Michigan Avenue Printing is a sponsor of HerStories! Thanks to owner Margaret Lifsey for donating services with promotional materials and to manager Mark Lifsey for his professional assistance.
Updated March 4, 2010.
Check out the City Pulse article “She Said/ She Said” (March 3) about The HerStories Project! Thanks again to Bill Castanier for pursuing the story.
This post is the first to speak directly as the organizer of The HerStories Project, an endeavor to celebrate stories about women taking its initial form this month. A few weeks ago, Lansing Online News invited me to write about how HerStories in March 2010 came into being from my perspective as organizer. My thoughts now are published on LON as “Creating Spaces”, and I hope the piece gives participants a promising preview of the program.
Sincerely,
Melissa Dey Hasbrook
Updated March 4, 2010
Thanks to journalist Bill Castanier for writing about HerStories! His words from February 25 were published on Lansing Online News and the Mittenlit Blog.
Also check out his LON article “Lansing Michigan area writers gather for HerStories” from March 3.
Bonnie Bucqueroux from Lansing Online News posted this interview about HerStories on You Tube. The interview was given on February 13, 2010, at Gone Wired Cafe on a very snowy day. Thanks, Bonnie, and Lansing Online for supporting HerStories!
Here’s the March 2010 poster for HerStories, which is deisgned for legal-sized paper. If you would like the original file in order to print copies, please email your request to herstories.project @ gmail.com.
Virginia Law Burns join HerStories! Her workshop “Making Your Creative Nonfiction Sizzle” is scheduled March 20 at 3:45pm.
Virginia owns Enterprise Press and is the author of several creative nonfiction works with a historical focus including Bold Women in Michigan History and Gentle Hunter: A Biography of Alice C. Evans, Bacteriologist. Learn more about Virginia on her web site.
Here’s what the session offers:
Creative nonfiction (CNF) encompasses many forms including memoir, personal essay, feature articles, and opinion/ editorial pieces. The workshop offers a brief survey of CNF’s evolution and explores four steps to essay writing useful with all other forms of this genre.
Registration for writing workshops is recommended due to limited space. The form, available here, may be submitted by email herstories.project @ gmail.com or at Everybody Reads bookstore (M-SA 11am to 7pm, SU 9am to 4pm).
Mary Catherine Harper joins HerStories! Her workshop “There’s Sense in Our Poetry: Using the Senses to Enter Poetic Spiritual Space” is scheduled March 13 at 2:30pm.
Professor Harper teaches at Defiance College in Ohio. Her poetry has been published in The New England Review, WomenWriters.net, The Bozeman Er, and Masque. She also has published articles on women’s science fiction in Science Fiction Studies, Extrapolation, and FemSpec. She has completed a cross-media epistolary novel Letters to Christian Duval, which is set in Ohio and Iraq. Her interests in language arts, cultural studies, poetics, and social justice issues have taken her to Cambodia to work on a language arts and ethnography project, so she is currently writing poetry about her experiences in Cambodia.
Here’s what to expect at the workshop:
Experiencing and contemplating the spiritual realm – whether understood as an internal state, poetic episode, or connection to a larger being – is often understood in terms of getting beyond the physical world. But sometimes spiritual experience comes to us through the physical realm and can be seen as deeply connected to our physical selves. This workshop uses sensory-rich objects from the natural world as a tool for entering poetic spiritual space.
Registration for writing workshops is recommended due to limited space. The form, available here, may be submitted by email herstories.project @ gmail.com or at Everybody Reads bookstore (M-SA 11am to 7pm, SU 9am to 4pm).
Updated March 3, 2010.
Thanks to HerStories volunteer Ashley Guerrant, the workshop registration form is now available!
PART 1: ABOUT WORKSHOPS
Thanks for your interest in the free writing workshops offered by The HerStories Project during March 2010. Workshops will be held at Everybody Reads bookstore, 2019 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing, MI 48912. Please complete this form by providing all the requested information. The form may be submitted by email herstories.project @ gmail.com or at Everybody Reads during business hours (M-Th 11am-7pm, F-Sa 11am-5pm, Sun 9am-4pm).
Since seating in workshops is limited, availability depends on how many people register. In general, registration will be taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Half of the workshop seats are reserved for high-school aged youth, but if not taken these spots will open to adults.
If you are interested in more than one workshop, be sure to indicate your level of interest as directed on the form. This information is helpful if more people register than can be accommodated for the same session.
Remember: workshop participants are invited to submit an unpublished piece of writing to be considered for publication by the magazine Greater Lansing Woman. One entry from all submissions will be selected. Participants will receive details about the submission process when workshop registration is confirmed.
PART 2: REGISTRATION
Please provide the following contact information:
Name: _______________________________
Phone No.: ____________________________
Email Address: _________________________
Please provide your age group with a check or ‘x’ next to 1 selection.
__ Below 18 years
__ Above 18 years
If picking 1 workshop, please place a check or ‘x’ next to the selection.
-or-
If selecting more than 1 workshop, please indicate your level of interest with ‘1’ for the greatest interest, ‘2’ for the next greatest level, and so on.
__ March 6, 2:30pm, “Journaling through Change”, Holly Makimaa (Oasis Wellness).
__ March 13, 2:30pm, “There’s Sense in Our Poetry: Using the Senses to Enter Poetic Spiritual Space”, Mary Catherine Harper (Defiance College)
__ March 13, 3:45pm, “On Becoming a Fish: Birthing Characters and Finding Voice Through Fiction”, Dawn Comer (Defiance College)
__ March 20, 2:30pm, “Writing about Women”, Marilyn Mayer Culpepper (Never Will We Forget: Oral Histories of World War II)
__ March 20, 3:45pm, “Making Your Creative Nonfiction Sizzle”, Virginia Law Burns (Bold Women in Michigan History)
Updated February 17, 2010.
The National Women’s History Project turns 30 this year and has given 2010’s Women’s History Month the theme Writing Women Back into History. The theme perfectly matches the writing workshops offered by The HerStories Project.
Workshops are open to adults and high-school aged youth. All sessions support the development of stories about women – historical, contemporary, autobiographical, and fictional. Participants are invited to submit an entry for possible publication by the magazine Greater Lansing Woman, which will publish one submission from all entries.
Registration (see form here) for workshops may be completed by email herstories.project @ gmail.com or at the Everybody Reads bookstore, 2019 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing, during business hours: 11am to 7pm Monday through Saturday, and 9am to 4pm on Sunday.
There are five workshops offered by HerStories in March. Updates are ongoing about sessions, so just follow the links as they’re available: