Jane,
Maureen is a terrific memoir teacher. She’s quite intelligent, thoughtful about the writing and the experiences represented, and sensitive to each person in a very patient way. . . .She’s able to balance helpful directives/comments about writing in general along with specific comments to an individual writer. The class structure she uses has been very useful to me: using carefully chosen examples/excerpts from other writers (she’s very well read in this genre) to illustrate a particular way of writing memoir. She then assigns that approach for the following week. She’s also a very good writer herself. She’s also quite open about using her own experiences as examples, and she’s clearly had quite a range of them.
But the most important part to me has been her emphasis on emotional honesty, insight, and self-reflection as the connecting string flowing through memoir writing. That emphasis pushes me to more thoughtful writing. She doesn’t hesitate to point out when it’s not there or to emphathize when it is.
I wish the class were smaller so that I could get more time with her. On the other hand, there are a surprising number of very good writers in this group, raising the bar in a healthy way for everyone.
Best,
Sheryle Bolton
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Hello,
I loved the memory to memoir class Nov 1st.
Maureen was a wonderful leader and the class was great combo of reading, writing and listening to others for idea exchange.
I found the group to be perfect size (13) for sharing and the studio conducive to supportive sharing.
Enjoyed lunch time at Atlas with group and hearing each person’s story.
Thanks so much!
Heather