24PearlStreet Workshops and Events
The human compulsion to tell our stories makes us who we are; the act of crafting them into engaging personal narrative elevates them beyond the abstract. But the writing of memoir often begins with the daunting questions of permission, story ownership, and intimacy, which together can keep the new memoirist from moving into a place where voice and story are free to emerge. In this workshop, which will be both generative and workshop-focused, we will explore the magic in the mundane and the creation of engaging personal narrative, and tackle bigger craft questions that will enable the new memoirist to move beyond constraints of fear and ownership to a place of creative clarity. Come with the memoir you are working on, a willingness to unravel process and permission, and an acknowledgement that the impulse to tell one’s story must be honored.
Please bring to class 10 copies of ten pages, double-spaced, 12pt font, of your memoir project.
LIVE TIME: 10am-12pm EST.
Biography
Elissa Altman is the author of the new hybrid memoir Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create, coming from Godine Books in March 2025, and the critically-acclaimed memoirs Motherland, Treyf, and Poor Man's Feast. An award-winning contributor to publications including The Bitter Southerner, Orion, Narrative, LitHub, and the Washington Post, she is the winner of a James Beard Award in narrative food writing, and a finalist for a Lambda Award in memoir, and The Frank McCourt Prize in memoir. She teaches memoir and nonfiction writing at Fine Arts Work Center, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, College of William and Mary, and beyond.
