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Making Memories Work for You: Memoir & Personal Essay (virtual) with Sandra Phinney

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Interested in writing true vignettes for your family? First person essays for publication? A full length memoir? If so, this workshop is for you!

We’ll explore the meaning of “memoir,” and you’ll learn elements of good storytelling and tips writing powerful nonfiction, including how and where can you mine for ideas; various ways of structuring you memoirs; and how to add depth and scope to your stories. Each session will include handouts and one or two writing exercises.

About the instructor: Sandra Phinney‘s stories have been published in over 70 publications, including Nature Canada, Canadian Geographic, and The Toronto Star. She’s also a regular contributor to JourneyWoman.com. Although Sandra continues to pen a story or two for magazines and newspapers, she’s now focusing on writing essays and books. Her fourth nonfiction book was a travel memoir, Waking Up In My Own Backyard (Pottersfield Press). Currently, she’s completing a book of essays with the working title Coming Home and has three other nonfiction books in the works. Sandra delivers writing workshops exploring the worlds of creative nonfiction, memoir, and travel writing. In 2021, she was the Literary Artist-In-Residence for four weeks at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO site, and in 2024, she was a mentor in WFNS’s Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program. Sandra lives off-grid with her husband on the Tusket River outside of Yarmouth, NS. In her spare time, you’ll find her paddling a canoe.

Photo by Sue Hutchins

Recommended experience level: New and emerging nonfiction writers, as well as more experienced writers exploring memoir and personal essay (About recommended experience levels)

Participant cap: 12

Location: Zoom

Dates of 4-week workshop: Mondays, Mar 10 + Mar 17 + Mar 24 + Mar 31, 2025 (7:00pm to 9:00pm Atlantic)

Registration for 2025 General Members: $169

Registration for non-members: $234 (includes 2025 General Membership in WFNS)

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1113 Marginal Road

Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

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The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

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Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and writing for children and young adults) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca