Memoir Writing Conference

Every successful person knows this secret: You are the story you tell about yourself. The problem for most people, though, is not only where to begin their story, but what to include and what to leave out, and then how to make the story come alive so other people find it exciting.

The Memoir Writing Conference is designed to help you. The conference's 11 presenters are all professional writers and artists who will help you discover the skills necessary to see what's unique and interesting in your story and then help you add the graphic sensory details that are both the art and heart of writing.

People who will benefit from this conference are:

1. Those who want to tell their own story;
2. Those who want to reshape their story in order to change and grow;
3. Those who want to tell the story of someone else, a relative or friend, before that story is lost;
4. Key players in organizations who need to create a compelling narrative about their enterprise.

The conference features a panel of experts-a literary agent, an attorney and a psychologist-who will help you deal with the fall-out of telling your story, which necessarily includes your view of other people. The keynote speaker, noted journalist Bill White, will liven up the day by giving participants a dash of the secret ingredient in all good writing: humor.

After you go home, write and polish your short memoir piece, you can send it to Bathsheba Monk, who will gently edit and assemble it into an eBook that you can share.

Come to learn, come to meet other memoir writers, come to have fun at Memoir Writing Conference 2012.

Friday, April 27

Premium Dinner Event

Tickets: $100

Purchase tickets for the Memoir Conference Dinner.

Kick off the Memoir Writing Conference 2012 with an intimate experience featuring conference presenters Susan Straight and Betsy Lerner. This limited-seating dinner provides participants with an excellent opportunity to hear, meet and ask questions of both a bestselling author (Straight) and a New York literary agent (Lerner). You'll also enjoy dinner in the Fowler Blast Furnace Room, where glass walls offer a stunning view of the former Bethlehem Steel Blast Furnaces, the iconic, eight-story-tall structures from which SteelStacks takes its name.

Betsy Lerner is a literary agent and partner with Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency in New York City. She is author of The Forest for the Tree and Food and Loathing. She received an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University and was the recipient of a Thomas Wolfe Poetry Prize and an Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize, and was one of PEN's Emerging Writers in 1987. She also received the Tony Godwin Publishing Prize for Editors Under 35. Betsy frequently gives talks on every aspect of the publishing process from her perspective as an author, editor and agent.

Susan Straight is the bestselling author of seven novels: Aquaboogie; I Been In Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All The Pots, which was named one of the best novels of 1992 by both USA Today and Publishers Weekly and named a Notable Book by The New York Times; Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights; The Gettin Place; Highwire Moon, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Commonwealth of California Gold Medal for Fiction and was named one of the year's best novels by The San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post; A Million Nightingales, which was a finalist for the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2006 Southern California Booksellers' Award; and her newest novel, published in 2010, Take One Candle Light a Room, which was named a best novel of 2010 by The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Kirkus. Susan received The Lannan Award for Fiction and a Guggenheim for Fiction. She has published essays and articles in The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Harpers, The Believer, The Nation, Reader's Digest, Real Simple, Family Circle, Salon, Oxford American and Ms. Her short fiction has been published in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeney's, Black Clock, TriQuarterly, Story, Ploughshares, The Ontario Review and North American Review and has won an Edgar Award and has been chosen for the O. Henry Prize collection, Best American Short Stories 2003 and a Pushcart Prize in Fiction and received a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories. She was born in Riverside, CA in 1960 and lives there with her three daughters and her nephew. She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside and currently blogs about her native California on KCET.

Dinner Menu

Limited to 25 guests.

6:00-6:45

Chef's Antipasto display. Cash bar available.

6:45

Dinner

Salad
Bouquet of Greens with Braised Hearts of Palm, Celery, Yuzu Vinaigrette
Artisan Rolls and Butter
Wine Service with Dinner (choice of Chardonnay or Merlot)
Dinner Duet
Aromatic Oil Poached Salmon & Sous Vide of Beef
Tri-color Potato Dauphine
Roasted Seasonal Vegetable
Dessert
White Chocolate Crème Brûlée with Tahitian Vanilla Bean Berries
Vegetarian Option
Stuffed Tomato Trilogy with Hummus, White Beans, Black Beans, Carrot Puree and Roasted Seasonal Vegetables

 

Memoir Conference 2012

Saturday, April 28

Tickets: $225

Purchase tickets for the Memoir Conference.

8-9am

Yoga for Creativity
Presented by Cat Cappel

Relax the mind and body and jump start your creativity in this special session with Cat Cappel of West End Yoga of Allentown, PA. Cat has been practicing yoga for more than 35 years. Adding stillness and silence in seated meditation/prayer to her practice has helped to calm, center and focus her on becoming and being her self. Cat enjoys guiding and encouraging her yogis on the path to discovering their true nature, and realizing how truly loving, peaceful and wise they are.

9-9:45am

Continental Breakfast and Introductory Remarks
with Bathsheba Monk

Bathsheba Monk is the author of Now You See It…Stories from Cokesville, PA, which was named one of the best books of 2006 by The Chicago Tribune. Now You See It, as well as her new novel, Nude Walker, were originally published in hardcover by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and are now published in paperback by Picador. Both works of fiction, also available as eBooks, draw heavily on Monk's childhood in Bethlehem, PA and on her subsequent return to the Lehigh Valley.

The organizer of Memoir Writing Conference 2012, Bathsheba will provide tips on getting the most out of the conference, as well as instructions on how to submit small memoir pieces for inclusion in the conference eBook.

10-11am

Session One - Pick One:

Memoir and Food
Presented by Billy Kounoupis

Looking for a great way to start or sharpen your story? Then focus on the food! No matter who you are, you have fond memories of your favorite dish growing up, a special meal you enjoyed during a very important point in your life, or even an aroma that always carries you back to a special place in life. In Memoir and Food, Billy Kounoupis teaches you how to unite the power of food with the power of the pen. Make breakfast, lunch and dinner the conduits for writing or polishing your life story.

Billy Kounoupis, author of Billy Cooks Like a Mother and Not Your Ordinary Cookbook, is an entrepreneur, public speaker, chef and radio host of Diner Talk. He is a frequent guest on television talk and food shows. Son of Greek parents, Pete and Georgia Kounoupis, Billy was born and raised in Easton, PA and graduated from Easton High School. His parents owned a restaurant and night club and were devoted to the culinary arts, and Billy became passionate about following in his father's footsteps. He is also passionate about sharing stories of his culture. Billy is the owner of the wildly successful Billy's Downtown Diner in Bethlehem.

Memoir and Sound
Presented by Scott Sherk

Whether it's a train whistle blowing, the soothing sounds of waves crashing on the beach or your favorite song playing on the radio…uh, make that the MP3 player…there are certain sounds we identify with our entire lives. In this session, join Muhlenberg College art professor Scott Sherk as he talks about the many ways that sound can be the gateway to some of our fondest and most powerful memories.

Scott Sherk is Professor of Art at Muhlenberg College. He has had one-man shows of his sound and sculpture at Kim Foster Gallery and Leslie Cecil Gallery in New York City, Haverford College, Allentown Museum of Art, Frank Martin Gallery in Muhlenberg College, Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Canada and the Morris Arboretum, The Official Arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He has had installations of his work and participated in group shows all around the world. His sound projects include Icelandic Air, The Sound of Ice and Snow, One Minute Vacation, Sonda and Sound Café. He has received numerous awards and grants in support of his unique vision.

11:15-12:15pm

Session Two - Pick One:

Memoir and Fashion
Presented by G. Bruce Boyer

You may not realize it, but every time you put on your favorite dress, suit, shirt or other piece of clothing, it elicits strong and powerful memories and emotions. That green and blue Jerry Garcia tie…not only does it help calm you before an important business meeting, just like the mellow, free-flowing music of the Grateful Dead…it also reminds you of that Dead concert at the Philadelphia Spectrum in fall 1988; you know, the one where you met that beautiful brunette. Where is she now? She's the mother of your two wonderful children and four lovely grandchildren. She's also been the love of your life for more than a quarter century. See how easy this all is?

G. Bruce Boyer is a noted fashion writer and editor. His new book, Gary Cooper, Enduring Style, with an introduction by Ralph Lauren, was published in 2011. He was editor at Town & Country and has written feature articles for Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Horizon, Men's Health, Forbes, Leaders Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Cigar Aficionado, Departures, MR, Four Seasons, Quest, The Rake and L'Uomo Vogue. He is the author of two books on the history and direction of men's fashion: Elegance and Eminently Suitable; and two books on the history of fashion in the cinema: Rebel Style: Cinematic Heroes of the Fifties and Fred Astaire Style. He is a co-author of a three-volume study of American menswear in the 1930s, Apparel Arts, and a contributor and consultant to The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. He is a consultant and commentator on the TV documentary series for American Movie Classics, The Hollywood Fashion Machine, and has produced promotional text material and advertising for Louis Boston, Paul Stuart, Zegna, Brioni, Faconnable, Bill's Khakis, Nordstrom, Loro Piana, Kiton, Borrelli, Robert Tallbot, Edward Green, Nick Hilton, Polo/ Ralph Lauren, Southwick, Bergdorf Goodman, Drake's of London, Vass, Kiton, Gant, Joseph Abboud and Dormeuil.

Memoir and Color and Touch
Presented by Pat Badt

A stunning blue sky, brilliant yellow flowers, a fresh blanket of newly-fallen snow…when it comes to writing, color is an amazingly powerful tool for triggering memories and emotions, and so is touch. Join artist and art professor Pat Badt as she teaches you how to unleash two of the strongest catalysts for inspiring you to tell your story.

Pat Badt is Professor of Art at Cedar Crest College. She received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been the recipient of many awards and prizes including an NEA award for painting. She has exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Europe. Pat's work is about the process of painting—applying paint through the appropriate handwriting, color, texture and scale. Her work is inspired by location, filtered through experience and sensibility. Her studio is in a white barn along the Jordan Creek, surrounded by apple orchards, low mountains and the convergence of two creeks. Recently she returned from an artist residency sponsored by the Bau Institute in Otranto, Italy.

12:30-1:30pm

Lunch, Keynote Speaker - Bill White

Want to energize your writing? Looking to put a special touch on your life story and make it more interesting to readers? Then let the laughter begin. In this session, you'll discover tips and techniques for including humor in your work from award-winning journalist Bill White of The Morning Call. Learn how to set the tone, color characters and liven up your story, all by injecting a little laughter.

Bill White began as a reporter and worked in a variety of editor positions before becoming a full-time columnist and blogger for The Morning Call. His very popular column and blog attest to his interest in people and the everyday world and prove that big thoughts can come out of small details. Bill became interested in memoirs a few years ago when he wrote a piece about a Ukrainian woman who used her dying days to write about her life growing up in the old country, her hardships during World War II, her emigration to the United States and her life here with her husband and children. Bill was struck by how beautifully she told her story, but even more by how much other families, including his own, would appreciate that kind of memoir from our parents and grandparents to share with future generations.

Bill is a graduate of Lehigh University and received a master's degree in journalism at Ohio State University. In addition to his work at The Morning Call, where he has won several statewide awards as a writer and editor, he teaches journalism at Lehigh University. He and his wife Jane, an editor at The Morning Call, have two children, a dog and five cats.
*Box Lunch Included

1:45-2:45pm

Panel Discussion - The Legal, Psychological and Literary Aspects Peculiar to Memoir
Writing

Join our panel of experts as they discuss how to deal with the fallout of writing about a life that includes others besides you. Panelists include New York literary agent Betsy Lerner, attorney Karolyn Vreeland Blume and psychologist Dr. Micah Sadigh

Betsy Lerner is a literary agent and partner with Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency in New York City. She is author of The Forest for the Trees and Food and Loathing. She received an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University and was the recipient of a Thomas Wolfe Poetry Prize and an Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize, and was one of PEN's Emerging Writers in 1987. She also received the Tony Godwin Publishing Prize for Editors Under 35. Betsy frequently gives talks on every aspect of the publishing process from her perspective as an author, editor and agent.

Karolyn Vreeland Blume, attorney-at-law, has practiced law and championed conflict resolution through mediation for more than 30 years. She has owned a private law practice handling corporate, civil, real estate, family law, municipal, employment, probate and estate matters. Karolyn has served as a senior law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and as in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 energy producer and broker. After 25 years of practicing law, she decided there had to be a better way to resolve disputes than the parties beating each other up in and out of the courtroom. Mediation is that better way. Karolyn opened Conflict Resolution Services in 2003 and has been a full-time peacemaker ever since.

Dr. Micah Sadigh is widely published in the academic arena and has lent his expertise to articles in consumer-oriented publications such as The Ladies Home Journal and Fitness. For the last few years, Dr. Sadigh has focused his psychological study on the idea of finding meaning in life and the effect that meaning has on the individual. He says, "A human being is not just a mind, or a body, or feelings. A human being is all of those things put together."

3-4pm

Memoir and Place
Presented by Susan Straight

Every major milestone, achievement and memory in life is associated with a specific place. In this session, bestselling author Susan Straight discusses how you can transform memories of your favorite and even not-so-favorite locations into powerful tools for writing your life story or enhancing your writing.

Susan Straight is the bestselling author of seven novels: Aquaboogie; I Been In Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All The Pots, which was named one of the best novels of 1992 by both USA Today and Publishers Weekly and named a Notable Book by The New York Times; Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights; The Gettin Place; Highwire Moon, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Commonwealth of California Gold Medal for Fiction and was named one of the year's best novels by The San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post; A Million Nightingales, which was a finalist for the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2006 Southern California Booksellers' Award; and her newest novel, published in 2010,Take One Candle Light a Room, which was named a best novel of 2010 by The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Kirkus. Susan received The Lannan Award for Fiction and a Guggenheim for Fiction. She has published essays and articles in The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Harpers, The Believer, The Nation, Reader's Digest, Real Simple, Family Circle, Salon, Oxford American and Ms. Her short fiction has been published in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeney's, Black Clock, TriQuarterly, Story, Ploughshares, The Ontario Review and North American Review and has won an Edgar Award and has been chosen for the O. Henry Prize collection, Best American Short Stories 2003 and a Pushcart Prize in Fiction and received a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories. She was born in Riverside, CA in 1960 and lives there with her three daughters and her nephew. She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside and currently blogs about her native California on KCET.

4:15-5:15pm

Session Three - Pick One:

Constructing Your Memoir in Poetry
Presented by Carolyn Segal

Have a story to tell but don't want to write a book? Join noted poet and professor Carolyn Segal as she discusses this creative alternative to story writing. From alliteration to iambic pentameter, you'll discover different ways for telling your story through the art of the poem.

Carolyn Segal has taught university creative writing classes and conducted poetry workshops for more than 20 years. She writes essays for One for the Table, Amy Ephron's Online Magazine About Food, Politics & Love, as well as for Newsday, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Huffington Post and National Public Radio. Her Chronicle essay "The Dog Ate My Disk" has been reprinted in 30 composition texts, and her poetry has been published in Long Island Quarterly, Visiting Dr. Williams and 2River View.

Constructing Your Memoir in Prose
Presented by Marjorie Maddox and Gary Hafer

Now that you have an idea about what you want to convey in your memoirs, it's time to start writing. In this session, you'll learn how to start your memories; how to flesh out the best details; what to include in the story (and what to leave out); plus helpful ideas on how to create the most compelling story possible.

Director of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Lock Haven University, Marjorie Maddox has published eight collections of poetry and over 350 essays, stories and poems in journals and anthologies. She is the co-editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (PSU Press 2005) and author of two children's books from Boyds Mills Press. Her short story collection, What She Was Saying, was one of three finalists for the Katherine Anne Porter Book Award, and a semifinalist for Leapfrog Press' book competition, Eastern Washington University's Spokane Fiction Book Award and Louisiana University Press' Yellow Shoe Book Award. Most recently, her memoir essay "Going Exactly Where We Want to Go" is included in Fast Break to Line Break: Poetry and the Art of Basketball, edited by Todd Davis (Michigan State University Press, 2012). The recipient of numerous awards, Marjorie lives with her husband and two children in Williamsport, PA.

Gary R. Hafer is the John P. Graham Teaching Professor at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. His short studies on writing instruction have appeared in College English, The Journal of Developmental Education and Computers and Composition. He is currently finishing two manuscripts, "Write from the Beginning: From My Classroom to Yours," a reflection on pedagogy for professors outside the English discipline; and "Giving Service," a memoir about working at a service station during his adolescence. He is also production design editor for Brilliant Corners, a journal of jazz and literature.

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