2 Sessions: Saturdays, February 21 + 28
11:00-1:00pm ET
David McLoghlin

David McLoghlin is a prize-winning poet, and a writer of memoir and personal essay. His third book, Crash Centre (2024) was recently shortlisted for The Pigott Prize, the Waterford Poetry Prize, and was awarded Literature Bursary (grant) for memoir by Ireland’s Arts Council for an immersive nonfiction project where he will play the courses of his grandfather, Eddie Hackett, the “father of Irish golf design,” as a complete novice. An essay from this book is forthcoming in Golfer’s Journal. A personal essay has recently been published on Poetry Foundation’s website. His poems have been broadcast on WNYC’s Radioloab and anthologized on both sides of the Atlantic, most notably in Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment and Healing (Beacon Press, 2020).

In her seminal book, The Situation and the Story, Vivian Gornick makes a surprising assertion, that writing memoirs and personal essays requires us to construct a narrator to tell our story. That narrator is “composed” by selecting and weaving the raw material of our lives into a clear throughline. Whether detached, wise, wry, or humorous as they reflect on the past, done well, this narrator wins the reader’s trust by stitching moments together and presenting them as examples of insight and understanding into a particular life with universal application.

The most practical way of finding this narrator is via exposition (also known as reflection, “glide,” or “summary”). These thoughtful passages come between or woven within more immersive, scene-like moments, and it is here that the writer provides essential information that moves the story forward, often across time, tells the reader what to think, and what the story means and is really about. Learning what your story means for you will, in turn, will help you to develop and improve your narrative voice, via well-employed exposition. Memoir is often comprised of two main elements: scenes that tell the core story of the past—the younger you—and exposition in the voice of the adult narrator, the wiser “you,” located in the “narrative present” of the book, reflecting on the past from a position of understanding. It is these moments of reflection that weave the story together, conveying the sense of “I didn’t know at the time but,” typically in the voice of hard-won insight.

Workshop Highlights:

• In this master class you will gain greater clarity around differentiating scenes from exposition (showing from telling).

• This will help you to learn the difference between telling the story of what happened and commenting on what it means.

• Clarifying these aspects will assist you in bringing forth a narrative voice capable of knitting the various elements of your book together.

There are 1 full and 2 partial scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, February 13.