So, You Want to Write a Fictionalized Memoir?
Register for Jeffrey’s Workshop here.
When working out the storyline of a fictionalized memoirs, a writer can take license with details, conform characters to the needs of the story, and even blur the lines between the real and the imagined. But are there practices that help unpack the complexities inherent in weaving actual events in the author’s life with the inventions common to writing fiction? In fact, there are.
Jeffrey Dale Lofton will lead a discussion of the pitfalls and perils of fictionalizing a memoir—where to tread carefully, where to let loose, and how writing fiction from personal experience can add emotional depth to a story.
The workshop will include an exercise crafting descriptions that capture the essence of three characters you are considering for your fictionalized memoir.
Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Roosevelt’s Little White House. He calls the nation’s capital home now and has for over three decades. He is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress where he is surrounded by books and people who love books—in short, paradise. Red Clay Suzie is his first novel, a fictionalized memoir written through his personal lens as an outsider—gay and living with a disability in a conservative family and community in the Deep South. It was longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize and was awarded the Seven Hills Literary Prize for Fiction.
Buy Jeffrey’s book here.
” Red Clay Suzie offers a lesson in what it takes to thrive in a world that’s intent on building fences, and it does so with affection and sweetness.”–Paul Lisicky, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World
“Red Clay Suzie’s Philbet Lawson joins Scout Finch ( To Kill a Mockingbird) and Frankie Addams ( Member of the Wedding) in Southern literature’s pantheon of outsider children. While Philbet finds unlikely allies in his small world, others ridicule his sensitive nature and deformed body. Philbet’s roots are planted in the South’s inhospitable red clay, but he grows up, honest to his true self. Read Red Clay Suzie and cheer on Philbet, a new literary hero.”–Alice Leccese Powers, writer and editor of the bestselling In Mind series
Register for Jeffrey’s Workshop here.
One full scholarship is available. Click here to apply.
If a payment plan would make the workshop more feasible, let us know at scuppernongeditions@gmail.com.
Refund Policy: Full refund, minus 20%, up to 10 days before the first class.
No refunds once classes begin.
