Maynard Book Festival

Writing About Illness and The Healing Possibilities of Story: A Memoir Workshop

Memoirist Melanie Brooks will discuss her process of writing her own story of illness and share her knowledge of narrative medicine and the power stories of illness and trauma have to transform both writers and readers and revolutionize the healthcare landscape. She will be a trusted guide as you think about writing your story of medical, physical, or psychological challenges and trauma. Writers will find this workshop a safe space for exploration, and fertile ground for making progress toward the stories they want the world to read. Be ready to engage in short prompts and exercises that will begin to sow some seeds of your story.

Please register. Limit 12 participants.

About Melanie:

Melanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, Psychology Today, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from university), and chocolate Lab.