Event Information
Memoir Writing: Part 1 Location: Zoom

Sat, March 11 @ 10:30am - 12pm CT via Zoom

"How can I improve my memoir?" Lots of writers have this question, and we will explore strategies that will help you develop your own set of answers. We will learn three strategies in each of the three workshops. Our goal is to find strategies that you can apply to the writing that you are doing in programs at Gilda's Club (like Write to Heal) or on your own.

Workshop # 1 (this workshop), we will focus on asking the right questions, using the four elements of story-telling, and root-cause analysis.

Questions? Email program@gildasclubmadison.org

What You'll Need:

  • Pens, pencils, or whatever writing tool you like
  • Paper/journal
  • Laptop/tablet if you prefer to type

About the Facilitators:

Catherine Stover is an award-wining writer and teacher at Madison College who specializes in nonfiction creative writing. She is the author of the book Three Ways to Write Memoir: How to Write Family History, Or Tell Stories, Or Explore Ideas. She is also the author of a blog about books, which is at www.catherinestover.com



Jamie Steckelberg is a ten-year cancer survivor and Gilda’s Club member. She also was a caregiver for both parents Bob and Elma during their cancer journeys. During chemotherapy while perusing the books at Gilda’s, she encountered a book entitled When Words Heal by Sharon Bray on how to create and facilitate writing groups using the Amherst Writer and Artist method. Within months after chemo had ended, she became an Amherst Writer and Artist facilitator of Write to Heal, a writing group for cancer survivors and caregivers at Gilda’s Club in Middleton, WI. Her daughter Josie has been an integral part of Jamie’s healing not only through shaving her own head but also by painting and pouring mud on her mother’s head. A poet and English Instructor at Madison College, Jamie also enjoys thrifting and creating art with Josie.




Our Therapeutic Expression programs are sponsored, in part, by Exact Sciences and UW Health Carbone Cancer Center.


Zoom access is provided, in part, by our Technology Sponsor UW Health Carbone Cancer Center.