June Melby

Biography

June Melby is the author of My Family and Other Hazards (Holt, 2014), a memoir about her family’s retro 1950s miniature golf course in Wisconsin. It won the Midwest Connections award as well as being a New York Times Best Seller. A former standup comedian and spoken word artist, she has performed at literary festivals, national poetry slams, and on three European tours. She released three CDs of poetry with her original music accompanied by her band, June Melby and Her Future Enemies. June's work has been heard on Wisconsin Public Radio and seen in Ilanot Review, Muse/A Journal, Forklift Ohio, Fugue, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Versal, Utne Reader, Water~Stone, LA Weekly, and Kaffee.Satz.Lesen v.2, out of Hamburg, Germany.  She received an MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and currently lives in a log cabin in the woods with her husband.

Events

June Melby headshot with big hat

A Cavalcade of Memoir Writing Exercises

When
-
Presenters
Event status
Scheduled
Attendance Required
No
Description
Are you writing a memoir? Need a little extra push down the road? This weekend course will get your motor running, revving, and racing in a cavalcade of memoir exercises! I’ve been writing and teaching memoir for almost twenty years, and I’ve gathered the most inspiring and time-tested prompts for two jam-packed days of creativity. Topics will include: crafting characters from real people, creating scenes that are riveting, developing yourself as a character, and digging deeper to find the emotional core. We’ll explore adding sensory details and setting to elevate your story, and (of course) writing scenes with humor. Some exercises will be short, some will be long. We’ll experiment with a wide range of techniques to tell your story, and ideas on how to enrich it. You will have the opportunity to read aloud some of your new writing with the class. Bring a notebook or laptop—or both! Together, we will write a ton. At the end of the weekend, you will have a lot of new pages to add to your memoir, new pieces to expand upon after class is over, and new insight on how to make your memoir zing. We’ll have an inspiring, sometimes hilarious, butt-kicking weekend together. This course is designed to move you far ahead down your memoir path, whether you are just getting started or well on your way. We will cheer each other on, and leave with full notebooks, full hearts, and a bunch of new writing friends. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts.
June Melby headshot with big hat