Workshops & Consulting
Writing Workshop
Autobiography for poets, fiction & non-fiction writers.
Practical instruction in the techniques of autobiography for both
experienced and beginning writers.
"And now, writing my own memoirs, I know God is in the truth. Only
by studying actual events and questioning your own motives will the
complex inner truths ever emerge from the darkness."
--Mary Karr, The
Liars' Club, a memoir.
Topics covered include:
- Use of dialogue & natural story telling voice
- Using audio/visual elements for interviews
- Methods of organizing
- Hook, Lead, Grabber - getting the reader's attention
- Exploring the darker side
- Telling secrets - how far can you go?
- Incorporating photos, maps and other documents
- Outlets for publication
Points for discussion:
1. "If one is to try to record one's life truthfully, one must aim at
getting into the record of it something of the disorderly
discontinuity which makes it so absurd, unpredictable, bearable."
--
Leonard Woolf, The Journey Not the Arrival Matters.
2. "The real story of a life is the story of its humiliations."
--
George Orwell.
What to bring:
Writing Materials. Six or more family photos. Notes, diaries,
journals, works in progress. If you wish, please include cover note
specifying what sort of feedback would be most helpful to you. 4 to 5
pages may be submitted in advance of the workshop.
Fee: $95 - Reserve your place now.
Please make checks payable to:
Robert Sward
P.O. Box 7062
Santa Cruz, CA 95061-7062
Continental breakfast and refreshments provided. Please
bring "brown bag" lunch, notebook & pen for in-class exercises.
Limited to 12 participants.
Please arrive 9 AM, Sat. for coffee / tea & socializing. Workshop
begins promptly at 9:30.
For questions about this or future workshops: 831.426.5247 or e-mail to robert@robertsward.com.
Robert is the author of 25 books, including Heavenly Sex; Four
Incarnations; The Collected Poems; & Contemp. Authors Autobiog.
Series, Volume 206. Winner of a Guggenheim fellowship, a Villa
Montalvo Literary Arts Award, selected by Lucille Clifton, he has
taught at Cornell University, the Iowa Writers' Workshop and UC
Santa Cruz. A "bridge person" between academic periodicals and
literary eZines, he has served since 1994 as contributing editor to
the Blue Moon Review and other online publications.
Photo by Bill Roberts
On Robert Sward's workshops:
Robert Sward has helped launch many a poet into the larger literary world.
[He] is a generous and conscientious mentor. His critiques, given both individually and in workshops, are gentle yet honest, always sensitive to the language and music of poetry, always sensitive to the poet's own voice.
Robert's Getting Into Print workshop, for
example, provided valuable insights and practical advice about navigating
the complex world of publishing.
A hallmark of all of Robert's workshops is his extensive preparation, which
includes an enormous amount of research, a thick hand-out, and often audios
and/or videos.
- Oakland poet Rose Black, author of Clearing
With 40 years experience teaching at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Cornell University and UCSC, I have had the privilege of working with the following:
James Tate, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Bill Roberts, who, as a reporter for San Jose Mercury
News, shared a
Pulitzer Prize with other journalists from that paper.
Jon Anderson, a student at the University of Iowa, who has won numerous awards for his books of poetry.
Michael Dennis Browne, author of “Wife of Winter,”
and past director of the
Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota.
Poet and fiction writer Joseph Bruchac editor of the Greenfield
Review
and runs the Greenfield Press.
Michael Culross is the author of several poetry books
including “The
Lost Heroes.”
Alan Soldofsky has published several books of poetry
and runs the
Distinguished Author Series at San Jose State. U of Iowa.
Steve Ashley, founder of Divorced Fathers Network and author of
"Fathers Are Forever: A Co-Parenting Guide for the 21st Century."
Marvin Hiemstra, Performance Poet and editor of Bay Area Poets Review.
Feedback from writers:
"If you have an opportunity to take a writing workshop with
Robert Sward, don't think about it, just do it. However far along you
are as a writer, he will help you improve. And he will definitely not harm
you, as some so-called writing workshop leaders are known to do. An accomplished
and widely published poet, novelist and journalist, Sward knows how to leave
his own ego outside the workshop room. He approaches a writer's work strictly
from the position of what is good about it and how that can be improved
upon. He creates an atmosphere of positive feedback that infects workshop
participants. I have taken several writing workshops with him and the experience
is always supportive but useful."
--Bill Roberts Full-time freelance writer, poet, fiction
writer
"Editorial comments helpful and inspirational... sharpened my writing
skills."
"Supportive, creative, encouraging..."
"Critique provided motivation... accomplished an incredible amount in a couple hours."
"Helped me organize our family history, records and photos for autobiography."
"Provided advice on structure and technique -- solid, practical guidance for fiction and poetry."
Editorial Consulting
On individual basis, $50/hr.For more information, please contact Robert