Autobiographical Writing Workshop

How do we tell our own stories? What do our personal histories say about the collective human experience? The biggest advice from writing professors is usually to “write what you know,” and nowhere is this more evident than in autobiographical writing – be it fiction, non-fiction, poetry or genre-bending works.

Authors from Charlotte Brontë to Ocean Vuong have used their personal experiences to dictate their writing and capture a universal message that strikes a chord with others. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to channel our inner stories and write from a place that moves us – at the end of the day, whether or not what ends up on paper is “factually true” will be beside the point.

Please bring a notebook and pen, or a computer or tablet, in order to do a few writing exercises. You can also purchase notebooks at the bookshop.

About the host:
Lucia Benavides is an Argentine-American writer and journalist.
She has published several personal essays in LA Review of Books, Literary Hub and The Washington Post. From 2017 to 2022, she served as the NPR correspondent from Spain.
She’s currently working on her first novel.