Writing the Hard Stuff: Use Life's Upheavals to Deepen Your Narrative

Service Description

Join instructors Anna-Maria Cornell and Jenny Rowe for four themed weeks adapted from James Pennebaker’s evidence-based expressive writing journaling method. It’s hard to write about hard stuff, but it’s the unspoken and the unimaginable that compel us to share our stories. Each 90-minute workshop will begin with Pennebaker’s method of journaling about life’s upheavals in a beneficial way while maintaining confidentiality (Pennebakeer & Evans, 2014). We will then build on the material from expressive writing with generative prompts that aim to deepen your narrative approaches in fiction and/or non-fiction. Sharing and reflection to follow. The following is an outline of what we'll do in each session: Week 1:Expressive Writing Session 1 + Mind/Body Connection Week 2:Expressive Writing Session 2 + Change of Perspective Week 3:Expressive Writing Session 3 + Empathic Letter Week 4:Expressive Writing Session 4 + Affirmation For questions about this themed workshop, please reach out to jennifer@porchlightliterary.org. You do not need to be a PorchLight member to attend this paid workshop. About the instructors: Anna-Maria Cornell, formerly writing as Erin Aislinn, published novels, novellas, and short stories in erotic romance and vampire romance. Currently, her focus is dedicated to helping writers and creatives gain insights into their writing process. She is working on a collection of personal essays. Jenny Rowe taught ESL courses at the University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College for a decade before earning her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Montana, where she served as editor-in-chief of CutBank. Her most recent work can be found in print through The Hopkins Review and online through Touchstone. This year, her memoir manuscript was a finalist for both the Trio House Press Aurora Polaris Creative Nonfiction Award and the Vine Leaves Press International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Prize. She lives in Iowa City and works as a bookseller at Prairie Lights.