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Workshop Descriptions & Instructors


Faith Adiele
Mary Allen
Kate Aspengren
Thomas Fox Averill
Nancy Barry
Timothy Bascom
Linda Bendorf
Venise Berry
Bruce Bond

Michael Dennis Browne
Susan Taylor Chehak
John Dalton
Thomas K. Dean
Amber Dermont
Kelly Dwyer
Hope Edelman
Josh Emmons
Katie Ford
Patricia Foster
Laura Fraser
Cecile Goding
Douglas Goetsch
Kevin González
John Griesemer
Sands Hall
Christine Hemp
Jim Heynen
Rick Hillis
Charles Holdefer
Richard Jackson
Cheryl Fusco Johnson
Wayne Johnson
Bret Anthony Johnston
Daniel Khalastchi
Zachary Lazar
Carolyn Lieberg
BK Loren
Fritz Mc Donald
James McKean
Gordon Mennenga
Katherine Min
Sharelle Byars Moranville
Michael Morse
Barbara Robinette Moss
Marc Nieson
Shannon Olson
Lon Otto
Juliet Patterson
Anjali Sachdeva
Sarah Saffian
Sam Samuels
Leslie Schwartz
Sandra Scofield
Mary Kay Shanley
Carol Spindel
Karen Subach
Mary Vermillion
Ashley Warlick
Jan Weissmiller
Bart Yates

Fritz Mc Donald

Fritz Mc Donald

Shaping The Truth: Fictional Structure For Memoir Writers
Weekend Workshop
June 21–22

or

Weekend Workshop
July 19–20

Biography

 

Shaping The Truth: Fictional Structure For Memoir Writers
Weekend Workshop
June 21–22

or

Weekend Workshop
July 19–20

According to Annie Dillard, “memoirists tell true stories about actual people.” For most of us, writing the truth about our life is difficult at best. It’s easy to get lost, hard to find the right shape for your most important story. This class is for those who have started a memoir, or those who are thinking about starting a memoir, and need navigational help. We’ll talk about the kind of fictional structure used in classic memoirs like This Boy’s Life and uncover techniques that will help shape your memoir. We’ll do in-class writing exercises to develop your narrative muscles and discuss such issues as plot vs. character, technique as discovery, novel shapes, and more. Although we won’t analyze each other’s memoirs in traditional workshop fashion, we’ll talk about them and help each other find direction. This class is for beginning to intermediate writers.

Biography
Fritz Mc Donald (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop) is a contributor to The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (Hyperion, 1999) and the forthcoming book Now Write! for nonfiction writers. His fiction has recently appeared in Confrontation, and he wrote the script for North Carolina, an upcoming PBS production. For more than 20 years, he’s been teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and has also taught at The Heart of America Writers’ Conference and The University of Iowa. He is currently Creative Director for Stamats, Inc., where his creative work has been recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

 


 

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Sponsored by the Division of Continuing Education
Iowa Summer Writing Festival
C215 Seashore Hall
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

Phone 319-335-4160
FAX 319-335-4743
iswfestival@uiowa.edu

Last updated on January 10, 2008