Recording Your Life
A Personal Narrative Writing Workshop
Music
Music
CANCELLED
Due to serious illness and restrictions on cancellation time-frames, this workshop has been cancelled. I am sorry for the inconvenience! To be informed of future workshops in Amsterdam, please drop me a note via the form below.
August 14 & 15, 6:30-8:30 PM
The American Book Center Treehouse
Amsterdam
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection...We write to teach ourselves to speak with others, to record the journey into the labyrinth.” - Anaïs Nin
Every individual has a unique and valid story to tell. In this two day workshop, we will examine and record our unique life experiences through writing. People write personal narratives for a number of different reasons: as a form of creative expression, to create a permanent record for others, to examine emotions, to find communities of shared experience, and more. Whatever our own personal motivation, this supportive, no-pressure workshop will provide us with a constructive environment to creatively explore our lives on the page. We will read short excerpts from inspiring works, respond to writing prompts, talk about effective writing techniques, and receive helpful feedback, for those of us who would like to share our work with the rest of the group. We’ll also talk about approaches to revision of the writing we create in the workshop and potential venues for personal narrative writing for those who are interested in publishing their work. Above all, we will be using this workshop as a space for exploration and discovery to send us excitedly on our way with tangible pages and a clear path for future development of our ideas. All skill levels are welcome! Sign up today to reserve your spot! Feel free to contact us using the form at the bottom of this page or via email.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Mieke Eerkens grew up divided between the mountains of California and the canals of The Netherlands. She is a graduate of Leiden University’s MA program in English Literature and the University of Iowa’s MFA program in Nonfiction Writing, and her work has appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, The Sun, The Rumpus, Creative Nonfiction, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Pen America, Pank, Guernica, and anthologies such as Best Travel Writing 2011 and the Norton anthology Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts, among others. She has been the recipient of fellowships and grants from The James Merrill House, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, Stanley Foundation, and the John Anson Kittredge Fund. She teaches Creative Writing to undergraduates at the University of Iowa and online for Southern New Hampshire University.
Contact us with any questions!