Skip to content
StoryStudio ChicagoStoryStudio Chicago
          • Writing Classes

            MULTI-WEEK

            • The Play's the Thing: The Basics of Playwriting with Andy Pederson $365.00
            • Writing Your Middle-Grade Novel with Kate Hannigan $365.00
            • Reckoning with Remembrance: On Memoir and Memory with Sheree Greer $365.00
            • Getting Over the Hump with Julia Fine $365.00

            SINGLE SESSION

            • Editor AMA with Anitra Budd $60.00
            • Genre-Bending Fiction with Lara Ehrlich $60.00
            • writing and publishing stories Getting Started and Keeping On: Generative Writing for Where You're At with Kathryn Kruse $60.00
            • Traditional Publishing: An Overview with Anitra Budd $60.00

            ALL CLASSES

            • The Play's the Thing: The Basics of Playwriting with Andy Pederson $365.00
            • PJ Seminar: A Master Class on Slippery Characters with Tania James $65.00
            • Editor AMA with Anitra Budd $60.00
            • PJ Seminar: Master Class on Taking the Ideas in Your Head to the Halls of Publishing with Rakesh Satyal $65.00
          • In-a-Year Programs
            • In-A-Year Student Publications
            • Memoir in a Year
            • Novel in a Year: First Draft with Abby Geni
            • Novel in a Year: Revise and Launch
            • Novel in a Year: YA/Middle Grade with Jame Klise
            • ONLINE: Novel in a Year: First Draft with Michael Zapata
            • Novel in a Year: First Draft with Rebecca Makkai
            • Essay Collection in a Year with Megan Stielstra
            • Novel in a Year: Speculative Fiction
          • about
            • Donate
            • Staff + Board
            • Instructors
            • Get Involved
            • FAQs
            • About Us
            • Contact Us
            • Stories Matter Foundation Against Racism
          • Workshops, Camps, Services
            • StoryStudio’s Writers Room
            • Manuscript Consultations
            • Youth Summer Camps
            • StoryBoard Workshop
          • Festival & Events
            • The Geek-Out Book Club
            • CHIRBy Awards
            • Writers Festival
            • Stories Matter Foundation Masters Award
          • Donate
        Filter
        Home / Classes / Creative Writing / Multi-Week

        What Makes a Memoir Spiritual? with Ellen Blum Barish

        $250.00

        Register Now
        What Makes a Memoir Spiritual? with Ellen Blum Barish
        Instructor: Ellen Blum Barish
        Categories Creative Writing, Memoir, Multi-Week

        Spiritual memoir can be defined as a really big search that has something to teach, redeem, reveal or heal. But it may also touch on something mystical or unknowable.

        CLASS INFO
        DETAILS
        INSTRUCTOR
        QUESTIONS?
        NOTES
        CLASS INFO

        Writing a memoir? Your story may be a journey, a search for meaning or purpose or an exploration of the self in relation to the world. You may already be aware of your theme, but how can you tell if you are writing a spiritual memoir?

        Spiritual memoir can be defined as a really big search that has something to teach, redeem, reveal or heal. But it may also touch on something mystical or unknowable. In this four-week workshop, we will read and discuss essays and sections of memoirs that magnify the spiritual with literary craft. Each week will offer writing prompts and feedback for short works-in-progress highlighting language along with spiritual themes.

        This four-week online course will rely on sections of memoirs and essays as texts to help us dig into elements that make a personal narrative spiritual.  What separates these from personal, confessional, coming-of-age or quest memoirs? Our discussions will touch on faith and doubt and a variety of religions but our conversations will be secular. We’ll discuss writings that may include Pico Iyer, Brenda Miller, Brian Doyle, Anne Lamott, Dani Shapiro, Scott Russell Sanders, St. Augustine and Billy Collins. Each week will focus on four writing elements – storyline, structure, voice and theme, as well as a spiritual one. Writing prompts will be offered for those looking for subject matter. We will make time to provide feedback for short works already in progress. 

        Week One: The Moment (Storyline)

        What’s the moment, or series of moments, that is/are memoir-worthy? How do we identify  the starting place, or spark, of a lengthier piece of personal narrative? We’ll start with what we believe makes it spiritual and then ask this question again at the end of the four weeks.

        Week Two: Memoir, Essay, Letters, Rant, Poetry, Song (Structure)

        We’ll look at sections of differing forms of personal narratives with spiritual themes to see how form impacts message. How does Chris Thile’s expressions of doubt through music and Billy Collins through poetry compare with the confessions of St. Augustine and the winding essays of Brian Doyle?

        Week Three: Contemplation and Interiors  (Voice)

        What makes Anne Lamott’s spiritual voice different from Pico Iyer’s? How do these compare with Scott Russell Sanders or Brenda Miller? We’ll compare and contrast different writer’s “brands” of internal reflection and thought through their unique voices.

        Week Four: Healing & Redemption (Theme)

        What do we now believe makes a piece of writing spiritual?  We’ll pull together our readings and discussion and find definitions for ourselves. This final week will also be used for feedback about short works generated during the workshop.

        DETAILS
        Start Date

        February 2

        Day(s) of the Week

        Tuesday

        Class Times

        6:30pm – 9:00pm

        Number of Sessions

        4

        Location

        Zoom (online)

        Price

        $250

        INSTRUCTOR

        Ellen Blum Barish

        Ellen Blum Barish is author of the essay collectionViews from the Home Office Window and the forthcoming memoir, Seven Springs (Shanti Arts, 2021). Her essay "Tandem Thoughts" is anthologized in Chicago Storytellers: From Stage to Page (Chicago Story Press) for release in late 2020. Her essays have been published in Brevity’s Blog, Full Grown People, Literary Mama, Tablet and The Chicago Tribune. She teaches writing at Northwestern University where she earned a master’s in journalism and coaches writers privately. For more about Ellen, go to ellenblumbarish.com.

        QUESTIONS?

          NOTES

          related classes

          Related Classes

          Creative Writing

          PJ Seminar: Master Class on Metaphor in Horror Writing with Emil Ferris

          $65.00

          Creative Writing

          PJ Seminar: A Master Class on Building the Imaginary from the Real with Héctor Tobar

          $65.00

          Creative Writing

          Getting Over the Hump with Julia Fine

          $365.00

          Creative Writing

          Writing Sex with Sarah Terez Rosenblum

          $60.00
          FOLLOW US

          Classes

          fiction Nonfiction online

          Communities

          donate teach Contact

          Useful links

          foundation gift cards Refunds

          newsletter Sign up

           

          SIGN UP HERE
          Legal Privacy Policy Cookies Misc

          © 2021 SkywayCreative.net for StoryStudio Chicago

          • Writing Classes
            • Fiction
            • Non-Fiction
            • All Classes
            • Online Classes
          • In-a-Year Programs
            • In-A-Year Student Publications
            • Memoir in a Year
            • Novel in a Year: First Draft with Abby Geni
            • Novel in a Year: Revise and Launch
            • Novel in a Year: YA/Middle Grade with Jame Klise
            • ONLINE: Novel in a Year: First Draft with Michael Zapata
            • Novel in a Year: First Draft with Rebecca Makkai
            • Essay Collection in a Year with Megan Stielstra
            • Novel in a Year: Speculative Fiction
          • about
            • Donate
            • Staff + Board
            • Instructors
            • Get Involved
            • FAQs
            • About Us
            • Contact Us
            • Stories Matter Foundation Against Racism
          • Workshops, Camps, Services
            • StoryStudio’s Writers Room
            • Manuscript Consultations
            • Youth Summer Camps
            • StoryBoard Workshop
          • Festival & Events
            • The Geek-Out Book Club
            • CHIRBy Awards
            • Writers Festival
            • Stories Matter Foundation Masters Award
          • Donate

          Login

          Lost your password?