Category Archives: Sarah’s memoir

True stories from my life.

What is Guided Autobiography? How do I teach it?

Posted on March 20, 2019 by

“Guided Autobiography” is where it all began for me–one book that got me started on leading reminiscence writing workshops. The year was 2004. I’d just heard about Guided Autobiography from the first personal historian I met–shout-out to Anita Hecht–who recommended … Continue reading →

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Soul Searching at the Thessalonia Baptist Church

Posted on January 30, 2019 by

“America has always had a problem with racism,” said the guide for the benefit of the foreign tourists, which was everybody on the bus but me that January Sunday morning as we left Times Square on the Harlem Gospel Spirituality … Continue reading →

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The End

Posted on October 25, 2018 by

This short essay is an experiment in “The Rolling Now,” a structural technique I’m learning to use, taught by my mentor Ken McGoogan at the U-Kings MFA residency in August 2018. We were asked to shape an in-class free-write with … Continue reading →

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Hello from Oxford, MS, Classroom edition

Posted on September 13, 2018 by

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

Posted on September 5, 2018 by

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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Hello from Halifax, Classroom Edition

Posted on August 16, 2018 by

“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

Posted on August 9, 2018 by

“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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