Joseph Fiennes in “Shakespeare in Love” (1998)

Happy new year, everyone! I hope you’ve plunged into 2013 keen to begin, or carry on, writing.

Coming up, new teaching initiatives for me include

• full-day introductory memoir workshops at Koffler Centre of the Arts
• creative writing retreats in Grenada (April) and Kawartha Lakes (July)
• a new Level II memoir writing course for University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies in Fall 2013, an 8-week follow-up to my intro course Memories into Story

I am also pleased to be returning to North York Central Library for my seventh year with a memoir series this June.

Here are the details. For further information, please contact me at lattamemoirs@gmail.com

January/March: INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR WRITING: FROM THE PERSONAL TO THE UNIVERSAL (full-day workshops)

Location: Koffler Centre of the Arts, 4588 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario M2R 1W6 (free parking)

Dates: Sunday, January 27 OR Monday, March 4, 2013

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Fee: $75

Registration: Contact the Education and Student Services Office at serdem@kofflerarts.org or 416-638-1881 x 4333.

Details: Introductory Memoir Writing at Koffler

Koffler Centre of the Arts is Canada’s only multidisciplinary, contemporary Jewish cultural institution presenting cutting-edge exhibitions of new Canadian and international art, and diverse programs in music, dance, literature, film, spoken word, and theatre. Their programs are open to everyone from every background.

April: SPICE ISLE WRITING & YOGA RETREAT in Grenada

Location: Petite Anse Hotel and Restaurant, Grenada

Dates: April 7 to 14, 2013

Registration: Limited space still available. (Max 10 participants.) To apply, contact me at lattamemoirs@gmail.com for a detailed Retreat Guide.

Details: This creative writing retreat is suitable for most levels and for those writing fiction or creative nonfiction (including memoir). Yoga with instructor Dale Synnett-Caron, of Ottawa, is optional. Our guest speaker will be British-born author and screenwriter Oonya Kempadoo, now a resident of Grenada, named by the 2002 Orange Prize judges “a Great Talent for the 21st Century.”

Read more about the Grenada retreat, and my previous overseas retreat in Costa Rica.

May/September: MEMORIES INTO STORY: INTRODUCTION TO LIFE WRITING and MEMORIES INTO STORY: LEVEL II (online)

University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, Creative Writing Program

Location: Online

Dates:

SPRING 2013: May 6 to July 12, 2013 ((Intro course only)

FALL 2013: September 23 to November 29, 2013 (Intro course). Dates for 8-week Level II course TBA; completion of Memories into Story: An Introduction to Life Writing is required.

Fee: $625 (Intro course)

Registration: Click Memories into Story for information or to register for an upcoming session.

Online: Creative Writing Program

Telephone: 416-978-2400

Email: learn@utoronto.ca

ONLINE MENTOR PROGRAM: I’m available upon request as a writing coach through the Online Mentor Program, University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies. Contact course administrator Bill Zaget at the above phone number or email address for details.

June: SHARING YOUR STORIES: AN INTRODUCTION TO MEMOIR WRITING

Location: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

Dates: Wednesdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26, 2013 (series of 4 workshops)

Time: 1 to 3 p.m.

Fee: Free BUT registration is required and opens May 1.

July: TURQUOISE WATERS WRITERS’ RETREAT (2nd annual)

Location: Sandy Lake, Kawartha Lakes Region, Ontario, Canada (host: Janet Markham)

(New) Dates: Monday, July 29 to Friday, August 2

Registration: This retreat is currently full. Please contact me to have your name put on the waiting list.

Details: This is a creative writing retreat for those writing fiction or creative nonfiction. We are pleased to welcome chef Frank Soriano, who will prepare our evening meals (and also write!). Guest author TBA.

Check out photos from some of my previous writers’ retreats.

Photo credit: FreePHOTO.ca

Here’s a spring roundup of recent publishing and writing-competition news from my former students and workshop participants, along with details of a new contest for poets (see HEIDI STOCK, below). I share these success stories here to celebrate these writers’ accomplishments and also to encourage other emerging writers.

The opportunities to reach a reading audience through memoirs and other forms of creative nonfiction, fiction based on life stories, poetry and fiction are almost limitless. As you’ll see …

(Names appear alphabetically.)

CHRISTINE BARBETTA’s memoir “The Party” is second-prize winner in the recent writing competition co-sponsored by the Canadian Federation of University Women (Aurora/Newmarket) and The Era/The Banner, with the topic Life Lessons. A reception for winners and finalists will take place April 17. Christine’s story was one she’d begun writing in my University of Toronto Memories into Stories course.

SHARON BROOKS-WALLACE’s memoir “Keikikane” (Son) is a finalist in the CFUW/The Era/The Banner competition. Her story is a mother’s reflection on the near-drowning of her two-year-old son on the island of Kauai.

Sharon, a student in the Fall 2011 session of Memories into Story, has founded the writers’ group OMG (Online Memoir Group) with others from her class: Ruth Fitzsimmons, Stephen Goldberg and Sarah Calvert. A fifth member will join this spring. Sharon’s current project is a book about her Scottish great-grandmother, Nellie, who sailed to Canada at age nineteen, and she is writing an article for the Troon Ayrshire Family History Society about her research and writing process.

SARAH CALVERT’s memoir “Eat, Pray, Songwriting … Keep It Simple,” about the pleasures and perils of being on tour as a songwriter, has been published online on the Songwriters Association of Canada website (6 Feb 2012). Also: Watch for an interview with Sarah here on my website soon.

JAN CSILLAG’s poem “Missing at This Time” appears in the Canadian Jewish News Literary Supplement (April 2012). Her poem is about the joyful expectancy of the Passover seder when the family gathers as well as the feelings of loss over loved ones who are no longer here.

STEPHEN GOLDBERG’s memoir “Silence Isn’t Golden,” a surprising story about his son’s speech therapy, has been published online at The Write Place at the Write Time. Steve told me and his fellow students that he enrolled in Memories into Story so he could get one work published and call himself a writer. And so he has, and is. (Don’t stop now, Steve.)

TILYA GALLAY HELFIELD’s memoir “Shame” appears in the recent Canadian Jewish News Literary Supplement (April 2012). “Shame” is an excerpt from Tilya’s memoir collection Metaphors for Love, currently seeking a publisher. Tilya’s describes her recent experience recording another of her memoirs, ”Sweet Adeline,” for CBC’s The Sunday Edition in “On the Air.”

AMY MATTES’s  memoir “10 Years of Skirtboarders” has been published in Color Magazine. Amy is an original member of this Quebec-based group of female skateboarders. Her piece celebrates the Skirtboarders’ decade of accomplishments, which include making movies, organizing contests, and touring California, Sweden and Mexico to showcase their talent. The Skirtboarders range in age from 17 to 40 and are still thriving. Read more about them here.

MARY E. McINTYRE will see her short story “Kidnapped” published in Whispered Words, the latest anthology by Writers’ Community of Durham Region. “Kidnapped,” one of two stories by Mary to make the semi-finalists’ list, is about a young woman, distraught from a still birth, who steals another’s baby and hears her guilty conscience whispering in her head. The anthology is the published result of WCDR’s annual short story contest and comprises stories from the top 25 semi-finalists.

Mary’s memoir “Harmless” received an Honourable Mention in the CFUW/The Era/The Banner competition mentioned above. In the story, a farmer forces her to confront her irrational fear of cows.

Iron Horses: The Forging of Old and New Paths

VICTORIA SCHELE, of Santiago, Chile, is the author of Iron Horses: The Forging of Old and New Paths, a book of photo essays about the history of South American railroads that launched March 21. Iron Horses is published by Ceibo Ediciones. You can read more about it, and about Victoria, here:

LORYNNE SCHREIBER’s memoir “Internal Compass” will be published in the upcoming anthology Living Legacies IV: A Collection of Writing by Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, edited by Liz Pearl and published by PK Press of Toronto. The story is about a gift from her grandmother that influenced her life.

SUSAN SIDDELEY read this week from her book Home First: A Memoir in Voices at the Parliament Street Library as part of the Toronto Public Library series “Keep Toronto Reading.” She’ll read soon as well at the Ryerson University Library & Archives. Home First, which begins in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, is a memoir of “three generations spread over three continents.” Find out more about her writing and self-publishing journey here: Writing “Home First”: A Memoir in Voices. Susan is founder of Los Parronales Writers’ Retreat in Santiago, Chile.

HEIDI STOCK recently launched the Canadian Aspiring Poets Contest, a competition for as-yet-unpublished writers. The contest opened April 1st, the first day of National Poetry Month and closes June 1, 2012. Evelyn Lau, Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, is the contest’s honorary patron, and poet Catherine Graham is judge. Winners will share $1,000 in prize money to be directed toward individual online mentoring with Catherine, and I’ll interview the first-prize winner here on my website. Contest guidelines can be found here.

Happy spring, everyone, and keep writing.

Writers mentioned above have participated in one or more of the courses or workshops I’ve led for University of Toronto [in partnership with the New York Times Knowledge Network; online], Koffler Centre of the Arts, North York Central Library (Canadiana Department), Otter Lake Writers’ Retreat in Ontario, Canada; Los Parronales Writers’ Retreat in Chile; Sabino Springs Writers’ Retreat in Arizona; and Namaste Gardens Writing & Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica.

Dave Bidini performing on guitar

“It’s part of the artist’s job: to see and sense things that other people are just too busy to notice.”

"On a Cold Road" is a finalist in the Canada Reads: True Stories 2012 competition.

Author, columnist and songwriter/musician Dave Bidini‘s memoir On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock (read an excerpt here) was recently chosen as one of five finalists for CBC’s Canada Reads: True Stories 2012 competition. The other contenders are Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat, The Game by Ken Dryden, The Tiger by John Vaillant, and Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre. Debates begin February 2012.

In Spring 2011, Dave was guest author for my course Memories into Story: Introduction to Life Writing, offered online through University of Toronto SCS in partnership with the New York Times Knowledge Network. Following is an edited version of my students’ interview with him, part of a collaborative assignment. Thank you to my Spring 2011 group for these intriguing questions.

What was your first published story? How did it make you feel?

DB: Oh, it felt great. It was the best thing, seeing my words in print. It was just a dumb concert review, but it was really important in terms of seeing what was possible. You know: you should send out ANYTHING to EVERYONE. We all get rejected, but you never know who will like what.

Your writing comes across as honest, sensitive and also entertaining. Do you think this is a result of natural talent or has there been a lot of hard work along the way?

DB: Well, I’m obviously very talented … Kidding. Before, I had enthusiasm, but only a little talent. You work, and it develops, def. But having the will to do it all the time is a good good start.

Did you aspire to be a writer early on or did the profession find you?

DB: At first I didn’t aspire. I just did. And then, around maybe 16/17, I aspired.

When you began writing, was it for yourself or for publication?

DB: Myself, ya. Just scribbling junk.

Do you trust your own instincts, or have other people you trust give you opinions on your writing?

DB: Both, I think.

How did you develop confidence in your writing?

DB: Encouragement from parents, editors, friends, subjects, all o’ that. And a kind of silly blind belief that what I’m doing isn’t useless.

How did you go about finding places/people to accept your first works? Were you rejected before you found success?

DB: My parents sent stuff out to high school papers and stuff for me. Rejection is always part of success, right to the bitter end, right down the line. You have to get used to both, acceptance and rejection, and one serves the other.

What do you do when you find yourself at a loss for words/inspiration (assuming this happens)?

DB: I force myself to crack the rocks. To FIND a way.

You have a so many things going on in your life. How do you manage to keep everything organized, particularly your writing?

DB: I kinda write all of the time unless I am utterly sick of it. Then I have a small break, and ultimately, am compelled to write again.

Do you write “for fun” as well as professionally?

DB: Well, it is often hard. But I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun.

In “Travels in Narnia,” a moving memoir on loss and hope, you say that “the doors of perception” were opened to you as you travelled across Canada with the band. Did you have insight at the time, or was it a gradual process?

DB: After a while, in Calgary, I could sense that something was evolving. I wrote it in four hours in my friend’s apartment there. It had taken me three years to find the jam to sit down and do it, but when I wrote, it all spilled out pretty much how it sits on the page. I think, as an artist, you sort of have to know when those opportunities are upon you, and you force yourself to move forward through them, good or bad, or whatever. The artist has his head in the clouds with his feet planted into the earth.

You must have had to do a certain amount of research for Home and Away, about homelessness in Toronto, for example. Do you research as you go along, filling in holes in the narrative as you notice them, or write the first draft while the idea is fresh, and research later?

DB: Good question. It varies from project to project. Sometimes, the story sits awhile, and you have to chase it. Other times, it’s right there and you’re compelled to write it immediately. I wrote H&A fast because I knew that Melbourne would only happen once and the players would only experience what they were experiencing once. So my late nights and early mornings were filled with A LOT of writing each day.

Your writing seems so effortless. Do you do a lot of rewriting before you feel satisfied with the piece?

DB: Ya, I rewrite a lot. Thank you.

As a visual artist, I notice many similarities between art and writing; art is art, no matter the medium. How did music — being in a band — help or hinder your writing?

DB: It was great. The time I spent writing was time away from the madness of rock and roll. It was a healthy solitary time for me. And it made the travel less difficult. I used to bring a portable typewriter on the road. I loved using it, writing at clubs, backstage, and on the bus.

Is it harder to get published now than when you first started?

DB: Way fucking harder, but easier too. Harder because big publishers are in a time of transition; easier because there are more good small presses.

I’ve felt for a long time that everything in the world is connected, somehow. I get the sense from your writing that you feel the same. Am I correct?

DB: Ya, it’s important to find those lines and colour them in. It’s part of the artist’s job: to see and sense things that other people are just too busy to notice.

Do you believe writing can be taught? Or is it something innate, a creative gift that not everyone has?

DB: If you love it, you can learn it. I know this is true with music — and I am NOT naturally gifted — so it must be true with other art.

What’s the worst rejection letter you ever received?

DB: A guy in NY told me to stop writing. I was 16 and had sent him a record review.

What’s the nicest rejection letter you ever received?

DB: I got lots of cool letters from sportswriters in the 1970s, encouraging me and stuff.

Which is your first love – music, sports or writing?

DB: Sports. Writing. Music. And sportswriting.

If you could have only three books on your bedside table for the rest of your life, what would they be?

DB:

Be True to Your School by Bob Greene
Jack in the Box by William Kotzwinkle
War on Ice by Scott Young

Everyone you talk to seems to think they have a book in them and yet most don’t get round to writing it. Do you have any thoughts on this? Advice?

DB: GET AROUND TO IT. I mean, you either HAVE to do it or you DON’T. Wanting to do it isn’t enough.

* * *

DAVE BIDINI is the author of nine books. His play The Five Hole Stories was performed by One Yellow Rabbit and toured Canada in winter, 2009, and his two hockumentaries, The Hockey Nomad and The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia, were Gemini-nominated films (the former won for Best Documentary). He is the recipient of numerous National Magazine Awards as well as a weekly columnist in The National Post. In 1994, his then band, Rheostatics, won a Genie Award for “Claire” (from the film Whale Music) and two of their albums were included in the Top 20 Canadian Albums of All Time. His first hockey book, Tropic of Hockey, was named one of the Top 100 Canadian Books of All Time by McClelland & Stewart, and his baseball odyssey, Baseballissimo, is currently being made into a feature film. Dave teaches songwriting for U of T School of Continuing Studies.

Lynette Dathorne, age 12

Toronto-based writer Lynette Dathorne’s story “Scenes from My Youth,” an excerpt from her memoir-in-progress, has been named first runner-up in the Nonfiction category of the annual OASIS Journal anthology competition in Tucson, Arizona. “Scenes from My Youth” will be Lynette’s first published story.

“The year was 1953,” she says, “and the focus of my submission was on my family leaving British Guiana for London, England, when I was thirteen years old and my experiences at school when I arrived. The major theme of my memoir is what it was like growing up in London as a black girl during the fifties and sixties.”

The photograph at left, taken in December 1952, is of Lynette at age twelve, seven months before her family left British Guiana for England. “It is from a family portrait taken in a studio in Georgetown. My father [already in England] had asked my mother to send a photo of the family.”

Last spring, Lynette worked with me privately on portions of her longer memoir manuscript through the Online Mentor program within the Creative Writing Program at University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Of the news that an excerpt has been chosen by the OASIS judges, she says, “Being first runner-up is an added bonus, and motivation for me to continue with my writing.”

Also accepted for publication in this year’s OASIS Journal anthology are works of creative nonfiction by four more writers who have studied with me (in alphabetical order), three of them through University of Toronto. The fourth, Tilya Helfield, was my student at Ryerson University and later worked with me privately.

Jennifer Capes, of Nepean, Ontario

Tilya Gallay Helfield, of Toronto, Ontario, who also recently completed a manuscript of nineteen linked short memoirs, Metaphors for Love, and is seeking a publisher. (She blogs at http://takeitfromtilya.blogspot.com)

Susan Labuhn, of Lethbridge, Alberta, who also had a poem accepted.

Joyce Wood-Shortino, of Boston, Massachusetts, who had two prose submissions accepted by OASIS judges for inclusion in this edition. The publisher says this is highly unusual.

This is the tenth consecutive year for OASIS Journal. Published by Tucson, Arizona-based Imago Press, the collection features fiction, nonfiction and poetry by emerging writers over age 50. This year publisher Leila Joiner received 382 entries of which 113 will be published.

Though only a handful of Canadians submitted, they certainly succeeded in grabbing the judges’ attention. Lynette Dathorne is joined by Barbara Ponomareff of Orono, Ontario, first runner-up in the Fiction category, and Tiina Heathcock of Dorset, Ontario, first runner-up in the Poetry category.

Last year's OASIS Journal

I learned of OASIS Journal and got to know Leila Joiner several years ago through one of my online students, Jane Boruszewski, of Syracuse, New York, when I was teaching memoir writing through Ryerson University. Jane—who died August 1, 2009, and is much missed—had several memoirs published in OASIS anthologies, and the 2009 edition was dedicated to her. Her family posthumously published her memoir-based novel Escape from Russia, excerpts of which had appeared in OASIS.

The OASIS Journal competition accepts fiction, nonfiction (including memoir) and poetry submissions from May to July 31 each year. OASIS doesn’t have a website, but for more information about next year’s competition, contact Leila Joiner in May 2012 at ljoiner@dakota.com. In the Archives: read my interview with Leila Joiner.

2011 OASIS Journal will be available for purchase in November through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

For more about Memories into Story, my online course through U of T (partnered with the New York Times Knowledge Network), click here. To inquire about the Online Mentor program through the U of T, School of Continuing Studies, Creative Writing Program, click here.

Here’s a complete list of winners in the 2011 OASIS Journal competition:

FICTION

WINNER: “Venus” by Bill Alewyn (Coolidge, Arizona)

FIRST RUNNER-UP: “Corvus Rex” by Barbara Ponomareff (Orono, Ontario, Canada)

SECOND RUNNER-UP: “Ordinary Time” by Mimi Moriarty (Voorheesville, New York)

NONFICTION

WINNER: “Amazing Grace” by Calvin W. Fulton (Tucson, Arizona)

FIRST RUNNER-UP: “Scenes from My Youth” by Lynette Dathorne (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

SECOND RUNNER-UP: “Yasha’s Story” translation from the original German by Ruth Hohberg (San Diego, California)

HONOURABLE MENTION: “Dreaming in America” by Stan Vasile (Tucson, Arizona)

POETRY

WINNER: “Bodhi Tree on Via Arcilla” by Bobbie Jean Bishop (San Diego, California)

FIRST RUNNER-UP: “First and Last Time” by Tiina Heathcock (Dorset, Ontario, Canada)

SECOND RUNNER-UP: “HAIKU: Life on the Scale” by Teresa Civello (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

“Hoarding” by Judy Ray (Tucson, Arizona)

“Winds” by Rita Ries (Los Angeles, California)

Beth Powning with fans in Hampton, Connecticut, at U.S. launch for "The Sea Captain's Wife." (Photo by Peter Powning)

“Don’t ever prejudge yourself or the possible outcome of what you are going to do…. You might start writing something, and it twists and turns, and you end up in an entirely different place.”

— Beth Powning, memoirist and novelist

Twice Beth has been guest author for my University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies online course Memories into Story: Introduction to Life Writing, and I edited her memoir Edge Seasons (Knopf Canada, 2005). The following are questions some of my students asked Beth after reading three of her short memoirs: “Clotheslines,” “Hearing Loss,” and “A Grandmother’s Love.”

You’ve written both memoir and fiction. How do you decide what will work better for a particular story based on memory? Which do you prefer writing? Reading?

Beth: My agent and I worried and gnashed our teeth over whether the subject matter of The Hatbox Letters should be written as novel or memoir. Finally, it was me who decided to write it as a novel. As I ponder your question, I realize how mutable the process of writing is. For example, I wrote “Clotheslines” as a short story, and then changed it into first-person memoir. It seemed to ring more true as a memoir. Every scrap of memory, every arresting “seed” is different. Usually it bears with it the way it wants or needs to be written: some are memoir-bearers, others demand to be fiction. Sometimes, though, it’s not clear—so then, as in my short memoir ”Clotheslines,” I plunge ahead, try something to see if it works.

I can’t emphasize enough the need to SIMPLY PLUNGE AHEAD! Writing is an adventure.

I actually love writing both memoir and fiction. I think memoir is easier for me. Fiction is more of a risk, more of a thrill. I love reading both—equally.

What did you write first, memoir or fiction?

Beth: First I wrote short stories, as a child. Then a novel, as my undergraduate thesis. Then another novel (never published). But it was in memoir that I found my “voice.” I envisioned myself kneeling at the window of our bedroom, listening to coyotes howling in the darkness. At the same time, I was feeling the loneliness of being an immigrant, the loss of my past. I connected this feeling with the shadowy coyotes who had drifted onto our land for no discernible reason: and a book was born. I was able to tell the story in a voice that was unfettered. Essentially, I was writing to myself, as if in my journal. Yet I knew, too, that this was a step away from journal writing, that I was shaping. I felt poetry in the subject, and let the poetry infuse the writing.

Sometimes I have a longing for this voice. It is like my deepest self.

When is a memory ready to be told as a story? Our view and interpretation of an event changes with time, and it seems the older memories tend to hold more emotional truth and fewer facts.

Beth: Interesting question. I think a memory is ready to be told as a story when it starts bugging you. It starts ASKING to be told. A writing teacher I had as an undergraduate told me to trust my intuition. Now I know what he meant. You have to listen, see if there’s a common thread running through your thoughts, your journal. It’s true that there may be some memories that are not ready to be told. I started writing about my grandparents many, many times, until finally I wrote The Hatbox Letters. I was seeking their truth, and thus a way in which I could understand and lose my desperate romanticization of my childhood.

There is no real answer to your question. The writing life is one of trying, failing, trying, succeeding. I write memoirs about things that happened yesterday. I write about my childhood. If the story is ready to be written, somehow it remains alive as you are writing it. If not, it eludes you.

I wrote a story about a miscarriage that I had. I wrote the story about three months after it happened. The story was raw, powerful, filled with vividly remembered details and undigested pain. Rage and sorrow. Sometimes those are the best. Don’t ever prejudge yourself or the possible outcome of what you are going to do. Just dive in and swim. You might start writing something, and it twists and turns, and you end up in an entirely different place.

Where do you go when you really need to hunker down and simply … WRITE?

Beth: With my latest novel, I worked at my desk in the house. That was because I am using too many reference books to haul up to the sauna. (It is a historical novel, and I would have to check details.)

I also have found that I like to be closer to people now. It’s odd. But our house is usually dead quiet, and I yell “I’m writing!” if someone blunders into the kitchen (downstairs) during the morning.

I have gone to the Banff Centre quite a few times and worked at the Leighton Artist Colony, and that is truly wonderful because you can FEEL the intense creative energy sizzling in the air.

Do you set yourself daily goals?

Beth: Sometimes, not always. I write 3 to 4 hours a day. I can’t sustain any longer than that. When I’m writing a book, I often set myself a certain number of pages a month, then break that down into weeks, and have a goal of weekly pages. I find that helps.

Do you start with an outline or just let the words flow?

Beth: The one book that I started with an outline was Shadow Child. The title and the outline came like sudden fire, one morning. All my other books have been a process of thinking, and taking notes, and reading the notes, and then being inspired by the notes themselves to take more notes, until I can’t stand it anymore and just start to write.

What is your writing process? Our instructor, Allyson, has provided many good suggestions. Natalie Goldberg goes to a local coffee shop, opens a notebook and starts to write. Peter Elbow, in his book On Writing, advises to let words fall out, “make a mess.” I am trying to develop a process that will fit into my busy life. What suggestions do you have?

Beth: First and foremost, I keep a journal. It is large, with unlined paper. I use a black fountain pen. It is where I talk to myself about what I am feeling, what I dream of writing. I write all the time, in a structured way. Now that I can be a full-time professional writer, I come to my desk at 9 every morning. BUT. It was not always the case. I used to work in our family business. Then I would write in the afternoon. Once, I got up at 4 a.m. to write. The point being that I have always been driven to make time to write. And yes, I like the “make a mess” theory. I always take notes, write around the idea of what I’m going to write, but then a moment comes when I begin. Once you begin, something else kicks in. The words themselves put up roadblocks, steer you in different directions, take you down blind alleys, make you back up and try new avenues.

In memoir does an author maintain the same style from one work to another, unlike in fiction, where he or she might adopt different styles?

Beth: I think this is a good insight. When I write what I call “personal essays” it feels like I’m playing jazz on an instrument I know very well. I am talking to myself, in a particular voice. I’m trying to sort out this amazing journey we are all on. Whereas with fiction, I am an actor. I am inside other people, wondering what the world looks like to them, trying to find their voice. I’m making up a world. The style changes.

In the three stories by you that we read, did you remove anything from earlier drafts that you had initially felt was important but that didn’t fit with the story? How do you structure your writing?

Beth: Yes, I always remove things, and stuff was removed from all of those pieces. I start with a fragment, usually several visual images. The combination of these images (clotheslines waving freely in the wind versus clotheslines dead in a basket in the nursing home) makes me see and feel the underlying theme. I scribble that theme somewhere … loosely … what is the story REALLY about, at its core? Then I close my eyes, sit poised over the keyboard, waiting. I visualize scenes and write them as they come to me. I do a lot of rearranging, later, and cutting.

You can read the three short memoirs referred to in this interview in PDF form by visiting www.powning.com and clicking “Beth,” then “Resume,” then scrolling down to “Recent Magazine Articles.”

Read Part 2 of this interview.

BETH POWNING is the author of three books of literary non-fiction/memoir: Seeds of Another Summer, which won the New England Bookseller’s Association Discovery Award and was nominated for the Rutstrum Author’s Award; Shadow Child, short-listed for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction; and Edge Seasons, a Globe and Mail Best Book. Her best-selling novel The Hatbox Letters was long-listed for the Impac Dublin Literary Award. Her latest novel, The Sea Captain’s Wife, was published by Knopf Canada in 2010 and by Penguin Plume USA in 2011. It was short-listed for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and is a Barnes and Noble Discover Award Book. She lives in New Brunswick with her artist husband, Peter Powning.

As of Fall 2011, Allyson Latta’s University of Toronto, SCS, online course Memories into Story will be offered through The New York Times Knowledge Network. This 10-week course explores memoir, personal essay and experience-based fiction, and may be taken as a credit toward a Certificate in Creative Writing. Register here for Fall 2011 (Sept. 19 to Nov. 28) or Spring 2012 (Apr. 9 to June 18).

Namaste Gardens Writing & Yoga Retreat

Playa Herradura, Costa Rica

with guest speaker, award-winning novelist William Deverell

January 21 to 30, 2012

Pura vida … It’s Costa Rica’s unofficial slogan and it means “pure life.” Costa Ricans use the expression as a greeting and a farewell, and to mean thank you and you’re welcome, but more than this it symbolizes their philosophy of letting things go and just enjoying life …

Experience pura vida with writing instructor Allyson Latta and yoga instructor Jamie Wood during this creativity-nurturing and restorative 10-day tropical retreat in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Region. It’s open to participants of all ages and writing levels who enjoy travel and want to discover—or rediscover—a path into creative writing, whether memoirs, fiction or poetry.

Namaste Gardens is nestled at the end of a quiet road in the sunny beach town of Playa Herradura, on the Pacific coast. With its comfortable and colourful accommodations, lush jungle garden, and backyard pool and lounge area, this small retreat offers a tranquil escape that encourages both mindfulness and playfulness.

Gentle morning yoga practice, suitable for beginners (and optional), is designed to refresh body and soul and open your “writer’s mind.” Relaxed writing sessions—a combination of instruction, discussion and exercises—will motivate and inspire you.

Afternoons will offer you time and space to focus on freewriting exercises or personal writing, to enjoy solitude or connect with others in this small group, and, best of all, to allow Costa Rica to fill your senses. Sway in a poolside hammock, stroll to the beach (its horseshoe shape makes it safe for swimming), go for a bike ride, visit five-star Los Sueños Resort, or head to Jaco, 6 kilometres south, for shopping (regional information here; click on map to enlarge). During several evening reading salons you’ll have a chance to hear others’ writing and, if you wish, to share your own.

Registration fee covers San Jose airport pickup & drop-off; 9 nights’ accommodation (single or shared; arrive Jan 21, depart Jan 30); meals & snacks that include fresh tropical fruit and other local fare; 7 writing workshops and yoga sessions; reading salons; and a complimentary massage.

Excursions may be planned to Carara National Park and/or to Manuel Antonio National Park.

Interested? E-mail lattamemoirs@gmail.com to register or inquire.

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ALLYSON LATTA has edited fiction and nonfiction books—including national and international award-winners—for major Canadian publishers as well as University of the West Indies Press in Jamaica. She teaches Memories into Story: Introduction to Life Writing for University of Toronto, and has led workshops in Canada, the U.S. and Chile. Her students have had stories published, won literary competitions, and self-published books. A former newspaper and magazine writer/editor, Allyson moved into book editing in 1996 and in 2004 developed her first memoir course for Ryerson University. She makes her home in Toronto, but once upon a time lived for three years in Japan and still travels any chance she gets. Click here to read what participants said about her Tucson retreat.

JAMIE WOOD, owner of Namaste Gardens, is professionally trained in Restorative, Arkaya, Yin and Ashtanga yoga. Her primarily focus is on these calmer styles of yoga, which promote relaxation and restoration, and de-stress the body. Students new or advanced will benefit from her caring approach and guidance. Jamie first made her way to Costa Rica over 5 years ago to work at Los Sueños Resort. She purchased a home nearby and spent two years transforming it into Namaste Gardens, a sanctuary where she shares her love of yoga, health and her beautiful adopted country. Jamie divides her time between Herradura, CR, and Vancouver, Canada, where she runs her downtown studio, Yaletown Restorative. Visit Namaste Gardens.