Writing at the Mark Twain House: Susan Campbell's Non-Fiction Class

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Susan Campbell's Non-Fiction Class

They pledged to continue the conversation online -- that extraordinary collection of writers who met for six sessions in the Mark Twain House & Museum classroom during November and December 2010. Susan Campbell, the feisty Hartford Courant columnist whose memoir of religion and feminism, Dating Jesus, has won praise and prizes, provided wild in-class writing exercises ("Write down what Elizabeth Edwards would be telling John from Heaven"), led far-ranging and passionate discussions. The participants, in turn, wrote heartfelt pieces, ranging from intimate memoirs to biography to strong expository prose. Selections from the works of these students and their teacher (who found the experience profoundly engaging and educating herself) will be appearing on this blog soon. -- Steve Courtney

No comments:

Post a Comment

Write Where Mark Twain Wrote

Early in 2010, The Mark Twain House & Museum, following the lead of a 1955 mission statement calling for a literary center at the museum, launched a series of writing courses and programs called Writing at the Mark Twain House.

Noted authors, teachers and editors Lary Bloom and Suzanne Levine suggested and pioneered the effort, with a community-based course, A Class in Memoir. Over eight weeks, the participants worked, reworked, and honed their stories, sometimes aided and abetted by prominent writer guests.

The writing produced was outstanding, true and vital. A fall class with Susan Campbell followed, and in 2011 Bloom and Levine reprised the memoir class. In the fall Campbell returned -- and fiction was added to the roster with a class taught by novelist Mary-Ann Tirone Smith.

In Spring 2012 the Bloom-Levine memoir class returned -- along with events featuring writers Denis Horgan (Ninety-Eight Point Six) and Susan Schoenberger (A Watershed Year). And the museum held its first-ever Writers' Weekend April 20-21, featuring keynoter Lewis Lapham and playwrights A. R. Gurney, Alfred Uhry and Donald Margulies.

Keep your eye on this blog and the Mark Twain House & Museum website (http://www.marktwainhouse.org/) for announcements and details of Writing at the Mark Twain House's offerings.