An Online Memoir and Poetry Workshop with Amy Minato

Fall into fall with this series where we release stories that are ready to drift and sink into mulch. In this workshop, we give time, space, and peer support for deepening our understanding of, and perhaps making peace with,  stories of our lives that ache to be told. Amy Minato provides a supportive environment and provocative prompts. You provide the material and courage. All levels welcome.

Workshop One – Fall Color
Brainstorm significant life events and choose the one with the most appeal for story. Note highlights and potential then begin to describe one or two. We will explore the itch of loosening stories that demand release. That bright one hanging on last year’s branch. Tell that one.

Workshop Two – Mulch
Follow one event to its resolution. Note the nuances of the story and ground it in sensory detail. Practice writing methods that help you to elaborate by providing specifics; and create complexity by providing context.

Workshop Three – Leaf Piles
Find connections between stories. How does one inform the other? What is the link? Leap between personal events to establish emotional resonance. Practice writing skills to accentuate the parallels and contradictions.

Workshop Four – Soil
Imagine or note the ripple effects of one memory into your future life. How does this life mulch transform into your current soil or situation? What growth has happened or may happen resulting from this experience? How has it enriched you?

Amy Minato is the author of a memoir Siesta Lane, and three poetry collections: Nest, Hermit Thrush, and The Wider Lens.  Amy has been a recipient of both a Literary Arts Fellowship for her poetry and a Walden Residency for her prose. She teaches writing through Literary Arts, Multnomah Art Center, Fishtrap and at Breitenbush Retreat Center. Amy holds both an MFA in Creative Writing and an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon. She teaches sustainable living education at Portland State University and lives with her husband and two children in Portland, Oregon. In summers they migrate to their old haunts in the Wallowa Mountains of Eastern Oregon to skip rocks on the lake, float innertubes down the creek behind their house and sleep beneath skies crazy with stars.

Is the registration fee an obstacle for you to attend this workshop? Fishtrap offers a limited number of scholarships to help with the cost. Contact Program Director Mike Midlo for more information. mike@fishtrap.org