Your Life as Story | Holy Cross Monastery | West Park, New York

Beverly Donofrio has published three memoirs. Her first, The New York Times bestseller, Riding in Cars with Boys, was made into a popular movie; her second, Looking for Mary, was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Discover Book; and her latest, Astonished, has been called astonishing. Her personal essays have appeared in many anthologies and periodicals, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Spirituality and Health, Oprah Magazine, Huffington Post, Slate, LongReads, Hippocampus, and Brevity. Her NPR documentaries can be heard through Sound Portraits. She has taught creative nonfiction workshops internationally and across the United States and is currently on the faculty of the low-residency MFA program at Wilkes University. Ms. Donofrio lives in Woodstock, NY. Visit beverlydonofrio.com to read some of her essays.

Are you stuck, looking for a way in, unable to figure out how to proceed, wondering how to make a compelling read from the raw material that is your life? To master memoirist Beverly Donofrio writing is about diving deep to find your truth, and then shaping your experiences into a story that others will not want to put down: because your truth, pain, shame, and obsessions help them face their own. And because telling your story not only has the potential to heal the teller but the reader too.

Beverly will offer in-class exercises designed to unearth memory and approach your material in a safe, fun, and original way. She will instruct you in the craft of plot, setting, scene-writing, and reflection; she will also teach you to move back and forth in time seamlessly and to write detailed, visually descriptive language.