I felt Shawna created a safe “container” that enabled me to feel safe and take risks to write about aspects of my experience. Shawna’s facilitation style was consistent, warm, affirming, sensitive, responsive and relational. As the sessions continued, I felt my curiosity growing and my playfulness in writing re-emerged. My love of creative writing was re-ignited after 45 years of lying dormant. I was particularly impressed with the way Shawna received the at times raw emotions of grief expressed in my writing about a fresh bereavement. that occurred whilst taking the course.
— Dr. Margaret Jordan PhD
Recording our personal stories can be a taxing process, especially when we think of sharing them beyond our often very small circle of trusted readers. As writers, we draw our inspiration from life, observed and experienced. We then weave those truths artfully into stories that convey the distilled essence of our true stories, but does that mean we are writing memoir? How closely do we have to stick to the truth? What liberties are we allowed to take? When is it better to write fiction than fact? And how can we have integrity as writers if we are changing the narrative to meet our own writerly goals?
In this two-hour Zoom workshop, we will come together as a group and address these questions. Writers will be assigned reading the week prior to meeting in order to facilitate discussion. Based on what we uncover, we will practice writing our truths and fictions. Writers will be encouraged to share their work in order to support and learn from one another. All attendees will have the opportunity to submit work generated in this course for additional written feedback by the instructor.
Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 12 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.
Cost: $75, $100. Scholarships available. Please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.
