A Memoir-Writing Workshop led by by Ruchama King Feuerman, MFA, novelist, essayist, winner of 2007 Christopher Isherwood Prize. Please submit a manuscript — up to 5 pages — to be considered eligible for a special memoir writing class via tele-conference.
About the workshop: Certain people live with a constant awareness of the passing seasons, the passing of years, the passing of opportunities. I live with an awareness of the passing of stories, particularly our parents’ and grandparents’ stories. I’m motivated by loss. Every day more stories die or fade away from lack of memory and attention (or love?). I see my parents and my friends’ parents getting older, and I’ve become hungry for these stories. I want the sharp details — how much the boat ride cost on the trip over from Russia, how people washed out their handkerchiefs every night because there weren’t tissues, how my bubbe cut the corners of bags of sugar and used them as Depression-era diapers, the kangaroo-collared coat the little girl packed as she was sent with her family to Siberia. I want the details and the story, the hidden drama that seeps through the details. I want it all and I want to help people tell it all.
Ruchama is a Seraphic Friend, an incredibly talented writer, and we strongly support this program.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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as a result of this post (and in the interests of procrastinating from studying for this week’s toxicology exam), i’ve posted a purim-related memory–with reference to bensonhurst!
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“Every day more stories die or fade away from lack of memory and attention (or love?).”
so hauntingly true. i think i’ve mentioned this before, but even worse than the fading stories are the fading mental images.
“I’ve become hungry for these stories. I want the sharp details”
yes. i have a collection of cassettes on which i interviewed my grandparents for these stories. unfortunately i’ve been too busy to keep up with this with my grandmother over the past 2 years. i really should pick it up again.
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