Class Description

Trauma is both hard to access and often central to our stories. Finding a starting point can be overwhelming, and sometimes re-traumatizing. This three-hour generative workshop will provide writers of all genres the opportunity to explore using other voices to crack open doorways in your own writing. We will explore how and why to safely research topics relevant (or adjacent) to your work, allowing you to open those doorways, take a look inside, and create emotionally evocative work of your own. Extra-textual sources can be anything from song lyrics to topical research to the observed habits of animals in your backyard. Join memoirist Julia Morgan McKenzie to find your extra-textual sources and take your project to its next level. JULIA MORGAN MCKENZIE leads the Memoir workshop in PVWW's 10-Month Manuscript Program. She went to Bard College before earning a master’s in education at Harvard and—many years later—an MFA at Stonecoast. Her first book, The Book Keeper: A Memoir of Race, Love, and Legacy (Swallow Press, 2020, published under her married name) was called “a carefully crafted memoir for all readers who care about family connections and legacies and about multiracial identity in an increasingly complex world” by Library Journal. Her essays have appeared in Electric Literature, The Masters Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, Inside Higher Education, and elsewhere. She’s hard at work on her second book, a memoir about race, mid-motherhood, and anxiety. She directs the Williams College Writing Center and lives in western Massachusetts. MEMBER DISCOUNT: ***If you're a PVWW Member, use your Member Discount Code upon checkout! If you're not a member and interested in becoming one, visit our "Membership" page to learn more!