CRAFT TALKS Events | Dark Truths: Five Tools for Crafting Compelling Mental Health Narratives

05/15/2024 - 2:00pm to 3:15pm EDT
Creative Nonfiction
Talk

   $15.00 (early bird)

Mental health stories speak to our darkest truths and teach us what it means to be human. Learn five craft tools for telling your own.

Mental health is often branded “taboo” and, for writers of memoir and personal essay, these stories can be our most vulnerable and challenging material. But there’s a reason these types of narratives are so sought after. At their best, they speak to our darkest truths and teach us what it means to be human.

In this webinar, we’ll dive headfirst into these treacherous waters and discuss strategies for crafting compelling, emotionally resonant personal narratives about mental health. We’ll study works by Roxane Gay, Esmé Weijun Wang, and others to uncover ways to write beautifully crafted, “un-put-down-able” memoirs and essays centering on mental health. We’ll also discuss strategies for self-care and “productive procrastination” so you can stay well during the writing process. You’ll leave with take-home writing

In this webinar, you will:

  • LEARN five craft tools for telling compelling personal narratives about mental health
  • EXPLORE techniques from published memoirs and personal essays to improve your own work
  • BUILD a toolbox of self-care strategies for writing about mental health, so you can stay well and grounded when approaching difficult material

This webinar is for…

  • Beginning writers who have mental health stories to share, but don’t know where to start
  • Experienced writers starting and/or revising a memoir or personal essay about mental health
  • Writers who need self-care strategies to help them dive into difficult, emotional content

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

KATIE BANNON is a writer, editor, and educator whose work has appeared in The Rumpus, ELLE Magazine, Narratively, and more. Her memoir manuscript, which charts her journey as a compulsive hair puller, was a finalist for the Permafrost Nonfiction Book Prize. A graduate of GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator, she holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Emerson College. She is a developmental editor who loves working with memoirists and essayists on how to write and revise their most vulnerable, taboo stories. She teaches at GrubStreet and lives in Central Massachusetts with her partner and two cats.

 

Questions? Please email info@craft-talks.com

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