by Writing Workshops Staff
A month ago
Ever feel like your life has chapters waiting to be written? Enter Annmarie Kelly, a writer who has transformed her own journey into a moving, often hilarious memoir, Here Be Dragons, and now she’s ready to help you do the same.
Annmarie, whose work has been featured on NPR, Today Parenting, and the New York Observer, brings her wealth of storytelling expertise to WritingWorkshops.com with her upcoming course, So You Want to Write a Memoir?. Whether you're starting from scratch or have already drafted a few pages, this workshop is your gateway to turning life experiences into compelling narrative.
Annmarie’s course promises more than just writing techniques; it’s about discovering the deeper emotional truths behind your story. Over four weeks, participants will dive into their most pivotal memories, transform pain into art, and even learn how to navigate the delicate ethics of writing real-life stories. By the end of the class, you’ll walk away with key scenes for your memoir, an outline of your life’s defining moments, and a book proposal ready to be pitched. Plus, you’ll gain invaluable connections with fellow writers who are also on their memoir journey.
With support from Annmarie, whose teaching spans from literary podcasts to college classrooms and even incarcerated students, you’ll find both the inspiration and the structure needed to write the story only you can tell. Ready to unlock your memoir?
Please introduce yourself to our audience.
I’m jazzed to be an instructor here at Writing Workshops. I'm both a dancing queen and a brick house, and I believe in the transformative power of a sentence to both make and save a life.
What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice? Have you noticed a need to focus on this element of craft?
There’s this critique folks like to lob about that “everybody thinks they have a story to tell.” As though only some people have what it takes to be writers. I’ve never understood that. EVERYONE has a story to tell. In fact, we don’t just have one, we have dozens, hundreds even. The time I hid the bowl of Brussels sprouts in my neighbor’s bathroom. The time you left third-period Geometry and walked to the sketchy mart with your not-quite boyfriend. That time we held a parent’s hand as they died. As the late Rachel Held Evans wrote, all of us live inside an unfinished story. What’s more beautiful than helping someone write their truth?
Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part about this class you've dreamed up?
Writing a book can seem so lonely and daunting. It’s you, your computer, some lukewarm coffee, and the ineffable shards of your life. Now what? My favorite part of this class is the roadmap. We’ll brainstorm and wander into scenes and identify key moments that will serve as the beginning, middle, and end of our memoir manuscripts. We’ll get everyone up and on their way–like a big push from a grownup when you’re a kid on a swing. Folks should leave this class ready to fly.
What was your first literary crush?
I love this question. The writer in me wants to talk about authors whose words have dripped from my tongue with delight. But long before I fell in love with Leslie Jamison, Saeed Jones, or Uzma Jalaluddin, I fell for characters in kids’ books late at night. I must’ve read Chapter 35 of LITTLE WOMEN two-dozen times thinking that, maybe this time, Jo would accept Laurie’s proposal. I remember longing for a boy to look at me the way Teddy Lawrence looked at Jo.
What are you currently reading?
Because I read so much for the show I host, I’m one of those people who always has at least four books going. On the library app on my phone, I’m currently reading BRIEFLY, PERFECTLY HUMAN, by Alua Arthur, which is an astonishing beautiful account of how we care for folks at the end of our days. I have a copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s DEMON COPPERHEAD beside my bedside table. Oliver Radclyffe’s new memoir FRIGHTEN THE HORSES is lighting up my Kindle. And I’m listening to Elif Shafak’s THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES in my car. My days are a swirl of stories.
How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
Ha. Does anyone know the answer to this question? I’m not sure I choose the stories. They find me, nag me even, while I’m trying to make dinner or read student work. And when I can’t shake it, when I’ve started daydreaming about that irritating notion or looking at how the light hits its spindled wings, I know I’m gonna have to write it or it’ll never leave me alone.
Where do you find inspiration?
The poet, Maggie Smith, wrote a Substack post not long ago about how she always brings something to read when she sits down to write. And I remember thinking, “Is it in case she gets bored or needs a break?” But I’ve come to understand this. It’s not unusual for me to open a book and read a few pages until I get that tingle, that writers’ itch. That’s my starting point. Just today, the Joy Sullivan poem entitled “Long Division” launched me into a story about leading seances during 5th grade recess. I can find inspiration anywhere.
What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Since I host Wild Precious Life, an author podcast, I’m fortunate to be on the receiving end of writing wisdom all the time. And Alex Marzano-Lesnevich said something in a talk once that’s really stayed with me: “Befriend the way you work.” At any given moment, my desk is littered with a rainbow of notebooks, a glut of pens, and over a dozen books I’ve pulled for reference. I wasted years believing there was something wrong with the way my writing mind worked: how I couldn’t outline, but rather tossed ideas at the page like wet spaghetti noodles on a fridge. I can’t write the way anybody else does. And nobody else can write me. I’m the only one who can tell my stories. And you’re the only one who can tell yours.
What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
The recommendation depends on the diagnosis. Are you struggling with beats or scene structure? Lisa Cron’s STORY GENIUS or Jessica Brody’s SAVE THE CAT! would be good tools. Trying to run your own workshop? CRAFT IN THE REAL WORLD by Matthew Salesses will challenge and reinvent everything you thought you knew. Or if you are just looking for kinship and a laugh, grab Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD, which is still prescient 30 years after its original pub date. And I’ll toss Stephen King’s ON WRITING in there, too. It’s such a slim book, but it was one of my first glimpses into what a day in the life of a writer could look like–just get those pages down.
Bonus question: What’s your teaching vibe?
Vulnerability and inclusion. I don’t believe that everyone has one story to tell; we have hundreds. I’m here in class to help bring those stories into the light.
Annmarie Kelly is the author of Here Be Dragons, a memoir about the wonderful misery of raising children with someone you love. She also hosts Wild Precious Life, a literary podcast about making the most of the time we have. Annmarie teaches writing at Cuyahoga Community College and Ashland University where she also works with incarcerated students trying to obtain their degrees. Her essays have appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, in Today Parenting, Black Fork, Gordon Square Review, Anodyne, New York Observer, and her work has been staged with the Cleveland Humanities Festival and Listen to Your Mother Pittsburgh. She’s received support from the Ohio Arts Council, Martha’s Vineyard Institute, Tin House, and Il Monasterino della Conoscenza, and was recently named both the 2024 Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum Writer-in-Residence and the 2024 Erma Bombeck and Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence. In her non-writing moments, Annmarie loves kickboxing, karaoke, dogs, ping-pong, books that make her laugh, movies that make her cry, and salads other people make her eat. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where she is currently querying a novel about all the truth in the lies we tell.
