The Personal Journal: A Springboard for Memoir with Anna Rumin
- Day: Thursdays
- Dates: January 16 – February 20, 2025
- Time: 9:30am – 11:30am
- Location: Shenkman Arts Centre
- Price: $250+HST
Room and Parking Information will be sent by email 1-2 days prior to the lecture date.
Overview
Hemingway said, “in order to write about life, you must live it”. Whether we call ourselves writers or not, writing gives clarity to our lived experiences. This is a workshop for those who are interested in pausing, looking back and honouring their lives through focused journal writing. While the goal of this writing workshop is to gather memories and stories, participants can expect to learn about writing as a craft and how it is we go from writing for ourselves to writing for others.
There are writers who write for fame. And there are writers who write because we need to make sense of the world we live in; writing is a way to clarify, to interpret, to reinvent. We may want our work to be recognized, but that is not the reason we write. We do not write because we must; we always have a choice. We write because language is the way we keep a hold on life. With words we experience our deepest understandings of what it means to be intimate. We communicate to connect, to know community. Even though writing is a solitary act, when I sit with words that I trust will be read by someone, I know that I can never be truly alone.” Bel hooks
Important information
Shenkman Arts Centre Location and Parking information
About the Lecturer
Dr. Anna Rumin is a native Montrealer whose identity has been shaped by the political landscape of her home province, her Russian roots, a passion for lifelong learning that has been woven both formally in academia and informally through travel, voracious reading and writing, and a love for the stories hidden in our natural world.
Her interest in narrative inquiry stems from her belief that not only do we all have a story to tell but that our stories help us to better understand who we were, who we are and who we are becoming. She has now designed fifteen memoir-based writing workshops that invite participants to think of themselves as the narrators of their lives, as seen and written through a particular lens. Anna is committed to supporting those with whom she works by providing them with opportunities to set and meet their goals. In her spare time, Anna writes short fiction and has been the recipient of numerous awards.