Jordan Rosenfeld
Curating a Voice in Memoir: When You Are Narrator and Character
April 24, 2026
11 AM PDT | 12 PM MDT | 1 PM CDT | 2 PM EDT

As a memoir or essay writer, you are both the narrator telling the story—guiding the reader through scenes, reflections, and takeaways—and a character in the story, often the protagonist. The version of you on the page is a curated self, sometimes a persona. Not only does “curation” allow you to take control of your narrative, it enables you to think carefully about both sentence and character-level craft without feeling overwhelmed.

This talk will discuss ways to intentionally craft that persona, and how to blend and balance the challenges of being storyteller and character both.

We will discuss how to:

• Essential elements of voice and tone
• Explore creating an authentic persona
• Learn to blend past and present voices

Bio:
Jordan Rosenfeld is author of the novels Fallout, Women in Red and Forged in Grace and seven books on the craft of writing, including The Sound of Story: Developing Voice and Tone in Writing, How to Write a Page-Turner, the bestselling Make a Scene, Writing the Intimate Character, A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, Writing Deep Scenes (with Martha Alderson) and Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life (with Rebecca Lawton). Her writing and creativity guide Writing Through the Pause: Mining Midlife for Powerful Writing publishes in Jan. ‘27. Her freelance writing has been published in hundreds of publications, including: The Atlantic, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Salon, Scientific American, The Rumpus, Writer’s Digest Magazine, and many more. She is also a freelance manuscript editor, writing coach and teaches online classes. Jordanrosenfeld.net

• Learn more about Jordan’s self-paced courses at: https://jordanrosenfeld.net/writing-classes which are on sale until August.

• Her next class with Sibyl Writing Craft, Sat. May 16, is a deeper dive into this very topic, “When the Character is You.” More Sibyl Craft courses available each month. Learn more: https://craft.sibyllinepress.com/ 

• Jordan will be at the Bay Area Book Festival May 31 in Berkeley, CA. with the Sibylline Press booth: https://www.baybookfest.org/outdoorfair2026/

Jordan will also be at the Central Coast Writers Conference Sept. 25-26, 2026. https://www.cuesta.edu/writers-conference/index.html