Whether we’re writing memoir or personal essay, we strive to make something beautiful from our experiences. In telling our stories we reach for those instances when the spark leaps from personal to universal and the reader says, “Yes! It’s the same for me.” Those are the moments when the reader feels connected to the writer, she feels known. How can we make this swift leap happen more in our creative nonfiction? In this talk, we’ll look at the duality of the first person pronoun, the primary “I” who tells the story of remembered events, and the secondary “I” who tells the story of the writer’s thinking. Exploring the point of view of the secondary “I,” the narrator who speaks from the present, reflecting and seeking, trying to make sense of the past, forms a bridge with our readers.
Natalie Serber is the author of a memoir, Community Chest, and the story collection, Shout Her Lovely Name, a New York Times Notable Book of 2012, a summer reading selection from O, the Oprah Magazine, and an Oregonian Top 10 Book of the Pacific Northwest. Her fiction has appeared... Read More →
Saturday May 6, 2017 3:45pm - 5:00pm EDT
Franklin Room