Write Your Life
(1)
Guided Autobiography Project
6 weeks, Wednesdays;
Next session is planned for the Fall of 2008, based on demand. Dates will be announced in September
Can you write a letter? If so, you can write about your life.
"Autobiography" is your writing about your life. "Guided" autobiography" is where someone helps you get started.
Do you want to reflect on the events of your life? Have you thought of putting down an account of your life for descendants and other family or friends? If you have, but don't know where to start, the "Guided Autobiography" program @ your library can help!
The guided autobiography group will meet six Wednesdays from 12:30-2:30 at Huntsville Public Library. If registration is sufficient the next session will be in March and April.
This program brings together a small group of older adults and a facilitator. At the first five meetings the facilitator gives out a topic for discussion at next week's meeting and a sheet of questions to help stimulate thought and writing on it. Meetings last up to 2 hours with a break in the middle for refreshments.
Between sessions group members write two pages - like a letter to a friend -- on the week's topic: "the major points of change in my life" (week 2); "my family, friends, loves and hates" (week 3); "my career(s) or major life work(s) (or both)" (week 4); "money, health, and other constraints in my life" (week 5); "my aspirations and goals and the meaning of my life" (week 6).
During sessions 2 through 6, group members take turns reading out their weekly 2-page letter to the group for brief, constructive, non-judgmental comment. Discussion helps participants find parallels between their experiences and gain perspective from those of others. Stories recounted by others are to be kept in confidence.
At program's end each member will have an autobiographical essay about his or her life. Each participant can then decide whether to polish and/or expand it to share with family and friends, or keep it to him/herself. S/he can also choose to present a typed copy to the Library for sharing with the community through the Muskoka Files.
Contact Nigel Tappin at the library at 789-5232 for more details.
(2)
Memoir Club
Monthly - One Tuesday per month except July, August and December (Schedule subject to change)
A monthly continuation of guided, themed memoir writing for graduates of the guided Autobiography Program
Who is it for?
The Memoir Club at Huntsville Public Library is a group for older adults who want to write about their life on an ongoing monthly basis.
Initially it is intended for seniors who have participated in HPL’s six week Guided Autobiography program and want to continue writing their memoirs and sharing excerpts from them with others with the same interest in a mutually supportive atmosphere.
The club may also be suitable for other older adults who have are in the process of writing a memoir and are interested in sharing parts of it with fellow memoirists and receiving non-judgmental, supportive feedback. The club is not however designed as an editing or critiquing group, but more as a deadline a source of monthly ideas for a theme.
How does it work?
Each month (except July, August & December) a group of memoir writers meet with a facilitator at the library to read aloud to each other short autobiographical written stories.
At each session the facilitator prepares a sheet with a suggested topic for the next session, along with an expansion of the topic and a series of questions about the topic to prompt the memoirist if she or he experiences trouble getting started on the topic. Participants are free to ignore the set subject and write on an alternative one of their preference and share that with the group instead.
Writing about one’s life is the point, not the specific theme.
Feedback on subjects members want to write on will be solicited. The segment shared with the group is limited to about 10 minutes per person each session for scheduling reasons.
The facilitator also attempts to allocate approximately equal time between members and also prepares the coffee, tea and sets out biscuits for the break. The sessions will be about 2 hours long.
Participants sign up for nine sessions (a year) or five sessions. There is a $10 program fee for the nine sessions. For participants who can only make the Fall sessions the fee will be $5.00. New participants may join at the first meeting of a session in September ($10 fee) or at the January session ($7.50 fee). If there are more memoirists wishing to take part than time allows, either a waiting list will be maintained or, if numbers and resources make it possible, a second group may start.
When?
The Memoir Club sessions for the 2007 to 2008 season are on Tuesdays, 18 th September, 23 rd October, 20 th November, 22 nd January, 19 th February, 18 th March (will be changed if with members March Break commitments), 22 nd April, 20 th May, and 10 th June.
Contact Nigel Tappin at 789-5232 for information.
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