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Fran Dorf, MA, MSW, is psychotherapist and lifelong writer, most notably author of three highly acclaimed, internationally published psychological novels,
A Reasonable Madness
(Birch Lane, 90; Signet, 91), Flight (Dutton, 92; Signet, 93), and Saving Elijah (Putnam, 2000). Her articles and essays have appeared in literary journals, medical/literary journals, periodicals, and online sites, including
McSweeney's, Perigee, Ars Medica, Forbes, and Bottom Line.
She writes an advice column for the website, "The Daily Muse," and a blog called The Bruised Muse (www.frandorf.com), which focuses primarily on psychological issues, bereavement (her therapeutic specialty) and creativity. She recently completed a funny/tragic memoir entitled How I Lost My Bellybutton and Other Naked Survival Stories, and she's currently working on developing a play based on that memoir with the Theater Artist's Workshop in Norwalk, Connecticut.
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"All sorrows can be borne,
if you put them into a story."
Isak Dinesen
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Special one time workshop
This Saturday only
The Healing Art of Writing
with Fran Dorf, MA, MSW
Research shows that writing about emotional pain can have a positive effect on physical and psychological well being. Writing about surviving loss and grief can also be an act of great courage and generosity that inspires others. Yet turning experience into a story that others may want to read involves much more than simply expressing yourself.
If you're trying to write either fiction or memoir about your own trauma, loss, grief, or illness, you won't want to miss this special half-day workshop facilitated by author and practicing psychotherapist Fran Dorf.
Fran Dorf has a perspective that is both unique and instructive. She was already a two-time published novelist in 1994 when she suffered an unimaginable loss, the death of her three-year-old son, Michael. Paralyzed with sorrow, Fran refused to write a word for several years, but eventually turned her devastating grief into her acclaimed third novel, Saving Elijah (Putnam, 2000).
In the first part of workshop, basing a short talk on an essay published in a 2008 anthology, Fran will share her story. She will explain how a self-designed process of rigorous self-observation, distancing, and separation from her own pain allowed her to begin to apply the craft and art of writing to an unfiltered, raw, tortured journal of grief, and turn it into a novel that a starred Publisher's Weekly review called "stunning and spellbinding," and Glamour Magazine called, "fiercely compelling."
During the second part of the workshop, Fran will present exercises that engage writers at the intersection of healing, art, and craft to help you create your own "fiercely compelling" work. These exercises are designed in part to help you get enough distance to make the hard choices about which elements of lived experience to include and how best to organize and express your material-genre, context, voice, setting, point of view, tone, and theme.
As time allows, participants may also have a chance to share results of the exercises or read a few pages of a work in progress for feedback.
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Weather Cancellation Policy
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In the event of bad weather, please check our home page www.westportwritersworkshop.com where we will post cancellation announcements by 6 a.m. Or call the Westport Writers' Workshop at 203-227-3250, where there will be a pre-recorded message.
If the Westport Public Schools are closed, we will cancel our daytime workshops. Please check the website in the afternoon for notice of evening cancellations. |
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