Local writers, working in a variety of genres and forms, meet with participants for two, 90-minute sessions during consecutive weeks. Each writer, inspired by a work(s) of art in the Museum’s collection, chooses the theme, format, and form for the workshop; allowing both the writers and participants maximum choice. Participants have an opportunity to also share their writing. Sign up for both sessions with one writer or sample across disciplines.

Theme
Memoir: Getting from mixed feelings to clear thinking

The poet W. H. Auden said, “Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings.” What is clear thinking about mixed feelings? And why do we want it? When we write memoir—the story of our own lives—mixed feelings come to the surface. How do we allow those feelings to emerge? And how do we shape them into art?

Inspiration Images
SBMA’s Carlos Orozco Romero, Mujer y niña (1940), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s He Nupa Wanica / Joseph No Two Horns, Shield (ca. 1885).

Meet your instructor
Nora Gallagher is the author of three memoirs (Knopf) and two novels. Her memoirs are in the tradition of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton: the daily living out of faith and doubt rather than abstract "belief." In her latest memoir, Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic, Nora draws on her experience as a patient, and what she learned about vulnerability and resilience. She is also the author of two novels: Changing Light (Pantheon) and the just completed The Egidio Room.