the truth” by engaging both memory and imagination.

First, we will review the basics of a good story: Sense of place, visceral details and images, character and dialogue, tone and voice. Now, in Part II, the emphasis will be on completion and revision of first drafts. Writers will  move forward by learning new skills: 1) Scene, summary and musing: 2) Plot and Story lines; 3) Transitional elements; 4) Effective beginnings and endings.

In each session, there will be time to write. Personal photos and other memorabilia will be used as catalysts for new writings. Each writer can expect to complete and revise one story and organize a collection for publication. This class will be a rich experience for both new and seasoned writers.
Suggested Text: The Memory Palace: A Memoir. by  Mira Bartók. Free Press: New York, 2011

When: Tuesdays, Mar 13 – Apr 17, 9:30-noon
Where: St. Philip’s Plaza (see locations page for details)
Cost: $155 (6 sessions)

Instructor: Rita Magdaleno was born in Germany and grew up in Marcos de Niza, south-side Phoenix, Arizona. Rita’s mother was a German war bride and Rita’s father was from Mexico. Rita works as a “poet in the schools” for the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Also, she has facilitated journal-writing for cancer survivors and “Writing for Renewal” workshops.  Her publications include: Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, & My Mother, University of Arizona Press (2003), My New Backyard Garden, a bilingual children’s book (2006), and They Opened Their Hearts: Tucson’s Elders Tell WWII Stories to Tucson’s Youth – co-editor (2005). Rita’s poems and stories appear in national and international publications: Nimrod International Journal, Camino de Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina & Latino Writing; Puerto del Sol; Walking the Twilight: Women Writers of the Southwest; and Fever Dreams: Contemporary Arizona Poets.

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