Family of Strangers: A Confluence of Life Stories

When we think of a memoir, we imagine a hefty book-length garland of personal stories and the reflections of the author. But even the heftiest memoir is made up of vignettes, short episodes; you could call them tiny essays, in which the narrator focuses on a single event from their lives. In this workshop you are invited to do the same: look closely at an event from your life, spend time on sharp, specific details, and explore the significance of that event by writing about it. Once you discover more and more about your experience, you will explore which details will help you in your discovery and which ones you can save for another project. We will employ writing techniques like generating ideas, freewriting, reading and discussing samples, drafting, polishing, and sharing with each other.

When she was born in a town called Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary, Susan Pesti-Strobel knew immediately that her life would be intertwined with words, language in general, and languages. Later, after becoming an English major by accident, she also realized that her life was to take on a Jack Londonesque hue: always in a westerly direction, she moved to and lived in several countries and states. She taught Hungarian to Germans, English to spouses of NATO personnel from all over Europe, after-school art to DOD school students, college writing to students in four states, some Shakespeare, and some Gothic literature, also in college. In between she popped popcorn at a movie theater, managed an arts and crafts center, worked as a kindergarten aid, and volunteered in several thrift stores. She is sure she did a lot more. Throughout, she kept playing with words for fun and for sanity. In 2003 she joined a poetry group at Utah State University and launched a career as a promising young poet in her fifties.