Status: Closed

Writing to Remember (Blue)

Writing your own story...

Fall 2023

Monday Morning

Moderators: Henia Lewin, Carol Jolly

Details

PURPOSE:

This seminar is intended to help people write about their life, share their stories with others, and hear others’ stories.

DESCRIPTION:

Whatever we call the form—autobiography, memoir, personal story, family history—writing about one’s life is a powerful human need. Many people want to leave behind some record of their thoughts, adventures, and accomplishments. If it’s a family story, it will have the added value of telling one’s grandchildren about their heritage. Writers are custodians of memory, and too often, memories have a way of dying with their owner. One of the saddest sentences we know is “I wish I had asked my mother about that.” In this seminar you’ll enjoy writing about your life as well as hearing stories of other people’s lives. The atmosphere is relaxed, but the serious efforts of all help to make this a rewarding experience for the whole group.

Space is limited as present participants have priority.

ROLE OF PARTICIPANTS: Each participant is expected to write at home about his or her life, whether through conversations, letters, vignettes, or in full detail. During the semester everyone will be given two opportunities to present by reading aloud his or her prepared text (one shorter, one longer) and to contribute to the discussions that follow.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Henia Lewin taught university courses in Hebrew and Yiddish and received a national Covenant Award as an Outstanding Jewish Educator. She is a Holocaust child-survivor writing her autobiography and has moderated this seminar often.

Carol Jolly has served on FCLIR committees, Council, and as an officer. After sampling some seminars and moderating a few, she took Writing to Remember and has been working for several years on her family history.