Waitlist only - sign up to hear as soon as a spot becomes available
Blending Fiction with Memoir
Seminar with award-winning author
& outstanding lecturer,
Ilana Blumberg
November 1, 09:30-15:00
Photo by Alex Siale on Unsplash
What liberties can we take in writing about our own past, our families, our hometowns?
How might including fictive elements in autobiographical writing (provided we make clear to our readers when we stray from nonfiction) make possible realizations otherwise unavailable? Do we read and write dialogue, scene, and character differently in memoir than in fiction? How might memoir allow us meditative opportunities that fiction may make difficult? Does genre make a difference? Writing exercises will explore these questions. Texts may include sections from The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston; The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields; One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora Welty; The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien. Details:Minimum/Maximum No. Participants: 8/14
Cost: 490 NIS by October 10, 550 NIS on the door (if places still available). This includes light snacks and tea/coffee, bread & dips. Location: Talbiya, Jerusalem (more details upon registration). Registration: Sign up below and we will be in touch about payment. Please note that your place is reserved only once payment is made via bank transfer, Pepper Pay, cheque/check or cash (by special arrangement). Cancellation policy: If you cancel within one week of the class and your place cannot be filled, you will be asked to cover the total cost of the seminar. |
Ilana Blumberg is the author of the forthcoming Open Your Hand: Teaching as a Jew, Teaching as an American (Rutgers Press, 2018) and the Sami Rohr Prize-winning memoir, Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books. She directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University where she is a senior lecturer in English literature. She is widely published in Victorian studies and has won teaching awards from the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University.
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Previously taught by Ilana Blumberg - How We Came To Be Ourselves: Writing Autobiography (2016), Writing Memoir: Place and Person (2016), Putting it All Together (2017), and Intensity (2018).
Testimonials:
'I greatly appreciated Ilana's analytical approach both to the published literary excepts on which the workshop primarily focused and to the extemporary exercises that the students were prompted to produce in class. Her critical workshop method owes to the best legacy of American literary scholarship. As a result, she was able to engage all participants in enthusiastic, educated discussions, and to inspire pieces of writing building directly on the critical aspects assimilated in class. She is also a wonderful moderator, adept at channelling the potential of spontaneous, untutored textual interpretations into informed literary debates. I came out of the experienced with renewed motivation for my own writing endeavors. I would definitely recommend Ilana's classes to anyone aiming at quality writing.' - Sonia
'I highly recommend taking Ilana's workshops. She gives a great balance between looking at well-written and published pieces while encouraging the participants to discover and generate their own ideas.' - Anna
'I have had a lot on my mind these past few months and it was cathartic for me get a new perspective through the contributions and insights delivered in this seminar. Ilana is a marvelous moderator and without exception I believed in my fellow attendees' stories while empathizing and sharing tears and laughter.' - Lynn
'The choice of readings was so extraordinary - I had never encountered these writings or anything similar before, and I try to read all kinds of literature from known and unknown authors from all over the world. Now I’ve added Sri Lankan and Jamaican. The way Ilana handled the group of people who had not met before was quite remarkable. Everyone felt that they were important and she was interested in every sharing that the group felt free and willing to do. There was such empathy and understanding from everyone because Ilana moderated the group in such in a quiet but purposeful manner. We learnt a lot from her but also from others, which I think is ideally the way a workshop should happen.' - Mona
'As always, Ilana Blumberg’s recent writer’s workshop was wonderfully engaging, profoundly deep, and most enjoyable. The outstanding selection of readings she provided before the session made an excellent backdrop for the points she raised and the writing exercises she offered during the session. I came away feeling enriched!' - Jeff
Testimonials:
'I greatly appreciated Ilana's analytical approach both to the published literary excepts on which the workshop primarily focused and to the extemporary exercises that the students were prompted to produce in class. Her critical workshop method owes to the best legacy of American literary scholarship. As a result, she was able to engage all participants in enthusiastic, educated discussions, and to inspire pieces of writing building directly on the critical aspects assimilated in class. She is also a wonderful moderator, adept at channelling the potential of spontaneous, untutored textual interpretations into informed literary debates. I came out of the experienced with renewed motivation for my own writing endeavors. I would definitely recommend Ilana's classes to anyone aiming at quality writing.' - Sonia
'I highly recommend taking Ilana's workshops. She gives a great balance between looking at well-written and published pieces while encouraging the participants to discover and generate their own ideas.' - Anna
'I have had a lot on my mind these past few months and it was cathartic for me get a new perspective through the contributions and insights delivered in this seminar. Ilana is a marvelous moderator and without exception I believed in my fellow attendees' stories while empathizing and sharing tears and laughter.' - Lynn
'The choice of readings was so extraordinary - I had never encountered these writings or anything similar before, and I try to read all kinds of literature from known and unknown authors from all over the world. Now I’ve added Sri Lankan and Jamaican. The way Ilana handled the group of people who had not met before was quite remarkable. Everyone felt that they were important and she was interested in every sharing that the group felt free and willing to do. There was such empathy and understanding from everyone because Ilana moderated the group in such in a quiet but purposeful manner. We learnt a lot from her but also from others, which I think is ideally the way a workshop should happen.' - Mona
'As always, Ilana Blumberg’s recent writer’s workshop was wonderfully engaging, profoundly deep, and most enjoyable. The outstanding selection of readings she provided before the session made an excellent backdrop for the points she raised and the writing exercises she offered during the session. I came away feeling enriched!' - Jeff
