A Poetry and Memoir Workshop

The Joyful Partnership of Poetry & Memoir is a self-paced course designed by author Megan Willome, to inspire your memoir writing and help you find the best form—poetry or prose—for any given story your heart needs to tell (and the world needs to hear).

The course is offered in 3 separate four-week parts, which you can purchase one by one. Or you can buy the whole workshop at once at a discount. (We think you’ll love the whole workshop. It builds on itself over time.)

The Partnership

If you’ve ever tried to write your life story as memoir, you may have run into barriers. How do you write the painful moments? How do you handle the sensitivities of other people? How do you wrestle your own unreliable memory?

One answer to all these questions is to find a side door to your story, a way to “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”—with poetry.

Poetry and memoir make great partners. Maybe the place where your story gets stuck needs to be rendered as a poem instead. Or maybe memoir is the right vehicle, but the path is best navigated with the narrow focus poetry provides.

Poetry and memoir both tell stories, but in different ways. One isn’t better than the other. I own a pickup truck and a hatchback, and both are useful in the right time and place. Move my child into an apartment? Truck. Two-day drive to Colorado? Hatchback. This workshop will give you a chance to write your story using more than one type of transportation.

—Megan Willome

How It Works

For Part I of The Joyful Partnership of Poetry & Memoir, you’ll receive four inbox deliveries, spaced one week apart from each other. So, the course will take you a minimum of four weeks. If you want to take your time and go even more slowly, that’s fine, too. We would recommend taking no longer than two months, to keep up your momentum. You might also find it helpful to take the workshop with a friend. When you are ready, you can sign up for Parts II and then III, and the schedules will be similar.

What You’ll Need

Before you begin Part I, please obtain the following:

✨ A journal large enough to put cut-outs into

✨ The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems, by Megan Willome (digital copy FREE with course)

✨ Thomas and Beulah, poems by Rita Dove (please buy or borrow)
 

Self-Paced Part 1: From Milestones to Flowering—$25

Week 1 • Milestones & Event Memories
Week 2 • Finding Your Color
Week 3 • Keeping a Song in Your Heart
Week 4 • Flowering in a Notebook

Each week includes:

• An opening reflection to inspire you
• A beautiful photograph to awaken your senses
• Reading activities with The Joy of Poetry and Thomas and Beulah
• Writing activities based on your milestones, memories, and the course books
• The final week also includes an invitation from Megan, to send her your work for feedback

Self-Paced Part II: From Hinges to Heart—$25

Prerequisite: Part I

Week 1 • Save a Hinge
Week 2 • Save Your Eggshells
Week 3 • Save Yourself—Dust
Week 4 • Save the Day With Heart

Each week includes:

• An opening reflection to inspire you
• A beautiful photograph to awaken your senses
• Reading activities with The Joy of Poetry and Thomas and Beulah
• Writing activities based on your milestones, memories, and the course books
• The final week also includes an invitation from Megan, to send her your work for feedback

Self-Paced Part III: From Fire to Friendship—$25

Prerequisite: Parts I & II

Week 1 • Make a Recovery
Week 2 • Make a Solace
Week 3 • Make a Landing
Week 4 • Make Joy

Each week includes:

• An opening reflection to inspire you
• A beautiful photograph to awaken your senses
• Reading activities with The Joy of Poetry and Thomas and Beulah
• Writing activities based on your milestones, memories, and the course books
• The final week also includes an invitation from Megan, to send her your work for feedback

Sometimes We Publish Your “Try”

While we leave it to participants to engage with each other in the community room, we do read many of the entries, as a way to quietly share in the joy of your tries. Every so once in a while, we even publish one (with your permission)! Like this, from participant Laura Lynn Brown in the 30 Days to Richer Writing workshop:

Pandemic Journal: An Entry on Pencil Balancing

You Can Get Feedback From Megan

At the end of each part, Megan will invite you to send her one piece of poetry or prose you completed during your self-paced workshop (no longer than 800 words), which she will give you feedback on.

Buy Now: Part I, II or III

BUY NOW: PART I, II or III • $25 — INBOX DELIVERY, SELF-PACED

OR

Buy Now: The Whole Workshop at a Discount

BUY NOW: THE WHOLE WORKSHOP • $70.00 — INBOX DELIVERY, SELF-PACED