WALPOLE, N.H. – E. L. Doctorow said, “Writing is like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” If you have dreamed of writing about your life, but don’t know how to take the first step, or if you have a project in progress and need a community of writers capable of offering reliable feedback on your manuscript, there is a place for you in one of these rigorous workshops. Bernard carefully shapes each group, placing each participant in the appropriate environment, where they can feel both nurtured and challenged at whatever their level of experience.
While fiction encourages the writer to create a story, memoir encourages a process of discovery. And we often don’t know what we will write until we begin.
As Gaston Bachelard says, “What one meant to say is so quickly supplanted by what one finds oneself writing, that we realize written language creates its own universe.” Yet those new to memoir worry that if they write about family experiences, they are betraying those family members. But, as William Zinsser wisely says, no one has a monopoly on the shared past.
A retired professor of writing, Pam Bernard is a writer, writing mentor, painter, and editor. She works also one on one with writers in a variety of ways.
Bernard is the author of four books, the latest a novel in verse titled “Esther.” She received her MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College, and BA from Harvard University. Her awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her collection “Across the Dark” was a finalist for the National Poetry Series Award.
Please email pam@pambernard.com, visit www.pambernard.com, or call 603-756-4177 for more information, including days and times. Workshops are hybrid, using the Owl meeting device, to accommodate those who must attend remotely.