Our Memoir Writing Workshop is a free, eight-week long writing course for individuals with experience in the sex trades, offered in the spring and fall. The workshop is intended for both experienced and first-time writers and will cover the fundamentals of memoir writing. Writers who would like to work on shorter pieces or have a longer work in progress are welcome to participate. Workshop participants have the opportunity to showcase their work in a reading at the Red Umbrella Diaries and in an issue of our literary journal, Pros(e).

Applications for the spring 2013 session are closed. Join our mailing list to be notified of the next session.

In the workshop, participants will:

• Complete in class writing exercises and write at home during the week between each class.
• Produce narrative, story-driven short memoir pieces and have the opportunity to be published in Pros(e). We will not be writing cultural commentary or essays that are solely political in this class.
• Share their work with the class and make observations on their classmates’ work.
• Practice close reading and deep listening with both assigned texts and classmates’ work.
• Participate in the process of revision
• Learn and practice techniques to develop characters, place, and time, and explore issues related to memory and truth in memoir.
• After the course ends, continue to receive support and guidance toward individual professional and/or artistic goals, including publication and revision of writing.