Program Details
This non-credit program is open to all. No formal
admission is required and writers of all experience
levels are welcome.
Class size is limited in order to provide each writer with a high level of feedback and response. It’s possible to take the Winter class without having been enrolled in the Fall, but the skills and materials writers accumulate will accrue through all three terms. Without the fall and winter classes, it’s not possible to be enrolled for spring.
Schedule:
Classes will meet one night a week for eight weeks per term from 5:45-8:45 p.m.
FALL TERM
Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination
Every memoir begins with a collection of memories – places, persons, events, family stories that are powerful, but sometimes random and unconnected. We begin with many prompts to spark that ignition between memory and imagination, to connect and develop. The memoir preserves the past in a narrative structure, and these short pieces provide the ignition for longer works. Students will also have the opportunity to expand their editorial skills, learning to read creatively as well as write creatively.
Dates: Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:45 p.m., Sept. 29 – Nov. 17, 2009
Instructor: Laura Kalpakian
WINTER TERM
Development: Giving Narrative Voice to the Past
Using new prompts and exercises, we will be expanding the memoir-essays, and developing new ones. Winter term will broaden your work with narrative voice and structure to include central elements of literary expression: scenic depiction, dialogue, detail and the dramatic arc. As you develop the number of pages you’ve written, you also broaden your perspectives on the past, and deepen your portrayal of time and place and character.
Prerequisite:
Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination or permission of instructor
Dates: Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:45 p.m., Jan. 12 –Mar. 2, 2010
Instructor: Laura Kalpakian
SPRING TERM
Expand and Edit: Structuring the Past for the Page and Presentation
By this third term, you will have created many pages of work; you will have had practice with editing techniques gauged to strengthen presentation of your past, and you will have a clear sense of your own narrative voice. In Spring, we build on these skills toward enhancing your work. We will hone and polish pieces with an eye to publication. Certain selections will be refined to a high editorial gloss for a reading at Village Books.
Required Prerequisite:
Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination and/or Development: Giving Narrative Voice to the Past.
Dates: Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:45 p.m., April 6 – May 25, 2010
Instructor: Laura Kalpakian
Class size is limited in order to provide each writer with a high level of feedback and response. It’s possible to take the Winter class without having been enrolled in the Fall, but the skills and materials writers accumulate will accrue through all three terms. Without the fall and winter classes, it’s not possible to be enrolled for spring.
Schedule:
Classes will meet one night a week for eight weeks per term from 5:45-8:45 p.m.
FALL TERM
Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination
Every memoir begins with a collection of memories – places, persons, events, family stories that are powerful, but sometimes random and unconnected. We begin with many prompts to spark that ignition between memory and imagination, to connect and develop. The memoir preserves the past in a narrative structure, and these short pieces provide the ignition for longer works. Students will also have the opportunity to expand their editorial skills, learning to read creatively as well as write creatively.
Dates: Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:45 p.m., Sept. 29 – Nov. 17, 2009
Instructor: Laura Kalpakian
WINTER TERM
Development: Giving Narrative Voice to the Past
Using new prompts and exercises, we will be expanding the memoir-essays, and developing new ones. Winter term will broaden your work with narrative voice and structure to include central elements of literary expression: scenic depiction, dialogue, detail and the dramatic arc. As you develop the number of pages you’ve written, you also broaden your perspectives on the past, and deepen your portrayal of time and place and character.
Prerequisite:
Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination or permission of instructor
Dates: Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:45 p.m., Jan. 12 –Mar. 2, 2010
Instructor: Laura Kalpakian
SPRING TERM
Expand and Edit: Structuring the Past for the Page and Presentation
By this third term, you will have created many pages of work; you will have had practice with editing techniques gauged to strengthen presentation of your past, and you will have a clear sense of your own narrative voice. In Spring, we build on these skills toward enhancing your work. We will hone and polish pieces with an eye to publication. Certain selections will be refined to a high editorial gloss for a reading at Village Books.
Required Prerequisite:
Ignition: Memory Sparking Imagination and/or Development: Giving Narrative Voice to the Past.
Dates: Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:45 p.m., April 6 – May 25, 2010
Instructor: Laura Kalpakian
