Award-winning novelist Bren McClain believes that, for each of us, there are stories that only we can write, and if we don’t honor those stories by telling them, then who will? This empowering class is for anyone who is writing their story. Participants will learn to make readers care, to feel the story as deeply as its writer does. Without that, nothing else matters. But how to do that? McClain will talk about techniques, discuss some published examples, and will look at work that participants are invited to bring to the class. (You are invited to bring up to five pages, but the amount you share (reading aloud) depends on the number of attendees.) Open to all genres and levels of experience. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get busy.

Advance registration required. To register for workshop, please contact the Pat Conroy Literary Center at 843-379-7025, or register online at http://writingyourstory.brownpapertickets.com (processing fees apply). Workshop registration fees are non-refundable, but if you must cancel, the fee can be applied toward a future Conroy Center class or event.

About our instructor:

Bren McClain is a writer who never gave up. After winning a handful of awards over the last two decades for novel excerpts and short stories, her literary novel One Good Mama Bone found a home with Pat Conroy’s Story River Books. The novel has received early praise—a starred review in Booklist, named a winter Okra pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, and made a Pulpwood Queens book club selection for May. Deep South magazine included it in its recommended list of upcoming Fall/Winter books. Bren is a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project and the recipient of the 2005 Fiction Fellowship by the South Carolina Arts Commission. She is at work on her next novel, Took, which was named the gold medal winner for the 2016 William Faulkner–William Wisdom Novel-in-Progress.

Limited to 15 participants

Fee: $25

Website: Facebook Event Page
Registration: http://writingyourstory.brownpapertickets.com