Author Archives: first person productions

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About first person productions

My blog "True Stories Well Told" is a place for people who read and write about real life. I’ve been leading life writing groups since 2004. I teach, coach memoir writers 1:1, and help people publish and share their life stories.

Santa Comes Through

By Faith Ellestad The year I was six, my big brother, who was seven, introduced me to the Sears Christmas Catalog, A Complete Guide to Children’s Avarice. He had learned to read using the Sears Catalog, (gen-u-ine sim-u-la-ted lea-ther base-ball … Continue reading

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Hello from Oxford, MS, Classroom edition

I have just returned from the Southern Foodways Alliance grad student conference in Oxford, Mississippi–as nice a little college town as Halifax. My purpose in going was, of course, related to my Big MFA Adventure and my manuscript-in-progress, working title … Continue reading

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Getting Schooled in Africville

In August I went back to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for my second grad school residency. As the weekend between the two weeks of school approached. Joanne, from the next year’s student cohort, confided to me that she worried about being … Continue reading

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Heading East

By Suzy Beal This is the first episode of a memoir that will unfold, one chapter each month, here on True Stories Well Told. Stay tuned for more of the adventure as teenage Suzy’s family moves to Europe, builds a … Continue reading

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Time for some true stories well told by Guest Writers–send me yours!

It’s been “me, me, me” here on True Stories Well Told for the last month or more. It’s time for YOUR true stories, well told! What have you been writing this summer, season, lifetime? Share it with your writing community, … Continue reading

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Hello from Halifax, Classroom Edition

“We’ve got your book” the brochure for the U-King’s MFA program promises, and they mean that literally. Everyone studying here is writing one, everyone teaching here has written one (or more), and all we talk about from morning coffee to … Continue reading

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Hello from Halifax

“True Stories Well Told” is taking a micro-break while I pursue my Big MFA Adventure at University of King’s College, on the Dalhousie Campus in Halifax, NS, CA. The relationship between the two institutions has been described as “uneasy siblings” and … Continue reading

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A Pause for Ice Cream –or- “Midwestern Nice”

By Sarah White I’m preparing to teach “Flash Memoir” in a few weeks. As a result, memories in short flashes have been coming to me recently. Here’s one. Madison, Wisconsin, summer, 1980 or 1981. A storefront scoop shop opened on Williamson … Continue reading

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My Magic Credit Card

By Sarah White I’m teaching “Write Your Way to a Better Relationship with Money” for personal historians right now, an online workshop I developed using the Guided Autobiography method developed by Dr. James Birren. We uncover old bad stories we’ve told ourselves … Continue reading

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Spelunking

By Sarah White The plight of the Thai soccer club trapped in a cave got me thinking about a memory from 1972 or ’73, when I was very nearly trapped in a cave under similar conditions.  I have only limited recall … Continue reading

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