Instructor: Melissa Fraterrigo
Date: Friday, October 3
Time: 10-12:30 p.m.
Location: IWC
Cost: $48 Nonmembers, $33 members, $28 student members/teacher members/senior members/military members

Memory has been called the ultimate “myth-maker,” continually seeking meaning in the scattered and unfathomable events in our lives. By paying attention to the particulars of the stories we tell, we can discover new material and precise images that can inform and renew our understanding of our work. Whether you write fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, this class will help you learn to use your memories to add emotion and sensory detail to your writing. We will discuss current theories regarding memory and creativity, but the bulk of our time will be spent working on exercises that will provide access to the unconscious mind and then render those images in writing. Please bring with you five photographs you are interested in examining.

Melissa Fraterrigo’s short story collection, “The Longest Pregnancy,” was published by Livingston Press (2006) and awarded the Tartt First Fiction Award. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies including the Massachusetts Review, Arts &Letters, Puerto del Sol, storySouth, and Northwest Review, among others. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Carolina Quarterly awarded Fraterrigo the Charles B. Wood Award for Distinguished Writing. She earned her MFA at Bowling Green State University and currently lives in West Lafayette, Indiana, with her husband and two daughters.