June Roundtable Discussion–Free for all

With Kate Farrell, editor of Wisdom Has a Voice, and guests

June 7, 2012

4 PM PDT   5 PM MDT   6 PM CDT   7 PM EDT

Creating an anthology of memoirs is a wonderful way to gather voices and diverse themes—and you as the editor can choose your themes, authors, and the voices you want to showcase. Many writers don’t yet have a full memoir completed, but they have amazing stories—and perhaps you do too. Creating an anthology—why, how, and what you need to know—is the topic of our June Roundtable Discussion. I’m so pleased to be in conversation with Kate Farrell, and two of the authors in her anthology Wisdom Has a Voice—Every Daughter’s Memories of Mother.

They will talk with us about how the idea to do an anthology came about, and the steps for creating the anthology. The seed of Kate’s idea came from her own memoir insights as she wrote about her mother who had died, and wanted to share her process of refinement, editing, and healing with others.

Her project, Wisdom Has a Voice, began with writing workshops and evolved into an anthology collection: Every Daughter’s Memories of Mother.

The discussion will include:

When submitting a memoir to an anthology

• Follow the guidelines in the Call for Submissions—each item is important and will determine who is selected
• Write a memoir, not a bio-vignette
• Learn about the selection process
• Be willing to be edited, not just proofread
• Participation in promotion post-publication and its benefit to you

Learning about the benefits of being part of a memoir writing community through anthology publication

• Creating a book community with blog posts and social media
• Learning from the other memoirs in a themed anthology

Writing the legacy of the Mother-daughter relationship

• Issues in writing about Mother in memoir
• Finding the wisdom
• How two contributing authors developed their memoirs about Mother: Laura McHale Holland and Angela Tung
• Benefits to being a contributing author in an anthology

BIOS:

Kate Farrell earned a Masters degree from UC-Berkeley; taught language arts in high schools, colleges, and universities; founded the Word Weaving storytelling project in collaboration with the California Department of Education and published numerous educational materials. She is founder of Wisdom Has a Voice memoir project and editor of the anthology, Wisdom Has a Voice: Every Daughter’s Memories of Mother, 2011.

Website: www.wisdomhasavoice.com

Angela Tung is a writer in San Francisco. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Bellingham Review, CNN Living, The Frisky, New York Press, and elsewhere. She is a regular contributor to The Nervous Breakdown, an online magazine featuring the work of published and emerging authors from around the world, and is a writer/editor at Wordnik.com, an online word source. Website: www.angelatung.com

Laura McHale Holland’s award-winning memoir, Reversible Skirt, was published in early 2011 by Wordforest. Her short fiction, features, and essays have appeared in Every Day Fiction, the Vintage Voices 2009 and 2010 anthologies, NorthBay biz magazine, the Noe Valley Voice, and the original San Francisco Examiner. Laura also heads the editorial department of a trade publication covering the electronic payments industry. 


Website: www.lauramchaleholland.com