The Momoir Project

VANCOUVER SUMMER WORKSHOPS:

SUMMER WORKSHOP FOR MOMOIR ALUMNI

Back by popular demand!
Get together in Cori’s backyard in Vancouver to discuss and workshop your
latest writing. This is a great opportunity to get new feedback and advice
on your writing from both Cori and the group, and to chat over wine and
cheese in the warm evening summer breeze.
Thursday August 19th
7 to 10 pm
Fee: $50
Email cori@themomoirproject.com to register.

WASHINGTON, D.C. SUMMER WORKSHOPS:

June 17, from 11am-2pm, $40 person

SPACE LIMITED! RESERVE YOUR SPACE NOW!

The Breastfeeding Center for Greater Washington
2141 K Street NW, Suite 3
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 293-5182
To register go to: http://breastfeedingcenter.org/register.php

VANCOUVER FALL WORKSHOPS

INTRODUCING THE DADOIR….

Yes, it’s true. For the first time ever, and much to my surpise, we are hosting the first Dadoir workshop. I’ve been asked many times over the years if I would do something for dads, but I never thought it would work to have a woman, like me, teaching men how to write. So when Dan McKinney, a professor at the UBC Journalism School and internationally-acclaimed documentary filmmaker, offered to lead it, how could I resist?

So pass this on to all the Dads in your life who need to vent…on paper! Click here to sign up.

WRITING FOR DADS
Thursday, September 23rd
7 to 10 pm
West Side Family Place Lounge, 11th and MacDonald

To register, email: cori@themomoirproject.com

ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS:

Spend an afternoon or evening writing down your stories, before you forget them! Led by award-winning writers, these special workshops will introduce you to the basics of writing about motherhood. If you’ve always wanted to write about your journey as a mom, here’s your chance to get started.

A hand-picked selection of the best essays on motherhood will be sent out in advance and discussed in the workshop over tea and snacks. Through a combination of writing and reading exercises, students will leave with their first story written, and the inspiration to keep writing.

Sweetspot.ca is Canada’s first online trend-spotting lifestyle guide of its kind. Daily emails are sent out to subscribers across the country and they have a newsletter dedicated to motherhood.

Momoir Students are invited to submit a 300-word blog entry for their regular Guest Blogger column which launches this year and will regularly feature Momoir students. Please email nadine@sweetspot.ca with your submissions, along with a headshot and 30-word bio. Please make sure these are tightly-written, edited and polished pieces or future submissions will not be considered.
You can check out published stories here.
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The Motherhood Muse literary magazine is published online four times a year with theme issues, all focusing on women, nature, and children. We are seeking creative non-fiction essays, fiction short stories, poetry, articles and artwork. Please see our website (www.themotherhoodmuse.com) for writing guidelines. We also host two writing contests each year (May and November) for essays and short stories with monetary awards and publication.
Please email editor@themotherhoodmuse.com with your submissions.

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Hybrid Mom is a new online magazine for moms based in the US. Editor Beth Smith is interested in reading submissions from Momoir students. Please make sure you check out the site and read it closely before submitting, as the site is constantly evolving and you will need to tailor your submissions to their needs.
Email beth@hybridmom.com with submissions.

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For Students in Canada:

The Globe and Mail publishes short memoirs (about 800 words) in their daily Facts & Arguments section. Submissions can be sent, in full, to: facts@globeandmail.com. Here is the new link to their submission guidelines:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/submit-your-own-facts-arguments-essay/article980640/

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For Students in British Columbia:
Family Connections is a quarterly publication published by the BC Council for Families. This magazine is looking for feature essays on the topic of motherhood. This is a paid opportunity, and you can send your stories to for consideration. 600 Words. $150. They are looking for three more for 2010.
Please check out their website before submitting.
Contact: Marilee Peters at marileep@bccf.ca

Many Momoir students have been published with work they have done in the classes. To read their stories, please check them out in the Feature Stories section.

Here’s a shortlist:

Laurie Davidson in Hybrid Mom

Christie Baker, Susan Urie and Christie Roome, published in Island Parent

Erin MacNair, published in The Globe and Mail, Hybrid Mom, Sweetmama and Blush
Karen Bannister, published in HipMama

Bonnie Goldberg, published in The Globe and Mail

Luanne Moriarty, published in Today’s Parent

Nancy Vye, published in The Globe and Mail

Eileen Robertson, published in The Globe and Mail

Lorrie Miller, published in The Globe and Mail, and Unkle.ca, Momsteam.com, and she created this blog: http://haybalemother.blogspot.com/

Marcy White, published in eparent.com, The Globe and Mail and Canadian Jewish News

An alternative to taking the writing classes, The Momoir Workbook is a download-able e-book that walks you through the basics of good writing, and gets you started recording your own journey through motherhood.
With a personal introduction by Cori Howard, the book includes lessons and writing exercises that will result in dozens of short stories, as well as one long personal essay for you to keep or publish.

The Momoir Workbook will be available in February at a cost of $34.95 and will be emailed to you within 24 hours of purchasing. You can print it out and go through the chapters at your own speed, or you can just read the book online and do the writing in your own notebook or on your personal computer.

To order your copy, please email Cori.

More information on the Momoir Workbook.

The Momoir Project blog was designed to keep all our students, and any writer moms for that matter, connected after the classes are over. Through the blog, you can continue to talk and write and share stories and inspiration with each other.

Each week, former online student, Karen Bannister, will post an entry, at the end of which will be a writing start. We hope many of you will use this opportunity to keep up with your writing and continue to record your experiences as a mom.

If you want to send in a comment, please use the comment box after each entry.

For those of you interested in using the writing starts and sending in your stories, please send them to us either as a comment in the box provided at the end of each blog entry.
Once we receive them, and we want to publish your story, we’ll let you know and then we might do a short edit before posting.

You can also email your writing starts to Cori at corih@telus.net
or to Karen at kabannister@cogeco.ca.

Moms are packing up the crayons, and picking up the pen:
A new class teaches mothers the art of the memoir - whether they’re looking for catharsis or a book deal

WENCY LEUNG
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
July 8, 2008 at 10:26 AM EDT

VANCOUVER - Kirsten Hamelin takes a deep breath and reads aloud.

Do you ever look across the dinner table at the father of your child, she asks, “and want to stab a fork in their hand?”
The six other students in Ms. Hamelin’s writing class laugh knowingly.

The women, all young mothers, have gathered at the home of Vancouver writer Cori Howard with their anecdotes about the frustrations, joys and fears of motherhood. They are here to learn what Ms. Howard, who leads the class, calls “the art of the momoir.”

Ms. Howard began holding memoir-writing classes exclusively for mothers, both privately and at the University of British Columbia, earlier this year. The response has been so positive, she is now expanding her “Momoir Project” to offer similar classes in Toronto and online (themomoirproject.com).

“Especially for working moms, time just flies by and more often than not, we don’t mark that time,” Ms. Howard said. “[Writing] is just a way to remember your experience in all its different complex facets.”

Ms. Howard, who has two children aged 3 and 7, wrote about her own abrupt transition to motherhood in the introduction of an anthology she edited, Between Interruptions: Thirty Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood, published last year.

While compiling the anthology, she said, she came across more stories than she could fit in the book and realized there was demand for a forum where mothers could share their tales.

Keeping a record through the postpartum haze isn’t the only reason women are compelled to write about motherhood, Ms. Howard said.

Some also join her classes with the goal of having their work published or to pen stories for their children to read when they grow up. Others find the practice of writing cathartic and take comfort in sharing their struggles with other women who can empathize.

“It helps you feel less alone,” Ms. Howard said, adding that even though each woman’s story is different, “you realize you have more similarities than differences.”

She has enlisted writers Randi Chapnik Myers and Katrina Onstad, both of whom contributed to Between Interruptions, to teach the Toronto classes.

Recurring themes in momoir writing include how motherhood has changed women’s relationships with their spouses, how it has affected their careers and how their own upbringings have influenced their parenting skills.

Since the subject matter is so intensely personal, it is not uncommon for students to laugh or break down in tears when they read their work aloud in class, Ms. Howard said.

Student Heather Barnes, who has a six-year-old daughter, said the writing course has inspired her to record her childhood memories and her relationship with her own mother. “For me, it’s reflecting on my parents and how I was parented,” she said. “It’s therapeutic.” Ms. Hamelin - the would-be stabber - said she, too, sees momoir writing as a form of therapy. She said she felt a loss of identity after the happy birth of her son, who is now 18 months old.

Writing has given her an outlet for those conflicting emotions, she said. “I had lots to say.”

2009.03.19 Toronto Issue
The Write Stuff
The Momoir Project
Memories. Misty, watercolor memories.

Do these long forgotten lyrics harken back to the early days of your new life as a mother? Unless you are still in the thick of it, memories of those newborn days (and nights) may be a bit, um, foggy.

Well, we have some news for you. Soon enough, the preschool memories will start to get a bit fuzzy, too. You can try to capture it all on film, but pictures and videos will only preserve so much. The best way to remember all the stuff you keep saying you’ll never forget is to write it down.

Cori Howard and Randi Chapnik Myers know that putting pen to paper takes a bit more skill and bravery than pointing and shooting. That’s one reason they started The Momoir Project. Described as part writing group, part literary salon, The Momoir Project offers writing classes specifically designed for mothers seeking to express themselves, share their experiences and capture their memories of nurturing their children. Some women have been so inspired they have gone on to have their work published. If you love the idea of reading what other mothers have to say about the highs (and lows) of becoming a parent, we remind you of our previous recommendation, Between Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth About Motherhood. Cori edited this amazing compilation of essays about motherhood which was the inspiration behind starting the Momoir Project. The Momoir Project will be offering a new series of classes in Toronto on Monday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 pm starting on April 20 and running for six weeks. The session costs $420 and will give you all the skills (and confidence) you need to become your family’s official biographer.

Good to know: If you don’t think you can line up childcare to get out to a class, The Momoir Project also offers classes via Skype.

So put that pen to paper (or work away on that keyboard) and put the mom into memories. It’s like writing yourself a letter that you will read over and over again.

From SavvyMom.ca
http://www.savvymom.ca/index.php/newsletter/tor_the_write_stuff/