Writing the Past

Writing Family History Workshop

Perhaps you’ve come across a photo or a family heirloom that intrigues you. Maybe you’ve found your immigrant grandparents’ citizenship papers. Or perhaps you can’t stop thinking about the last time you saw Cousin Ellen at Aunt Helen’s funeral and the conversation did not go well. Maybe that story Uncle Irving told you about your great-grandparents still commands your attention. Or that cookbook your mother inherited that became the basis of holiday meals.

In each session, we’ll write to timed prompts to help you put your thoughts on the page. Family history can be preserved forever if someone, maybe you, writes it down.

Writing the Past Memoir Workshop

Memoirist Sue William Silverman writes in her craft book, Fearless Confessions, that memoir involves the connection between the voice of experience and the voice of innocence. We’ll write to a variety of prompts to bring these voices together with insight and respect. We’ll meet via Zoom for two hours each week in a four-week cycle.

Using Photographs to Craft Story

Using a unique set of prompts, deeply examine a family photograph and develop new insights.

2023: Your Writing Year — Setting and Achieving Writing Goals

Give yourself the gift of making 2023 your writing year. Start by setting specific and achievable goals. Using a proven methodology, AWA-certified facilitator Barbara Krasner leads you through a series of prompts to reflect on what’s worked, what hasn’t, what you should start/stop/continue doing.

Short Shrift: Writing the Short Story

Explore the art of fiction by starting with a short story. In this six-week workshop, we’ll write to timed prompts to develop story, generate dynamic characters who overcome obstacles, craft powerful dialogue, apply sensory images, and more. Open to all levels. No experience necessary.

This workshop includes a 15-page manuscript critique by workshop facilitator Barbara Krasner. Barbara is a Pushcart-nominated writer of short fiction. Her short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, including Everywhere Stories II and Everywhere Stories III by Press 53, Lilith, Kelsey Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Consequence, Jewish Literary Journal, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, and others.