Boston & New England–area writers — Please join us for our 3rd annual day-long writing retreat with three outstanding IWWG instructors. Our Writing from Your Life Retreat offers you professional and personal insights into writing memoir, myth, and monologue, as well as exceptional enrichment of your creative life. Experience the gifts of the Guild community during our annual regional event in MetroWest Boston!
The Zen of Writing: Clear Seeing, Clear Writing
Susan Tiberghien
To enter into the mystery of Zen, we need to let go of all the distractions that surround us. We need to lift the lid of our conscious minds and open our eyes. What we see clearing, we will write clearly. We will focus first on journal writing, looking for seeds for life stories. Then on how to write our stories, focusing on both personal essays and memoir. In reading excerpts from C.G. Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Natalie Goldberg, Annie Dillard, and Suki Kim, we will let the practice of Zen inspire and illuminate our own writing.
Susan Tiberghien, an American writer living in Geneva, Switzerland, has published four memoirs—Looking for Gold: A Year in Jungian Analysis; Circling to the Center: One Woman's Encounter with Silent Prayer; Side by Side: Writing Your Love Story; and Footsteps: In Love with a Frenchman —and a highly appreciated writing book, One Year to a Writing Life: Twelve Lessons to Deepen Every Writer's Art and Craft. She has been an instructor for The Guild since 1990, always impressed by its stature and vision. She also teaches at C.G. Jung Institutes and at writers’ centers and conferences in the States and in Europe, where she directs the Geneva Writers’ Group, an association of over 250 English-language writers. www.susantiberghien.com
Writing The Heroine’s Journey
Maureen Murdock
Now, more than ever, women are speaking their truth as the feminine demands healing. In this workshop, we will explore the stages in The Heroine̕s Journey, which redefines the heroic quest for women. The journey entails an initial separation from feminine values, seeking recognition and success in a patriarchal culture, experiencing spiritual aridity and death, and turning inward to reclaim the power and spirit of the sacred feminine. As women claim their voice and name their experience, this workshop will provide a framework for their voice to be heard.
Maureen Murdock, Ph.D., is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist in private practice in Santa Barbara, California. Since 1990, she has taught memoir writing in the UCLA Extensions Writers’ Program, where she received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 1995. Her bestselling book, The Heroine’s Journey, explores the rich territory of the feminine psyche and delineates the feminine psycho-spiritual journey. Maureen is also the author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory; Fathers’ Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind; Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children; and The Heroine’s Journey Workbook. She is the editor of an anthology of memoir writing entitled Monday Morning Memoirs: Women in the Second Half of Life and has published a Kindle short entitled The Emergence of Bipolar Disorder: A Mother’s Perspective. Maureen has written pieces for The Huffington Post on criminal justice and mental illness and has presented short memoir pieces at Center Theater in Santa Barbara and Spark Theater in Los Angeles about the men in prison she works with. Her blog is on her website: www.maureenmurdock.com
Your Memoir as Monologue:
Crafting Dynamic Monologues for Performance & Publication
Kelly DuMar
There’s beauty and meaning to mine from your life story, and this workshop will help you artistically express and creatively share your life experiences through the medium of theatre. You’ll learn how to write successful dramatic monologues that are personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and relevant and engaging for an audience. Beginning and experienced writers are welcome!
Kelly DuMar is a playwright and poet from the Boston area whose recent workshop presentations include the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, the Power of Words Conference, True Story Theater, Berkshire Women Writers, Playback North America, and the New England Theatre Conference. She is the author of a nonfiction book, Before You Forget: The Wisdom of Writing Diaries for Your Children, and won the Lit House Press Poetry Chapbook Award for All These Cures. Her newest poetry and prose chapbook, Tree of the Apple, has been published this year by Two of Cups Press. Kelly’s award-winning plays and monologues are produced around the U.S. and Canada. Her award-winning one-act play for youth, The Adventures of Rocky & Skye, was published by Youth Plays. Kelly is a past president of Playwrights’ Platform, Boston, where she led play development activities for many years. She founded and produces the Our Voices Festival of Women Playwrights at Wellesley College. www.kellydumar.com
Schedule
9:30 am • Registration & Coffee, Tea & Pastry
10:00 am • Introductions & Opening Remarks
10:15 am • Susan Tiberghien
11:45 am • Catered Lunch & Book Fair (purchase books by Guild members)
12:45 pm • Maureen Murdock
2:30 pm • Kelly DuMar
4:15 pm • All Voices Open Mic (attendee poetry & prose readings)
5:00 pm • Wrap-Up
Download a printable event flyer here.
Find nearby hotel lodging here.
Find directions to the Montrose School here.
