Family Stories: A Workshop in Ancestral Writing

Facing down an awkward conversation over turkey with your long lost cousin? Haunted by the gaps in your grandmother’s stories? Want to write into your family stories, but feel stuck at the foot of your family tree? During this holiday season, we’ll gather to find new ways to tell family stories, fill in the gaps in our ancestral narratives, and play with the voices of those who’ve come before us.

“Beginning from the fragments we do have of ancestral stories, we’ll embark on what it means to bring creative license to these stories and make them cohere,” says instructor Alison Luterman. “In each of our three class sessions, we’ll model our work on a different contemporary writer who writes about his/her ancestry. Participants can focus on genetic or non-genetic ancestors, if they choose, and are welcome to consider their own stories as ancestors of future generations.

This course is appropriate for those with lots of experience in writing and for those with very little experience—the purpose of the course is to make contact with the narratives that give us meaning by telling us who we are and where we come from.”