Weaving memoir with Kris Kneen: Writing and structuring personal stories

Kris Kneen is the award-winning author of memoir—Affection and The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen—and fiction: An Uncertain Grace, Steeplechase, Triptych, The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine, Wintering, as well as the Thomas Shapcott Award-winning poetry collection Eating My Grandmother. They have written and directed broadcast documentaries for SBS and ABC Television. Their latest memoir is Fat Girl Dancing.

Presented as part of The Writer’s Process writers’ development program

People often think a memoir must go from A to B in a timeline that marches with a calendar. In this innovative memoir workshop Kris Kneen will take you through a different process of structuring your memoir. The work will be a weaving of several different stories across different timelines that are organised by a unifying theme. This method is more like making a basket than building a wall and allows the author to highlight connections and repetitions that would be lost using any other method.

This is a method that Kris has used successfully in their three memoirs, Affection, The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen and Fat Girl Dancing.  It is a method that frees the author from the straightjacket of linear time and allows you to chase a theme through different parts of a life.

This ten-part masterclass will generate everything you need to create a short personal essay or a part of a book-length memoir.

This course will feature two Q&A sessions with award-winning writers Kristina Olsson and Anthony Mullins.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Structured Weaving – a look at examples of memoir and fiction using a weaving method.

Kristina Olsson is a journalist, teacher, and the award-winning author of the novels Shell, In One Skin, and The China Garden, and two works of nonfiction, Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir and Kilroy was Here.

Week 2: Working with Themes – we will discuss linking themes for each person’s memoir and experiment with themes that might intersect with the life of the author.

Week 3: Writing from the body – In this session we will look at craft, writing from the body, using our senses to enrich the work. We will explore and experiment with sensual writing around the chosen themes.

Week 4: Writing the first thread – in this session we will generate work that will be the first thread in our woven memoir.

Week 5: Writing the second thread – in this session we will generate work that will be the second thread in our woven memoir.

Week 6: Guest speaker Anthony Mullins talking structure; Writing the third thread – in this session we will generate work that will be the third thread in our woven memoir.

Week 7: Guest speaker Kristina Olsson talking memoir; Plaiting – In this session we will cut up out threads and restructure our memoir finding themes and connections and highlighting them as we weave.

Anthony Mullins is a BAFTA and AWGIE award-winning screenwriter, director and script producer. One of Anthony’s first short films (STOP, 2000) was nominated for the Palmes d’Or for short films at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. One of Anthony’s first TV assignments was writing and directing two spin-off web series for the hit US television series LOST, one of which won a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Interactive Television (Dharma Wants You, 2009). His award-winning book Beyond the Hero’s Journey was released by New South Publishing (UNSW) in 2021. It has so far been released in Australia, the UK, the United States and will be released in China in 2023. 

Week 8: Presenting  our pieces – in this session half the group will present their work and receive feedback

Week 9: Presenting our pieces – in this session the second half of the group will present and receive feedback.

 Week 10: Other threads – Looking at larger projects we will find visual ways to map the larger sections in a larger memoir project. How can our short personal essay be expanded or are there different / more appropriate organising themes and principles for a larger work.

HOW TO APPLY

Entry to this course is by application. Writers will be selected based on the creative potential of their work, commitment to craft, openness to collaborating with your peers, and the balance in the group.

Course fees are $1495 or $1345 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront.

Feel free to call 02 4782 5674 or email amy@varuna.com.au to discuss your application.

IMPORTANT DATES

This program will start on Wednesday 14 June, and lessons will be in two-hour blocks once a week, via Zoom. The Zoom sessions will take place on Wednesdays from 5 pm to 7 pm (AEST). The writing platform WetInk will be used for sharing work and extended discussion.

*Please let us know if you’re interested in this program but the time of the sessions doesn’t work for you. It may be possible to offer a similar program in the future.

Applications close at 5pm on 27 April, 2023.