During the current six-week session I’ve given a writing prompt about name changes, and two seasonal prompts as well: “Back to School” and “Rite of Passage.” This essay Audrey Mitchell wrote could have qualified for all three! Hearing it read in class taught us what a gift her mother, Leila Goodwin, had for solving the […]

What fun it was to be interviewed in front of an audience by my friend and fellow memoir-writer Regan Burke last Friday. Here’s an account of the evening from her, well, point of view. Last Friday night Beth and I participated in an event called “Body Language—Reading and Discussions about Writing the Body.” The event […]

In the Chicago area? No big plans tonight? Come to Access Living (115 W Chicago Avenue) at 6:30 pm for a book presentation. Regan Burke, one of the writers from my memoir-writing classes whose stories intertwine with mine in my latest book, Writing Out Loud, will be interviewing me on stage about teaching and writing […]

The Chicago Tribune interviewed three Chicago-area memoir-writing teachers for an article they published last week called A story to tell: Memoir writing unlocks family life and times. I haven’t yet met the other two writers, but when reading the article it came as no surprise to me to learn we all have one thing in […]

Ah, the things I learn from the memoir-writers in my classes. Until civil rights advocate Regan Burke encouraged me to start up a class of my own here in Printer’s Row, I didn’t know a thing about “bibliotherapy,” the idea that writing memoir can help alleviate both emotional and physical pain. Regan’s guest post today […]