Released on: August 11, 2008, 11:33 am

Press Release Author: The Arts Center of the Capital Region

Industry: Entertainment

Press Release Summary: The Memoir Project will feature classes, workshops, readings
and other presentations grounded in the ways writers mine personal experience to dig
up nuggets of universal truth.


Press Release Body: TROY, NY-Things are about to get personal at The Arts Center of
the Capital Region, with the launch next month of a far-reaching new writing program
at the Troy institution.

Dubbed The Memoir Project and growing out of a series of meetings with area writers
commenced last Spring, the new program will include a wide range of classes,
workshops, readings and other presentations throughout the year-all grounded in the
ways writers mine personal experience to dig up nuggets of universal truth.

The Memoir Project has its origins in a perennially sold-out class that has been an
Arts Center staple for more than a decade-"Writing What You Know," a personal essay
class taught by author Marion Roach Smith-according to Amy Williams, president of
the multi-arts center.

"We've always known remarkable things were happening in Marion's classes. A lot of
people come into class as beginning writers and leave as published authors,"
Williams said. "So, we began asking writers, students and teachers what we could do
to build on that and make The Arts Center a resource for even more writers and
readers."

The answer they got was that more and more writers (and aspiring writers) are
seeking the skills and techniques to tell their own stories, and more and more
readers are eager to take in those personal accounts, she said.

To address both audiences, The Memoir Project includes a dozen new classes beginning
next month and spanning such writing genres as poetry, essay, travel writing,
playwrighting, and more, all filtered through a memoirist's sensibilities. It will
also include a series of readings and author appearances geared to both readers and
writers seeking insight into the methods of such masterful memoirists as Da Chen
("Colors of the Mountain") and Laura Shaine Cunningham ("A Place in the Country");
Da Chen will read at The Arts Center of Sept. 22, and Cunningham's presentation is
set for Oct. 20.

The Fall reading series focuses on poetry the following month, with a reading by RPI
professor Julie Gutman on Nov. 17, and will feature playwright Sandi Dollinger on
Dec. 15.

All of the readings will take place at The Arts Center, 265 River Street in Troy,
and are free and open to the public. For complete details about The Memoir Project,
including upcoming classes for writers of all levels, call The Arts Center at (518)
272-0552 ext. 231 or visit online at www.artscenteronline.org
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Web Site: http://www.artscenteronline.org

Contact Details: Amy Williams,
President
The Arts Center of the Capital Region
265 River Street
Troy, NY 12180
518-273-0552
amy@artscenteronline.org