Schedule

Schedule of Events, Black Mesa Writers’ Intensive

December 6, 2013

9:00am-9:30am    Registration, Check-in, coffee

9:30am       Welcome –Theo Pauline Nestor

9:45am-10:45am  Candace Walsh:Pairing Personal Experience with Genre: Memoir, Essays, Autobiographical Fiction, and More. When beginning a story, how do you decide which genre to pursue? At times, Candace Walsh’s personal stories have led her to publishing a full-length memoir (Licking the Spoon: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Identity ) and writing an autobiographical fiction novel. She’s also used their momentum to edit two anthologies. Her personal essays regularly show up on the Huffington Post, a powerful publicity creator and sales driver, and numerous anthologies. In this class, Walsh will share advice, tips, and practical exercises to help you pair your personal narrative with the right form.

10:50am-11: 50am     Tanya Taylor Rubinstein: “Memoir on Steroids: The Rise of the One-Person Show.” From the late Spalding Gray to his storytelling heir, Mike Daisey; From Anna Deveare Smith’s Pulitzer Prize winning creations to the thousands of performer’s in Fringe Festivals across the U.S., Europe and Canada every summer, solo shows are everywhere and audiences are flocking to see them. Many view solo performance as the new paradigm in theater, bypassing the artifice of traditional theater with intimate, raw and culturally dynamic stories, embodied points of view and compelling characters, all created and performed by the solo artist herself. In this class, Tanya Taylor Rubinstein, a leading solo performance coach and director, will share a bit about the process of writing and performing a solo show. In this one hour class you will learn how to adapt your memoir writing to stage-worthy material. You will also get to explore the difference between your writing voice and your storytelling voice. No performance experience necessary and no one will be put on the spot to perform, though there will be experiential exercises and an opportunity for a few daring souls to demonstrate the improvisational storytelling techniques that Tanya teaches.

Noon-1:00pm      Lunch (Vegan and Gluten Free options will be available. Lunch is included in registration fee.)

12:30: Book Signing

1:00pm-2:30pm   Theo Pauline Nestor: So You Want to Write a Memoir

Want to write a memoir but feeling overwhelmed by the idea of such a large project? This class will help you to make a plan for writing and completing your memoir. Theo will talk about the step-by-step process of taking a memoir from a few scratches on a notepad to a finished manuscript. Making a plan for your book (dare we say “outline”?)–Theo will demonstrate–can not only make the writing easier but also help you to create a memoir that transcends your individual experience and tells a universal story.

2:30pm -7:00pm          Free time (the Tesuque Pavillion will be open if you want to stay and write). Check back here for a list of recommended restaurants for dinner.

7:00pm                           A Conversation with Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron

                                         Writing Activities led by Cameron and Goldberg.

                                         Book signing

                                         Social time in the hotel’s Los Fuentes bar

In Santa Fe before the event?  Come to a free memoir writing class with Theo

at Collected Works Bookstore at 6pm on Wednesday, December 4th.