Événement

FINDING THE STORY WITHIN YOU with Judith Hannan, New York Writers Workshop

June 3, 2018
Sunday
2:00-5:00 pm

Words are how we connect to others and ourselves. Too often, our words are stifled -- because there is no one to listen to them, because we lack the confidence to speak them, or because a trauma or major life event disrupts our narrative. We become strangers to ourselves and isolated from others. Writing is a way to free our voices, to access the words that allow us to unveil our personal stories, to examine and probe them, to discover the deepest truths behind them.

This workshop will combine writing excerpts and examples with related prompts to begin the process of opening up your personal narrative. Introductory prompts will focus both on the tools and craft of writing followed by an opportunity to delve into specific scenes or moments of one's life. Sharing what we have written with each other is an additional crucial step in the process. First, when we read our own words aloud, we feel the full impact of what we have discovered. Second, by receiving positive feedback from a supportive and loving community, we will be encouraged to keep writing.

No experience is necessary. The only requirement is an open heart.

BIO:
Judith Hannans recent book is "The Write Prescription: Telling Your Story to Live with and Beyond Illness," which grew out of her experience writing "Motherhood Exaggerated," her chronicle of transformation while caring for a child with cancer. Her essays have appeared in such publications as Womans Day, Narratively, The Forward, Health & Spirituality, Brevity, Cognoscenti, The Marthas Vineyard Gazette, among others. She leads workshops for homeless mothers, young women in the criminal justice system, as well as those affected by physical or mental illness. She is a volunteer writing mentor in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centers Visible Ink program and is an interventionist in the hospitals research study to evaluate the healing power of writing. Ms. Hannan is a recipient of a 2015 Humanism-in-Medicine award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. She is a member of the New York Writers Workshop and serves on the boards of the Childrens Museum of Manhattan and the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.