Join me in this live two-hour class and discover the Five Things I’ve Learned about the art of memoir, writing from the body, and the nuances of suffering.

Hi there! My name is Darcey Steinke, and I am an author and teacher. I have written both non-fiction works and novels. My first editor was Jackie Onasis at Doubleday and many of my books have been New York Times Notables as well as translated into many languages. I have also done magazine work, writing about Kurt Cobain, as well as other artists and musicians. I teach in the MFA program at Columbia University and have taught many other places including Princeton and the American University of Paris. My most recent book is This is the Door, out this year from HarperOne.

As a child I had a pronounced stutter and this has made me obsessed with language, its rhythm and tone. My work has always been focused on the body, and in my new book, jumping off from my back surgery, I wrote about and researched pain.

I’m excited about this class and I hope you will join me as we talk about the art of memoir, writing from the body, and the nuances of suffering.

In this session we’ll talk about, the core issue of all writing, how to bring human troubles alive on the page. As a teacher once said “What I want on the page is human tissue.” Life itself rendered in print.

We will focus on these five things:

  • How, in these difficult times, to protect and enhance our creative and intellectual lives. I will talk about setting up an inspiring workspace and how to keep yourself curious.
  • Reseach is important. Whether, it be your own journals, interviewing others, or spending time in archives, reaching out from your own story can bring your work an openness and generosity of spirit.
  • How anguish had been used as fuel for writers and artists of the past. I will talk about Frida Kahlo’s back pain, Carolee Scneemann’s breast cancer and Friedrich Nietzsche’s migraines as well as others, how these artists and thinkers used their pain as doors into their work.
  • Notebooks are important. I feel notebooks and particularly single subject notebooks are key for creative work. I will share mine and we can talk about how to honor the practice of writing every day.
  • Nobody wants to hear you have it all figured out! Stay in the struggle, your life and what happens to you is important. Good books are ALIVE, because of the honesty that a writer brings to the page.

While I speak, you can take you own notes as well as add comments and questions to the chat. If we have time, we may be able to share, at the end of class, with one another.

My hope is that this class, will inspire you to write and to read more, to realize that your own life is rich with material, and that our stories are connected, through our humanity to one another’s.

Please join me,

–Darcey Steinke