Write for Your Life: Turning Trauma into Stories (Russia and Armenia, Nov. 2018)

Course Description

Research suggests that narrative and expressive writing have powerful healing effects. As writer and University of Iowa professor Charles D’Ambrosio once said, “Instead of sobbing, you write sentences.” In this course, "Write for Your Life: Turning Trauma into Stories", we will explore strategies to create vivid, compelling stories (fiction and/or nonfiction) from difficult experiences such as illness, trauma, or disability. We will focus on the elements of craft while addressing the challenges of writing from personal suffering. As a community of writers, we will examine and discuss published texts, as well as provide feedback on student work. By the end of the course, participants will have produced a significant body of narrative prose.